Prague

Daddy gets the weekend off to go climbing! I am in Prague for a few days with the Portmen. In spite of the threatening weather made Matt head out the the cliff this morning to Srbsko,
beatiful little village by a river. Walked along the river bank beside lovely limestone faces for a mile or so and climbed in an old quarry. Lots of ring bolts, short routes (20-30m) and solid rock. It got a bit greasy as the rain squalls came through, but the sun shone in between. After 4 routes (enough for geriatrics) we headed back to the pub and indulged in food and beer - they practically give it away here (compared to England).

Not so easy to crawl back up to the station and catch the train after 3 pints each! The railway system is a bit rickety...trains are fine but the staions and platforms would cause a few passenger saftery concerns!

We hope to head south in a hire car tomorrow to a granite crag called Roviste...with any luck the weather wont be any worse than today and we get a few climbs in. It is supposed to get wet after tomorrow, so then it will be sight seeing time!

Another house...

Mummy is home! After a marathon effort of 3 weeks away M returns from her US junket...I slept in this morning. We have almost managed to get everything packed away somewhere, at lease there are no boxes lying around now (none with anything but packing paper in them anyway). The new place is working out very well, the kids get to see their friends after school a lot more often and they even drop by at weekends from time to time. The corner shop is close enough for the kids to walk up and get milk and bread by themselves! Nice quiet streets, lots of people we know and every second kid is at the same school as them. We havent been able to use the garden much yet, the lawn was resown just before moved in, but it should be ready soon.

and off we go again...

Tomorrow is last day at the Fund. Gave a seminar here today which went pretty well.
Shopped til I dropped, well worked til I dropped then went shopping for a change of scenery - the US is so much cheaper than the UK (and did anyone mention the decline in the $ - US that is not AUD). And it was sale time, though I did manage to avoid buying any shoes cos I dont reeeeeeeaaaaally need them (even though I did want them!). Thats shopping for the next 3 years for me anyway. US is a great place to clothes shop cos unlike the UK everything comes in MEGA sizes and makes one feel almost petite!! Well at least normal.
Next stage of the latest adventure is off to Princeton, where it is forecast to rain for most of the time. Oh well, apparently there is not that much to see other than the University. I will let you know. We apparently have internet back on at the new house now - so hopefully R will get to putting up some more pictures soon.
Looking forward to being home soon.

Changes....

Greetings from sunny Washington DC! I am in DC for a couple of weeks doing some work. Its quite hot here still, certainly a change from Cambridge. Its been a busy couple of weeks, thus no postings. SO here is a quick update. The last few days of August were spent moving to our new lodgings, a Victorian terrace. That was quite good except we find we are suffering a surfeit of chairs - there is a lounge chair in EVERY room which we find a bit difficult. Constantly tripping over them. We are getting to know our new landlords though so hopefully we can suggest that some culling is in order! If it works out we may be able to stay in this place the rest of our time in Cambridge, although they are having renovations done which mean we would need to move out for 6 months the second half of next year. Cross that bridge when we come to it - and see how long we can put up with so many chairs! But now we have more room and all our stuff has arrived today. R says the living room is FULL of boxes so not only do we have surfeit of chairs but also surfeit of boxes. Who knows where it is all going - probably to the tip!!
So just after our move I flew off to DC, which was fine, and I am here for a while. Not much exciting going on. I bought myself a new laptop which is very nice, like that a lot ( a Sony VGN-T370 for those of you who are interested in that sort of thing). Now I am trying to sort out a difficult data problem here. Things always take longer than you anticipate!
Been down to some of the Smithsonian museums (http://www.si.edu), which are always good. Yesterday went hiking along the Potomac with our Cambridge landlords who live here (small world). Saw some great kayaking on the Great Falls, and the rock looks great. Found a few pictures on climbing in the area - 5.7-5.12 apparently, really appealing area, be great fun to spend a few days on the rock - but not going to happen this time!
Off to New York middle of next week, a symposium at Princeton a couple of days visiting data providers in New York and then home. It will be nice to get back and just sit for a while!! At the moment I think we side with the kids - could we just go home and sit in our nice stable house for a while (which doesnt have 3000 chairs).