Month: December 2022
-
Art, History and Illumination
Monday, 19 December 2022 Into London, my only full day so to do. Steven found enough time to join me for a few hours in a schedule filled with attempts to get professional commitments out of the way so that the family could enjoy the Christmas season without such distractions and, of course, dealing with…
-
The Greatest Naptime Ever Played
Sunday, 18 December 2022 The main problem with the New York to London hop is that it’s too short. One is no sooner asleep than it’s breakfast time. Also, breakfast managed to be a disappointment in that it was entirely what I expected, the problem being that dinner had actually been good – rare steak,…
-
Flight to the Old World
Saturday, 17 December 2022 Half a day left in New York, some more walking to accomplish, along the High Line, a former elevated rail line now turned into a linear park. Probably best seen in spring, at a guess, when it likely blooms with colour. In the depths of winter, the greenery is sparse, but…
-
Enterprise
Friday, 16 December 2022 All professional duties discharged, I took my last full day in New York for myself. Walking aimlessly for a while, I found myself in the lower west side, somewhere down near the bottom of Eighth Avenue, or possibly Ninth. It was another drizzly day, the sky made of slate and the…
-
The Calibre of a Carol
Thursday, 15 December 2022 Another day working through the fog, the substance of which I couldn’t report here even if I could think of a way to make several hours of witness testimony on banking records fizz, which I probably could, being a freakin’ comedic genius, but let it pass. Professional discretion’s gain is literature’s…
-
Cabin Fever
Wednesday, 14 December 2022 A day of work, executed remotely, confined for the second day to my hotel room. A day trying to concentrate with a brain made of snot. A horrible day, albeit that by evening I was feeling a little more human. But confined for a second whole day in The Greatest City…
-
À la Recherche du Taste Perdu
Monday, 12 December 2022 ‘Twas a day meant to be at work and it was, mostly, although professional plans this week were slightly stirred by the news that one of our legal team was home with a case of this decade’s most talked about respiratory infection. What that means for the work scheduled for this…
-
Gained in Translation
Sunday, 11 December 2022 Kept awake half the night by circadian shenanigans and some inconsiderate neighbours, who weren’t even doing anything interestingly amorous, just talking too loud, I decided to sleep in, which I managed until after noon. Then went to do some laundry, the only notable part of which was that, at 34th Street,…
-
Lessons in Humility
Saturday, 10 December 2022 Up at as near to dawn as I could manage, out into the coldest I’d yet experienced. According to the weather app it was zero degrees but felt like minus five. It felt like zero to me. The temperatures don’t have the bite the raw numbers suggest, perhaps because of the…