Going Off the Map

One of my Christmas gifts this year (thanks, Sal!) was a book called Off the Map. It's a collection of satellite images and commentary by two Scottish brothers who author GoogleSightseeing.com. The images are of natural formations, oddly-shaped buildings and even a sword-shaped swimming pool. They include coordinates so you can look up the images yourself in Google Earth or on Google Maps.

I was excited to see that my favorite satellite image was their first entry in Off the Map: the Richat Structure in Mauritania. I first saw this image on NASA's Earth As Art website and have used it as the desktop on my work computer for many years.

Earth, Wind or ???

My place just shook with a jolt and I thought maybe it was another quake (there was a 3.5 near here on Saturday), but then I remembered that they've been calling for rain and high winds for the next few days (maybe even a thunderstorm!). I just checked my WeatherBug and it said 22 mph. Wow. And that's from at station about 3 miles away. I live in a little valley that seems to be windier than closer to the bay (where the station is) so who knows how fast the wind is blowing here.

Guess What I Had for Lunch?

If you guessed chicken korma, you would be correct. Paul and went to the Indian place that had korma for $8 and it was pretty good. It wasn't as sweet and coconutty as I had in the UK but neither was it too hot to eat. I might go there again if only to have the roti that I ordered to accompany the korma. I usually get garlic naan but the menu said roti was whole wheat bread cooked in the tandoori oven. So I said what's wrong with that? Nothing! It was delish.

BART Station Face-Off

Now competing for your musical attention...

In one corner, a solo cellist outside the Starbucks is featuring the soothing melody of classical refrains...

While over by the exit to the plaza, a mariachi guitarist sings songs of his people.

Who will win? Or will the cacophony serve only to alienate the transit-riding public?

Thoughts of the Day

I'm still not at 100% and it seems the lingering super-phlegm is interfering with my ability to read comfortably on BART. So on the way home today, instead of reading -- and feeling nauseous -- I just sat there and thought about...

Identity
The new gameshow, Identity, premiered last night. The premise is to match up 12 strangers with 12 identities which may range from sumo wrestler to shark attack victim to professional bull rider to retired English professor. If you match all 12 you get $500k. Some of the strangers have obvious visual clues (a sumo outfit or cowboy hat) which the player can easily match to one of the identities on the list, while others are less obvious but still have visual clues (white-bearded, argyle-sweater-wearing older gentleman, dark-haired woman in a bikini top with a long Hawaii print wrapskirt).

Then the potential matches get harder and it's pretty much just guessing at that point. I found it entertaining for a little while but the easy matches irritated me with their predictability and the hard guesses annoyed me because really there wasn't much intelligence involved with guessing. I won't be watching it again, I don't think.

Korma Revisited
Yesterday while walking to the burrito shop, we walked by one of the four Indian restaurants within a few blocks of my office. I checked out the menu in the window and they have chicken korma for $8. Woo hoo!

The place I went to for lunch last week didn't have korma so I ended up getting chicken tikka kabaab which was too hot even when I told the guy I needed it mild. Paul got the chicken tikka masala and his was milder than mine. Plus the Bollywood music was hellaloud. We checked out the closest place to the office on the way back and they're quite pricy with korma at $13. Paul and I will be going to Little India on Thursday and I will report back on the $8 korma. I hope it's good! There's only one place to go after that.

Loud Music on BART
I like listening to my iPod on BART. The headphones discourage strangers speaking to me and the tunes provides a nice background to whatever I'm reading or thinking about. I don't listen to it very loud; I like being able to hear any announcements that might come over the PA system, you know, in case of emergencies. There aren't any signs banning it or anything but most people know it's not nice to play a boombox or radio out loud on BART.

Unfortunately the guy sitting behind me this morning didn't get that particular memo. I don't like calling attention to myself so I wasn't about to turn around and ask him to turn it down. No one else was brave enough to do it either so we all suffered through his jams the whole way in. It's sad because the more we let people like him get away with being rude, the more he's going to think he can do it. Or he just doesn't care.

The Nerve
Speaking of not respecting social boundaries, my phone rang on Saturday night around 10pm and the second ring was a higher pitched tone meaning the number was known to me. Now all my close relatives live in either in the Eastern or Central time zone and I don't really talk to my friends here on the phone that much so I couldn't think of who it might be. Of course, my first thought was that something bad must've happened somewhere to have someone calling me that late (which would be much later for most people I talk to).

But it wasn't a friend or a family member. No, when I checked my Caller ID the phone number was my office number. Say what??! Just who would be at work on a Saturday at 10pm much less calling me from work on a Saturday at 10pm!! Obviously, someone really really needed my help.

I thought, well, maybe our new IT guy wasn't back from his father's funeral in Oregon yet and something serious had happened to a computer. I could see someone calling me for that. But no, there was no computer emergency. There was no emergency at all.

In fact, as I listened to the never-ending message being left, I couldn't understand why this person would be calling me at all. It turns out she was asking about a situation she had talked with me about on Friday. She had shown me a letter to see if it made sense. It seemed okay to me but I had no experience in the matter so I didn't see how I could help her that much. I just don't know why she thought calling me about it, much less on a weekend, late in the evening, was appropriate. Really, the nerve.

Up & Down Day

This morning...
I was late leaving the house for work...
but then...
I got green lights the whole drive to BART.

At noon...
I saw some drunk guy pissing right on the sidewalk*...
but then...
The steak burrito I had for lunch was delicious.

Tonight...
The BART car was full when I got on after work...
but then...
I got a seat at the next stop.**

*Seriously! We were walking back from picking up our burritos when all of a sudden this guy pulled it right out and starting peeing right into the base of a tree. It was so disgusting. I nearly lost my appetite.

**Another woman and I were about equidistant from the open seat and she made a move towards it at about the same time as I did but she caught my eye and mouthed "Do you want to sit down?" Now I could've been nice and said no, but I had six more stops to go and I wasn't about to stand the whole way if I didn't have to.

BART Detour

Just my luck tonight I got stuck behind a train that had a medical emergency. I was in a full car and people weren't very happy. We had to go three stations north of where our route normally goes, then reverse back through those stations to get back on track (so to speak).

BTW, I really don't think you need to be calling your friends every five minutes to give them an update on which station you're at and bitch and moan about still being stuck on the train. Take a chill pill! It's not like you can do anything about it. Just relax!

Of course, I had my iPod on and my nose in a book. Sure pays being prepared.

I'm cold

I think I have a cold. I'm sneezy and my sinuses are achy and stuffy. I woke up with a sore throat this morning though that's better now. I'm taking some cold medicine and have been drinking tea all morning. I should've bought a teapot as a souvenir in England. I keep having to heat up the water to refill my mug.

Grodie Greenies

This morning as I passed through the BART station on my way to work I heard the familiar refrain of a Christmas carol. I think it was O Come, All Ye Faithful. The odd thing was that it was coming from a solo flute. Not the instrument you would normally think of when considering buskers in BART. A folk guitar with suspect vocals, an oddly voiced Chinese stringed instrument, occasionally a string trio, sure, but a flute? Not usually.

It made me reminisce a bit about the little green books our band director would pass out before the holidays: Christmas carols. We always played some in our December concert for a carol sing-a-long with the audience. We groaned and complained about them. They were not our favorite pieces, that's for sure. Thus our not-so-affectionate name for those books: the Grodie Greenies.

Cowboy Names

Which of the following was not a cowboy name as seen during the bronc competition at the PRCA National Finals in Vegas tonight?

• Cody
• Johnny
• Chad
• Rod
• Billy
• Rusty
• J.J.
• Bobby
• Jesse
• Bryce

Correct answer in the comments.

BART Book: Splintered Icon

Splintered Icon
Bill Napier, 2005
on Amazon

If you're looking for a good historical adventure mystery, look no further than Scottish author Bill Napier's Splintered Icon. Sal was reading it on the trip and I couldn't get her to listen to me cuz she was reading this book at every available moment. I've been enjoying it on my BART rides since I've been back.

The book itself is splintered into two points of view: our hero antiquarian Harry Blake, and the young sea-going writer of the 16th century journal Blake was hired to decode, James Ogilvie. From Oxford to Jamaica, the search for the secret meaning of the journal quickly involves murder, terrorist plots and centuries-old religious politics. Throw in some theories of Elizabeth I's astrologer and spy John Dee and sabotage on the high seas and you have a fast-moving, complex story of curiosity and survival.

Favorite part: bribing the ladies in the records office in Jamaica to stay open late
Least favorite part: when Ogilvie's journal ended -- I wanted to hear more about his life in the New World

Next BART Book: maybe The Devil Wears Prada
Previous BART Book: too long ago to matter

Books on the Shelf:
The Family Tree, Carole Cadwalladr
Books on Hold:
Mistral's Kiss, Laurell K. Hamilton
Virgin Earth, Philippa Gregory

Nail Damage

I never knew how damaging on your fingernails traveling is. I think I broke all but two of my nails on the trip. I just broke another while typing here at work (which made me think of it). I checked with Sal before the trip to see if she was taking her clippers, in which case I wouldn't take mine (to lighten my load). I'm pretty sure I had possession of her clippers more than she did during the trip. Next time I'm just going to clip them all short ahead of time and avoid the hassle!

Photos by Phone

I was just on the phone for a long time with one of my sisters going through all my trip photos. It was really fun. I feel somewhat proud of my photos mostly because I've never been one to take a lot of pictures and I think they turned out really good. Even though I'm proud of them I don't want to force them on people cuz I certainly don't expect anyone to love them as much as I do. It's kinda like when someone shows you a slideshow of their vacation -- you weren't there so why should you care. Going through them with her was, however, a good way of telling other stories that aren't included with the photos.

I've never had a digital camera before and it has really changed the way I've thought about taking pictures. I can experiment more and just take lots of shots of things and see what works and what doesn't. I've learned a lot about my camera but realized about halfway through the trip that I should've taken my manual along. There were some difficult lighting situations where I didn't know what setting would be best. It was also hard to tell from the little screen what the photos would really look like. Some came out even better than they looked; some didn't turn out that great.

Here's one of my favorites: the gardens at Hampton Court Palace.

Korma

I've never thought I liked Indian food thinking it was too hot, though various people have told me I might like this dish or that. I figured while I was in the UK I should give it a shot. India was part of the British Empire for a long time so there are Indian restaurants all over. Sal loves Indian food but is in a similiar boat as me in not being able to handle spicy food. I thought if she would shepherd me through the menu I'd be okay.

Our first night there, in York, we walked by a place but were a bit too early for dinner and went back to our B&B for a meal of cheese, chicken and rye crackers and an early night instead. We tried it the next day after going to evensong at York Minster. Sal told me to get the chicken korma saying it was a very mild dish. We also got garlic nan, a bread I already knew I liked. I immediately liked the korma. It's a creamy yogurt sauce flavored with coconut, tomato, ginger, cinnamon and who knows what else.

I was a bit embarrassed to admit later that I couldn't wait to have it again. I had to wait until Bath but then we ate at Indian restaurants twice there and twice in London. I ordered chicken korma each time and there was only once that it was a little too spicy.

Sal told me that you can get korma sauce in jars at places like Cost Plus World Market so I was excited to try cooking it at home. Well, I happily found it at my Trader Joe's yesterday and made some up today. Unfortunately, it was more similiar to the "a little too spicy" version I had in Bath, even after adding milk. I'm not giving up though and will continue my seach for a mild korma sauce. If you have any brand suggestions, please let me know.

Mail Mistake

Today I went to the post office to collect any mail held for me while I was gone. I checked my mailbox here at home first and it was full of those stupid advertising flyers that seem to always be in my box. I can never get rid of them. It's like they just pop back in after I put them in the recycling bin.

Anyway...the post office had a big stack of mail for me and I was about to go out the door when I decided to sort through it there and leave the junk mail in their recycling bin. It's a good thing I did cuz I saved myself a trip back to the post office. Of the many items in the big stack of mail, only three were for me. I was taking home someone else's mail!

Lagging

I'm so sleepy and it's only 8:00. I really need to stay up at least another hour but the hockey game I'm watching isn't holding my interest. I'm glad I have another whole day to recover proper sleeping and eating patterns before going back to work on Monday.

I spent the last two days organizing my photos and writing captions. I didn't think it would take that long but I wanted the photo selection to tell the story of the trip and I wanted to include some additional information or opinion instead of each caption just saying what was in the photo. I think I was successful.

If you want to see the photos, click on Photos in "Go Here Next" in the sidebar, then click on "UK Trip" at the top of the page. The slideshow setting runs through the photos rather quickly. It's best to pause it and use your right arrow key to control it. If you have any questions about anything we saw or did on our trip, leave me a comment here and I'll try to answer them.

I'm home!

Good news! I made it home last night after 22 hours of travelling from London.

Sal and I cleaned up on the inflight multi-player trivia challenge on the flight to Minneapolis. I think we played over 4 hours. We didn't have a lot of quality competition other than each other and my quick-draw, two-fingered, click-the-first-answer-to-get-highest-possible-points-when-you-don't-know method prevailed. The questions didn't seem biased U.S. or UK -- they asked both baseball and snooker questions in Sports. The grammar was horrendous though. I hate that they're perpetuating bad punctuation skills.

Our trip was amazing. Yes, we got rained on. Yes, we had to sit with our bags in the aisle on commuter trains. Yes, I ate too much bad food. But we also saw amazing skies and sights. We rested our weary bones in comfortable seats on our way to the next destination. And we sampled the flavors of our host country. I even ate Indian food!

I had fun blindly taking pics as we quickly travelled along by car or train. Some turned out, some didn't. This one is a typical countryside scene of sheep in a pasture, by the River Avon between Bath and Salisbury. More will follow as I get things organized.