The Internet Generation

Walked into Meg's room just now to find her on three different MSN video chats with friends from our Hamburg days: Peter Leven (GER and MEX) whose family were for a time our next door neighbors in Hamburg but live now in Mexico City; Saori Masuda (JPN) now living in London after a brief stint back in Japan; and Chatrick Sodhi (IND) whose family remains in Hamburg.



Dad, puhleeeeze! Can't you see I'm busy?



Global video chat -- Mexico City (Peter) in the top frame,
Valencia (Meg and the photog) in the bottom. Not exactly
how we were communicating with our friends at age 13,
but then in those days I don't recall having any friends
outside of Washtenaw County let alone outside the USA.

SEASON'S GREETINGS FROM VLC

Valencia, 0130 Sunday

'Twas the night before Christmas (actually, the morning of) and not a creature was stirring, not even our two cats. Was about to settle down for a short winter's nap, when out in the street there arose such a clatter...

...more bloody fireworks!

Since midnight there have been sporadic fireworks and firecrackers all over the neighborhood. Just now a ferocious set of bangers went off in the yard behind us. The neighbors are outside cheering and applauding.

Hey, amigos nuevos, it's Christmas not New Year's, and for sure not las Fallas. Please, as much as we like Valencia and all the fireworks, we've had enough for one year. ¡Por favor, he tenido bastantes!! Besides, you might scare off Santa....

To those celebrating it, Feliz Navidad, and Season's Greetings to all.

SANTA INSANITY?

First there was Sailing Anarchy, now Santa Anarchy? Courtesy of this morning's Valencia Life newsletter:

GOING ON THE RAMPAGE
According to the police in Auckland, some forty drunken people, all dressed in Santa Claus outfits, went on the rampage, throwing beer bottles at cars and urinated on them from an overpass bridge. According to Noreen Hegarty, the group then ran through the central park of the city, overturning garbage bins, throwing bottles at passing cars and spraying graffiti on office buildings. One Santa climbed the mooring line of a cruise ship but was ordered down by the captain, and when the man was arrested, other Santas attacked the security guards some of whom required attention from Paramedics. Meanwhile, other Santas entered a nearby store. Said “Merry Christmas” to the owner and then helped themselves to beer from the shelves, leaving without paying. It is believed that the rampaging Santas belong to a group calling itself Santarchy, which describes itself as a worldwide group that protests the commercialisation of Christmas.

Sounds more like a group that protests sobriety? But then we did a little research and it turns out there is, no surprise, a Santarchy website. While the media may have blown the Auckland spree a bit out of proportion, it still sounds like they were more "full drunken" (as the Germans would say) than full of Christmas Cheer.



Santarchy in downtown Auckland?


As the Santarchy site itself says, "Santa should spread good cheer. If he doesn’t, spank him! Or send him to jail." Amen.



"Santarchy" even has a logo.

POLITICALLY CORRECT III

Our old friend and new father, Mat Bird, weighs in with a clever contribution to this thread that he has gleaned from various articles over the years:

+ Democrats buy most of the books that have been banned somewhere. Republicans form censorship committees and read them as a group.
+ Republicans employ exterminators. Democrats step on the bugs.
+ Republicans tend to keep their shades drawn, although there is seldom any reason why they should. Democrats ought to, but don’t.
+ Democrats eat the fish they catch. Republicans mounth them on the wall.
+ Republican boys date Democratic girls. They plan to marry Republicans, but feel they’re entitled to a little fun first.
+ Democrats have chapped hands and headaches. Republicans have tennis elbow and gout.
+ Republicans think L.L. Bean is a preppy mail order house in Maine. Democrats think it’s a rare form of environmentally correct coffee.
+ Democrats drive Chevrolets but yearn secretly for BMWs. Republicans drive BMWs and yearn publicly for Chevrolet-sized car payments.
+ Republicans ask, “Is it Miss or Mrs.?: Democrats don’t ask.
+ Republicans tell you which college their children attend. Democrats tell you which courses their children are taking and how well they’re doing.
+ Republicans kiss the air beside the cheek. Democrats plant wet sloppy ones.

POLITICALLY CORRECT II

Further to Meg's Ethics Class spreadsheet about the differences between the Republicans and Democrats, here is a contribution from Grandpa "D.O.M" Tom.



At least elephants have big trunks?

SKATE NEWPORT

Check this out -- looks like a nice new addition to Newport's winter waterfront.



The "Sovereign Bank Family Skating Center" at the Newport Yachting Center.

BMWOR SAILING CUP 2005

Sunday dawned cool and grey here in Valencia, but that didn't stop our Cup team's marketing department from going sailing -- ostensibly racing -- using three Beneteau First 7.5's that belong to a corporate training outfit called Sailing Team.

Aside from myself, two other members of the department have some sailing experience. The rest are beginners. So it was a nice for them to get out in a boat and experience sailing and a bit of racing. No doubt we will do it again, and try to involve more non-sailing members of our team. And nice to get our partners out with us as well. Good times.



Helmsman of one boat was Benedict "Pope" Horber (GER, second from right), a fellow Gstaad YC member who is a new member of our marketing department. Forward of him is his girlfriend Susanne, then Alejandra Mato (ESP, another marketing department colleague) and her husband Alfredo. The gentleman aft in the red foulies is a Sailing Team coach/instructor.



Helmsman of the second boat was Thomas Fikentscher (GER, second from left), a sailor and boyhood friend of our marketing director Mirko Groeschner (GER, right foreground). Forward of Thomas is Mirko's partner, Stephanie. Behind Mirko is Thomas's parnter, Diane.



I helmed the third boat. Forward of me is Max "Hello" Hoellerl (AUT) who was a quick learner on main trim. Leslie was the headsail trimmer, and the lady sitting forward of Leslie is another member of our marketing team, Kerstin "Handstand" Schulz (GER) who was our grinder. "Handstand" is, pound-for-pound, probably the strongest person on our BMW ORACLE team. The nickname comes from her ability, especially after a little wine, to walk on her hands the length of a good-sized hotel bar -- especially when there are sailors present. Meg handled the mast and foredeck.



We started the first race in about 15 kts, and it breezed up to over 20 before the end of the short, two lap course. We got our kite up on the first run and had a blast.



Max is already looking like a pro on the mainsheet. Leslie has not forgotten how to trim a jib or kite, even though this was her first time handling a gennaker.



With a relatively experienced crew it was no surprise that we won the race by a fair margin. With increasing winds gusting into the high 20's, it seemed like the prudent thing to call it a day after one race. Meg pronounced the experience "very cool but also a bit cold."

HOLIDAY SEASON IN VLC

The holiday season has arrived in Valencia. Check out the post on the BMW ORACLE Racing Blog.



Here in Valencia the bougainvillia are alive and well in our backyard this morning. Gorgeous December day -- warm and dry and barely a cloud in the sky.

POLITICALLY CORRECT?

[Updated Fri 2 Dec 05]

At Caxton College the kids have a choice of taking "religion" (i.e., Catholicism) or ethics. As part of a term project for her ethics class, Meg had to prepare an analysis of the major political parties in her home country. So she produced her first-ever spread sheet, below, with a little parental guidance. For family and friends in the USA, is this reasonably accurate?



Click to enlarge.

Peter Huston kindly forwarded this witty little ditty: "If the opposite of pro is con, the opposite of progress must be Congress?"

KITTY LITTER CAKE

Click here for details and a complete, no joke, recipe. With two cats in the
house, could be fun to serve at a party?

LASERING

Just a nice pic by, I believe, our BMW ORACLE Racing team photog
Gilles-Martin Raget that I lifted off the excellent online sailing
magazine site The Daily Sail. GMR is no doubt one of the best in
the biz. TDS is a subscription site, but well worth the annual fee --
especially if you are following the UK yachting scene.

SAY CHEESE

Grandma Jan, if you email Meg and ask her to write a caption for this pic maybe you will have better luck than I getting one out of her.



As usual, click to enlarge.

TURKEY DAY

Today was a work and school day in Valencia. Our "real" Thanksgiving will be Saturday when we are hosting at the house 40+ expat Cup friends, mostly from BMWOR but not exclusively, for a pot-luck holiday dinner. Leslie and a number of the other ladies are cooking turkeys and everyone is bringing a dish or two to pass. Hope the weather is nice so we can also hang outdoors -- the house is good-sized, but sit down dinner for 40?

Nonetheless, today Leslie cooked up a turkey and some of the usual trimmings, more as a practice run with the new oven in the new house. She had a bit of a shock when she unwrapped the bird that she bought last evening at the butcher in Puzol. Unlike those you get in the States, here they come rather more complete. Photo below.

Am reminded by a discussion Leslie and Meg were having earlier abour the origins of Thanksgiving in the USA that I did a post on that on the EFB a year ago.

This is probably the only holiday for which I really miss being in the USA. It's now early Friday morn here, and trust all of our friends and family in the States are enjoying a very Happy Thanksgiving.



Yikes -- what would Martha Stewart do with that!?

DOG HOUSE

JB Braun is a BMW ORACLE Racing colleague from Marblehead, Mass., just outside Boston. We first met in 1979 when he was a member of the US World Youth Sailing Championship squad for which I was the team leader. The event was raced off Livorno, ITA; coincidentally, Chris Dickson won it.

This summer JB, his wife Kelly and kids moved to Valencia for the duration of the 32nd Cup. They have taken a house here in la urbanización not far from us. Their kids are at the American School, which has a four-day Thanksgiving holiday same as in the States. So they have taken off for a few days, and we have their dog, Amber, as our guest through Sunday. Not sure our two cats, Amber (yes, two Ambers in the house) and Bailey, are as pleased about this arrangement as are Leslie and, especially, Meg.



Amber the Dog, with some help from the camera flash, doing her best
imitation of Little Orphan Annie's dog -- this afternoon, with Meg
just back from school. BTW, Meg got her first mid-term test (Geography)
back and graded today -- an A+.

DOCKED AND SHOT

Dinner last evening with an old Formula 1 friend, John Chambers (left), and three of his Haymarket publishing colleagues down from London. Of course we went to our favorite VLC restaurant, Lambrusqueria, a.k.a. "The Docks." I have no idea why. No, silly, I know why we had dinner, just no idea why it's also called The Docks. As far as we know it has nothing to do with the sea or sailing, aside from the regular patronage of ourselves and a growing contingent of the Cup community, and it is nowhere near the water let alone any wharfs.

I think it was over the 2000-2001 New Year that John and his partner, Elaine, were in Melbourne for an auto race which Haymarket was involved with. They invited Leslie, Meg and me to fly up from Auckland and join them. Good times.

John & Co. are in town for meetings with ACM today. Haymarket publishes the official ACM magazine 32 (as in the 32nd defense of the America's Cup). They also publish the best F1 magazine, F1 Racing, among many other titles. Nice to see them involved now in sailing.

And as our dinner went beyond midnight, we managed to get today's festivities (Thanksgiving, etc.) going a bit earlier than normal.



Getting the hang of the 2 megapixel Nokia N70-1, which has a lame
little flash but better than nothing. Many of you will know The Docks
is not exactly brightly lit. Nokia's N80 is about to come out, and has
a 3mp cam.

ADRA

Staying in hotels gets old, and it's a nice change of pace to have a "bed & breakfast" in the home of friends like the three nights at "Chez Nicholas" (see posts below) while in San Diego last week.

Likewise, for years any number of visiting sailors and judges have bunked in at the beautiful Kober home in Long Beach. Even though Chuck passed away some years back, Adra (say AY- druh) keeps up the tradition. I booked a night at the Kober "Olde Seaman's Haven" when we were in Long Beach for the LBYC stop on the USA Yacht Club Tour.

Talk about a big heart -- ask Adra about the wedding she "threw" on the spur of the moment one rainy evening, in the middle of an early-80's Congressional Cup, when she insisted that the bride, groom and their 100 guests (none of whom she knew) move their "outdoor wedding" from the adjacent park into the Kober home. An hour later it had come off without a hitch, and the Kobers and the six of us staying with them were only minutes late for the judges' dinner back at the yacht club.



Still going strong after all these years. A welcome sign to many, many
racers, judges and their spouses over the years.



Adra of Long Beach: the face that launched a thousand ships? For
well over 25 years Adra's breakfast and wry sense of humour has
sent many of us off for a long day at the races, whether the 81-83
pre-Olympics, the 84 Olympics, or numerous Congressional Cups.
More than a few major decisions affecting the sport were taken at
the Kober brekkie table, especially in the early 80's when Adra's late
husband Chuck was President of USYRU.



Adra was head of Protocol for the Long Beach Olympic regattas 81-84.
During the same period she was elected Commodore of Alamitos Bay YC,
the first woman to head a major yacht club in the USA. Adra has slowed
down a bit but is still a ball of fire -- the day before I arrived she
hosted in her home a sitdown luncheon for 30.

WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT!?

Have a new 3G phone. The highly rated Nokia N70-1. It takes 2 megapixel fotos. 3G means it has wireless broadband connectivity. In fact, as fast as -- and often faster than -- our ADSL connection at home.









Just got the phone's email set up. Then used the phone to take the photo below and email it to myself. Received it on my laptop and posting now to the EFB. For that matter, can post direkt from the phone to the blog (text and pics). Easy peasy.

What hath God wrought, indeed!



Have taken a number of pics with the new Nokia N70-1 phone cam as
you will have seen on recent EFB and other blog posts. But this is the
first foto taken with the phone then emailed from the phone (3G
connection) to my laptop. Only takes a few clicks. Scary cool technology,
coming soon to a phone near you.

OOPS!

Courtesy of Tom Leweck.

LOVELY IN LONDON

While not quite sunny Southern California, the weather in London for the quick stopover on the way back from the USA (to Valencia) was autumn at its best. Sunny and warm, you would have thought it was early September not mid-November. Could not have been nicer, nor the two events attended....

Tuesday evening was the Royal Thames YC annual prizewinners' dinner at which I was guest speaker (there will be a post shortly on the team blog). Wednesday noon was a small media luncheon, nicely hosted by BMW UK-Ireland, to brief some few Brit journos on the 32nd AC and our team. There is a good story from the latter here.



Jim O'Donnell, Managing Director of BMW UK-
Ireland at the RTYC dinner Tuesday evening.
Jim and his team have partnered with Royal
Thames, and by all appearances it has been
a very successful engagement for both.



After-dinner guest speaker with an update on AC 32
and BMW ORACLE Racing.



Long time NYYC friend David Anderson, and a shipmate on
George Carmany's NY40 Hornet, is living in London with his
wife and kids. He joined me Wed morn at the Royal Thames
for a quick catch-up over breakfast, and checked out the BMW
M6 on display in front of the Knightsbridge clubhouse.



Another friend from way back, Malcolm McKeag, is the Chief
Sailing Officer at the Royal Thames and has been now for the
past 7 or 8 years. Malcolm organized the dinner and luncheon,
both of which were very successful.

USA YC TOUR -- Finally over!

LAX, 1500 Monday

Leslie's vivacious sister Terry Wilson joined us last evening for Stop Eight on the USA YC Tour at San Diego YC. Terry, of course, lives in SD with her husband Adrian Bean and daughter Olivia (a.k.a. "Olivia the Divia"). After the show we had dinner at our favorite Point Loma bistro, Pizza Nova, with Jim and Linda Nicholas, Peter and JJ Isler, Jane Eagleson and San Diego journalist Bernie Wilson who has long covered the America's Cup for the Associated Press.

And my duffel bag is now packed to overflowing with the syrup, coffee and other items Terry bought at Leslie's request for me to pack-mule back to VLC.

So today am finally headed home after three long weeks on the road. But one last stop in London where am speaking tomorrow night at the Royal Thames YC annual prizegiving dinner, and doing a media roundtable with Brit journos Wed noon.

The email said the Tue dinner attire is "black tie, no medals." Good thing -- the only medals I have are from junior high school band competitions!



T-berry looking great at the San Diego YC last evening.

A SAN DIEGO SATURDAY-SUNDAY

Catching up with old friends in San Diego, where we were living when Meg was born and what she still calls her "hometown"....


Brooke, Jim and Lexi Nicholas -- late Friday evening. Am bunking in
at Chez Nicholas in Point Loma while here for Stop Eight on the
USA Yacht Club Tour at SDYC Sunday evening.



Coffee Saturday morn with Chris and Sally Todter.



Lunch at SDYC with Charles Ward, Malin (and Roberta) Burnhan,
John Engle and John Burnham -- then minus Roberta we checked
out spectacular view from Malin and Roberta's soon to be new home
on Trepte Hill in Point Loma.



The view from the front door through the house to SD Bay. Thumbs
up to Roberta's project management.



John Burnham and Laurie Vanden Berg with their nice Point
Loma remodel.



Up to La Jolla for a quick visit. Whose home is a chicken crossing?



Peter Isler, Megan and Marly, at home with the pet chickens. JJ was
opening the wine.



This guy is a two-time AC winner? And our navigator
for the '07 Cup?? Looks more like a rock-star.



Pedro has been a great addition to our afterguard,
and plays a mean guitar -- and piano. I feel a team
band coming on.



And the lady (Jane "tour manager" Eagleson) plays the blues.



Brooke Nicholas and friends at home late Saturday evening.



Sunday morn: beaut Chez Nichholas view of Shelter Island and into
a hazy downtown San Diego.



Nine-year-old William, like his grandfather and namesake, is a real
gentleman. He enjoys some french toast with his whipped cream.



Linda politely declining to be photographed so early in the morn...



...and manages to escape Jim's strong arms...



...only to end up on the floor being licked by the dog. Last
time I will be invited to stay here!