Shakedown Summary

The photos from the Shakedown Cruise with appropriately themed music:

Refuse to Accept Anything But the Best

Came across an interesting quote today:

It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.
W. Somerset Maugham

Which reminded me of another very interesting Chinese proverb which we have repeatedly found to be true:

Buy the best, cry once

These quotes strike a cord in two different areas, selecting and achieving what we want in terms of our goals. The first describes an approach to selecting and setting goals which we have consistently been very pleasantly surprised with - the bigger and better goals we set, the more we achieve.

The second ties in nicely with the first and actually results in a bit of thriftyness too. If we buy the best (refuse to accept anything but the best), we find we don't 'rebuy'. This is something we have repeatedly made mistakes with, buying something which is 'pretty close but not quite'. The result? A second, third or fourth purchase of essentially the same thing (cry, cry and cry again) costing far more and bringing far less enjoyment than if we'd purchased the right thing the first time.

There's a third quote from Steve (and it may be from somewhere else too):

You always over-estimate what you can do in a day and under-estimate what you can do in a year.

This one ties nicely in with the other two because if you think of achieving the best (dreams and goals) in the context of a day - overwhelming and unachievable. But, if you think in the context of a year or over a period of years, so much of the best becomes very possible.

Monday - A Day of Rest

Relaxing at the end of a very busy weekend! And no 4:30 a.m. early morning get up on Monday to catch the train!

This is the first time when we've been living our 'different life' back in our old environment. The change in lifestyle is much more apparent here than in Florida, which has all seemed like a big, very long holiday. Over here the absence of the 'normal routine' is much more obvious - particularly on Monday. For Steve this is the very first time after a big weekend when there has been no get up at 'Ridiculous O'Clock' on Monday and he's reveling in it!

Party Weekend in the North

The trip home has been a good chance to get together with family and friends who we haven't seen in a while, in other words, a great excuse for a party! This weekend we had two, one for friends and one for family.

Friday night we had 10 people over for a Spanish night with Paella and lots (and lots) of Rioja. It was great to catch up with some folks we've met through and who have become part of our lives since I came to the UK and for Steve, even before that. Steve Moore (who worked for me when I first came to the UK and then worked for Steve at HMPS) and Karen, Ann Taylor (who worked for Steve and then worked with me at BAA), Sharon Milligan (an up and comer who did a lot of work for me at BAA) and Julie (Steve's sister), Steve's son Chris, Jess and Matt. Steve got out the square table which sat 10 very comfortably (and is the best for great conversations) and we had the best time! Non-stop talking from the moment people walked in the door, travel tales, general techno-geek discussion, along with life, philosophies and goals until 2 a.m!

After a rather slow morning (and a nice catch-up with Sharon), it was time to get into gear for Saturday's Italian themed party with the Hodgson clan. The menu for this one - Italian Hunter's Stew (a wine-based chicken cacciatore), my special lasagna, Panzanella and for desert, homemade Tiramisu. We had 14 at the table and managed to ensure that no one left hungry!

On Sunday, Stevie Special Bacon Butties started a perfect day of lounging around and doing nothing. No, I take that back. I started and restarted (and restarted and...) the sweater I am knitting. After ten (yes, ten!) attempts and some help from Jess (You're doing that wrong, Mom!) I finally threw out the first pattern and had my memory refreshed as to how to knit and purl (Thank you, Jess!).

And just to top off the weekend of foodie-ness, Jess made her famous roasted lamb with roasted potatoes for Sunday lunch! I love weekends like this with lots of good company, good conversation and good food.

On a Bicycle Built for Two!

Went to Ilkley in Yorkshire today to JD Cycles to test out and make a final decision on getting a tandem bike. We had ridden a tandem in Key West and really liked the experience, but weren't fond of the bike (heavy monster, no gears, reverse pedal brakes (remember those from when you were 8?!) and no up-hill ability which is a must in northern England!). That ride lead to one of this year's Red Book goals which was a European Tandem Tour!

We arrived at the tandem shop and were having a look around. The tandem bikes were priced anywhere from 250 to 14,000! We stayed far away from the 14,000 side of the room! As we were wondering where to start, Jamie of JD Cycles came up and started to talk tandems and assess our knowledge (z-e-r-o). We said we'd been on one and liked it. So he took us outside to try one. He also gave us about an hour and a half's worth of instruction - did you know there is a special way to get on a tandem, that the rear rider never puts their feet on the ground and that there is a whole communication language between the 'Captain' and the 'Stoker'?!

We tried out two different ones, one with narrow 'road' tires and one with 'mountain bike' tires. Each had 27 gears and three different brakes. The lowest gear was so 'spinny' you could get up a mountain with it (which we will not be doing soon!). And we were able to find a frame which fit Steve's 6'2" and my 5'4". The ride was far better than we had in Key West (very exciting to see how fast you go!) and the decision was made, we're having a bicycle built for two!

On the way home we took a drive through Yorkshire, which is gorgeous even when it is grey and rainy and February, and we stopped at the Angel at Hetton for lunch. I'm going to have a rave here and say that the food was fabulous! Ham with fois gras to start for me, tiny sausages with a mayo mustard seed sauce for Steve and mains were pheasant and a wonderful soup des poisson. 20 years ago, England was regularly panned for its restaurant food - has that ever changed! England is a food mecca, bringing in and combining the foods of many cultures with its Steve is going to have a very difficult time getting me out of the UK this trip!

Becoming a British Citizen

Today was the citizenship ceremony and I am now officially a Brit! I'm still an American too since the US allows dual citizenship - how great to be a citizen of my two favourite countries!

This is the culmination of about 6 years of work. We started out with a work permit which was applied for by the company I worked for when I came to the UK in 2002. That initial one was tricky to get and we ended up having to prove to the UK government that I had a unique skillset (which was true enough at the time, there were not many Six Sigma practitioners). After leaving that job, there was a bit of a scramble because I wanted to stay in the UK, but without the work permit (which came with the job) the right to remain disappeared. However, you can stay in the UK if you are married to a British citizen which I was because I'd already married Steve. So I applied for and received a marriage visa which gave me the right to stay in the UK. From there the next step in the citizenship journey was to get the 'indefinite leave to remain' which meant I could stay (you guessed it!) indefinitely. The final step is citizenship and for that you have to apply, provide 20-ish pages of documentation, take and pass a citizenship test (which was surprisingly difficult), and be interviewed. After all that, your application is reviewed and if you pass, you get a letter in the mail stating that along with the invite / instruction for the citizenship ceremony. The final, final step will be to get a British passport, but we'll wait until tomorrow before embarking on that journey!

My ceremony was in Blackburn and Jess had hers today too, in Windsor (so she's now a Brit too). They did a really nice job with a good presentation and the Mayor there welcoming people to the country. There was an oath and a playing of the British national anthem (which sounded surprisingly like 'My Country, Tis of Thee (I have subsequently found that the melody of this American patriotic song is the British national anthem)). Steve and Eileen were there, along with about 20 other people who were also becoming citizens.

After the ceremony, Eileen had us to her house for a lovely celebratory lunch. Along with flowers, she gave me a card:

Congratulations, Katherine and Jess. Having become fully fledged Citizens of Britain, you are now allowed to:

1. Whinge about the weather at every opportunity

2. Stand patiently in a queue, even though there doesn't seem to be any need to wait

3. Talk to whoever you stand next to in the queue, or sit next to on a bus, starting with a comment about the weather

4. Let it be known that the only people allowed to criticise Britain are fully fledged British citizens

5. Go anywhere in the world and expect everyone to speak English

6. Wear an anorak on any occasion, preferably with green wellingtons

7. Refuse to be known as European

8. Automatically deride whichever political party is in power at the time

9. Be ready at all times to accept an invitation to have tea with the Queen

10. Proudly sing 'God Save the Queen' and 'Land of Hope and Glory' (waving the Union Jack) at every opportunity

The day ended with dinner out at a traditional English pub, the Clog and Billycock. Our favourite, right across the street.

Stinky French Cheese

We didn't realise it until we got back here, but what a difference there is between the cheeses you can get in the two countries. Steve is a wine / cheese-monster and likes to have cheese virtually every night after dinner and I'm pretty particular when it comes to good cheeses too. While we were in the US, we tried a variety of cheeses, but were pretty ho-hum about them.

Tonight we had a traditional 'home at Highcroft' meal - steak florentine, salad, red wine followed by port and a plate of what Steve calls stinky French cheese - brie that begins to melt as soon as you take it out of the fridge, St. Auger which is a really strong blue and blue Stilton (which isn't French, but is stinky). Took the first bite of the cheese and WOW, WOW, WOW, an amazing, powerful, cheesy delicious-ness! And the second bite was just as good!

So good, so rich and tasty that you only need a few bites before your tastebuds are completely satisfied. I think there is something to be said for just a little bit of great food versus a lot of mediocre food (is this why Americans are eating so much in a neverending quest trying to satisfy tastebuds with pretty bland food?). With great food, the taste is so powerful, you can't eat a lot of it, but what you do have is wonderful.

I wonder if the airport inspection police would notice if I packed a bit of French cheese in my checked luggage...

Flight Back

Unlike Jess and Matt who fly back to the UK first class, we had the cheap seats. No upgrades on this flight, there were 100 open seats! What we did get though was a row to ourselves, very nice to be able to stretch out!

Nice, uneventful flight - we LOVE those!

SoBe Trip Prequel

After shutting the boat up tight for a couple weeks, we headed up to South Beach, Miami to spend the night before heading back to the UK - a little vacation before the vacation! We stayed at the recently renovated La Flora hotel, one block back from the beach. The room was simple but nicely done.

Since we were on land, we went for a walk! The beach there is great, good walking and lots to watch! We also hit one of the pedestrian shopping streets so I could pick up some Harissa from Williams and Sonoma which I will carry over to the UK and back again (we tried to buy this online, but I am NOT paying $17 shipping for an $8 product!). Harissa is a sauce / paste made of crushed Moroccan peppers which if you like spicy food is fabulous - absolutely addictive! Good with meat, good with veg, good even with eggs. Mustafa's is the brand carried by WS and it is one of the best (outside of the homemade one at the Chelsea Farmers Market) that I've found.

Dinner was amusing. We'd done the Ocean Drive restaurants on the past few trips so wanted something different. Started out looking for a chinese, but that was too scary and ended up at an Argentinian steak house - should be okay, right? Um...maybe not. Actually the food was good, the waitress was surly and the check arrived just as we finished our last bite. From now on we are going to set expectations with our waitstaff - if you expect a tip, do not bring the check until we ask for it. How can you have a leisurely dinner when the salad arrives with the starter, the main arrives two bites into the salad and the bill is slapped down on the table before you're even half way through the main never mind dessert and coffee?!

Back to the hotel for a good rest before the next day's flight to London. Whoops, one thing they forgot to mention in the brochure! There is an all night BOOM-BOOM Disco directly behind the hotel and immediately behind our room - oh, goody! Needless to say, there was not much sleep for us.

There's always something good though - since we were already up, we went for a 6 a.m. breakfast with all the trimmings at the News Cafe (I love Cafe con Leche) and finished in time to sit on the beach and watch the sun rise.

Boat Shutdown

Shutting down the boat today in preparation for our trip back to the UK. Mega to-do list and then dinner out tonight as a treat! Boat shutdown consists of doing all the chores which will enable you to come back to a lovely, clean, relaxing (and, in Florida, bug-free!) boat. Today's list:

- Top off all the tanks and chemicals where necessary
- Defrost fridge and freezer
- Dismantle the dingy and stow all dingy accessories
- Total boat wipe down (with bleachy water so we don't come back to moldy stuff)
- All laundry done
- Exterior boat washdown
- Non-perishable groceries provisioning (so all we have to buy is fresh when we get back)

This leaves the boat with 'all systems go' (hopefully!) for when we get back so that weather permitting we can head to the BAHAMAS!

Stevie Special Paint Job

Ever since we bought the boat, one of those 'little things' that always distracts us when we look at the boat has been the condition of the black stripe. It's like a scuff on the floor, a scratch on the paint, a ding in the woodwork - one of those things that no one else ever notices, but bugs the heck out of us (particularly me). Our black stripe has always been a bit dull, faded, with grey marks on it.

In St. Pete, Steve polished the entire exterior of the hull and painted the non-skid areas a sand color which went really well with the black and cream base color scheme. But like when you paint a ceiling and then notice that walls need doing, and when you paint the walls . . . same holds true on a boat, the stripe needs doing. Yesterday Steve taped and painted, and now the boat looks done!

Posting from Mid-Ocean

Actually we're not, but we could if we want to (but just to be clear we don't!), posting from mid-ocean. We are however posting from our handy-dandy new HF radio which would (should we want it to) enable us to post / send emails from anywhere in the world, including the middle of the ocean. It has taken us since mid-November to get this working. We started by adding a modem and ended up replacing the tuner, the wiring, and finally replacing the entire radio. We now know much more about HF radios than we ever thought we would.

Communications from wherever and whenever is a core requirement on this trip. Ain't technology grand?!

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Daily Dose of Depression

This is a rant. I glanced at a newspaper the other day and was reminded why
I don't read or watch the news - what a Daily Dose of Depression! No wonder
the US / UK economies are in a rut, everybody has been scared / depressed /
frightened into doing anything but sit around and commiserating about how
terrible it all is. It IS terrible, it sucks, it's a rotten place to be in,
we've all done daft things to get us in this place and it's going to take a
while before things get better (economically). There are many people who
have been seriously affected by the economy and the shenanagins that have
gone on in the marketplace. But I wonder how much worse it is because of a
constant, never-ending verbal and visual barrage of HOW BAD IT IS.

If I am around people who constantly talk about depressing things, how
terrible this is, woe is me, moan moan moan, I find myself getting depressed
and start focusing, looking for everything around me that is wrong. And
boy, if I look for things that are wrong, can I ever find them! The media
which we let (or even pay) to come into our homes is worse than the most
dreadfully depressing person we know - you know, the one that when you see
him walking down the street, you cross to avoid talking to him; the one who
sucks the life out of a room. If the media were a person, would you spend
time with him or would you cross the road to get away from him?

There are toxic people in this world, people who make you feel bad, who skew
your perspective, damage your confidence, spread rumors and inuendos, and
lie to you. If the media were a person, would any of these apply to him?

It would be fine if news stories were accurate, well-researched and
fact-based, but they are often just that - stories. Bits and pieces of
unverified data spun with someone's personal opinion and then
sensationalised even further for ratings purposes.

There are plenty of sources available now via the Internet which give you a
more accurate, unspun view of what is happening. The data that the media
picks and chooses bits of is available in its complete form on the web,
usually providing a very different 'story' than the one that is presented on
the screen or the page.

Does the focus have to always be on the negative? There are just as many
positive things that happen on a daily basis, but unfortunately those don't
improve ratings or sell papers so we don't see them. I need a more objective view which
looks at the positives which are happening along with the negatives. One
study I looked at found that the average amount of positive news on American
TV stations ABC, CBS and NBC was 25.1 per cent. This is not to say that the
rest is negative. Almost half, 46.8 per cent, was found to be negative. The
other 28.1 per cent they called "indeterminable." How much press is given
to the positive impact of the drop in interest rates and the resulting drop
in mortgage payments (tens to hundreds of pounds per month)? How much focus
is there on people who are getting ahead in this economy or using this time
to discover other things of value besides the economy? How many stories are
there about people who are reconnecting with family or friends, discovering
talents that they never had time for, or activities / interests that they
never explored?

Like I said, I don't read the paper / watch the news and generally I'm
pretty positive about things. A question I do get is, "How do you stay
informed, what if something happens?" I can catch up on all the news in a
two month period usually by reading one day's paper or having a quick skim
of the news sites, but I miss out on two months of repititious gloom and
doom. And if something really big happens, somebody will always tell you or
it will be posted on one of the blogs I read. One site that offers a more
positive view is http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/

Not being Pollyanna-ish or putting my head in the sand, but I think I'll
pass on the Daily Dose of Depression...

Pidgeon Key Walk

One of the benefits of being in a marina is being able to simply step off the boat to go for a walk and Steve and I have been making the most of that treat. Yesterday we did three miles, a pre-Chinese takeaway walk - you feel much less guilty if you've walked miles to get your food!

Today we did six miles. In the middle part of the Seven-Mile Bridge is an island called Pidgeon Key. The old highway still spans across the water and has been converted into a walking rather than a driving bridge, out to Pidgeon Key. Very tropical looking island with old style Florida houses and lots of palm trees. The buildings comprise a Flagler (the railroad) museum. (However, the cost to enter is 11.00 per person, a tad much for something which would take 30 minutes to view.)

Beautiful walk out over the ocean!