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In the continuing effort to provide a better experience to the readers, I'm playing around with Picasa Web Albums as a different way of doing the photo gallery. If I do it here there will be the ability to have captions, different sizes, a nifty slide show, and an rss. But, there won't be a link back to here.

Here's the link to the new gallery.
http://picasaweb.google.com/wanderingjax

Post your opinions when you've looked.

Thanksgivings

Thanksgiving #3 has been completed, leaving only Thanksgiving #4 remaining. Yes, it's been necessary to number them. Thanksgiving #1 with turkey, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and all the usual favorites was a week ago. Thanksgiving #2 was a japanese dinner on Thanksgiving (had to do something on the actual day). Thanksgiving #3 was the next day and consisted of chili and brownies. Thanksgiving #4 is still TBD, but will probably look a lot like Thanksgiving #1. I'm not used to having this many Thanksgivings, I feel like I'll never be hungry again. But, of all the holidays to do in multiples, this would be my choice. Despite lacking presents or candy, it's still my favorite. I guess it is because it is the one holiday that has remained true to its original meaning, being thankful for family, friends, and everything else we have. So, Happy Thanksgivings 1 to n everyone!

Motorcycles on the beach

This weekend they decided to build a course on the beach and have a big motorcycle race. There were tv helicopters and jumbotrons and everything. This certainly explains all the giant sand sculptures of guys on motorcycles scattered around town. It really must have been miserable to race. Cold, windy, blowing sand, it was hard being a spectator. Even I was a little under dressed for the weather, so after a few hours standing on the beach it got a little cold. Still, it was quite fun. I can't remember the last time I went to a motorcycle race.

And the Dutch guy won, so that's always good for the crowd.

You can find the rest here.

A day trip to London

A day trip to London is a concept that is totally incomprehensible to any european, especially if you are an officer of UK Immigrations (more later). But let's be honest, it's only 200miles from here to London. That is nothing and total travel time each way is only about 3 hours door to door, which is just within the limits of day tripping. If you really want to freak a european out, tell them you are taking a day trip to London, you will be looked at like an alien and people will think you crazy.

The trip started off at Schiphol and an unmentionable hour of the morning. The security line was pretty long because people kept walking up to the front of the line, saying they were late and cutting in. It kind of pisses you off to watch people with flights at the same time as yours cutting in front of you and making you closer to being later. For whatever reason, they have started x-raying your boarding pass as Schiphol. Is it really possible to conceal something inside a boarding pass? This time, they actually lost my boarding pass inside the x-ray machine. I told them they were going to go find it and, eventually, they did.

The conversation at immigrations at Heathrow went something like this:
Officer: How long are you here for?
Me: Just the day.
Officer: Where did you come from?
Me: Amsterdam.
Officer: No, where did you start your trip?
Me: Um, The Hague.
Officer: I mean, where you live.
Me: I live in Holland.
Officer: I suppose you can prove that can you?
Me: Well, yes.
Officer: Why are you coming to London?
Me: I'm going to see Jeremy Clarkson do a show at Earls Court.
Officer: See, people need to have a reason before they come all the way to London.
Me: Yes, I'm going to see a car show.
Officer: And you're definitely leaving today?
Me: Yes, it's a day trip.

So, eventually they did let me into the country. Their immigration guys have obviously got some issues. I over heard the one at the line next to mine remarking to an african gentleman, "Didn't we used to rule you guys?"

Into London by tube, a slow and bumpy journey, but considerably cheaper than any of the alternatives. I was early, so took a nice walk through Hyde Park in the frosty air. Enjoy a swan.


Then, on to the main event. The show was a little less than I had hoped for, I wanted more action and less of what I would call live commercials. Even the static displays were mostly done by car dealers rather than car makers. But, I did get to see JC


And The Stig!

Note that The Stig cannot be captured by camera. It is one of his ways. Sadly, no showing for the Toyota Hilux and, worse, no Stig t-shirts for sale.

Then, back to Heathrow, onto an airplane and back home in time for a dinner out at a reasonable hour. See folks? A day trip to London is a quite doable and not unreasonable thing to do. Certainly much more relaxing than that day trip to Sweden I did.

All in all, I would say a day trip to London leaves you with nothing more than a decent bit of entertainment and an unfulfilled craving for decent indian.
You can find the rest of the pics in the gallery.

The morning after the night before

Yesterday was, of course, Halloween. We, naturally, had a party. A big party. A big party that somehow managed to burn out even the most seasoned partiers by midnight. That's hardcore.
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Putting together such a monumental party took a great deal of effort. There were pre-party parties and pre-pre-party party parties.

Here we have the pumpkin carving crew. Note the unnecessarily large knives. Special thanks to blogger for randomly rotating the image.

The party was excellent. There was imbibing. Incriminating photos were taken of more than one person. A good time was had by all, however there was a bit too much fog and not quite enough strobes. Here's some of the crowd.

Note the awesome, entirely hand made christmas tree.

And the spooky pumpkins


This years gave a good start to the Halloween tradition here and next year's promises to be even bigger.

Some pics from the party are available here, thanks to Dancing Nomad and her camera.

Update: Due to boredom, I created a flickr account and posted everyone else's photos here.