Lazy Summer Days

Every weekend we say it's going to be the last nice weekend of the summer and then the next weekend is also lovely. (This weekend is seriously supposed to be the last nice weekend though!). Every weekend for the last few weeks Matt and I have participated in a long-time British summer tradition for nice days: lazing about in a park. This involves:

1.) A picnic. The traditional English garden picnic is an elaborate affair. They are very serious here about picnic baskets with real dishes and cups and silverware. Below is not an uncommon sight when a group comes to the park:

Other people will just swing by a grocery shop and pick up some drinks, baguettes, sliced meats and cheeses, and fruit.

Matt and I pretty much slum it. We make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and bring along Cokes and apples.

Not too bad though. Usually from where we live, it takes about 25 minutes to walk to a good picnic spot in Hampstead Heath. (Hampstead Heath is this huge park in the middle of north London. It's really hilly and has woodland, fields of heath, swimming ponds, etc, etc.)


2.) Hanging out in the park inevitably involves some napping.

Sometimes you try to read, but it's so warm and comfy.

3.) A view. The area where we live in called Highgate, aptly, because it's high up on a hill or ridge from which you can look down into the city and see everything. Hampstead Heath is on the same ridge looking down onto the city center, so you usually get a good view to enjoy.


4.) Last week we decided to wander through upper Hampstead Heath. Most of the major parks in London used to be under private ownership and were given as 'gifts to the nation' so sometimes, they used to be part of estates, and will keeping the estate house in the grounds, usually turned into a museum or private venue for weddings or events. Hampstead Heath used to be part of the estate of Kenwood, and Kenwood House still keeps its fantastic location looking down into the city, surrounded by idyllic ponds, tree-lined avenues and extensively manicured gardens. Luckily that week, it was a free open weekend, so we didn't have to pay admission! It was really, really nice inside as you might expect of a stately home. It had an amazing art collection actually with works by Stubbs, Gainsborough and Rembrandt among others. Here is a picture of the outside as it would have looked riding up in a carriage:


5.) Activity of some sort. Usually this is reading a book, but I got this Stonehenge cross-stitch bookmark kit when we went to Stonehenge and I am cross-stitching it so sometimes I work on that, usually with very little success. Matt sometimes brings along the math stuff he's trying to teach himself in preparation for reading a tough economics book. But today we spent almost three hours at Hampstead Heath, during which we didn't accomplish anything except Matt did one math problem and I sewed 15 stitches. The rest of the time we watched people, rested, talked, and wished we had a dog.

All in all, we've been pretty lazy on weekends, but you must enjoy the weather while you can in Britain. Soon it will be cold and rainy and DARK.

On The Economy

This is a rare post about the issues, not Grace and I's lives.

Given my background and my current occupation, I've been following the current economic turmoil in the US, and indeed the world, closely. And I've become extremely concerned about the plan being proposed by US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson (I'm not alone - see this article, for instance). I'm worried that, in our haste to take action against the economic crisis, we're going to vote for a really dangerous plan that we'll come to regret in the coming months and years. Accordingly, I've written my representatives in the Senate and Congress to encourage them to take the time needed to really evaluate this proposal objectively. Paul Krugman has written a good column nicely explaining the problems of the bill, and its worth a read here. I'll lay out my worries here, but if you want to understand the situation or the logic behind the plan I recommend Krugman's article.

1 - Lack of Oversight: The plan contains a clause exempting Paulson from any oversight - from the Judicial or legislative branches of our government - in his conduct in exercising the plan. Since the plan involves at least $700 billion (see concern #2), that is giving an unprecedented amount of power to the Treasury secretary. If the secretary purchases 'toxic' assets from firms (including his former employer, Goldman Sachs) at inflated prices, it would be a subsidy for investment banks funded by the taxpayer, and we would have no recourse. We would likewise have no recourse if we don't agree to the terms he grants, if we don't agree to the contracts he awards to manage the debt, if we don't agree to the level of spending (which could balloon past $700 billion - see below), if he appoints cronies to positions of influence - nothing. Maybe you trust Secretary Paulson. But do you trust Obama? McCain? The race is close and one of them will be in charge of appointing someone in January. They could ask Paulson to stay, but there's no guarantee. Furthermore, while Paulson may be an honest guy doing his best, he's only been in this position for a year and a half and he (or anyone) has never faced a situation like this.

2 - The Cost: As I understand it, the plan lets the Treasury take on $700 billion worth of debt at any one time. For comparison's sake, that amount is more than the cost of the entire Iraq war (which has cost roughly $580 billion over the last five years) or more than the annual budget of the Department of Defense, the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services combined. It's true that we may be able to sell back that debt to the private sector in a few years and greatly recoup our losses, or perhaps even turn a profit. But it's also true that the terms of the deal allow the Treasury to take on $700 billion worth of debt, sell it to the private sector at a massive loss, then take on a second $700 billion in debt (you just can't have more than $700 billion at any one time as I understand it, but even that might be flexible), sell that on for a loss and so on, accumulating losses to no end. And because of concern #1, we wouldn't be able to do anything about that.

The cost of the bailout is such that you should forget everything you have heard from Barack Obama and John McCain about tax cuts and new spending programs, in my opinion. They will all have to go back to the drawing board, whether or not they want to admit it.

3 - Socialising The Losses: There are other plans in circulation (see this, for example) that do not involve such a massive commitment by the taxpayers. What is our upside in this? Is America really going to pursue an economic system where profits are private but losses are public? There needs to be consequences for the decision makers in these failing firms.

I want to stress that I think a massive government intervention is probably necessary, and taxpayers may need to shell up $700 billion or more to save the economy, in the end. But this plan is not the best one available, and the last thing I feel comfortable doing is giving the Bush administration more executive power. Fortunately, I think our representatives are looking out for us. Senator Chris Dodd, for example, has circulated a plan which is getting better reviews from the economists I read and trust. Think about writing your representatives and telling them not to rush into anything that is going to be another Bush fiasco with a price tag in the hundreds of billions.

UPDATE (submitted by Grace this time): Krugman (or as Matt and I call him, The Krug) is talking a lot more about this proposal and strongly advocates that in return for taking on this toxic debt and giving private companies (which have wilfully and negligently bankrupted themselves) cold hard cash for it, the American taxpayer should be given an equity stake on the off chance that maybe we can recover some of our losses. He says for him it is an absolute deal or no deal point. Read his ideas about it here.

FURTHER UPDATE: What does everyone else think? Feel free to sound off under comments.

EVEN FURTHER UPDATE: I've just learned that the Fed and the Treasury plan to buy these toxic assets NOT AT MARKET VALUE but at what they WOULD be worth, basically, if they were not toxic--ie the full value that they would have if those bad loans were fully and faithfully paid back. I'm sorry but that one makes no sense to me (Grace), maybe Matt or one of you can explain it.

Thames River Festival

Grace and I took the day to head down to the Thames river to enjoy probably the last day of good weather for eight months. There is a big festival on this weekend around the Thames and, it being free, it sounded like the perfect event for us.



For me, I was particularly interested in two things.

1 - Fresh fried donuts
2 - The traditional boat race

Fresh fried donuts are delicious, but I can only ever find them at festivals. They are a priority at any festival - in fact, they are reason enough to go to a festival. We found some and settled down on the river to wait for the boats.



They were supposed to start coming at 3:00, and I had no idea what to expect. Apparently there were a lot of boats. More than 200 I think. They were on a 22-mile race.

Anyway, we waited, and waited, but no boats came. And the donuts were not as good as we've come to expect. A first time for everything. At 3:30 we gave up on seeing the boats and went wandering.



What's a UK street without living statues?




On the course of wandering around we heard from one of the stages this really cheesy DJ. But as we passed by, we realised it wasn't a cheesy DJ, it was one beatboxing guy, making all the noises with his own mouth (and throat and everything). We started to listen, and before long we were hooked on 'the Petebox' (get it?).

He started out simple, and cheesy.



Then, he showed how he could perform vocals and lay down a beat at the same time.



I was impressed. Grace was impressed. We kept watching. Next he showed how he could use pedals to loop his vocals (record them and then have them repeat over and over). With that, he could make layered songs, with recordings of himself backing himself up. And he did just that.



When he finished up, we went to a cafe to use some free wireless to download some stuff for Grace's computer, and then left to spend a half hour at an art exhibition in the National Gallery Grace wanted to see (it's on "Love").

On the way to the museum, we finally saw those boats.



When we got to the museum, we were extremely confused. The exhibition on love seemed to feature mostly portraits of old white guys looking straight out. There was one of a monk contemplating death. We were scratching our heads a lot.

Then we realised we were in the wrong room.

Bernice's Visit Part Deux

...Following on from Matt's post below...

The next day poor Matt had to wake up at 6:30 and go to work! Bernice and I slept in quite late and then hit the museums.

We first went to the Science museum, which Bernice liked, because she's science-y. Next, we went very briefly to the Natural History Museum to do one of the best parts: riding an escalator through a giant paper mache model of the earth. Then we went to the Victoria and Albert Museum, where we saw the jewelry collection. Holy moly, there were some huge gems in that exhibit. All under glass, of course. It was well bling-bling.

Then we walked through Hyde Park to get to Oxford Street and Primark, the cheap clothing store. Bernice bought some stuff, and I did too. The vast majority of our purchases was black tights. I bought a throw blanket for the couch. (It was only 2 pounds/$4!) Matt met us at Primark, and we decided to try to see a show. Bernice's choice: Wicked The Musical. Well, I'm not a huge musical fan. But we all really, really liked it! Matt and I even downloaded the soundtrack from iTunes.

The next day Matt went to work again. Bernice and I went to the Tower of London, which is always awesome. We had a really good Beefeater tour guide. He reminded me of Steve Coogan (who is in that movie Hamlet 2, unheard of in the US until now, but he's a huge star in the UK). Then Bernice and I went to eat at Wagamama (the same restaurant chain in which I have previously been stalked by a certain British theatre actor) and we both really liked it, but Matt hates it. They have these strange desserts like chocolate cake with wasabi cream, and strawberry cheesecake with ginger. Bernice and I tried the chili and lime pavlova with raspberry sauce. It was strange. The whole time we were eating it we couldn't really tell if we loved it or hated it.

After the Tower, we went to the National Portrait Gallery, which is one of my favourite art museums in London. We saw all the old Tudor and Elizabethan portraits that you see in European History textbooks.

The next day we went to Madame Tussauds wax museum. The following pictures are the fruits of our labours there:








It was simultaneously the creepiest and coolest thing. Of all the weird, creepy statues there, for some reason I was most creeped out by Patrick Stewart.

Next, we went to the National Gallery, where we were met by Matt and then we grabbed some pizza and saw Wall-E for Orange Movie night. It was cute.

This morning, I took Bernice down to Gatwick Airport and she just sent me an email from Greece saying she loves it already... so it must be good!

Now it's time to hunker down and look for A JOB!

Bernice's Visit

We've been back in the UK since Friday with Grace's sister Bernice visiting. It's been kind of an extension of our holiday in the USA.

On Friday we didn't do much except trek home. Things in the UK weren't working very well on our arrival. The passport line was drastically understaffed at Gatwick airport and Grace and I ended up waiting in line for two hours before they finally got to us. Then we were through in one minute. After that it took us another two hours to catch a train, then a taxi home. Everyone kind of collapsed after that. It was rainy and, by the time we were up again, it was close to six. So we went for a walk in the neighborhood, and got stranded in a really, really bad rainstorm (shoes like boats with water sloshing around in them, an extra ten pounds of water in your clothes).

But we bounced back on Saturday, getting up relatively early (9:30 is early for jetlagged people) and heading out to Cambridge for a daytrip. We snuck in a punting trip in the one hour of sunshine - perfect timing. And my punting was spectacular I would say. Not very fast, and there was some wasted effort, but we went in a straight line (relatively) and we went where I wanted us to go. Maybe it was easier without trying to simultaneously drink a corona.

Visiting Cambridge is great with nerds. Both Bernice and our friend Keith are in biology, and they are the only people enthusiastic about making a trek out to a monument to the discovery of DNA by Watson and Crick. In my eyes, its not a great monument, tucked off the main path, next to a parking lot. But Bernice, like Keith when he visited, took a picture and seemed pumped.

Otherwise we showed Bernice some colleges (my student ID is valid until January 2009) and the Fitzwilliam Museum. Grace was excited about the museum because it has a large ceramics section and I don't really like ceramics (at all). Bernice does though, so Grace got to see them.

We've also discovered the gardens of Clare college. It's a good garden. No seriously. Lots of weird paths that wind to different plants and sections. You'll be walking along and stumble upon a sunken pond, or a banana plant forest. Here are some banana plants.


We also caught up with some friends living there. One of them works in London and takes the train in. We have the same commute time, which is crazy. It's because she lives a two minutes walk from the Cambridge train station, where she can take a 45 minute express train to London King's Cross. From there it's a short walk to work. I take two buses across London, for a one hour trip, door to door.

Getting back to Cambridge was a bit miserable. We didn't want to leave by 6, when the last express trains leave, because we were still talking with our friends. We decided to eat before we left and had a really slow service at a restaurant, then waited for 20 minutes for a bus. I got fed up waiting and said we should walk, and then five minutes later the bus whizzed past us. Around 10:00 we got to the train station, took the 75 minute non-express train.

Taking the late train to London on a weekend is a bit hairy. It's like the drunk bus in a US college town. Lots of kids get on and are rowdy. We moved cars when the girl seated next to us started to vomit. Grrreat.

The next day we got up even earlier and took a 90 minute train to Salisbury. We were going to see...



Stonehenge!

We took a bus ("the stonehenge tour") from the train station and boom, we were there!

There were audioguides.



They were really, um, informative. Basically it said:

We don't know what stonehenge is for
We don't know how they made this thing, but the stones are from 20 miles away, and 200+ miles away.
It wasn't built by the druids. Don't be fooled. They came later.

Somehow they managed to stretch this out to an hour.

As for the stones themselves, they're puzzling. You can't get close to them, there's a roped off path. They look really heavy. Here they are with some crows, so you can get a sense of scale.



It's a relatively remote place. Almost 10 miles outside Salisbury, in a field (with a road running right by). Really windy out there.

There is one thing I liked. There's this rock placed maybe 200 meters outside the circle, and it's left uncarved and put into the earth at an angle, so it looks like its pointing to the circle. Creepy?



Anyway, we also went to see Salisbury Cathedral, which has a really tall spire. Check it out.


No pictures allowed inside. Sorry.

We made it on the 4:30 train, and were home before seven. No drunkies this time, very classy. The Thommandru sisters fell asleep on the ride and I read about physics - it's a shame no one else living in this flat finds them interesting to talk about, cause I am excited about this book. Upon arrival at our flat, we made dinner and watched I Am Legend. The end.