It's time for an update...

It has been an eventful couple of months since my last blog. The well-oiled machine that is our government narrowly avoided default, the Northeast had its first hurricane since Gloria, and Great Britain teetered on the verge of total anarchy at the hands of marauding 14-year-olds looking to upgrade their Blackberries. All three crises largely averted, save the flooding of some beautiful Catskill and Green Mountain towns, we can now return to our general malaise stemming from the interminable skinny dip recession, flattened housing market, and the impending global domination of the Indosino power tandem to whom we so readily outsourced anything and everything except... consumption.

A bit more on the riots that took place here in London and in other cities across England. I could go on a bit about underlying issues that led to its fomenting, but the reality is that it was more Lord of the Flies than Communist Manifesto. A few enterprising youths stole the conch shell and incited a short but furious campaign of entertainment and petty enrichment, and I have little doubt that the vast majority of participants woke up the next day wondering themselves, “what the hell did I just do”? Few countries, if any, have an entitlement situation like the UK – where the “haves” have just marginally more wealth than the “have nots”. There’s just so little to complain about unless you’re a tea partier... As for the political fallout, the UK went through its usual brief cycle of outrage, chest pumping, breast pumping and narcolepsy.

One small element of personal growth stemming from the riots was my enchantment with, and immediate disenchantment with, Twitter. During the third day of riots, when I was contemplating a swift and conservative return to my flat before night fell, I was able to get real time “reports” from virtually every street corner between my office and my flat. People were posting up to the second updates, often with pictures, describing the exact state of order or disorder in every London neighbourhood. For about three hours, I could not tear myself away from the endlessly streaming Sit Reps. Ultimately, the tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of tweets reflected a modicum of social conscious, and a huge, morbid desire from the masses to see some action. Needless to say, by that point, the kids finally realized that what they were doing wasn’t very beneficial for their long-term livelihoods, and save a few hangers-on, the riots ended as abruptly as they started.

On a happier note, Susi and I (not so) recently returned from Bad Kreuznach for the annual Jahrmarkt and a mini celebration of our 1 year anniversary! The nostalgia was a bit overwhelming for me... at one point the priest who married us forcibly removed me from our wedding church, and the Fuerstenhof (the wedding hotel) security team called in the pros when I insisted upon playing the Bischoff game (not worth explaining)... quite alone... until 5AM. A small perk of going with the Fuerstenhof had been a free night for our 1-year anniversary... I’m guessing they will stick to fruit baskets and champagne in the future.

We’ve now lived in our London flat for 4 years. Although the novelty of having a private garden (back yard) while living 10 minutes from central London hasn’t been lost on us, our guests have become exceedingly critical of the veritable shoebox that is the inside of our apartment. Still, we make the most of it, including the 2 well endowed apple trees by the back fence. We’ve managed to harvest somewhere in the neighbourhood of 50 pounds of truly organic apples, that we’ve turned into approximately... 3 pounds of jellies and preserves. Although most of that went to error (and a bit of trial), we’re very proud of our final product, and will be marketing it like mad if we can slip it through customs. Of course, due to the aforementioned space issues, we’ve had to store our hermetically sealed apply jelly in a hanging basket above our bed, guaranteeing that like the labels say, they were made with great angst... and love.

And finally, we’re soon returning for our next visit to the U.S. I remember the good old days of 2007 and 2008 when people feigned interest and excitement at our home visits. These days, it’s utterly baffling how many people have month-long out of town commitments – to places like Afghanistan. On an uncharacteristically serious note – we miss those of you on the other side of the pond, and I hope we can see many of you when we’re back!!