Paris

After our week in London, we took the train through the "chunnel" to Paris. It's a very easy ride and only takes about 3 hours. Along the way, you see some very nice French countyside.

We had (again) a very nice hotel in Paris and in a very nice (upscale) neighborhood, about 5 blocks north of the Louvre. Paris is very beautiful and very walkable. In fact, it's so beautiful that my favorite thing to do was often just to wander around. We took in the major sites and quite a few lesser ones as well. I could have stayed another week. Also, I kicked the rust off my college french and enjoyed speaking with anyone willing to speak a little more slowly than usual so that I could understand them. There were, however, plenty of people who spoke english so I don't think there was much of a language barrier.

Parisien life is decidedly later than London life. In London, the pubs are hopping every day from about 5 pm to 8 pm. The crowds always spilled out onto the sidewalk, where you are allowed to bring your drink. Anytime you saw a crowd on the street at that time, you knew you were passing a pub. In Paris, I didn't see much of a happy hour crew. But, from about 9 pm to 11 pm, the cafes were full. As they do during the rest of the day, people re-arrange the sidewalk chairs to all face the street so they can chat while watching the world go by. We enjoyed doing the same.

Paris also has incredibly good bread and chocolate! The boulangerie (bakery) near our hotel sold fresh baguettes every morning for 0.88 euros (about $1.25). I did notice, however, that in less trendy neighborhoods, a baguette was closer to 0.80 euros. We could make up sandwiches for the 4 of us with one baguette. So, we bought sandwich fixings and made ourselves lunches to eat in the park as we toured around. Eating in the park was fun as you get to soak in more of everyday goings-on (like the sand castle building contest we saw a kindergarten-age class do in the park directly adjacent to Notre Dame!)

We were in Paris over the Bastille Day holiday (their 4th of July) and caught the fireworks at the Eiffel Tower. We walked back to the hotel, down the Champs Elysee after midnite, and the place was hopping! It was a long walk, as traffic was snarled and no cabs were to be found anyway, but it was so pretty that no one cared.

So, although we had to leave a few museums and a few neighborhoods unexplored, we enjoyed the visit quite a bit. And, I am told, we missed quite a heat wave while we were away!

London

No, this picture is neither a political statement nor a comment on my ability to follow directions! Last week we returned from a trip to Europe with the kids. We started with a week in London (and a side trip to Birmingham) and then went to Paris for a week. The weather was great and we got a chance to see a lot of the sites.

London was a lot of fun for the family. We have friends there who have kids around our kids' ages so they got to hang out. It also turned out that a friend of ours was there for the week (for work) in the same hotel - so we spent some time with her, too. I've been to London a number of times before so I was happy to be able to share some of the things I like about the city with the kids. The only down note of the week in London was that I picked up some kind of virus and ran a high fever. As a result, I spent the last three days there at the hotel, sleeping a lot.

But I did meet a very nice doctor who was a referral from the hotel front desk. He is in private practice in the neighborhood where we stayed (South Kensington). He also had the most elegant doctor's office I've ever been in - in a classic South Ken browstone. We got a chance to talk a little bit about medical care in the US and the States. Also, as a point of comparison, my office visit with him cost L105 which, at current exchange rates is about $170. That's probably pretty comparable to the states for a doctor visit in a large city I would think.

Since I couldn't really go out sight-seeing, I would just take a walk in the neighborhood or sit in the park (Kensington Park) and read the paper until I felt fatigued again and went back to the hotel. These lttle walks were rather interesting though, because I got to see some of the "regular" London life, albeit in an upscale part of town. One day I watched the procession of girls from a school in their uniforms (lavendar floral dresses, knee socks and matching jackets) go in groups to the church across the street for what appeared to be the end-of-year ceremonies. Each group would go in for about 15 minutes and upon return some would be carrying trophies of various sizes. In one case, a couple of girls came out crying (and trophy-less) and I wonder whether they had their heart set on some award which they did not win.

I also overheard a funny item between some American tourists. While sitting in Kensington Park near the Albert memorial, an American couple strolled by. The Albert Memorial is huge, with scenes from far off lands, like Indian elephants, African scenes and American bison, carved at the four corners of it's base. The woman stopped to take a picture when the man said "You already got that one." She replied "I did?" "Yes", he said "You know, it's the memorial to what-his-name...see, there's that college of... whatever in the background. You know the one they stopped working on back in...whenever." "Oh, yeah" she said. And she put her camera away. Now that's communicating!

First Chemo-Holiday Scan

Last week I had my first scan since coming off the drugs and then had a check up with Dr. S to go over the results. My CEA is up a bit and I had about the same amount of growth as I had last time, which was my last 2 months on treatment. So, it looks like the growth rate is the same with or without the meds. My total tumor volume is now just under it's original starting point. So we decided to stay on holiday for another two months and then do another scan in mid-August.

As for side effects, everything has cleared up except for the exhaustion. I'm still wiped out most of the time. Dr. S said that this is not unusual since I was in treatment for a long time. I will go in again in a month to see him and if I am still having fatigue issues, he could prescribe something (an energy pill?). In the meantime, good diet and regular exercise...

On a side note, in the subway coming home, there was a guy playing the stand-up bass. Curiously, the tune he seemed to be playing was "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas". So, he's either six months early, six months late or has a very limited repertoire! Or my hearing is off....

Happy Father's Day! BB

Baseball Trip

So after my turn on the soapbox, I went down to Baltimore to catch some baseball with my brother. We saw the Yanks beat the Orioles 4 -2 on Wednesday night at Camden Yards. Still a very nice stadium - and no wonder it set the standard for most stadiums built today. Thursday we went into DC to see the Nationals beat the Pirates, also 4 -2. The Nats have a brand new stadium and it's also very nice. It was great to spend some time with Kevin and to feed my baseball addiction!

Soapbox

Everyone should get an opportunity once in their life to stand on the soapbox in town square and make a political speech. I had mine last weekend. Last March, I heard about a group called “Coffee Party”. The name is a take-off on Tea Party but the agenda was about civil public discourse and moderation rather than a particular point of view. I looked to see if there was a meeting in my area and when I found none, I posted an invitation online. The location was a local coffee shop. Sixty people came. We decided to meet again the following month and 100 people came. The group identified five issues they were concerned about. They also wanted to set up regular monthly meetings. So, a committee of volunteers was formed.

At the next meeting, in May, the group wanted to go “public” with a rally on the Morristown Green. For the rally, three topics were selected – Wall Street Reform, Campaign Finance Reform and Bipartisanship. We held the rally last Saturday. We had a speaker on Wall Street Reform who did an excellent job of summarizing the roots of the financial crisis of 2008 and reviewing what the proposed “reform” bills say. This was a bit depressing since the proposed reform bills don’t really seem to address the issues. Next, we had a former congressional candidate from our district discuss issues related to fundraising when running for Congress and ways to improve transparency and honesty. And last, one of our local mayors spoke about working together – he is a Democratic mayor in a Republican town.

I did a short introductory speech on the role of government as laid out in the Preamble of the Constitution (as evidence of our Founders’ original intent). I was also interviewed on NJ cable news – a three minute interview that became a sound bite on that night’s news.

So now I’ve had my 15 minutes in politics. It was enough for me! But there is something purely American about speaking in your town’s square. Here’s my campaign photo…BB

Colonoscopies and Insurance

Colonoscopy fans: here's a link to a Q&A from the NY Times about access to colonoscopies under the new healthcare law. Thought I would share it.

http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/21/do-insurers-have-to-pay-for-colonoscopy-now/

We are all well here. Hope you are, too...BB

David at West Point

David's school track team competed in a big meet yesterday at the military academy at West Point. Since it's their biggest meet of the year and West Point is such a gorgeous area, I decided to drive up at see the meet. And it was a really nice day, too.

Dave did absolutely great! He ran the 800m and shaved 12 seconds off his personal best, running 2:28. He finished third in a very exciting race that came right down to the final 100 meters! And, his team won the meet! So, here are a couple of shots of him. Pre-race and coming down the stretch. Hope you don't mind me braggin' on the boy, but it was a lot of fun! BB