It’s been a while since I’ve been through O’Hare, but it feels just like home. Thinking back on it, I must have passed through this airport hundreds of times in my travels over the years. So this time, for a change, I snapped a few photographs. Just in case I get old and forgetful and want to remember what Chicago O’Hare used to look like…

Concourse B of Terminal 1 at Chicago O’Hare, where United’s flights are based

The weird, wonderful underground walkway between Concourses B & C. Sadly, they no longer pipe in Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ like they used to…

The Red Carpet Club at Concourse C. How many hours of my life have been spent in here?

The United Airbus 320 that’s about to become UA144 from ORD-BWI, taking me to see my parents

After a lot of hard work, it’s finally time for a vacation! We decided to spend five days in France skiing at Font Romeu, followed by another five days in Washington visiting my parents.

We arrived in France on Friday, greeted by weather that was 10° warmer than London! That changed quickly as we climbed into the mountains, where we found excellent snow conditions. When we woke up one Saturday morning, the skies were blue and clear, the temperature was just above freezing, and the skiing conditions were ideal. We had a great day of skiing, and went back to the hotel in the evening to enjoy the sauna and jacuzzi.

Overnight that night, we were kept awake by the sound of howling wind. We woke up the next morning to find that we had had four or five inches of new snow overnight, with continuing snowfall through the day. Obviously, this was good for skiing in the long term, but the cold, foggy, frosty conditions meant that skiing was difficult on our second day, with several of the runs closed due to poor visibility. Our third day, however, was perfect, with warm temperatures, great snow coverage, and slopes that weren’t too busy.

Aude skiing!

Somehow we managed to get onto separate lifts…

Quite a view!

Quite an outfit!

Venison stew and red wine at the bottom of the piste.

I’ve been talked into going skiing in two weeks, something I haven’t done in ten years. I’m really looking forward to it. I just spoke to my boss, who is away skiing this week, and he tells me the conditions are really great. I checked the resort’s website and they’re reporting 1.20m of snow coverage, with more snow expected in the next few days.

One small glitch. Since I haven’t been skiing in ten years, I haven’t got any clothing or equipment. It’s not really worth spending a fortune, because I’m not sure how much more use I’ll get out of it. Silly to spend several hundred pounds on new kit only to wear it once, right?

No problem, I think. E-bay will provide a bargain. And it did — of sorts. I managed to pick up a parka, salopettes, and gloves for £15 (that’s about $25 for you Americans following along). It’s good-quality stuff, warm and in good condition, and the jacket even has built-in avalanche rescue device. Quality stuff.

It’s just the colour. You know what they say about a picture being worth a thousand words? Well here, have three thousand:

(Yes, okay, this photograph was taken in my bathroom. Sorry, but it’s the biggest mirror I have in the house!)

Aude helpfully pointed out that “at least she wouldn’t lose me on the slopes.“

And I’ve got a sense of humour to match the best of them. I don’t mind looking like a tit. At least everyone will be watching as I wipe out.

Well, it’s taken me a little while to get these photos edited, but I’ve finally managed to find a few spare minutes. Faouzia, one of our friends who used to work with Aude, has decided to move back to France with her boyfriend. So we all had a big celebratory dinner to say farewell.

Les gonsesses

Aude & Matt

Vinka & Aude

Marjo, shy as ever

It was a beautiful Saturday yesterday, so we decided to spend the day in London. We took a ride on the London Eye, because neither Anne-Laure nor Aude had been on it yet. The weather was clear and sunny, the perfect day to ride toe Eye. I’ve only ridden the Eye once before and it was cloudy — not nearly as nice.

Matt and Aude on the London Eye

After riding the London Eye, we took a long walk down the South Bank of the Thames and stopped at Borough Market for some lunch. I can’t believe how big Borough Market has become — after years of neglecting food, it seems the British have finally adopted the food culture and are taking what they eat much more serious these days.

Later in the afternoon, we headed over to Olympia to see the Vive La France exhibition. There were loads of vendors there — French language courses, French holidays, French wine and cheese, French restaurants — basically, if it was French and you could buy it in Britain, the vendor was at the show.

The girls managed to find a stall that interested them:

The resulting photographs are shocking. I advice viewer discretion:

We finished the afternoon with a bottle of a rose Beaujolais Nouveau, something I’ve never tried before, then headed over to RSJ Restaurant on the South Bank before catching our train back to London.

All in all, a very nice way to spend a Saturday!

I realise that I haven’t written much on the blog in recent days. That’s partly because there isn’t much to write about, and partly because I’ve been working very hard over the past few weeks. It’s a grey and miserable day right now, and somehow that’s reflected in my client. There’s something grey and miserable about working at this site. My office doesn’t look out onto a window and there’s no chance to get outside during the day — two luxuries I had down at Pfizer that I really miss.

The commute is growing tiresome — there was a big accident on the M25 last night which meant my journey home took nearly four hours. GPS to the rescue — I set the satellite navigation to guide me around the accident and set off into the countryside.

Roads all look the same to GPS. So instead of taking me down the main roads, GPS had me racing through the countryside, down single-lane roads in the middle of fields. I had absolutely no concept of where I was, and couldn’t find the roads again if you paid me. Still, it got me around the traffic, so I guess there’s something to be said for it.

One thing that constantly amazes me is how close the city and country are in England. It’s not unusual (as is the case with Xerox) to find a big office building next to an agricultural field (and remember, we’re only 5 miles from Heathrow Airport and 15 miles from downtown London).

Also note that the cow field is right next door to a McDonalds (where I took the photo — Xerox is the grey building in the background). I’m all for knowing the source of my food, but putting the food chain right outside the window of McDonalds seems a little cruel — to the diners and to the cows!