Breezy in the Bahamas

Most of the northern hemisphere is suffering through record low temperatures and harsh weather conditions (Britain’s Daily Star reported this week that this may be the coldest winter in 1,000 years.) This has meant that places like London, Paris and New York have been buried by fierce blizzards, and my home city of Atlanta had its first white Christmas since 1882. In the Bahamas, it means no beach. This makes me grumpy. The weather is certainly better than back home – highs in the mid 70s – but the cool breeze blowing off the ocean is enough to keep most tourists out of the water. The funny part ... [Read More]

Walking New York

It’s easy to tell the tourists in NY. We’re the ones walking around, neck craned so we’re staring straight up, gawking at the sea of iconic skyscrapers and neon lights. It’s easy to tell the New Yorkers, too. They’re the ones walking, usually about Mach 3, grumpily brushing past the gawkers. I’d always assumed this was because they were rude and in a rush to see which steroid-infused free-agent ballplayer the Yankees had newly signed. But after spending two absolutely frigid days in this magnificent city I noticed that anytime I was forced outside my pace quickened considerably, so desperate was I to reach someplace less suitable ... [Read More]

The Top of the Peak

Riding the historic Peak Tram to the top of Victoria’s Peak is one of my favorite things to do in Hong Kong. First built in the 1880s, this rickety rail-car is pulled by cables up the steep incline from Hong Kong’s Central District to Victoria’s Peak, from which you gaze out over stunning panoramic views of Hong Kong Island, Victoria Harbor and Kowloon. I’ve been more than a dozen times, and never tire of the experience. One of my very favorite restaurants on earth, by happy coincidence, is Café Deco, perched atop Victoria’s Peak. The food has always been scrumptious, and I was eager to show off ... [Read More]

Moron moments in Hong Kong

Sometime after landing in Hong Kong yesterday I devolved into a blithering idiot. (Some who know me might suggest this isn’t much of a change from my normal state of being, but I prefer to believe I can generally be trusted to tie my shoes and cross the street without much supervision.) I’m not sure when this change occurred, but it first reared its clumsy head in the Sky Lounge atop the Sheraton Towers. Soo and I were sitting at a table by the glass marveling at the stunning view of Hong Kong's Victoria Harbor at night, when I noticed a man a short distance away ... [Read More]

Floating cities and fuzzy oatmeal

Jet lag’s a funny thing. It affects different people in different ways; some people walk around for days in a zombie-like stupor; some have seemingly boundless energy before hitting the proverbial wall and passing out for 15 hours; others it makes nauseous. For Soo, jet-lag occasionally severs her ability to form complete sentences. Today was one such day. After the afternoon’s meetings I returned to our hotel to find Soo passed out in bed. I gently woke her, and as she slowly swam to consciousness she asked about how my meeting had gone. At least that’s what she thinks she asked. All I heard was “Hmrf, huhmney. Fuzzy oatmeal?” When I ... [Read More]

Thanksgiving on Paradise

Usually we have visitors come from "up North" to visit us in Atlanta over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. This year it was not the case. Pondering what to do this year, my wife Sue and I were watching Wheel of Fortune one evening and saw someone win a trip to the Bahamas. I looked at her, she at me, and said, "We should spend Thanksgiving there." After checking the Web we found a special offer to stay at Atlantis on Paradise Island.  After non-eventful airport security checkpoints and a short, hour-and-a-half flight, we arrived at the hotel on Thanksgiving day. Walking into the entry area of ... [Read More]

Bama Bound

For most of us, the crunch of leaves underfoot is one of the signal pleasures of fall. For  some of us, the crunch of pads on the football field is too. Which is why my brothers, my Dad and I last year instituted a guys trip each fall to a college football destination. Last year, we were not far behind the Notre Dame bench in South Bend on an unbelievably warm Saturday afternoon, watching the sun gleam off those gold helmets in a battle to the finish that they lost to a game and inspired squad from the University of Connecticut. This year, we came together in Alabama, for ... [Read More]

Behold the Amazing Colossal Gasometer

Making a tourist site of an enormous industrial gas holder in the middle of the coal-and-steel heart of Germany might sound like an over-the-top test-case challenge for earning your degree in public relations. But in Oberhausen, Germany, it’s a real-life case of industrial ingenuity transformed via ingenious re-imagining. And unlike a lot of re-purposed industrial sites in the Ruhr region, the Gasometer is self-sufficient too. Whoa. What in the world is a gasometer? Europe’s largest disc-type gas holder, perched 386 ft. (117.5 m.) high next to the Rhine-Herne Canal, was in use from 1929 until its decommissioning in 1988 as a storage site for top gas, initially produced by ... [Read More]

Abu Dhabi dull

Abu Dhabi’s not like Dubai. Abu Dhabi, with a history going back nearly five thousand years, is an older and more conservative city, and certainly feels it. Dubai, the spectacular modern metropolis rising out of the desert, veritably crackles with energy. Abu Dhabi, though larger, feels smaller, and has few of awe-inspiring, record-setting engineering wonders for which its sister-emirate to the north is so famous. Abu Dhabi may have more history, but Dubai has more cool, which is why I greeted news that I would have to leave Dubai for Abu Dhabi with little enthusiasm. The last time I was in Abu Dhabi, 27 years ago, heavily armed ... [Read More]

Tesla Encounters of the Second Kind

"I felt the wind ... the wind of the future." That's what Toyota Motor Corp. President and CEO Akio Toyoda said in May when he first drove a Tesla Roadster all-electric vehicle, not long before Toyota purchased $50 million in Tesla common stock and Tesla purchased the Toyota/GM NUMMI plant for $42 million. Today I felt that wind too, when Tesla Sales Advisor Ross Rubman, who functions as the only middleman between the manufacturer and the customer (score a big point for Tesla), drove a sparkling midnight blue Roadster convertible into our parking lot here in Peachtree Corners. Sale price: $109,000, though the Model S they're about ... [Read More]