Taxi Story – The Ethiopian

(Starting to slip into a US drawl) “Howya doing? Hope Street please.” (this was in Washington DC).

Silence

“Do you know where that is?”

Nods.

“Are you able to take me there?” (it is considered a tough part of town)

“Mmmmmm.” Read more

Ice Hockey is a Multi Media Experience

We all admire the hard physical contact sport of ice hockey for its speed and well, hard physical contact. But my inaugural attendance at this game (Dallas Stars against the Oilers (no, I had no idea who they were either – all the way down from Canada)), which I thoroughly enjoyed, was an insight into a spectator culture I believe is unique to this country and unlike anything I experience at home. Let me name the ways. Read more

40 Years at the State Fair of Texas

(Whole conversation carried out in earnest seriousness)

“Excuse me, Sir, excuse me… Can you tell me where I can get a dog like that?”

(Shuffles over) “Ysmm’ sir, you gotta go to the empty beer bottle competition booth. It’s a special one. We go there every year.”

“Every year?”

“Yes, sir, we have been coming here every year for forty years.” Read more

Bigger than Texas(?)

Our flight into Fort Worth is a bumpy one – it looks like a hot day in Texas. As we swing from compass point to compass point we cut over railyards, sweeping freeways, sprawling acres of warehouses and endless suburbs. I think “this is a place of endless possibilities”, an indelible impression imprinted as we seem to descend forever over this remarkable place. Read more

It’s Unamerican

Being in the US over the last couple of weeks has allowed me to witness first hand turmoil laid upon confusion – fragile financial markets mixed up in an election campaign. (I hope there is no Superbowl pending!) Whatever the debate, pitch, argument or defence from the Capitol, there is almost always fall back reference to this or that being “Unamerican”. Never sure what that meant until I discovered they are all talking about this 737.

Departing DC

Departing Washington on a clear fall day with a low rising sun and blue sky. The sun at that angle highlights the deciduous woodlands and between them and the placid Potomac, with early morning rowing teams sliding into their day, I am reminded of what a beautiful part of the country this is. Read more

A Degree of Freedom in Baltimore

Here I am ten years later in Baltimore and on a very different “mission”. My earlier visit was in the company of some crazy Hungarian and other European counter intelligence officers. We were on a “school excursion” hosted by Uncle Sam to visit the National Aquarium. (Definitely worth a look). Read more

Capital on the Capitol

The squirrels jump around in the lawn of the late afternoon and are (hopefully) oblivious to the fact that they are nut hunting and burying in the shade of the building which best symbolises the power of America, perhaps even more so than the White House. That is only the working office of the President. This is the seat of Congress. Where the course of America and all who sail in her is charted. Read more

Food by Weight

This country still has the capacity to surprise me. Mainly with the little things – launching an air-strike against someone in the middle of the night on the other side of the globe, or firing off yet another shuttle from Florida are so passe. But this morning, sitting behind the Capitol in a hole in the wall cafe for the first time ever, I paid for meal by its weight! Read more

When in Rome Do What the Romans Do

In DC that translates, in my book at any rate, into going to “the Mall” – and not to a shopping centre but to the strip of beaten up turf around which Washington seems to turn. Read more

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