Never been so happy to go to church

Here my walking companions and I are approaching Chichester Cathedral, the endpoint to our 10-mile ramble. I bruised my foot at around mile 2, so I was ready to sit for a bit of evensong.

Are we there yet? No.

This is the point in the walk from Southbourne to Chichester where Bosham (i.e. lunchtime) is really, really close. As the bird flies. There's just the tiny wrinkle that none of us can walk on water.

Proof we made it

Ok, so there's absolutely nothing in this photo that identifies it as Canterbury, so you'll have to trust me that that's where I took this photo after 11 miles.

The canter near Canterbury

We were on a bit of a detour on our country walk between Chilham/Chartham and Canterbury when we encountered this horse who came over thinking we had apples. We were not so generous.

Domesticated in South Ken

Remember that Spanish tortilla from more than a year ago? Well, since then, its chef and I have both moved to the same part of London. Today we attempted to recreate the original masterpiece--to great success, I'd say.

When were you last in a Hard Rock Cafe?

I'm thinking 1996. This one's in Dublin. We were there for about five minutes and gave up. (If you're having trouble understanding this photo, turn upside down. If you're still having trouble understanding it, so am I.)

Weather prediction at the Oval

The clouds moved away, the sun came out, and the umpire judged that there wouldn't be enough light left in the day after clearing the pitch. So no runs for England today. Still good fun. And better than Lord's.

Office decor

I'm back in San Jose. Yes, again. I thought I'd share something other than hotel photos.

Berry-picking!

A couple friends and I spent a few hours among the vines and came home with way more blackberries, raspberries, cherries, redcurrants, blackcurrants and (um) mangetout than we could eat in a week.

Happy Birthday, Nelson Mandela!

Had a blast at the concert in Hyde Park. Such a good vibe. Amy Winehouse is always great, and the closing act--Queen--had us rocking all the way home.

Taste of London?

A friend and I tried to go to London's annual upscale foodfest, but it was sold out. Nonetheless it was a gorgeous day in Regent's Park, we still got to be foodie at Marylebone market, and we had a yummy lunch in the high street.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Bedfordshire

Since I had been in sis's neighborhood, I spent the next day at hers. We had lunch in Bedford near the river.

Bletchley Park: Britain's best kept secret

Ah, the inner nerd is happy. And this guy Tony Sale, who rebuilt Colossus from spare parts, is obviously an accomplished lecturer; I wish we'd spent more time with him.

There's no place like home-away-from-home

And this hotel isn't it. Santana Row, sadly, was booked. At least it's next to a Japanese grocery store.

But how does it taste?

On our last afternoon in Paris, we did a bit of a foodie tour, including luxury food shop Fauchon, whose displays look more like a cosmetics counter than a grocery store.

No wonder 'queue' is a French word

Good thing Versailles is lovely. It took us about 90 minutes in line in the very hot sun to buy tickets so we could stand in a second line to get into the palace itself. (The gardens, by the way, are a separate ticket with hardly any line at all.)

I love Paris in the springtime

It's an absolutely gorgeous weekend. And I think I have a new favourite art museum, architecturally speaking, in the Musee d'Orsay. Who doesn't love a good converted train station?

Shakespeare in the elements

It's opening weekend at the Globe, and we took Mom and Dad to see King Lear. Our seats were great--and covered. Not everyone was so lucky.

What's next, a rubber band ball?

The British Museum remains my favourite collection of stuff taken from other people, and I do love the atrium. But I'm still not sure about the giant wad of tin foil.

How many American pancakes do I get for $20?

To be honest, Gordon Ramsay's Plane Food in the new Terminal 5 was more reasonable than I thought it would be. But not so reasonable that I ate there before my flight to Berlin.

Fit to burst

Spring is so very very here. I took this shot on the way to the Spencer Arms for a cider.

Does your bath look like this?

Sis and I took a city break to Budapest, which was great fun. Here's the public bath house where we spent our Sunday morning with a bunch of middle-aged Hungarians.

Giant paint store?

I've always liked the underground walkway between terminals at O'Hare. The lights overhead are more attention-grabbing, but the walls are more interesting.

Actual size

My cousin's cat had five kittens. One of them likes to hang out in a bowl, which is appropriate since its name is Cheesy Poof. Utterly irresistible.

Getting my money's worth

For the price of my haircut, I let my hairdresser spend 30 minutes blow-drying my hair straight. (For those of you getting your hopes up, I did buy my usual bottle of B&B Curl Conscious on my way out.)

Before things got ugly at the Tank

It was a fun game to watch until the score was 3-3. Hats off to Kipper, though, given a ridiculously lopsided shot count.

Tree hugger?

It's the middle Saturday of a business trip to the Bay Area, so to entertain myself I paid a visit to the redwoods in Big Basin.

Happy Mardi Gras!

While briefly in New Orleans, I got to see the start of the Endymion parade near my uncle's house. Yes, I got lots of beads, and no, that's not how you get them during parades, thankyouverymuch.

Vision test?

I've been meaning to take a picture of this shop front near Richmond Station for quite some time and finally wasn't overly distracted by catching a train.

Happy New Year from Yummy Utah

After the holidays with the fam, hubby and I headed to Salt Lake and Park City for the best snow in North America. And let me just say Santa was very good to us skiers.