Dinner with friends

Reinvigorating my blog

It has been quite some time since I have posted to my blog. I have upgraded so that I can now upload from my phone - which is what I am testing with this entry.

I am sitting taking a coffee in my local Caribou Coffee shop. It is a great day, although thirty degrees colder than it has been all week. A shame really, the last few days have been great winter sailing conditions - freah and breezy. Today - of course - it is just still and cold.

Visit soon!

Catching Up

It has been a long time since I updated my news. It is now May and I have been spending a lot of time sailing. I am trying to go at least once each weekend - weather permitting. The boat is working out well, and I am very pleased that I have kept it at Mears Marina (http://www.mearsannapolis.com/) in Annapolis.

This picture is of me sailing and watching the Volvo Round the World yachts when they were visiting Baltimore and Annapolis. I went out to see them twice, the first time was The Bay race a couple of friends Giles and Olivia came, and Giles took these great pictures of the Volvos.

The next week I went with a bunch of friends to see the start of the Annapolis to New York leg of the race. The wind shifted at the start, so the yachts ended up having to sail through the spectator fleet -which was great to watch. Unfortunately my photos are not that great.

The week before was very busy with Simon and Ruth's wedding. My parents had been visiting the previous week (and yes I had gone sailing), and then Roger and Sandrine came to stay. It was really great fun having them visiting, and the wedding was a blast. We had gone shooting for Simon's bachelor party out in the Virginia countryside, followed by a really great dinner in DC. (And then early to bed as it was school night.

What a motley crew. There were some very good shots - although I cannot claim to one of them. One of the guns was quite cool - a carbon fibre recoiless shot gun.

After Roger and Sandrine left I had my place to myself. The following Thursday, I went to the 100th anniversary Gala of the American Jewish Committee. It was really incredible, the President spoke, as did Angela Merkel of Germany and Kofi Anan of the UN. Although I am not, what you would call a fan of Bush, he did make a good speech which included a strong denunciation of the genocide in Darfur. As did Merkel. Anan's speech however was very limp and disappointing.

The other exciting news I have is that Isabel and Simon, and most importantly my Goddaughter Georgia came to visit. They stayed with Amanda and Jonathan, but I was able to spend quite a bit of time with them. And I got to take Georgia to Peacock Cafe, one of my favourite restaurants.

Keep visiting for more news. Mark

Jan 8th

The new year is going well so far. I went to check on the boat today and all is ok. I was able to fly the courtesy Red Ensign that Joanna gave me for Xmas. I have been playing with video-email. My first attempt, a tour of my flat can be found by clicking here. My video skills need some practice (although in my defense I was only using an inexpensive webcam) ~ and for some reason the audio cuts off half way through.

Xmas 2005

I am spending Xmas in the UK with family and friends. Arriving Thursday, I was surprised by an invitation to the carol service at St Mary's in Kensington High Street, and then dinner at my friends Sarah and Russell. I went with Simon and Isabel, and there baby Georgia - who is my god daughter.

Friday was last minute shopping. And Saturday was an early Xmas lunch with my extended family. It was great to catch up with everyone. My sister and I had to leave a little early to head down to Froxfield in Hampshire, to the Ross household.

After early drinks, and a light supper (I was rather full from lunch), an olde friend Sarah-Kate stopped by. Xmas morning did not start as early as I had expected. Neither Matty nor Lils - nor Ivor - woke me up too early. I was very happy !!! :)

My parents, and Sarah's parents arrived ~ and the festivitities began. The kids were really well behaved, and opened their presents without going too crazy. We ate rather late, but the wait was very worthwhile - Sarah is an excellent cook. Truth be told, I can only claim to have mashed the Sweet Potatoes and Squash. I felt I contributed through imbibing though!

More later ...

Settling in ...

It has been a little while since I updated the blog. I am now settled in. The move went well, and I appear to only have lost one thing - my table mats. (Nowhere to be found!). I have had a pretty busy weekend - swimming, Xmas parties and brunch.

If you want to know where I am, the images below from Microsoft Windows Live Local will help. (It is pretty cool what you can see - click here.) The first view is an image of the neighbourhood. I used a wide angle so you can see where I am relative to the major downtown sites.




The local area around Logan Circle is pretty cool. My unit is at the back of the building, overlooking a Wholefoods supermarket. What is nice is that I have East, North and West views. East in the morning, and West in the evening.




My place takes up the top two floors. The face with the "1" is the North side of the building. Wholefoods is the flat topped building with the car park on the left. Rhode Island Avenue NW, and the front of the building, is on the right - at an angle. For anyone visiting - and to get a good relative position, the street map below should help.




Although actually I would use MapQuest .....

Check back soon for more news!

New Beginnings ...

As I hope by now all of our friends and family know, Jennifer and I have decided to separate. Although incredibly sad, we are still very close and remain good friends. The exciting news is that I have found a new place to live. It is in a building called The Zenith, on Rhode Island Avenue between 14th and 15th streets.


It is currently unoccupied, so the photos do not do it justice. The living area is a great open plan space, with stairs up to a loft-style study, 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. Plenty of room for visitors.


It will be quite a change from Arlington .. and even Rosslyn .. no more suburbs, and true city living. The nice thing is that there are plenty of windows - on three sides - providing not only lots of light, and also some very cool city views.



And there's parking ...... check back later for more!