so we had not seen all of it last night. Storm re-started at about 3pm this morning. There are major floodings on the West and North side of Houston and in many communities around. Many schools are closed and my office as well. No Airco or running water.
Our house is fine, we both got to work ok. Eelco's office is fine downtown and all appears normal there. I need to go back home. Wearing my Japanese Wellies (laarzen) to keep my feet dry this time. No sense to spend the day shopping as the main shopping area is flooded as well. Many cars have become stuck or have been completely submerged on some roads and people have actually died mainly in cars being flooded or washed of the road. There was a Tornado also, fortunately not close to our house. We had some 12 Inches of rain since I wrote the last piece last night (> 30 cm). It is still raining and for the rest of today there remains a 60% chance of more thunderstorms. Flash Flood warnings for Houston still apply.
This clip is filmed at a major highway junction 2 exits from my work - I passed there this morning on the higher and dry highway part. http://www.chron.com/content/chronicle/special/07/templates/listpop.html?bcpid=823433113&bctid=21321507001
It is a shame that with the modern technology I can work from home and hence am not relieved from my deadline tomorrow -:(
Weather forecast for the next 7 days:
Wednesday: 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms
Thursday: 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms
Friday: 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms
Saturday: 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms
Sunday: 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms
Monday: 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms
Flash Floods & Tornado Warnings
So as soon as you move to Houston everyone starts to complain about the summer heat and how unbearable that is. Some people also talk about Hurricanes, although that is mainly in meetings that also deal with offshore installation and vessel 'up time' not even much in day to day talk.....But NOBODY ever mentioned the flash floods and the spring thunderstorms and Tornado warnings. And pretty spectacular they are....nothing like anything I have seen before!
A line of thunderstorms from Wharton to Conroe continue to produce heavy rainfall of 1 to 2 inches an hour. Street flooding has been reported in portions of northwest Harris County where 2 to 4 inches of rainfall has already occurred. That is 5 cm of rain per hour!
The first time one of my colleagues stopped by my office on a late Friday afternoon suggesting I would not stay too much longer because of Tornado warnings my cynical Dutch heritage kicked in and I thought,.....can't be that bad! In Aberdeen everyone would get into a panic over 5 flakes of snow and I thought this would be similarly over-rated. Well, so far I have fortunately seen no Tornado's, despite numerous warnings, but the storms that come with these are definitely not comparable to 'a few flakes of snow' being called a 'snowstorm'. These storms are the real deal!
Like today: I knew it was likely to rain. By about 4pm it looked like as if someone had switched of the lights - it was like dusk outside. Shortly after it started to rain,....not just a little, properly hosing down as if a million garden hoses, all with the tap full open are hanging down from the sky. Lightning and thunder followed not too log after and have not stopped yet or moved on (it is 3 hrs later now!). You can feel the thunder sitting in your chair as the ground really shakes and it remains pretty close by,....In the meantime the rain got even worse (I did not think it could!) and it tarted to look more or less like a continuous stream of buckets being emptied from the sky with no relief and no end in sight.....Turns out this is what the flasflood warning is for:
The local met office issued a warning till 8.15 tonight:
A line of thunderstorms from Wharton to Conroe continue to produce heavy rainfall of 1 to 2 inches an hour. Street flooding has been reported in portions of northwest Harris County where 2 to 4 inches of rainfall has already occurred. That is 5 cm of rain per hour!
I decided that somehow I needed to get home so opted to give it a go. I took of my shoes, rolled up my trousers and waded ankle deep through the water to my car. All roads where completely covered in water, visibility was less then 50m and the wind was not helping either. In about 50m I managed to get soaked completely. Fortunately the Houstonians appear to be pretty sensible drivers in this weather (as it is also pretty windy) and driving 50km/h (30 Miles) I made it home in one piece and only adding 10 min to my 15 min commute. Glad to know we do not live in a flood zone and glad we did not opt to live out in Suburbia. My line manager left the office at the same time,....he has > 1hr to drive without traffic and the traffic jams in his direction started 500 m from the office!
Last weekend was the MS 150, a road bike race from Houston to Austin over 2 days with a stop midway. The Saturday was cancelled - which we thought was a bit over the top. Until we noted that the rain and thunder went on that day for a solid 7 hrs, saw all the Bayou's in Houston filled till the max (they are normally dry and empty) and saw pictures of the midway tent camp site from a friend who had intended to ride,......completely flooded. Alright, Alright, eve the thunderstorms are bigger in Texas.
So I love thunderstorms and this kind of weather, but next time we have warnings like this I will make sure I make it home before they start as I think I will enjoy them a whole lot better that way!
Eelco's Castle in Scotland
Eelco found out by accident that Warthill House, the Castle he once used to live at in Scotland is now converted into a Bed & Breakfast by the Leird and his wife,.....
So if anyone is still looking for suggestions of places to stay in Bonny Scotland - check this out!
http://www.aboutscotland.co.uk/aberdeen/warthill.html
The House is located in the worldly town of Meickle Warthill (miekel worthil in phonetic Dutch) between Pitmedden and Oldmeldrum, not too far from the Bennahie (highest hilltop close to Aberdeen) on the road from Aberdeen to Inverness past Inverurie.
Eelco's old room is not one you can book. Mr & Mrs Leslie will remember 'the tennants' (as Eelco and his house mates where referred to) and they may also remember the Dutch herring we fed them at the Millenium party at the castle.
One night, when we got a taxi back from another worldly place called 'Bourty" to Warthill, the Taxi driver informed us that he had worked on the partial demolition of the house a long time ago. Apparantly origionally it had another 22 rooms or so (and was 2x as big). When the National Trust implemented a plan to reposses all old houses of owners who could not maintain them, the family opted to tear down the derelict parts, to be able to afford maintenance of the other half.
Please note that the Ghost of a little girl can be heard in one of the attic rooms (accros sthe hall from the green one depicted on the pictures), jumping on the beds at night. Somehow there where several guests who stayed in that room (including me when Eelco was not living there yet) who all said they heard someone (jumping on a bed or something) in that room, without having been told about the story in advance!
Sweet Dreams...
So if anyone is still looking for suggestions of places to stay in Bonny Scotland - check this out!
http://www.aboutscotland.co.uk/aberdeen/warthill.html
The House is located in the worldly town of Meickle Warthill (miekel worthil in phonetic Dutch) between Pitmedden and Oldmeldrum, not too far from the Bennahie (highest hilltop close to Aberdeen) on the road from Aberdeen to Inverness past Inverurie.
Eelco's old room is not one you can book. Mr & Mrs Leslie will remember 'the tennants' (as Eelco and his house mates where referred to) and they may also remember the Dutch herring we fed them at the Millenium party at the castle.
One night, when we got a taxi back from another worldly place called 'Bourty" to Warthill, the Taxi driver informed us that he had worked on the partial demolition of the house a long time ago. Apparantly origionally it had another 22 rooms or so (and was 2x as big). When the National Trust implemented a plan to reposses all old houses of owners who could not maintain them, the family opted to tear down the derelict parts, to be able to afford maintenance of the other half.
Please note that the Ghost of a little girl can be heard in one of the attic rooms (accros sthe hall from the green one depicted on the pictures), jumping on the beds at night. Somehow there where several guests who stayed in that room (including me when Eelco was not living there yet) who all said they heard someone (jumping on a bed or something) in that room, without having been told about the story in advance!
Sweet Dreams...
New York, New York
Last week we spend the weekend in New York. Fleur came out from Colombia to meet us there and enjoy the fun with us.
For Eelco and me it was almost 9 years since we where last in New York, at the time on our first holiday together and with the Twin Towers (which we visited) still in place. Despite the major events that took place in the Big Apple since we found the city not changed all that much and still a very very enjoyable place to spend some time!
So with the hipness requirements covered we then proceeded to our next program item – culture. We went to the MoMa and took in a few of the exhibitions. More Hipness there sop we are definitely topped up enough to spend some time in our not so Hip hometowns again. From the MoMa we went on to the Ground-0 Workshop. This is a tiny museum (1 room) that offers an 1.5 hr ‘experience’ based on photo’s and stories around the Ground Zero recovery effort. The one and only photographer who was allowed in after a few days of the disaster and photographed the whole recovery and clearance of the site set up the museum. Apparently the man got his idea for this museum after he visited the Anne Frank house and aims at relating the story by making it personal i.e. using people’s stories and own words and his pictures. We thought it was quite a good museum. It still offered some subject for more detailed debate – but then again it is impossible to spend any time with Eelco and Fleur and not debate something (no Dwarf Elephants from Borneo where brought up this time - pfew!). By the time we where finished at the museum the snow had vanished but it was still cold. So we took the metro and went to see Ground Zero itself. That location now is a major building site and we made some futile attempts to see onto the area from surrounding buildings but did not manage to get in.
That evening we went on to see Hair, the Musical. It turns out Eelco used to listen to all the songs from the Musical growing up (I wonder how much of the naughty lyrics he understood at the time!) – and so he knew all the lyrics. The Musical had not officially had its opening night yet and we found out that many family and friends of the actors where attending as well. The Musical was very very good and we definitely enjoyed it a lot. As is possible in New York we had a late night dinner in a French Brasserie after and reinstated the GT tradition (although it appears some of us are somewhat out of training -;).
As the first day was spend on the depressing facets of life (That included Hair as being happy to see but depressive by contents/Substance) we spend the Saturday Consuming and strolling through town (just because you can so well in NY, as it has sidewalks (which we do not have in Houston) and great shops you can access by foot and everything is close!). We started with observing the NY Yuppies from a Starbucks near Central Park, then moved on to Central Park itself (by then it was still cold but Sunny), and then on to 5th Avenue. The tour ended just in time for the 2nd half of the Scotland-England game in the 6-nations (rugby) in an Irish bar we had located the night before. Plenty of Irish bars in NY! On every street corner really. But not a lot that show any rugby. So we had lunch and watched the game and the Ireland-Wales final after. Ireland won the Grand Slam (won all games in the tournament) for the first time in 61 years or something and only because of a score and missed score in the last 2 minutes so definitely exciting. Fleur associates spending time with us also partially with watching Rugby and fortunately had no objections to this part pf the program whatsoever.
Eelco really had a need for some Dinosaur skeletons after and went of to the National History Museum whilst the girls made it back to the shops and actually went in this time to buy at least something in NY. We finished the day with more bars and a Restaurant, but no further G&T’s.
On Sunday we had opted to go to Ellis Island. This is the place where ‘all’ immigrants entered New York (and the US really). The boat trip to get you there takes you past the empire state building. We had all taken the Staten Island Ferry before (budget option) to get some good pics of it on previous trips but now actually docked on the island itself. We still did not feel touristy enough to get off this time around and go ‘touch’ the statue. So we took some pictures in the sun and off the skyline and then stayed on the boat to get to Ellis Island. This place actually only processed 3rd class passengers and only since the end of the 19th century, so ‘all’ immigrants is a bit too big a description, but it was interesting nevertheless and the boat trip alone was worth it.
We concluded the weekend with a nice and elaborate late lunch and then we had to head back to Houston. Fleur enjoyed herself alone by going to see Mary Poppins (Musical) before also returning home the morning after.
So every once in a while it is very nice to spend some time in a place where the international news does not start at page 8 of the paper, or is limited to 1.5 minutes of the 30 min news. Nice also to send some time in a place where being different and having inspiration is a good thing! For me neither Yuzhno nor Houston have enough of that, on the other hand at least I never feel 'not hip enough' in any of those places -;)
For Eelco and me it was almost 9 years since we where last in New York, at the time on our first holiday together and with the Twin Towers (which we visited) still in place. Despite the major events that took place in the Big Apple since we found the city not changed all that much and still a very very enjoyable place to spend some time!
Us happy in the Big Apple
As New York is about as hip as it gets in the USA we wanted to try and stay in one of the famous and hip New York Boutique hotels ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boutique_hotels). As I was in charge of the travel plans (I was hoping for being the hippest of the 3 of us -;) I opted for the Hudson Hotel which is designed completely by Mr Phillip Starck, on whom I have had many classes whilst studying IO in Delft. The place fortunately lived up to expectations and despite being super trendy and all design also still had a reasonable level of comfort, although with a bigger belly I would not have managed to use the bathrooms I think?!? (http://www.hudsonhotel.com/#/photo_gallery/)
The lobby of our oh-so-hip hotel
So with the hipness requirements covered we then proceeded to our next program item – culture. We went to the MoMa and took in a few of the exhibitions. More Hipness there sop we are definitely topped up enough to spend some time in our not so Hip hometowns again. From the MoMa we went on to the Ground-0 Workshop. This is a tiny museum (1 room) that offers an 1.5 hr ‘experience’ based on photo’s and stories around the Ground Zero recovery effort. The one and only photographer who was allowed in after a few days of the disaster and photographed the whole recovery and clearance of the site set up the museum. Apparently the man got his idea for this museum after he visited the Anne Frank house and aims at relating the story by making it personal i.e. using people’s stories and own words and his pictures. We thought it was quite a good museum. It still offered some subject for more detailed debate – but then again it is impossible to spend any time with Eelco and Fleur and not debate something (no Dwarf Elephants from Borneo where brought up this time - pfew!). By the time we where finished at the museum the snow had vanished but it was still cold. So we took the metro and went to see Ground Zero itself. That location now is a major building site and we made some futile attempts to see onto the area from surrounding buildings but did not manage to get in.
Fleur & Maartje @ times square
All of us in Central Park
That evening we went on to see Hair, the Musical. It turns out Eelco used to listen to all the songs from the Musical growing up (I wonder how much of the naughty lyrics he understood at the time!) – and so he knew all the lyrics. The Musical had not officially had its opening night yet and we found out that many family and friends of the actors where attending as well. The Musical was very very good and we definitely enjoyed it a lot. As is possible in New York we had a late night dinner in a French Brasserie after and reinstated the GT tradition (although it appears some of us are somewhat out of training -;).
As the first day was spend on the depressing facets of life (That included Hair as being happy to see but depressive by contents/Substance) we spend the Saturday Consuming and strolling through town (just because you can so well in NY, as it has sidewalks (which we do not have in Houston) and great shops you can access by foot and everything is close!). We started with observing the NY Yuppies from a Starbucks near Central Park, then moved on to Central Park itself (by then it was still cold but Sunny), and then on to 5th Avenue. The tour ended just in time for the 2nd half of the Scotland-England game in the 6-nations (rugby) in an Irish bar we had located the night before. Plenty of Irish bars in NY! On every street corner really. But not a lot that show any rugby. So we had lunch and watched the game and the Ireland-Wales final after. Ireland won the Grand Slam (won all games in the tournament) for the first time in 61 years or something and only because of a score and missed score in the last 2 minutes so definitely exciting. Fleur associates spending time with us also partially with watching Rugby and fortunately had no objections to this part pf the program whatsoever.
Eelco really had a need for some Dinosaur skeletons after and went of to the National History Museum whilst the girls made it back to the shops and actually went in this time to buy at least something in NY. We finished the day with more bars and a Restaurant, but no further G&T’s.
b also got to enjoy all of the trip - nicely packed up in its mommy's belly.
We concluded the weekend with a nice and elaborate late lunch and then we had to head back to Houston. Fleur enjoyed herself alone by going to see Mary Poppins (Musical) before also returning home the morning after.
So every once in a while it is very nice to spend some time in a place where the international news does not start at page 8 of the paper, or is limited to 1.5 minutes of the 30 min news. Nice also to send some time in a place where being different and having inspiration is a good thing! For me neither Yuzhno nor Houston have enough of that, on the other hand at least I never feel 'not hip enough' in any of those places -;)
Easy, Apple and Heart
So - I have not been very good at providing a timely new post. The reason being that we where in NL for a little while, work has picked up in pace and we had to get quite a few things organised from a baby perspective - I know - excuses excuses but still.
Anyway, last week I went for business to New Orleans. That was very nice and despite it only being 24 hrs mainly filled with meetings and a little sleep, the guys (my colleagues / project team) did manage to find an hour or so to show me around the French quarter - Canal street, Bourbon street, the river etc. But I think Nola as it is sometimes also called warrants a longer visit and some point and hence a better report then what I could provide now.
However, being in the 'Big Easy' - the best known nickname for the city - did make me think. We are going to be in the other 'Big' this weekend; the Big Apple. All these 'Bigs', does Houston not have some good nicknames - or even one with Big in it too?!?
Well, there are quite some nicknames for Houston - Space City (remember: 'Houston we've got a problem!'), Bayou City (the waterways through town are called Bayou's), H-town (not very inspirational), Magnolia City (after the flower) and finally also a nickname with Big; 'The Big Heart'. This last nickname was given after Hurricane Katrina as Houston provided shelter to many refugees from the Hurricane and provided a tremendous amount of assistance after the fact - More claim some then what came from the state / federal government.
All in all - Houston does not really have a nickname that sticks or is world famous. Most people know it because of the space centre or because of the oil, more people know something about Texas (thanks to the 'popularity' of the family Bush). So maybe nice to share some facts with you about Houston you did not know.....as despite all the prejudices about the oil, the cars, the lack of sidewalks ad the amount of concrete,....there are also some interesting things to share about this city!
Here we go:
1. Houston is the 4th largest city in the USA (after NY, LA and Chicago with 1.9 million people and 4.8 in the wider Houston Area) - You know everything is Bigger in Texas,...but it is more amazing if you consider that 2 more Texas cities appear in the Top 10! Houston and its surrounding suburban sprawl encompass 8,778 square miles, making it as big as Israel and El Salvador.
2. In Houston people dine out more then in any other city in the US and that shows in the big and good selection of Restaurants. (granted - you need to drive to all of them,...but good food is a big pro to us!)
3. Houston is home to the Texas Medical Center, the largest medical center in the world, with a local economic impact of $10 billion. More than 52,000 people work within its facilities and the TMC is also home to 42+ nonprofit institutions. Because of the TMC Houston of course also houses many other and affiliated medical institutes etc. (no Houston is not only depending on Oil)
4. Houston has a Theater District second only to New York City in terms of a concentration of seats in a single geographic area and is one of only five cities in the U.S. with resident companies in the four disciplines of the performing arts: Alley Theatre, Houston Ballet, Houston Symphony and Houston Grand Opera (maybe more culturally developed then you thought?!)
5. In 2008, Houston received top ranking on Kiplinger's Personal Finance Best Cities of 2008 list which ranks cities on their local economy, employment opportunities, reasonable living costs and quality of life. The city ranked fourth for highest increase in the local technological innovation over the preceding 15 years, according to Forbes magazine. In the same year, the city ranked second on the annual Fortune 500 list of company headquarters, ranked first for Forbes Best Cities for College Graduates and ranked first on Forbes list of Best Cities to Buy a Home.
6. Houston is a multicultural city with a large and growing international community.The metropolitan area is home to an estimated 1.1 million (21.4 percent) residents who were born outside the United States. - Please note these are all the legal immigrants and apart from many many mexicans and south Americans this also includes large Chinese, Vietnamese, Nigerian, Indian and Pakistani communities as well as almost any other nationality you can think of. Houston is not even a state capital and still has 86 Consulates.
Anyway, last week I went for business to New Orleans. That was very nice and despite it only being 24 hrs mainly filled with meetings and a little sleep, the guys (my colleagues / project team) did manage to find an hour or so to show me around the French quarter - Canal street, Bourbon street, the river etc. But I think Nola as it is sometimes also called warrants a longer visit and some point and hence a better report then what I could provide now.
However, being in the 'Big Easy' - the best known nickname for the city - did make me think. We are going to be in the other 'Big' this weekend; the Big Apple. All these 'Bigs', does Houston not have some good nicknames - or even one with Big in it too?!?
Well, there are quite some nicknames for Houston - Space City (remember: 'Houston we've got a problem!'), Bayou City (the waterways through town are called Bayou's), H-town (not very inspirational), Magnolia City (after the flower) and finally also a nickname with Big; 'The Big Heart'. This last nickname was given after Hurricane Katrina as Houston provided shelter to many refugees from the Hurricane and provided a tremendous amount of assistance after the fact - More claim some then what came from the state / federal government.
All in all - Houston does not really have a nickname that sticks or is world famous. Most people know it because of the space centre or because of the oil, more people know something about Texas (thanks to the 'popularity' of the family Bush). So maybe nice to share some facts with you about Houston you did not know.....as despite all the prejudices about the oil, the cars, the lack of sidewalks ad the amount of concrete,....there are also some interesting things to share about this city!
Here we go:
1. Houston is the 4th largest city in the USA (after NY, LA and Chicago with 1.9 million people and 4.8 in the wider Houston Area) - You know everything is Bigger in Texas,...but it is more amazing if you consider that 2 more Texas cities appear in the Top 10! Houston and its surrounding suburban sprawl encompass 8,778 square miles, making it as big as Israel and El Salvador.
2. In Houston people dine out more then in any other city in the US and that shows in the big and good selection of Restaurants. (granted - you need to drive to all of them,...but good food is a big pro to us!)
3. Houston is home to the Texas Medical Center, the largest medical center in the world, with a local economic impact of $10 billion. More than 52,000 people work within its facilities and the TMC is also home to 42+ nonprofit institutions. Because of the TMC Houston of course also houses many other and affiliated medical institutes etc. (no Houston is not only depending on Oil)
4. Houston has a Theater District second only to New York City in terms of a concentration of seats in a single geographic area and is one of only five cities in the U.S. with resident companies in the four disciplines of the performing arts: Alley Theatre, Houston Ballet, Houston Symphony and Houston Grand Opera (maybe more culturally developed then you thought?!)
5. In 2008, Houston received top ranking on Kiplinger's Personal Finance Best Cities of 2008 list which ranks cities on their local economy, employment opportunities, reasonable living costs and quality of life. The city ranked fourth for highest increase in the local technological innovation over the preceding 15 years, according to Forbes magazine. In the same year, the city ranked second on the annual Fortune 500 list of company headquarters, ranked first for Forbes Best Cities for College Graduates and ranked first on Forbes list of Best Cities to Buy a Home.
6. Houston is a multicultural city with a large and growing international community.The metropolitan area is home to an estimated 1.1 million (21.4 percent) residents who were born outside the United States. - Please note these are all the legal immigrants and apart from many many mexicans and south Americans this also includes large Chinese, Vietnamese, Nigerian, Indian and Pakistani communities as well as almost any other nationality you can think of. Houston is not even a state capital and still has 86 Consulates.
Next time a report from the Big Apple, including review of some Phillip Starck designed hotel and Hair the Musical....and I will provide some pictures of me with my very pregnant belly.
Road Trip Dallas & Ft Worth
Whilst in Sakhalin they have snowstorm after blizzard after snowstorm we are walking around in our flip-flops this weekend, picking out garden furniture and going for a round of golf or some lunch 'al fresco'. Yeah, sometimes I really miss already not having any serious winter - days that you'd rather stay at home in front of the fireplace or feel very much alive coming back in from the outside having battered the elements...
Anyway, there are good things in Texas too.....and roadtrips is one of those. Last weekend with Eelco's parents in town we opted to go on a road trip to Ft Worth and Dallas. Together they are called the metroplex and Dallas on its own is the 9th biggest city in the USA (Houston being 4th). Apart from the TV series in Texas Dallas is known for the 'culture' and 'Architecture' and world wide the town is known of course for the Kennedy murder.
Above a picture of the 6th floor Museum in Dallas, the square top green window on the right is where Oswald shot Kennedy from, and if you look real close you can see a cross painted on the road...there are two, marking the locations where Kennedy was hit. Eelco being an avid believer in conspiracy theories (i found out after 10 years together...) knew a whole lot more about the issue then I did and was fascinated by the 'guys on soap boxes' outside the museums explaining what was all wrong with the case as made by the state. I actually was pleasantly surprised. I had expected a very American, patriotic museum, and fortunately it was as I had hoped a lot like the Loch Ness Museum in Drumnadrochit. Why you may ask,...well the Loch Ness Museum does spend a lot of time trying to explain what people may have seen instead of a monster, and if for instance natural effects could have caused the sightings, or photo trickery etc. Well the 6th floor museum also at least spend some time and displays on the conspiracy theories, on the things around the arrests etc which did not add up and also mentioning the voices that wondered whether Kennedy would have been as popular if he would not have been murdered and have lived to see the effect of his policies.
We also spend some time in Ft Worth, which instead of Dallas is not known Internationally as it is Texas hot spot for a very local issue....the Stockyards. The city is also known as Texas' country & western capital and hence we made our way over to the very Disney-esque Stockyards. After several pit-stops, all the souvenir shops, the tiny not so fascinating but very Texan museum and avoiding the carriages and forced photo moments with people in cowboy outfits it was finally time for the 'live cattle drive'......well the above was it. Yep, it was anunced as quite an event,....we enjoyed it of course,...but it may have been a bit 'oversold' in the brochures etc
Nevertheless, we had a lot of fun as you can see from the Picture. We only got tricked into 1 Valentines bouquet and also managed to do the Dallas Art museum (many Mondriaans!), some heritage museum in Corsicana (which was worth the visit for the organisation of the museum alone, and of course some famous country singer who was especially very famous in the Netherlands - ever heard of 'Lefty' Frizzel?), spend a night in a motel in the middle of nowhere, have breakfast at the Waffle House Diner, Brunch in posh and hip Dallas, the Mall in Arlington, visit a steak house, some road side restaurants and of course attend the 'Valentijns-Klaverjas' event in the Sheraton at Six Flags (no smoked sausage to be won, so I did not bring my a-game -;)).
And last but not least,.....all of this was made possible because we had Eelco and his truck. The (Ford) Expedition provided a very loyal service (although we all missed the fur tail from the rearview mirror) and made us feel right at home the 14 hrs or so we spend on the road that weekend.PS Sjoerd - je zou nu commentaar moeten kunnen leveren - tegen de spam moet je wel een woord natypen dat gegeven word....Success! PS2 heb ook wat foto's van jou gebruikt. Hoop dat je Copyright niet te hoog ligt!
Superbowl
First of all - a picture of the inside of the tank Eelco went to check out in LA, as evidence that you have not missed much...(see blog 2 weeks ago)
And a picture of me painting our bathroom
What I really wanted to write about is the Superbowl. Superbowl Sunday was last Sunday, and the Superbowl is the grand final of the American Football competition. And by lack of supporters & participation in the sport by most other nations this games is also automatically qualified as 'the American Football World Cup'. The event in the US is pretty big and significant and covered daily in the weeks ahead in all radio shows and news etc. Most people apparently watch the game by means of a Superbowl-party, meaning with friends at someone's house or some special venue. We where invited at Janko & Rebecca's house, with some other couples (and lots of babies), and the company fortunately included 2 guys who at least knew something about it and could explain.
The game only exists of 4 x 15 min quarters, however, as the game is stopped throughout every time a tackle is made (and probably for other reasons I have missed) the average Superbowl games lasts a full 3 hours! The challenge is to stay focussed enough in all the breaks to no miss the action. For every 1 min of action you are watching 3 minutes of reviews and mainly commercials...
As the game is not necessarily guaranteed a good show itself, many people these days appear to watch for the commercials. Most if not all commercials around the game are developed specifically for the event / the day and no cost is spared. There is a huge amount of celebreties involved and the cost in 2008 where an astronomical 2.7 million USD per 30 sec!. Personally I also missed many of the commercials but the reviews say there was no clear winner and you can see them all again on internet (or only the good ones). They where more interesting then in an average commercial block as the local lawyer firm from around the corner having a home made commercial showing their founder and the daughter or something never make it to the Superbowl, pfew. One of the commercials was even in 3D and you could pick up the paper 3D glasses at some of the shops in advance.
All in all apart from the halftime show by Bruce Springsteen there was not much on those 3 hrs that kept my eyes glued to the tube for the full time. The game was not that boring and pretty close, with some of the longest runs ever but it was easy enough to just get back into it of you had missed 15 min. I thought the game took too long to stay focussed. So did most others as many went home at half time (or maybe it was the babies -;) The Pittsburgh Steelers won, for the 6th time in Superbowl history by a narrow margin, I heard deservingly so.
The atmosphere in the stadium or at a party with many supporters of the relevant team must be pretty good and of course for the talk at the coffee machine at work you want to see the game,..(nobody has mentioned it at all in my office)..but apart from Rebecca's good food and all the nice conversations, y'all didn't miss much! Last year LSU won, and as we have many people from Louisiana in Houston and in the Oil Industry (so also in Sakhalin at the time), we can see how in a situation like that also Houston would be a mad house.
The scariest event of the day was the drive home after. The roads where packed and there where many very obvious less concentrated drivers. Drink driving is here also not allowed but still more common and on the road I normally take to work, usually packed wit patrol cars I saw none that night!
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