No more S.A.D. Genevieve

Wow, I had no idea I was suffering from (mind you, pretty mild) Seasonal Affective Disorder until I walked out into the sunshine during lunch today. It's like I'm a different person.

This has been a rocky weekend. I would have gone spare had it not been conference weekend.

I loved President Monson's traditional summing up speech at the end of the last session. It had such a wonderful ring of President Hinckley about it, and yet it was all him as well. There was humour and authority, it was personal and prophetic. No doubt about it, he is the prophet. It was great to hear a little about his family background, his wife and parents. I also needed to hear his comments in the earlier session about turning to the Saviour for help.

It was also great to see so much of Elder Uchtdorf. My mate Dave and I agree, he's totally our hero!

Here showers the bride

I threw my first bridal shower on Saturday. It was a classy do at a nice restaurant in Lincroft, New Jersey. Joanne is our bride and here she is looking rather fetching, along with her gorgeous groom Drew, in his and hers Irish hiking scarves, one of my presents to the couple who will be honeymooning in chilly Ireland.
We had a tasty lunch followed by the opening of gifts which was accompanied by my version of bridal bingo. I'm a first timer at this fancy wedding lark and hence made the game a bit overcomplicated, but everyone played along sportingly and had a jolly good time.

Joanne was radiant as every bride should be. And my hats off to her... she had sold one and essentially bought another house just the day before. That's no small feat and yet she was so composed. If it were me, I'd have looked like I'd just done the tango with Tropical Storm Felix.

The highlight of the afternoon was getting to meet all Joanne's friends and family. I've heard so much about them over the last nearly four years. Now I've met nearly the whole gang!

Valhalla

It was a beautiful day for grave robbing...Actually someone had beaten us to it and had knicked great Auntie Margaret's copper marker. Honestly... some people!

Kelly was in town for a little bit of family history research and a lot of Aretha Franklin (trust me, I've seen the pictures). She whisked me to the verdant hillsides of Westchester in search of her forebearers, or what's left of them anyway. I am quite partial to a bit of cemetery hopping, although usually they're buried under a foot and a half of snow, the cemeteries that is. We also went to Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx and sat on the Beaudine bench in lovely sunshine.

That evening saw a trip to Brooklyn with Dave for Grimaldi's pizza (we had a Frankenstein pie - sausage, capers, extra mozzarella, basil and pepperoni) and an unusual wager. I sometimes forget just how competitive I am. It's frightening!

Another Great British invention

So I learned yesterday that the peace sign, that great symbol of the American anti-war movement and the sixties counterculture, was invented by the Brits! It debuted 50 years ago today - Good Friday 1958 - created by the good ole CND (that's the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament to those of you who aren't familiar with Vanessa Redgrave's career as a political campaigner). Protests supporting nuclear disarmament - it seems like a longer than just fifty years ago. Nowadays, a million people show up in Parliament Sq to say no way are we going to invade Iraq, and the government just does it anyway. I don't go on protests anymore. I stay at home in the warm and watch slickly produced shows about how the government breaks them up. Spooks, anyone?

Big window, little boy Big window, medium-sized boy
Il a grandi!

We all have tough days, sometimes tough weeks. And sometimes you start to wonder if you're loosing your grip, maybe just a bit. But it's reassuring to know that you can always look to our friend Mr Mugabe and be reassured of your sanity.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7271611.stm

Spending spree continues?

I woke up this morning and thought... I need to get a blackberry. I feel like I'm so behind on all my church/family history commitments and projects. I have some time at home in the evenings to work on things, but often by the time I get home I'm tired and just want to chat to my roommates or go to bed. With a blackberry, I can work on things on the go. Check my email. Keep a calendar that I have access to at all times. Have a full list of contacts with me. I checked it out online and it would be affordable to buy from my wireless network. I just need to make sure it wouldn't mean a shocking increase in my monthly subscription. If that's OK, then I think I might just get it!

By they way, I love the TV, the furniture and everything else I've acquired recently so no regrets.

J and Grannie in NYC

Jonathan and Grannie just had a New York City adventure! They arrived - sans Grandpa unfortunately - on Friday and jetted off to Salt Lake City this morning. The weekend went something like this:

Friday
J and Grannie fly from London to New York. They are met at JFK by the limo service and are whisked into Manhattan, arriving at the hotel just as Genevieve comes barrelling out of the subway. Grannie and J are introduced to all Genevieve's roommates. They make a great impression. J succombs to jetlag and falls asleep on the giant lovesac at 7pm.

Saturday
J wakes up at 2.30 am announcing that in England it's time to get up. Auntie Genevieve has been sleeping for three hours and has no intention of getting up. They get a drink of water, and Genevieve lies down on Jonathan's little camp bed on the floor, so he is forced to get into her far more comfortable bed. This does the trick, Jonathan falls asleep and Auntie Genevieve doesn't die. J wakes again at 6.45 and Genevieve accepts her fate. They play Top Trumps - Wonders of the World and watch Top Gear Italian Supercar Challenge.

J, Grannie and Jonathan go to brunch in Tribeca with Genevieve's roommates, Rich Call and Dr. Steve (the dishy doc from Peru). Genevieve is served a frightening mound of pancakes and Jonathan half-heartedly picks at his eggs Benedict. Only Grannie knows what became of her breakfast, as it disappeared in a flash!

On the way to breakfast, Jonathan takes his first ride on the subway, and after breakfast he makes his first trip in a NYC yellow taxi cab. They head to the World Trade Center to meet engineer and part time tour guide Jason Robertson for a tour of his offices in Tower 7.

Jonathan knows all about skyscrapers, so Jason shows him all the models and drawings and plans for the new towers. Then from the 10th floor vantage point, he points out the construction on the Freedom Tower, going on below.

After the tour, they meet up with Joanne and Drew who have popped over from Jersey to meet the folks. Downtown is woefully short of decent eateries, so the brief, but enjoyable visit involves eating deli sandwiches on laps in the living room. They did manage to squeeze in a quick trip to the roof. This is then followed by a trip up to Old Navy on 34th Street to get J some trousers for church in the morning. It's a fruitful trip. Suitable trousers are purchased and J gets a glimpse of the Empire State Building.

Sunday
The Bovees attend church. J and Grannie are introduced to dozens (perhaps even hundreds) of Genevieve's friends during the meetings and after church. How kind of them to conveniently schedule a linger longer to coincide with their visit. J eats several heart shaped cookies drowning in pink and red hundreds and thousands. In the afternoon, the roommates cook up taco salad for 12 and after dinner several more friends drop by to meet the folks, the Mulcocks, the Sparhawks (fresh from their honeymoon), Mindy Booth and many others.

Monday
It's Dead President's Day and Genevieve is off work. Jet lag, for the most part, has been overcome, and it's time to see the sights. They rush off early to catch the 9.30 ferry to Liberty Island.

J and Genevieve walk around the island and J poses with Lady Liberty.

Then it's on to Ellis Island, but not before J gets to help the ferryboatman with the ropes. J and Genevieve don't have any ancestors who came through EI, but it's a fun place to explore nonetheless. J enjoys all the exhibits on the ground floor with the giant 3-D graphs and computers. They all dine on tasty sandwiches and chicken tenders and then it's back on the ferry to the big island. Huge dark clouds are rolling in over Manhattan and they jump into a taxi just as the raindrops begin to fall.

It's on to the American Museum of Natural History - no.1 on J's must do list. He has been looking forward to this for weeks, "I want to go to the museum where they filmed Night at the Museum". They look at African and Asian mammals, the sea life exhibits and J takes dozens of pictures of dinosaur bones, including the T-Rex from the film. He's not in the entrance, but upstairs on the fourth floor. Either way, they're glad they won't be around after closing time when he comes to life and starts chasing the guards!

At home that night there is a birthday party for Genevieve's roommate Libby. J revels in all the excitement and attention, but by 9 o'clock, it's all been too much.

Tuesday
Genevieve is back at work, but she escapes at lunch time to meet J and Grannie for a trip up to the Top of the Rock.

It's a beautiful late Art Deco building and the views are far better than from the Empire State Building. If for no other reason, than you get a wonderful view of the Empire State Building!

J and Grannie spend the afternoon on the NYC tour bus, seeing all the downtown sights they've missed. After work, it's back home to Genevieve's house to eat dinner and watch what else but Top Gear.

There are lots more pictures to see.

I just spent a terrific weekend in Washington, D.C. with Kelly, my roommate who recently took a job down there. Kelly is one of my oldest friends from New York, and, having lived together for 3 years, probably knows me best. It's really nice to visit friends when you know each other so well. There's so much to talk about, nothing has to be explained, they just understand. It was good to see Kelly's new digs. She moved just over a month ago and seems to be settling in well.

We spent a lovely afternoon at Mount Vernon, George Washington's beautiful plantation home overlooking the Potomac River in Northern Virginia. The weather was chilly but clear and sunny and we toured the house and grounds and stopped to sit in the chairs on the veranda. We had fun in the shop. I bought my first Christmas presents for 2008 - I bet I even got a jump on Lucy! Then we went to Ikea so Kelly could look at beds. Although I was the one who walked out of there with a bag full of purchases, including two bedspreads and a bright red colander. And it was actually I who knew the way there, having been to the Ikea at Potomac Mills several years ago when I was at university. We topped off the day with dinner at a Mexican restaurant just steps away from Kelly's house (she is VERY happy about that) and the first two episodes of Spooks series 5. That really is the best show being made and Kelly and I love watching it together.

I haven't been back to Virginia/Washington since graduation so it was kind of exciting to be in the neighborhood again. It doesn't seem like all that long ago.

I was just talking to a friend at work and I realised, well, remembered, that my parents are two of the least selfish people alive. I'm so lucky to have them.

J - NYC

Jonathan rang me this afternoon to make plans for his visit to New York in two weeks. We were discussing the Statue of Liberty and he told me he had read about her in his "children's almaniac" (read that last word out loud, emphasis on the second 'a').

I imagine not everyone understands my obsession with family history and genealogy. It's more than just a hobby, it's almost become a way of life. I love the hunt, searching for clues and solving mysteries, but more than anything I love the personal and emotional side to it, the connection you feel to people and the joy of exploring the little details of peoples lives and of reuniting them with their families.

I read something in one of my English genealogy magazines yesterday that I really liked, and it sums it up beautifully. It's from an article about how genealogists in previous generations were only concerned with the "great and the good." But...

"Nowadays, we love the ordinary people, the everyday folk - and quite right too. Their lives and their experiences might have lacked the glitter and the glory, and they may have lived in humble dwellings rather than grand houses, but every human story has its interest and every life was important.

That great, great grandmother [the writer's family legend that she was an aristocrat had proved false] with the illegitimate twins worked in a cotton mill in Ancoats in Manchester and eventually took up with a man who knocked her about and ill-treated her sons. One of those sons, my great grandfather, slept on straw in a stable, started work at the age of eight, looked after his little half-sister, who eventually died of consumption, and earned enough money to buy himself a donkey and cart.

He carried and carted for the local community in the east end of Manchester, married a woman he loved devotedly and died, worn out, in his early 50s. That's a real human story, and one I am fascinated by. To the genealogists of the 1950s it would have seemed beneath notice - a sordid and sorry little tale with no dignity and no merit. To me, it is part of my genetic make-up and is to be treasured."

I just bought a giant telly!!


It's 37 inches of sheer beauty and it's coming to live in my house on Thursday!

Today was the first day I left the ofice and it was still light outside. That's one of my favourite days of the year.

And I bought a sofa today. I know own a table and chairs, and a sofa. Maybe one day I'll buy a proper bed!

2008 is here

My month of freedom is about to end. I'm off back to New York tomorrow morning and I shall miss being a lady of leisure. I've travelled on three continents, spent several weeks with my lovely family and watched countless hours of Top Gear. What a terrific time it's been!

My new job starts on Monday. I have my parents and Jonathan's visit to New York in February to look forward to. I shall be writing a short book this year and working on ideas and designs for a second. I shall be maid of honour at Joanne's splendid wedding in May. I shall be travelling at the end of May and any other time I can get away (Bermuda and Madrid remain on the shortlist). And on the whole just plan to have a bloody good time this year. How's that sound?!

My little brother's idea of a bit of Christmas Day fun

He thinks it's a huge laugh to scoop me up when I'm least expecting it. Sunday he picked me and flung me over his shoulder like a rag doll.

Marrakech

You can't really sum up an experience like Marrakech. So let's just look at pictures!

My first day I toured the Ben Youssef Medersa, the Marrakech Museum and the Almohavid Tombs.

In the afternoon I explored the souks and got completely lost. Your first trips through the souks can be rather stressful. One of the first things you notice is the smells (some delicious, some revolting). As a woman on my own, I was constantly pestered by shop owners and random men/teens offering their services as a guide. The noise and the chaos keep your head spinning. It's a battle to get through, but exciting at the same time.

The center of the city is the Jemaa Al Fna, an enormous square filled with food stalls and hawkers, along with fortune readers, henna women, snake charmers and Senegalese sufis playing gnouaa music.
Then at night it was turned into a giant outdoor eatery. The second night I dined on grilled aubergines and red peppers with chili sauce and poisson normal, fried fish to the rest of you. I posed for a picture with my chefs. The second morning I spent in the southern half of the medina, at the Bahia Palace of the Grand Vizier looking at beautiful painted ceilings

and tiled floors and at the ruined Badi Palace
I also visited the 17th century Saadian Tombs, for centuries lost from view behind a great mosque and only discovered during WWI by a low flying French pilot.

It's amazing how quiet these courtyards are, cut off from the frantic sounds of the streets and passages just steps away.

I also stopped in a small museum with artifacts from the trading routes between Marrakech and Timbouctou. I thought this item was something very Saharan like a water carrying bag, but then I noticed the label saying it was a 'Sac a affaires personnelles pour jeune mariee'. Essentially, a young ladies handbag!The rest of the day was spent shopping for Christmas presents in the souk, plates and tajines for Mum, hand made lantern for Dad, a djelaba cloak for Stephen and some Fasi bowls for Paddy. And I bought myself a a traditional cooking tajine. I look forward to cooking some Moroccon food when I get back to New York as the local food was too delicious for words. Even with my cooking abilities meager as they are I'll be able to create something wonderful.

The complete set of photographs are here. There are lots of pictures of tiles and patterns as one of the reasons I went to Morocco was to look at geometric patterns and designs in Arabian and Islamic decoration. I wasn't disappointed.

Roma

Lucy, Jonathan and I went to Rome for three days. I had planned a trip to Rome before Christmas, but travelling isn't half as fun without Jonathan and Lucy along. Thank goodness they were available as it was absolutely freezing and it would have been miserable without Lucy's company and Jonathan's comic relief.

Rome has a reputation for pick-pocketing and bag-snatching, so on arrival Lucy and I told Jonathan we needed him to be our bodyguard and keep a look out for anyone looking shifty or making a move on our belongings. We established a code word, "cheeseburger", for him to say when he spotted something out of the ordinary. We'd only got a hundred yards from the hotel when Jonathan whispers to me, "They all look like cheeseburgers!"

Our first outing was to the Vatican. We stopped on the way for our first scoop of gelato. It isn't the ideal treat on a day when the max temperature is four degrees celsius, but we were desperate to try it and it was delicious. I don't much care for the rock solid frozen ice cream we get at home. And the choice of flavours was so much better. I started with hazelnut and the next day had pistacchio flavour that was chock full of ground up pistacchio nuts and Noce Sorrento, walnut flavour. I'm nutty about gelato. (apologies for that) Jonathan was not so keen on eating ice cream on a cold winters day and became frantic every time we passed a gelateria. Of course we pointed every one out to him, so mature of us.

I was ever so excited as we approached St. Peter's. I told Jonathan that we were about to see one of the world's great treasures but he was thoroughly unimpressed, he was still trying to thaw out his tongue. We walked into the square, somewhat spoiled by a temporary performance area for Christmas concerts, a large ugly tree and a pile of miscellaneous junk. Yes, junk. Holy junk, presumably. We took some pictures:

Mother and child

and Auntie Genevieve squinting in the low-lying winter sun

We toured the inside of the Basilica, sent our Vatican City stamped postcards and saw the Spanish Steps lit up at night before dinner. In the morning, we made the much anticipated trip to the Colosseum. Jonathan had been talking for weeks about visiting the Colosseum, and he was not disappointed. He helped our Italian archeologist tourguide show us round. During the rest of the day, we walked through the Forum, up to the Pantheon and to the Fontana di Trevi. The weather was nearly at zero degrees, but Jonathan was terrific, never complaining even though his fingers were frozen together.

We enjoyed all of these sights, but the highlight of the trip was Jonathan's postcards. He chose his own postcards to send to Uncle Stephen and Grannie and Grandpa. I wrote one or two as well, but once I saw what Jonathan was writing we handed over all the postcard writing duties to Jonathan. They are little gems.

The rest of the pictures are here. We're thinking we might go back... sometime when sun is out and our gelato actually melts rather than cooling down when we take it outside the shop.

I covered 2 continents and 3 countries in less than 24 hours on Sunday/Monday. That's a first. And I'm still exhausted.