The Hawker’s Trip in the U.S. - Follow up and Next Steps

The Hawker’s U.S. trip blog is over. An era in history has come to an end. I had thought of a further entry for the U.S. Trip blog, but even readers of this blog can have too much of a good thing and my alter ego, Grumpy, has been waiting for weeks to get a look in.

Nevertheless, there is some unfinished business on the U.S. Blog. Mark Hookey was kind enough not to point that that “Next Steps and Follow up” was missing. He should have said to me, “Colin, as a good Black Belt, you really must include what has to be followed up. There is no hope for a project manager, whose power point presentation does not conclude with Next Steps”. (The end of the Grand Old Duke of York’s PowerPoint presentation, said: “Next Steps, “March Down the Hill – deadline Next Tuesday”. However, Mark and I were too busy talking about the forthcoming St Andrew’s bazaar to talk about this.

On our return to Thalwil, I compiled a huge list of things to be done. Mostly housekeeping and normal administration, such as “Get the Fuse Box in the house installed properly” and “Keep fingers crossed until Fuse Box is properly installed.” But there are a number of items that arise directly from the holiday itself, and I am not just referring to paying bills and checking Credit Card Bills to see how much restaurants have added on.

For example, there are Photos to be sorted. There were 2,700 photos to be sorted and filed. Naming, uploading, and slimming down (but never deleting) before showing them to friends, family and other victims are still outstanding. There are hours of delightful sadism to look forward to. “Now here is another picture of a tree…….”

Then there is the 1,000 piece jigsaw, showing all the U.S. states bought from the very dangerous and addictive book store chain “Barnes and Nobles”. This jigsaw has now been spread out over the Grand Piano, and is in the “Sorting into colours and shapes” stage. Forget about edges. This jigsaw is in the shape of the U.S. and has no edges. I have no idea how I am going to mount this on to the wall.

There is U.S. literature to read. Yes - the U.S. has literature. As we passed through that “Centre of U.S. Culture, Minneapolis”, even Grumpy could not fail to pick up Scott Fitzgerald. I now feel obliged to read some U.S. literature. I have finished “The Love of the Last Tycoon” (Fitzgerald) and am now working my through “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” (Mark Twain). Having mentioned this idea to Dawn (of Norwalk, Connecticut fame; remember “Sorry we burned down your town”), she gave me three more books to read, as part of the “Make Grumpy a cultured person” project.

At risk of being further bombarded by emails from Charlie Dwyer, I should point out, that the Centre of U.S. Culture is a controversial point with people from New York / New Jersey. Actually I rather appreciate emails from Charlie Dwyer, heckling or otherwise, so I will leave the point at that. I am sure that we can develop this into an entire entry on the blog. “Discuss in not more than 10,000 words, whether New York is more of a cultural centre than Minneapolis” – Whooaaa – I could be stirring up something here.

On the technical front, I bought a little gizmo to improve the wireless reception of my laptop, from a Radio Shack shop in Oregon. I never thought to ask whether it was Windows 7 compatible. Need I say more?

Only 48 items on the list to go.