Winging it in... Boston

I`D BUILD A BIG TALL HOUSE, WITH ROOMS BY THE DOZEN

I’ve had a long busy day today, and consequently I am quite late with this week’s entry, so I’ll try and keep it short and quick- if only to please the two people I know who read it.

This time last year I made my first trip to Newport, RI to visit and dream about the life that could have been… the Newport Mansions, or the “summer cottages” of quite possibly some of the wealthiest individuals the East Coast would ever know. On my first trip I purchased a year long membership, and while it has served me well, I have made four trips to Newport, and seen numerous houses, today is the last weekend I could use it. So one final farewell trip was in order.

As it is the beginning of the season only three of the houses are currently open. Personally I prefer to visit at this time of year because I would much rather have personal guided tours than an audiotape one. (Actually showing my age there, as I’m sure they are now all digital and not on actual cassette tapes any more.) Having previously visited “The Breakers”, and “Marble House” today was the turn of “The Elms”. Whilst I do prefer a real live guide I have in the past, been known to correct slightly inaccuracies that may occur in their commentary. (Obviously I am perfect and therefore never make any!) But today, despite a few errors when it came to describing a painting of the Punic Wars, I did let it slide. (Cough 146BC). I think I was distracted by the incredibly glamorous girl who seemed to have inadvertently worn black tights, long navy socks and brown shoes- very incongruous with the rest of her attire and appearance.

The Elms was the summer residence of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Julius Berwind of Philadelphia and New York. The Berwinds made their fortune in the Pennsylvania coal industry. The house was started in 1898 and completed in 1901. It was modeled after the mid-18th century French chateau d’Asnieres, which was located outside Paris; in fact I believe it still is.

I am told that “The Elms” has amazing gardens, and it is in fact known for how beautiful they are, so I have little reason to doubt that this is true. However, due to the time of year there was very little to be seen. The fountains were not yet active, the potted palms were still in hot houses and the windows were still all covered and closed. I would imagine in the summer it would be a glorious view across the gardens and a flowing inside/outside space.

Mrs. Berwind died in 1922, and Mr. Berwind invited his sister, Julia, to become his hostess at his New York and Newport houses. Mr. Berwind died in 1936 and Miss Julia continued to summer at The Elms until her death in 1961, at which time the house and most of its contents were sold at public auction. I find it quite amazing that these great houses were commissioned, built and enjoyed for such a short period of time. They cost millions to build, they house real treasures from all over the globe, and yet within one generation of the family they were being sold off to preservation trusts.

After the house it was time for the train: The Old Colony and Newport Railway. It was a ten mile trip along the bay, with some very pretty views. The Parlor Car is an 1884 private parlor car with individual wicker chairs, all facing the Bay. The parlor car also includes the presence of a full retention toilet, a pot belly stove, the conductor's office, and a food preparation area, all helpfully pointed out by our conductor who was an interesting chap, if a little unsteady on his feet. I did begin to wonder exactly what I had paid for when he announced “the entertainment” but it turns out he was just going to talk about brush wood!

It was a very cute train, and enjoyable 80 mins, so picturesque coastline and a change to see the USS Saratoga- apparently 200ft longer than the Titanic. The conductor did try to share lots more information, but it was about boats and I ha found an Easter Cookie in my bag and my attention was lost.

I arrived home just in time to try a new burger restaurant that has opened in the Prudential Center- 5 Napkin Burger. I have to thank ET and HR for accompanying me here (rare blog mention)- I never would have found it on my own, I have a really bad sense of direction, I have to use GPS to get to my own kitchen. But really the star of the evening was HR’s brand new bag! I was allowed to look at the bag, but on the condition I didn’t get too close, breath on/ near it, or touch it.

So 5NB- it was its opening weekend and I’m not sure if I should cut them some slack for that or not. On one hand it is all new and new things take time to master, or whether they should have been playing their A game to ensure happy customers and return business. The waiter, Steve, tried his best, and was attentive, once we had finally been seated. However, this did take some time. When we arrived we were told it was going to be a 30-minute wait for a table. This, in my experience, usually means more like 20 minutes. In this case it turned out to be 50 minutes and a complaint about how long we had been there before we were seated. I have absolutely no objection to waiting 50 minutes for a table, but I like to know in advance. It is the “tell the customer what they want to hear” attitude that gets me riled very quickly. So, having finally been seated Steve very efficiently took our order. Then we waited, waited, were told it would only be a few more minutes and would we like drink refills, waited, waited a bit more, asked how long it would be, waited and finally…. Some food arrived! My burger was very tasty, not at all what I had order, but nice. I am sure the chef has a much better idea of how a burger should be than me. But why ask me how I want my burger (without the lettuce, tomato and medium/ well) if you are going to serve me what you think I should be eating (with the lettuce, tomato and rare)? I have never had a medium/well burger before in which blood was still evident. Could have been worse, I could have asked for it rare- in which case I can only assume a calf would have appeared at the table. It would also have been nice if the fries had arrived with the burger, and not ten minutes later after we had asked for them- again.

All in all probably worth a revisit, if there is no wait time- if only to make HR run home again- turns out that however cold it is outside you can always measure your steps. ET has very large paces, HR and mine are about the same, but I walk in double quick time, leaving HR to run- even while on the phone. I guess if we were nice we would have slowed down for her…

Winging it in... Boston

I'll just die if we get caught over a speeding ticket. Are you sure we should be driving like this, I mean in broad daylight and everything?

So, Saturday dawned bright and clear, the weather was gorgeous, it was a perfect spring morning. I removed the mayonnaise from the shoe closet; attached the leash the to family elephant and headed out into the crisp, fresh air for a morning stroll. I love days like this in New England. No, my mistake, I don’t have an elephant. I have however, changed the “Question of the Day” on my whiteboard at work into the “Law of the Day”, hence some new random and mildly amusing discoveries. I really cannot work out how some of these came about. Yesterday’s intriguing offering- donated by DC (fame at last, a rare blog mention) was: You cannot walk your pet elephant down the street in Medway MA. (Although I believe there is a city in Florida where you can leave it (yes, I refer to your pet elephant) at a parking meter if as long as you have prepaid.) I was never aware that elephants were such a public menace on the east coast of the USA.

Jobs for the day commenced with apartment hunting, not for me, but I am a little on the curious side, some might say nosy or far too interested in the business of other’s, but I prefer intelligently curious. All the apartments had some great features, but all I really leaned was that I have expensive tastes and REALLY need to win the lottery.

Despite my better judgment I managed to drag myself out for the evening, in a semblance of social nicety not usually evident- I don’t hate everyone all of the time. The event was a comedy show recommended by the apocryphal friend of a friend- if it weren’t such a good friend who told me I would be doubtful as to whether this person actually existed. I should really have started to garner some clues as to how the evening would go right from the start… it was called “Grandma’s Basement” cost $5.00 to get in and was held in the basement bar of the Howard Johnson Motel. $5.00 comedy is probably never going to blow you away, but the Howard Johnson was probably the biggest clue. For those of you who haven’t been there- it started as a soda fountain and ice cream restaurant in 1925, (local celebrity for Wollaston MA) and then expanded over the following few years. In 1932, having been hit by the stock market crash a few years before it Howard Johnson started franchising ownerships. It later went from ice cream and soda (my personal favorite type of eatery) to a restaurant serving low cost dinners and finally became a hotel chain. The fact I know this information off the top of my head probably means I should stop writing now, and accept that I have no opinions worth sharing and I certainly have no right to be criticizing what anyone else in the entire known world might find amusing as I am clearly not normal.

I know comedy is completely subjective, but there really are some things that are just not funny, based entirely on the fact that they have been done to death and have so many other angles that you can view them from. One of my personal bugbears is changing language and the “you’re so gay” routine. 11-year-old children have a version on this that they try and do in the classroom. Yes, children (and adults- but I don’t teach them) use it as an insult; the second you pull them up on it they come straight back with the “but gay means happy” line. It isn’t funny or clever when a child does it; it still isn’t funny when an adult builds a whole sequence around it. Language changes, we all know this, in this case, you might as well build a routine around the phrase “to know you dead” or “to jack off” (actually that could be quite funny, and I might like that one) in this case, and my opinion, “you suck” take it in a modern context please.

That isn’t to say the entire evening was a write off. There were some very funny sketches. The Bar Tender was spot on with his sports commentary- not only have I heard many of these conversations taking place at baseball games, but also I am a little shame faced to admit to having participated in them myself. Of course I know more about these things than people who have lived and breathed the sport for decades.

As far as bridal showers go… never have I seen anyone get so excite about a set of matching his and hers pillow slips, but I have possibly has the misfortune of attending girls nights out where there has been way too much screaming, yelling and general raucousness than was totally necessary. In retrospect there are a lot of things in life that seem remarkably exciting when you are 19 (yes, strippers are included) that maybe you should grow out of….

After all the excitement of Saturday you’d think that Sunday would be a bit calmer and more relaxed, the highlight of it being a trip to Incinerator Road (knew I could do it!), which is rather shoptastic. I think it is home to one of the biggest (and I lived in Texas) branches of DSW I have ever seen. I now have two new pairs of shoes, fairly tame by my shoe shopping standards, neither of which I even knew I needed, discovered a new drive thru Starbucks and got a $10 discount coupon for Dick’s. Sporting Goods. I also discovered I am friends with Louise Sawyer!

I may be partly to blame for the following incident- and I do have previous form for and rather distinct optical difficulties when it comes to spotting well positioned members of the local protection community. Or to put it more plainly- I am crap at spotting traffic cops. Don’t say you weren’t warned. I did honestly think, that when I said the coast was clear and no one was going to see the illegal U-turn I was telling the truth. What I didn’t expect was “Dedham’s Finest” to be sitting the other side of the barrier waiting to pull people over. Even less expected was a certain person’s response! Usually- in my experience, if a law enforcement officer blows a whistle at you, and makes large and repeated gestures for you to stop one obeys. In this case, the only thing to do was to ignore the waving, after all he might just be being friendly, and hit the gas, careen around the corner and hide in a parking lot. I may have been slightly responsible for encouraging this course of action… but I was less keen when heading down a “tucks only” lane took us back around and out onto the main road right next to the ticket writing cop.

Time for Chilli’s and a proper hideout!

Winging it in... Boston

Whohohoho, the future is looking a whoooole lot better.

Again, this weekend has certainly been a weekend of two halves, and different experiences. Saturday evening was a “Mystic Meg” party, or more accurately a gathering of people which included a psychic who was available to do a reading for each of us. I am more than a little cynical about these things, and I would love to say I joined in with an open mind, but that would, I am afraid be a little bit of a lie. I found that I was giving away quite a lot of information, although not as much as she would have liked and not getting a whole lot back.

It turns out am incredibly perceptive and very able to pick up on what people are thinking and feeling, in fact some might say (and one person did) that I have some psychic tendencies (that was psychic, not psycho). I did stop laughing long enough to tell her that I didn't even know what people where thinking or feeling when they verbalized their thoughts and I was within earshot. (It was at this point that she told me I was funny- it was somewhat of a theme for the session.)

Another bit of good news- I am going to get some money, a significant amount, in the next three months. Either a promotion and a pay rise or a windfall amount, I am fairly certain I know it isn't going to be a promotion or a pay rise, so bring on the windfall amount. I can go buy myself lots of presents. (Because obviously the law of averages means she must have been right at some point, and I pick this point :))

She did do quite well on remembering facts I told her and she regurgitated back at me at some point and in some form... she asked about my immediate family (mentioned my sisters and brother) then her next comment was, I'm seeing a girl, possibly a sister who is a bit different to you in her attitude to things. Well, you remembered that for all of 5 seconds, and I have two of them there has to be a difference somewhere! Oh, I am also a bit like my father and a bit like my mother- shocker!

We talked a bit about Boston and how long I had lived here, and the places I had lived in before. Then she decided I liked travel and would probably be somewhere different shortly, maybe for a vacation or possibly longer.

She was spot on with her comment that I like shopping, and particularly jewelry. (So nothing to do with the Links watch, Tiffany necklace, tiffany bangles and the earrings I was wearing then- plus the regular rings?) This did lead on to another "funny" moment.

her: I'm just wondering if you'd like children?

me: no

her: it could be animals, do you like animals, you have lots of pets?

me: no. I don't even have a pot plant. I don't like things I need to look after.

her: you are soooo funny.

It turns out I am very funny.

In all fairness to her, she did manage to get some things right- but I could have just told her and saved her the effort of thinking about it. After 25 minutes of my yes/no answers she summed me up by telling me I put up barriers, and deflected when asked questions, didn't like to share my personal life, didn't enjoy being the center of attention and enjoyed my own company more than other people. I defy logic- her words. I could have told her all of that at the start. I was also very uncomfortable, awkward and spent 25 minutes saying yes and no, so I think even my super perceptive self could have worked that out. Not that I am at all cynical. In fact I am thinking that we should have another evening of psychic fun and I could go first, rather than last- just to test out whether it was me, or if she was just tired…

Sunday saw a trip to the zoo, at Franklin Park. When fully open the zoo contains more than 220 species of animals housed mainly in themed exhibit areas. However, being only the beginning of March they are still on winter opening hours and some animals have been “put away for the winter”

The first stop on the tour was an African Wild Dog exhibit, this is not part of any particular exhibit and just happened to be the first thing that was spotted by the Giraffe entrance. Unfortunately there were no giraffes to be seen, 1. Because it was a dog exhibit and 2. Because tit is winter so they aren’t even in their own enclosure at the minute.

The Tropical Forest is a big building roofed by a huge dome. The building mimics the animals' natural environment with streams, moats, faux-rock structures, hidden fences and barriers. The exhibit includes gorillas, ocelots, capybara, tapirs, vulture, pygmy hippopotamus, and warthogs. This exhibit was also undergoing renovations and I was a little concerned that some animals might escape. The gorillas, as expected were the star attraction, and even sibling fighting couldn’t put people off, in fact it probably helped people identify with them!

A lot of the larger animals seemed to be hidden away, or I was being particularly blind. I didn’t manage to find the lions or the tigers, despite the information saying that they had them, and I know a few things were inside for the winter.

Nonetheless, the gift shop was good. It was nice to be outside in the fresh air, the weather was fairly pleasant and I passed a nice afternoon wandering around, seeing kangaroos, zebras, ostriches and ibex. I also loved the fact that as an adult I seemed able to climb over rope barriers without being told off. I was quite careful about checking around for zookeepers first tho.

Winging it in... Boston

And this is good old Boston, the home of the bean and the cod…

And for the first time in a few weeks I was actually in “good old Boston” for the whole weekend. A few things have happened this week that have made me see the world in a slightly more glowing and warm way. The snowstorm of last weekend seems to have signaled the end of winter and spring really seems to be thinking about making an appearance. There have still been some cold days, actually some really cold days with highs of about 18F, but there have also been some deliciously warm days, today making it as high as 60F. I have also discovered that H2O can fall in liquid form from the sky, and not just in icy crystal form. The parking lot has yellow lines to demarcate spaces, I do still need to learn to park in these, and the sidewalks are substantially wider than I remember. I have enjoyed running outside so much this week that I have canceled my gym membership and thus discovered I have an extra $80.00 s month to spend on fun and frivolity. Spring is definitely in the air.

That said, this week the entry will be short and sweet with very little adventurous activity to report. That isn’t to say that I haven’t been busy, just that it has all been tasks that need doing, or people I have been wanting to catch up with that have consumed my weekend.

Job number one was to make sure that my car made it to the garage in order to have its State Inspection. So, I duly turned up at 9.30am on a Saturday morning to queue. Last year this was a relatively long task. I wasn’t able to book an appointment, it was a first come, first served system and I had to wait a good two and a half hours. This year I was prepared. I arrived with a book, and a friend to have coffee with while I waited. Predictably there was no wait! The car was taken straight in, and 15 minutes later I left the garage $29.00 lighter and with a new sticker on the windshield saying that my car had passed every single aspect of the test! This concerns me slightly on two counts…

1. It took a grand total of 15 minutes for me to stop the car, explain why I was there, pay, sign the paperwork, complete the test and be back on the car and on my way for coffee.

2. The certificate says that my windshield wipers passed the inspection, and my tires passed the inspection. I know for a fact that both of these need looking at more closely, based entirely on the fact that the wipers don’t clear the water, and the tires are nearly five years old have done 35,000 miles and were under inflated!

All of which leads me to speculate on how through they were. Then again I look at some of the cars on the road and I think I may have a fair idea.

The rest of the weekend has been fairly taken up with catching up with friends. I know the general perception is that I am either very anti-social or that I hate everyone, this is not entirely true and I do actually talk to people on occasion. So brunch and a chance to actually find out what people have been up to was a welcome treat today. Unfortunately “Church” the usual venue for this type of social event has slipped slightly in the standard of service. It used to be a great place for a Sunday brunch but since a TV appearance of the chef in November it has gotten a lot busier, started serving donuts when you first arrive (you get three, regardless of how many people there are, or how many more turn up, you get three donuts). I don’t have a problem with free donuts per se- lots of places have free bread, but they do usually manage to get the food out relatively quickly. Here they seem to have managed to increase the wait time to a good 50 minutes from ordering. I could understand if I was asking for something complicated, but omelette and toast- really? I am the world’s worst cook and even I can create that in 10 minutes. I’m not sure what the plan is for next week, but it may involve a new breakfast location- personally I’m hoping for Chocolate milk shake.

I shall finish off the weekend with regular chores- the exciting life I lead! A bit of floor cleaning, a quick grocery trip to 7-11 J and an early night, all ready for the alarm call tomorrow morning.