So Eelco and I went on a 'Romantic' date yesterday morning. Visiting the annual OTC, which is the biggest Offshore Oil & Gas Exhibition in the world for some networking, catching up with old friends, learning & freebies (which looked way better in the time that Oil was over USD 100 / barrel by teh way - back to pens & stickers mainly).
On the way back from OTC to Downtown where I was to drop of Eelco we got stuck in a traffic jam. The cause appeared to be some 15 Police cars on the road and a dead body covered by a sheet on the sidewalk with the yellow numbered signs as you see in CSI etc. We where quite upset from the whole scene and did not see much but nevertheless thought something like this was/is a major event.
Turns out not so in Houston. 1 day later is is just an article on page 3-4 of the local news - whilst it was a cop killing a suspect and an innocent bystander with baby in stroller got hit in the process in a decent area of town! Clearly not so special for the Houstonians as today we have new shootings on the front page - several - of which 1 homeowner shooting 3 people in his yard over a dispute over DVD's! And the worst part - most people who comment on such news on the sites think this is all ok?!?!?
Don't think we'll ever get used to the normality of guns and gun use here in Houston....don't even want to try!
http://www.khou.com/topstories/stories/khou090505_mh_rice-metro-shooting.2099e3ee.html
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6408742.html
PGA Houston Open (Golf)
Golf, is it a sport, past time or torture method? I don’t know but it seems to be all three sometimes. Here in Houston it is a big thing and many people play it . The thing with golf is that most people suck at it but very few give up on it. It appears to be very addictive. I started playing in Scotland and picked it up again here in the US. In fact, the second day I started working here I was on a golf course playing with my new colleagues. The issue is that even if you seem to get progressively worse, like me, you sometime do hit a perfect shot…Maybe only a few every 18 holes you play, but it does keep you hooked and you think, you see, I can do this and I will get better at it. I do hope I will get better some day and improve my handicap of somewhere optimistically speaking around the 26 mark. It’s a strange term I think ‘handicap’, it should be more like ‘inadequacy’ , ‘inability’ or ‘incompetency’.
Anyhow, as I said, it is a big thing here in Houston. Texas is a perfect place to play since there is plenty of space and at least it rains enough to keep the fairways lush and the greens green. Our current employer actually sponsors a big event every year here in Houston called, obviously, the Shell Houston Open. It is held every year one or two weeks before one of the biggest tournaments of the year, the Masters, which has been played the last few years in Augusta. The SHO is said to be played on a course where the grass, greens and “pin Placements” are made such that it mimics the course in Augusta. For this reason many top golfers flock every year to Houston to play the tournament here to prepare for the Masters.
Since our employer sponsors the tournament we were able to get tickets for one of the days of the main event. We went on the Sunday, when the last round is played and the eventual winner is determined. So Maartje and myself got in the car and drove on a sunny morning to one of the car parks of the Bush international Airport. I must say, it was extremely well organised. For 5 bucks a head there was transportation from the car park to the golf course 5 miles away. So we got there in the late morning sun, just like about 50.000 other fellow golf lovers in there air-conditioned SUVs, Crossovers or European station cars. It was like going to the races in Ascot. There seemed to be an unwritten dress-code of Sneakers, white socks, khaki shorts, a colourfull polo-shirt neatly tucked into the shorts and the unmistakable cap and sunglasses. Preferably a cap that boasted proof of witnessing another golf tournament in the US. Every one seemed to be pretty serious about putting sunscreen on the skin that normally only sees artificial light and air. we brought our own but were too excited to put some on. We were all corralled into the busses whilst some very serious looking marshals were telling us over and over again to leave out cell phones and cameras in the car. This did put some people in a an apparently very scary, naked and unfamiliar position.....they would not be able to check their emails, call their pall to tell them what to get at the beer tent or text them that they were 50 yards further down the fairway of the 6th hole....How can you survive?????? Anyway, we did not have to get back to our cars to leave our brain, agenda, address book and photoalbum in the car. There were about 30 busses able to carry 50 people ready to take us to the battlefield so after about 1 minute wait we took the first one available. On our way, getting close to the course we witnessed that we were in fact the lower class people since there was a queue of about 100 European SUVs, vintage supercars and limos waiting to get to the exclusive car park for special guests or just very wealthy spectators. Upon arrival we met up with a colleague of mine and his golf loving brother-in-law who we met based on a mobile phone-less appointment...”See you at eleven at the Shell tent with the free food and drinks”.
I must say the course looked stunning. The grass was greener than even the neighbours’ neighbours and every bit of vegetation seemed to be coiffured by a celebrity stylist. And all this to make it as difficult as possible to get this little white ball from a small patch of grass on one side of a lake into a little hole 500 yards away. But man, these guys can hit a ball. We followed a flight of Geoff Ogilvy, Paul Casey and other Aussie bloke from the first hole to the 7th. It was pretty impressive I must say. I am getting nervous when I need to hit a ball from the tee and I can see my own shadow standing there arse back, knees bent and trying hard NOT to the hit that ball as hard as I could. These guys can swing when there are 250 pairs of eyes looking at their every movement. Ok, nobody speaks, breathes, moves or even blinks when they are ready to hit, ushered by the marshals holding their hands in the air as if they were a director of a symphony orchestra just before the first note is played. But we overheard the caddy of Ogilvy telling him that he should aim for that guy over there, about 300 yards away wearing a red shirt. He had to clear 230 yards of design jungle, a river and some sandy holes with neatly arranged pure white sand grains probably imported in an climatised container from some bounty island... But he did! He did aim for that guy and managed to drop the ball about 3 feet from hist new balance sneakers. Incredible! From there he hit it in one silky stroke onto the snooker smooth green, about 5 feet from the hole. Ok, I am not saying that these guys really “earn” their money, but it is certainly impressive. In fact the most impressive thing is not so much the perfect shots flying right where it should be, no, it is the fact that there is sometimes a glimpse of human nature, where they hit the ball in an awkward spot next to the toilet tent or in between some trees but then are able to recover and still send this little ball flying to the green. It doesn’t really matter where they land. Unless it is in the water, they’ll still manage to “par” the hole from a bunker.
It turned out that we picked a good group to follow as it contained the eventual winner, Paul Casey. He did play a very good round but moreover, he is British and not american, which, with his Aussie companions, made them less interesting to watch than some of the American players. We did see these masters swing from up close and saw perhaps some of the subdued rage surfacing when they did hit the water twice on one hole or missed this seemingly easy putt. Casey stayed one stroke ahead of the next contender, an american whose name I forgot, until the very last (72nd) hole. He birdied that hole and finished even with that other guys who finished his last round about two hours earlier. So it came to a sudden death play-off on the 18th. It was pretty tense since this hole is considered the most difficult hole in the PGA tour. It has a lake about 300 yards long and 50 yards wide with only a 15 yards of fairway on the right hand side. On the play off, the american hit the water and thereby lost two strokes. Casey hit the fairway and after two more shots didn’t even have to putt the ball when his opponent conceded and shook his hand. Casey just won about 1.2million dollars and some silverware. Not bad for four days work. It appeared that we witnessed the winning round of the new champion so we were happy as well. And again, the organisation was impressive. We headed back to the shuttle bus parking expecting having to wait for half an hour but we got into the bus within minutes and enjoyed the air-conditioning for the 10 minute trip to the car. Then we realised why all experienced spectators used some serious sunscreen or were supporting an “I-am-a-successful-retiree-and-play-6-rounds-of-golf-every-week-anyway”-tan. We were very sunburned. Even wearing the mandatory cap my face was bright red and I had an almost purple triangle underneath my chin where my poloshirt did not cover my Sakhalin-skin. It didn’t spoil the fun though. We did have a very enjoyable day and saw some impressive golf being played. Since then, my handicap has not improved at all but I do sometimes manage to hit that damn ball just where that imaginary guy with the red shirt is standing and see my (only) par of the round unfold... It is a “humbling game” someone said once and I was humbled by the control and accuracy of these pros. I am glad however, that I do have a day job that is not depending on dampness of greens, purposely dug water holes and raked beaches, but I’ll keep trying in the weekends!
Eelco
..and it got worse
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
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.
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