Roving Jay

England is synonymous with rain.  It’s the reason I left.  That – and the cold.  Living in LA is appealing because of the sunshine – but it isn’t complete Nirvana.  We do get 2 weeks of rain a year – and at the moment, we’re experiencing one of those weeks.  It’s such a novelty, that …

So now it’s just a waiting game for the Power of Attorney to be signed and delivered to Sunshine. It feels like today is the first real day of our holiday, even though we’ve been here a full week already, time to rent a scooter and explore.

When did the new road signs appear in the Gümüşlük area? It’s been over a year since we visited our house, and we got a nice surprise when we arrived. We now know where we live! When we bought the house it had a bright blue number painted, graffiti style, on the side of it. …

I got a feeling. I don’t know if it was the view; the lack of oxygen this high on the hillside; or the steep steps I’d just sprinted up. But as we rounded the corner of, the first view of the house I got lightheaded.

I had an out-of-state experience yesterday.  I spent 2 years living in Manhattan, and have many vivid memories of my early days there – visiting a deli to order a bagel and coffee – and being intimidated by the frenetic pace and quick fire questions of the counter staff.  The get-’em-in get-’em-out – “wadda-u-want?” approach to customer service …

I’m sure Tuzla Turkey will be fully developed in a couple of years, but there’s no guarantee all of these shells will be completed, and we didn’t have the patience to wait until they were.

It doesn’t matter if you can’t read the menu. In Turkish restaurants, eating starts with a visual, not an intellectual experience.

I’m flattered when other web sites copy snippets of my content, as long as they provide a link back to my source page. But how do you check?

A road trip from Los Angeles to Cambria, led me to a conversation with a stranger. We had a 1 degree of separation link with Samson & Delilah

Before my 1st business trip to Brazil, I decided to research my destination. Although initial perceptions were about carnivals and jungle, the reality of Sao Paulo turned out to be a little more different.

40 days and 40 nights. 40 is a magical biblical number. It is also the same duration as my business trip to London. “A 40-something time period, whether days, months, or years is ALWAYS a period of testing, trial, probation, or chastisement”

What happened to just worrying about what clothes to take, and remembering your passport? In order to stay connected don’t forget the Lead.

Daily Chart in the November edition of the Economist. The Brookings Institution and the London School of Economics surveyed 150 worldwide metropolitan area’s.  The Chart shows that Istanbul has achieved the highest margin for Employment and Income growth for the year. This is the cherry on the cake for the 2010 European Capital of Culture.

Day of Rest After a lazy start to the day, we headed over to the Bodrum Otogar to catch a dolmüş to Gümüşlük. The bus station was stifling and noisy, but we only had a 10 minutes wait for the next bus to leave. It went screeching along the straights and racing up the hills, accompanied …

“Seek the strongest colour effect possible. The content is of no importance” Henri Matisse

Week One of Young Storytellers. Arrived at the school to begin the creative process with the kids. It was easy to tell which participants had the after effects of a lunchtime sugar rush. The volunteers stood around patiently. The kids didn’t. We stood in a circle. First up was introductions, and a round robin of …

I always look forward to my London-arrival black cab rides. It’s a great way to ease myself back into the familiarity of my old stomping ground, and to see if I can pass for a local — after all these years in the States. I usually get sussed!

When I arrived at school for week 3 – Touche was outside the principals office.  I warned him that if he was late to Storytellers, he’d have to do the Chicken Dance – and then I promptly gave him a demo of my version. Touche’s hopes of remaining as unobtrusive as possible were dashed, as …

One of life’s mysteries of being an Expat in America, is the fervant celebration of St. Patrick’s Day!  On March 17th every year, anyone who has ever been within 500 yards of a pint glass with a Guinness logo on it - anoints themselves with Irish heritage – and jumps feet first into celebrating their Patron Saint Day. Even though . …

Harmony – Elevation 175 Population 18. Just outside Cambria, California, this towns enticed us in with a tour of their glass blowing studio.