USA National Debt

I took this only a few weeks before the collapse of Lehman Brother's, AIG, the American auto industry, etc. They never anticipated having to put another "1" on the end of this. When I came back again in November they had had to paste that one at the end ...

From New-York-August-2008

Back in New York

I never grow tired of this city. I was sent over with work about three weeks before the collapse of Lehman Brothers and made the most of it. They've upgraded all the screens in Times Square to HD now as well.

From New-York-August-2008

From New-York-August-2008

Here's the roof of Grand Central station. It's of the constellations, but in reverse because it's "how god would see them".

From New-York-August-2008

And a pretty spectacular view from the "Top of the Rock" (Rockefeller Center) ...

From New-York-August-2008

And on the weekend, curtosy of my generous cousins, we took a trip up state to Westpoint military academy. Here's a nice view of the Hudson Valley:

From New-York-August-2008

Like that Famous Painting

There was a chair in a room in that house we stayed in the south of France and it looked just like that famous Van Gogh painting:

From france-and-spain-august-2008

Yeah, I know it's the mirror image, but you get the idea.

South of France

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Jim, using his abyss of valuable contacts, sourced a gem of a house in the center of a postcard village in the south of France - St. Pierre des Champs. It was heaven - no mobile reception, no buses, no television, no internet. A mile up the hill we had a amazing views of the countryside, a mile in the other direction we were by a natural river pool and a mile in a different direction we were in the neighboring village. I even drank coffee there it was so nice. Other groups of a similar age were also on holiday in the village and they brought us to a fête in the neighbouring town. Pretty cool. We had rented a car also and took day trips to Toulouse and Barcelona. Pretty much the ideal holiday really - can't wait to do something similar again.

From france-and-spain-august-2008

From france-and-spain-august-2008

From france-and-spain-august-2008

From france-and-spain-august-2008

From france-and-spain-august-2008

From france-and-spain-august-2008

From france-and-spain-august-2008

Ben Nevis

We couldn't have picked a worse day to climb Ben Nevis. Wet, windy and generally miserable. The top was fogged over, but, as I was told, this is nothing unusual even for a good day in Scotland. The mountain was 1300ish meters high. Quite a lot of people were training for the mountain race the next week ... lunatics ... I couldn't imagine running up the thing ... at least not in this state of fitness :-)


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From ben-nevis-9-8-2008

From ben-nevis-9-8-2008

From ben-nevis-9-8-2008