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Big Sur 1:28 group

11.27.2006


That would be the guy on the left, the back-middle, and me on the right. The guy up front in the middle ran a 1:26.
Posted at 16:22

sexaversary

I've been at my company six years now. I get an extra week of vacation. Sweet!

I could have used hexaversary, but sexaversary is more provocative.

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Posted at 13:48

Surprising

11.26.2006
I did my first track workout in a couple of weeks last Tuesday and was quite surprised by the results. The first mile I ran in 5:58, which happens to be the fastest I've run in a bit. However, I subsequently followed it up by a 5:53 mile, all the while my stomach still feeling like it was in England. I had run a total of 4 times in England so to come back and knock out some relatively fast mile repeats was interesting. This performance doesn't really give me any indication as to how I'll do for my marathon in January, although I am looking for some metric because I feel like I'm just running for the heck of it currently. I'm not sure where I am in my training, and I'm consequently in a state of limbo. It's strange. Well don't look a gift horse and wot.

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Posted at 20:52

What's to come...

11.21.2006
Posted at 13:34

Midnight Tea Time

11.20.2006
Typically tea time is at 4pm in the afternoon, but England is eight hours ahead so it's really midnight over there right now. I'm back in the U.S. in body but not in mind. I think my mind is somewhere over the Atlantic trying to figure out a way down to the Caribbean. The flight back was long, long enough that I watched 3 movies and the end of one movie 3 times. I watched Pirates of the Caribbean 2, Monster House, which is a surprisingly good movie, and Fast and the Furious 2. I have to say though that I watched half of FF2 without any sound, but it didn't seem to make any difference. It was also more fun making up dialogue in my mind and made for a much better movie.

The last few days my mum and I were in England we met up with some old family friends. Thursday we spent a day with my mum's old boss when she worked account payable. It was nice seeing him again as I haven't seen him since I was 9 or 10. He's still basically the same, like much of London, but just a bit different. He and his partner are off to Saint Vincent for 5 months to live there while England goes through Winter. I have an open invitation to Saint Vincent if ever I want to go. Thursday evening we had dinner with some old family friends and their children. I used to hang out with the kids quite frequently when I was young, so it was cool hanging with them again. Well just one actually because the other was off working, so we drowned our sorrows in a bottle of wine, which was promptly proceded by a bottle of Jack. I was a bit buzzed and on teetering on being drunk when my mum asked me if I was in fact drunk. I replied, "if you can't tell, then I'm not going to tell you." I might have stuck out my tongue as an added retort but can't remember due to my old friend Jack.

Friday, my mum and I had an invitation to dinner from one of her old coworkers when she was a nurse. The dinner was actually for her son who was celebrating his 24 birthday. Coincidentally Friday was also the six year anniversary of when I started my job, so I get an extra week of vacation! Interestingly at the celebration I met a guy who recently graduated who will be working for BAE systems on the F-35. My company is working with BAE systems on the next generation of our satellites. Small world.

Saturday I went for my last long run in the city. I hadn't done much running in London, so I wanted to make the most of my last run. I ran through Hyde Park down past Buckingham Palace, then behind Downing Street which took me, after a sharp left, past the houses of parliament and Big Ben. I ran across Westminster Bridge and then alongside the Thames and ran by the Eye of London, a huge ferris wheel, The Tate, Saint Paul's Church. I also ran over the Millennium Bridge and Tower Bridge. All this took about an hour and fortyfive minutes, so after showering and stretching, not necessarily in that order my mum and I had a "traditional" English breakfast of sausages, bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes, beans, eggs, and toast. We went down to Oxford Circus again to pick up a thank you gift for my Godmother who got the Spamalot tickets for us and then went to another friend's house for lunch, where I stuffed myself. The rest of the afternoon I spent packing and relaxing in preparation for departure the next day.

I had a bit of trouble with my big yellow duffel bag at the airport on Sunday. I didn't check my bad in because there were a few delicate items I wanted to keep safe. When I checked my other bags in, the fellow at the counter asked me to put my bag in one of the sizing cages they had for carry-on luggage. I squeezed it in there after which my mum and I went to security check. Right before security check there was another bag size check which I was again asked to put my bag. I was getting a bit irritated at this point. Now after taking 20 steps there was yet another bag size check in clear view of the other one just behind me. The rocket scientist there again asked me to put my bag in the cage at which point I sort of lost it and went off on the guy. I was seriously pissed off that I was being asked to put my bag in the sizer again when I had just done it not 20 feet in front of him. I have never been so angry at another person before like that.

Well after getting through that guy and making a little scene, my mum and I passed through security, of which there were only two lines and another fine example of British efficiency, and another bag sizer we finally made it to the promised land of duty free shopping. I call it the promised land because there weren't any more bag size checks after security. We sat around a bit. I bought lots of chocolate and then we finally boarded our plane. I slept twice, for about 30 minutes each time, and then spent the rest of the day awake. I think spent about 22 hours awake yesterday, so I could go to sleep at a normal time here rather than over there. I'm currently sort of spacy after a lack of sleep and some beer at lunch, although that has made the day go by rather quick. I'm hoping to get some pictures up soon, so you'll see pictures of the Eiffel Tower and some French and English stuff up there in a bit.

And now for something completely different...

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Posted at 16:18

Say Fay Com-Byun?

11.15.2006
Just got back from Paris on Monday. What a nice city and definitely a welcome change from London. I don't know if it's an ingrained sense that's been instilled in me by our culture but there's an aire of sohpistication and worldliness about Paris that London doesn't just seem to have. I could probably attribute that difference though to a number of aspects one being language. Without language most of my view of Paris was through what I saw, consequently what I saw seemed much more sophisticated than London. Although that was a little different last night. My mum and I saw Spamalot at the Palace Theatre. The same theatre that Les Miserables played for almost two decades.

Spamalot, based on Monty Python and The Holy Grail, was a riot but didn't directly follow the plotline of the movie. There were a few interludes and new scenes that definitely added to the musical. I don't think I ever stopped laughing the entire show, except perhaps for intermission. Well anyway, why did London seem more sophisticated last night? Casino Royale. The world premiere was just down the street from the Palace and as we left the theatre we saw myriad people dressed to the nines in gowns and tuxedos for the event. Pretty neat. I sort of wished we could have gone but wouldn't have had any idea as to how to attend.

I sort of miss living in a city. The convenience of going around the corner and having a great restaurant at your doorstep. The ease of travelling around a city with great public transportation. It makes San Francisco seem a bit backwards when comparing it to London, at least from a transporation point of view. There's a tiny sliver of me that would love to move back to a big city, but then there's the other overwhelmingly large part of me that likes my semi-suburban life. I do like however the way some people dress in the city. I'll definitely make an effort to dress more smart as I like the look a lot more than my current engineer's wardrobe. I noticed many a people in France particularly were very well dressed, even casually, as compared to what I normally see.

My mum and I saw a great exhibition of Rembrandt and Hogarth at the Louvre. Rembrandt is an amazing artist, which I didn't actually realize until I saw some of his drawings up close. The ability with which he was able to capture human emotion with but the simplest of pencil strokes was amazing. Hogarth did some funny stuff, more politically and morally motivated than anything else, but he certainly brought British art into its own.

Well I could spend another hour typing, but my time is almost up, so I'll type more when I have the money and the time.
Posted at 05:58

The Circus that is Oxford

11.10.2006
For the past 5 days now, we've somehow managed to make our way back to Oxford Circus. At first it was okay, now it's just annoying. I don't mind coming here maybe once a week, but 5 days straight of it is just driving me batty.

We saw The Tower of London yesterday. I've discovered that I'm a bigger history nut than I once thought. Going through all the displays and walking through the ramparts alone got me all historically flustered. When I get back I need to get cable so I can watch more history channel. The amazement I feel seeing all the old relics from past kings and queens is quite, well, amazing. Although walking through some of the towers at the Tower of London gave me an odd sense of morbidness because they onced house prisoners and the lot. This was especially prevalent when viewing some of the engravings left in the walls by past prisoners...

We went down to Neal's Yard yesterday and had the best food I've had so far, which isn't saying much. You don't come to England for the food. Well I had a Turkish Meze that featured a tabouleh salad, hummus with pita bread, a mashed carrot salad with olives, and sauteed eggplant with tomatoes, onions, and seasoning. All of it tasted fantastic. Along with my meal I drank a banana lassi and for dessert a french flourless chocolate cake with fresh fruits and cream. I could basically eat there everyday.

A couple of nights ago I watched the Carling Cup game between Liverpool and Birmingham. There were a few tense moments, mostly me worrying about my next beer, but Liverpool managed to prevail. Speaking of beer, I've had a couple of good ones so far. My second night, my mum and I went to a pub and had fish chips. I washed it down with a couple of pints of something called John Smith's, a very good beer. I've also had Young's bitter ale, a bit watery, and "Extra Cold" Guinness, which just the Guinness most Americans are familiar with. I was a bit disappointed because I wanted the "normal" Guinness, but alas the tap was broken.

I picked up a book called "Secret Walks of London." I'm going to try one next week after we get back from Paris. All the places we've gone so far have been familiar, so I'd like to try something different, something I didn't see when I was living here. I know there's much more of London I need to see. Hopefully that'll put me more in the vacation mood and not in this weird emotional limbo between feeling like on vacation/and being back home. I'm pretty sure that Paris will do that however.

I must apologize for my haphazard writing. You think, or at least I would think, that being born in England would imbue me with some sort of inherent literary prowess. Alas it has yet to manifest. I did notice however that I have used "alas" twice in this posting already.

Back to the subject at hand. I did a tempo run around Hyde Park last night and so ran by Kensington Palace and The Royal Albert Hall. Pretty neat although it was a bit dark, so I really only saw sillohuettes rather than actual objects.

Well, I'm headed off to Niketown and then back to the hotel to prepare for Paris tomorrow. Be back Monday.
Posted at 07:05

The more things change, the more they stay the same

11.08.2006
Well after a long 10 hour flight out from SFO. I'm finally in England. I thought I would be more excited to be here, but I feel just a bit off. I don't feel like I'm on holiday but I also don't feel like I'm back home. Lots of things have changed back here, but it's still all the same. I suppose you could say that for a town as old as London. At a purely superficial level things will vary but the underlying core of the city remains the same. My mum and I have decided that we're going to do things we didn't do while we were in London just to make it different.

Things here are also bloody expensive too! Last night my mum and I had dinner at pub. We had fish & chips plus she got a soda and I got a beer, which all amounted to about $40. I forgot how expensive it is here. Consequently we're seeking out all the hole in the wall eateries. I think I'm going to get sick of eating out pretty soon.

After we got in Monday and dropped our bags off at our "very" questionable hotel, my mum and I went around the West End a bit and then visited some old friends of my mum. We saw a bit of Oxford Circus and Tottenham Court road, which are shopping meccas. We also made a trip to Picadilly Circus and the adjacent Chinatown. All of which looked the same to me, but smaller. Everything seems much closer and smaller just because I was a kid back then so proportionally it all makes sense.

Tuesday we went to the British Museum and hit many of the same places as we did on Monday but spent a bit more time in Oxford Circus, specifically Selfridges(Macy's Equivalent), and in Picadilly Circus at Lillywhites(former high end sporting good store). I picked up a Liverpool baseball cap from Lillywhites. Tuesday was also my first visit to running club I found on the internet, the Serpentine Running Club. They're a very well organized running group with a lot of members. I ended up doing a 400-800-1200-1600-1200-800-400 pyramid. I had to skip out on part of the second 1200 due to gastrointestinal issues, but made it through the rest. The workout was great and so were all the people. There seem to be some very dedicated runners with this club. Hopefully I'll run again with them tonight, if my legs aren't too tired from walking. What was weird though was I met a woman who just moved from San Francisco to London for work. Small world.

Today we went to Waterloo to book a short weekend excursion to Paris. We'll be leaving Saturday and returning Monday. I'm quite excited about that little trip since I've never been. After Waterloo we went to Trafalgar Square, home of Nelson's Column, and the National Portrait Gallery. We then walked down to Downing Street home of the Prime Minister and then made our way down to Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. We saw the big Millennium wheel, and I was going to get on but the weather is so dreary that I wouldn't have been able to take any good pictures. Speaking of pictures, I have a load of them but no place I can upload them. I'll have to that when I get back. Well I'm off to go catch up with my mum. We might see a show sometime this week or next. I'm hoping for Spamalot.
Posted at 05:49

The Vitruvian Man

11.01.2006

Why am I becoming busier the closer I get to leaving for London? I seriously feel like that guy above me. Appendages in all directions flailing about wildly as I try to get a grasp on all the things try to occupy my attention. I suppose being busy is good since I'll feel more relieved once I'm actually on vacation, but I'm becoming increasingly anxious about my vacation. I'm trying not to let the holiday mindset take over yet, so I can get my work done. However, I feel like I'm fighting a losing battle, and it's not really a battle I want to fight.

I was talking to some other runners the other day about their upcoming events and future goals. A couple of runners with whom I spoke, who also ran Boston, said they don't have any real plans other than to run some halves and a few other short races. I'm sort of worried that after I qualify for Boston a complacency might set in which I don't want to continue to improve myself in the context of running. I'd like to qualify for Boston and then perhaps run a sub-3 hour marathon, but will I become burned out? I have to find a way to keep my running interesting and fun yet still improve myself.

I'm sort of in an introspective mood today. Perhaps I'll type more later.
Posted at 09:22