Dave Kean

This weekend there was lots of great sport on TV. BBC America had England against France from Twickenham in the Six-nations championship, this was a great game and a wonderful advert for rugby. Both sides played flowing rugby and while there was only one try, it was a game that could have gone either way.

Then there was Liverpool getting beat by West Ham (on any given day…), Manchester United hammering Wigan and of course Arsenal getting beat by an inspired Birmingham City performance.

But there was one that stood above all others, and I get that I’m in a minority here.

I purchased the Willow TV package for the cricket world cup, I’m not going to get a chance to watch many of the games live, but I did watch the England-India game Sunday morning from Bangalore and it was worth every penny. England looked very ordinary against Holland last week and did what good teams do on their off days, Just about enough to win, but it was unconvincing at best.

Ultimately the England India game was not an incredibly important game, both sides should progress to the second round with out too much trouble. However, if you don’t watch or follow cricket you may as well move on now, it’s going to get a little “masturbatory fanboy” here, deal with it.

I don’t think it’s a stretch to say this may have been one of the best limited over games ever, not just in the World Cup. This game went back and forth, either side could have won comfortably. The England captain said “These are the kinds of occasions cricketers dream about”. Although I think when he imagines this while laying in bed he does see a slightly different ending.

On one side you had an England team led by Andrew Strauss, on the other India captained by the legend Sakin Tendulkar. These were two great teams who had a little form coming into this and this looked to have the makings of a good game on paper.

When someone gets round to making a cliff hanger movie about Cricket, this game will mirror the way that story will unfold. The captains were at the center of things, each played a wonderful innings and led the twists and turns of what was a remarkable game. In 30 years of following and watching this game I’ve never seen anything quite like it.

England did not do well in the recent one-day series against Australia, but that was something of an afterthought to the Ashes victory every Englishman (and at least one Scot I know) cared about. However they played good consistent cricket over the winter and looked about as settled an England team as any I’ve seen. They have the players and in Andy Flower the manager that has worked out how to get best out of this team.

Arguably India is the best one-day side in the world at the moment, and as hosts for this world cup clearly the favorites to lift the trophy.

India batted first and it seemed to be about Tendulkar, he did what senior players are supposed to do in the one day game and led by example. He scored 120 off 115 balls, with 15 boundaries. This was the innings all of India knew he could play and if he keeps up this form for the next three weeks India may just be unbeatable.

The ball was hit all over the ground on what was a totally benign, flat wicket that made great bowlers look very ordinary, there was no movement in it. And India duly put together a huge total for England to chase, and chase they did. The experiment of Strauss opening the England batting seemed to come good, he scored 158 off 145 balls to lead the chase.

After 99.5 overs of enthralling cricket it came down to the final ball. England needed two off the final ball to win, nothing and India collects the three points. England of course did the sporting thing and only got one.

Eight hours, two magnificent batting displays and it was a 338 to 338 draw. It was not just the result that was remarkable, it was the twists and turns over the proceeding 100 overs that made it so enthralling.

This was not just cricket at it’s best, this was sport at it’s finest.

Another week, another trip, this time it’s Winnipeg to carry out a production audit. It’s about 20 years since I was last there, and that really was just passing through briefly. I don’t have my diary handy, but I don’t know if we even stayed over night. I think it’s going to be a good trip. Though cold, any time the car rental agreement warns you to plug in the engine heater at night it’s not a good thing. Tonight may get down to -12.

It worked out 3 or 4 hours quicker to drive to Vancouver and fly direct from there rather than change in Chicago or Detroit. However I did not anticipate the drive north. It’s typically less than two hours to drive to Vancouver; it’s been a semi-regular weekend destination in the past. I knew the weather was iffy, I left plenty of time and was glad I did.

At one point it slowed to a crawl with the snow coming down and sticking heavily to the freeway just north of Mount Vernon. There were a number of cars pointing the wrong way or even worse in the ditch at 6 this morning and the state patrol every where. It was very localized, but horrible to drive in. A couple of miles later it was clear and dry.

The rest of the drive was fine and I was greeted by blue sky in Vancouver.

…stopped petting me?

It’s been a couple of days of weather. First was Friday night, it was cold but beautiful evening out. Any break from the oppressive grey cloud is appreciated and all the snow in the front of the house was gone.

Saturday on the other hand was a return to last week… More snow fell, it started mid morning and kept going until mid evening. It was rather slick to drive in this evening and I did get the Land Rover to slide in the really slick places, a couple of times intentionally, other times not so much. I think this winter has been the coldest and most snow filled since I moved to the Northwest.

I saw this in Tulsa Airport this morning, as advertising slogans go it’s not the most obvious one for an airport. An airport that certainly has many nervous flyers passing through every day…

I’d be interested to have sat through that focus group “Yes it’s hinting at death, but it’s also a word for airport buildings! Lets go with it.”

You have to think someone said “Hang on a moment, what about that death thing? Don’t you think that’s important? And what about the angel wings on the smiley face?”

With which the ad executives sensing they might have to do some work, perhaps even miss a dinner, convinced them to go with it.

I get my sense of humour is not to everyone’s taste, but I thought it was funny at 5:40 this morning.

The weather in Tulsa yesterday afternoon was very pleasent, maybe late 60′s when we left the factory. When I landed in Seattle today, the pilot said it was 26 degrees, this was the Miata as I was scraping the snow off it before leaving  the airport.

In return for getting an earlier flight (12 minutes between getting off one flight, being rebooked and getting on the flight to Seattle, Delta was impressive) into Seattle I gave up my expensive seat up front, but still got an exit row. The over-wing exit handle was held in place by a piece of folded paper wedged into the cover. Not the most confidence inspiring repair I’ve ever seen on an airplane, but it works for the “it’ll do a trip” adage.

I’ve been thinking about this and every trip, be it pleasure or business, has a moment that defines the trip. Karaoke in Nagoya, the unexpected hole in the wall barbeque place we were steered towards in Long Beach and so on. Nothing many others have not written about in the past.

Tulsa (and I was only in Tulsa for 36 hours) brought up a number of themes. There was the exceptional (the steak in Mahogany’s), the “we tried, but were ultimately totally incompetent (the hotel) and the “WTF” (security guard). The security guard provided the title, but it was a close run thing.

I’ve not spent much time in the midwest, Oklahoma city, Whichita and a few days in Omaha is about it. The people are always interesting and they know how to cut, age and cook a steak, which neatly brings me too…

The Exceptional

As we were leaving the factory yesterday we asked for a recommendation for great steak, we are in the midwest and it seems natural, we were told Mahogany’s is the place. They were right, lets be clear the wagu beef I had in Japan a few years ago will always be number one on the great steak list, but the New York Strip last night is a serious contender for the runners up place. Perfectly prepared (medium rare, I think this may be perfect for me) with no unnecessary sauces or seasonings.

We spent a very happy couple of hours sitting at the bar in the restaurant enjoying great food and stories. And they had TV’s in gents, is this an awesome place or what?

The incompetent

The ME responsible for this partner made the hotel choice, this decision is going to haunt him for some time. In the reservation system at work the hotel was listed as a Radisson and was close to the airport. It not. Apparently under new management and while I do believe the Hotel was trying, they were completely incompetent.

And not just in the details either, it was the big things too. It took almost 30 minutes for the shuttle bus to pick me up from the airport on Tuesday night, yes it was past 11 at night, but I then found out the hotel was less than 200 yards from arrivals. Rather than wait for the bus this morning, I walked to the airport, and judging from the mood of the people waiting for the bus at 5 this morning I was there far quicker.

Then there was breakfast yesterday. We had to be at the partner at 8. We met for breakfast at 7, plenty of time one would think for three rounds of toast and some pancakes. 45 minutes later, after being assured the cook was “working as fast as he can” we gave up and went to work sans breakfast.

Then there was the mildly entertaining. The remote control to my sleep-number bed was missing, apparently taken by maintance to another room and never replaced. In the bathroom I had four bottles of conditioner, one of shampoo and no moisturizer. On the plus side they did have decent free beer available and poured in propper pints too, none of the Embassy Suites tiny glasses. Three pints of Blue Moon before we left for dinner did a lot to make up for the failings.

The hotel was trying, they really were, but ultimatly they fell well short. Yes I sound like a spoilt traveller, and I’ve stayed in far worse (anything with Oakland or Detroit Airport in the title for a start) but I just want to get on with my day, and that was tough to do here.

The WTF

We are in the midwest and things are different here. Being greeted with “god bless” as we walked into the security office to pick up our badges and wait for our escort into the factory was just the start of a very entertaining, and wonderfully non-politically correct 10 minutes.

While we were waiting the guard waved in a little black Mazda Miata, turned to the three of us and said with a chortle “She is so hot, I had to call her boss last summer and remind him to enforce the dress code.”

He rather wistfully continued “One morning you could see her panties and bra when she arrived. I told him that’s distracting. When she left you could not see them, she certainly took her bra off, and her panties too I think. She is really hot, and knows it. She was only here a couple of months before she netted herself an executive 20 years older than she was.”

“Anyway [our escort] is here, god bless, have a good visit.”

The three of us looked at each other and wandered off shaking out heads to do the production audit.

The weather as we flew into Salt Lake consisted of low cloud cover and lots of turbulence, even more than is usual coming into Salt Lake airport. However, as we were flying in the clouds parted just for  moment and got this picture of the Wasatch Range just North of Salt Lake City.

In about my favorite grocery store and tough decisions to make. I went with the salmon in the end. It became a very tasty part of a miso-saki marinated salmon, damn it was good. I’ve brought a couple of Japanese cookbooks and am slowly picking and choosing my way through them. I’ve not tried roll-your-own sushi yet, maybe one day.

One of those beautiful days that make the winter so much more bearable, not warm, but the sun was out and I did not have to work.

I actually got to go topless in the Miata today, yes the heater in the car was tuned all the way up, but first time this year and that always feels good. Wonderful, just wonderful.

I went for a wander around downtown Snohomish, stopped for lunch and a rather awesome IPA in Fred’s Rivertown Alehouse, unquestionably one of the best pubs in the Northwest. Great food and enough good beer to keep the most snobby of beer snobs happy.