Signing Off

Today is my last post. Tomorrow, I will no longer be a Brit Abroad. After near 17 years living in Japan, Thailand, China and Mexico, six and a half of those writing this blog, I will be back 'home' in Britain, dragging my family back with me. 
It's been fun, documenting our adventures and sharing experiences of other cultures, while at the same time writing about music and books and stuff. I've been incredibly fortunate having had this opportunity to live in four amazing countries - the last three captured in this blog. 
I didn't think I'd keep it up, let alone write so much (some 1,750 posts!), but living in different cultures has meant there's always been stuff to write about. Not sure that'll apply when being back in Britain. Although thanks to last month's referendum it hardly seems the same country as the one we left, so maybe there will!  But that will be for another blog, maybe.

Everglades

A daytrip to the Everglades National Park, west of Miami - the last tropical wilderness in the US. My first trip in an airboat (very fast, very noisy) and the first time I've ever held a crocodile - even if it was only a baby one. There were big ones a plenty elsewhere. 

Americana

Miami Beach, particularly South Beach (or SoBe as it's called locally) is famous for its Art-Deco architecture. Our hotel is a fairly typical example, a couple of blocks back from the beach. It's been beautifully renovated, as have most buildings in the neighbourhood. It has a pristine feeling, or even that we're in a theme park, but that's a minor gripe: it really is beautiful. Interestingly, the hotel doesn't have a restaurant. Its reception area simply has a help-yourself assortment of croissants, fruit & coffee in the morning and cheese & wine in the early evening. Civilised.
Outside is a small but decent pool and glass table tennis table.
Across the road is a classic 50s diner, converted from one of those wonderful aluminum (did I get the spelling right?) rocket caravans. Fantastic brunches, burgers, pastrami-on-rye, and apple pie milkshakes (they just cut a big slice from an apple pie and throw it in the liquidiser along with some milk & ice-cream). Heaven.

Happy 4 July

Drove 240 miles down the Florida Turnpike from Orlando to Miami Beach. It's Independence Day so plenty of stars & stripes everywhere. But what really grabs our attention are the cool, lo-rise art-deco buildings, the steel diner across the road from our hotel (where we will eat pretty much the whole time) and the crystal clear sea. Perfect. Check out the temperature: it's off the scale.

Kennedy Space Center

Today we got educational and drove east across Florida's pancake-flat landscape to the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral. Fascinating place where they launch most of NASA's rockets and which these days has an impressive visitors centre. Got to see the control rooms, space shuttle, lunar modules, launch gantries and a 'terrifying' ride in a space shuttle simulator (which was laughable compared with the Harry Potter rides yesterday). It was a relief to be indoors for the most part; outside must have been 40 degrees.      

Shoot 'Em Up

In our Orlando hotel, we spotted this tempting leaflet. Three weeks ago a guy walked into a nearby club and killed 49 people and wounded 53 others. The word 'inappropriate' comes to mind.  

The Wizzarding World of Harry Potter

Hogsmeade & Hogwarts

All day spent at the Wizzarding World of Harry Potter in Universal theme park. It's actually two separate places: Hogsmeade in one part of the theme park, and Diagon Alley in another - the two linked by a short train ride (the Hogwarts Express).
It was fantastic and of course the girls loved it. Architecturally, it looked exactly like the films, down to the last detail. The vertiginous Hogwarts, the village with its wand shop, wonky Diagon Alley and Gringots Bank, butterbeer at the Leaky Cauldron, the triple-decker bus and so on. The rides were amazing - somewhat terrifying for a 50something adult, but the girls kept going back for more. 
I particularly liked the Hogwarts Express with its very realistic Kings Cross and Platform 9¾, including clever 'push-the-trolley-through-the-wall' trick using mirrors. The train interior took me back to grimey but comforting 1970s British Rail carriages, and we loved the video and visual effects as the train compressed London-to-Hogwarts in 5 mins.
We didn't spend much time in the rest of the park - Jurassic Park ride, Dr Seuss. It was all about Potter. Worth the money.

Farewell 4

Farewell Mexico!  It was fun while it lasted. Only 2 years - would have happily stayed longer but job done and it's time to return 'home'. We really enjoyed it here: the culture, the climate, the job (for all its occasional, mostly recent, stresses & strains), our home in Polanco, the friends we made, exploring the country. The girls liked their school, and Liz especially got a lot out of our time here: speaking Spanish, silversmithing, cooking classes, the international (particularly) Japanese contingent at school, Mexican culture generally. 
It seems like only yesterday that Eduardo collected us from the airport, yet now he's depositing us back at Benito Juarez Terminal 1, for the last time. The things I put my family through!  Still, it's not directly home - we're breaking the journey in Florida for some much-needed R&R. 

Farewell 3

This time to the office, who threw a party. I was a bit nervous, given the recent HR issues, but it was very nice and I felt a lot of warmth from colleagues. So goodbye - or hopefully hasta luego - lovely colleagues! 

Brexit Thoughts

Pondering on the referendum as it begins to sink in. Without fear of blowing things out of proportion, to me it's... well, it's a catastrophe. 
I grew up loving the idea of 'Europe'. Grimms, Tintin and Asterix; Belle and Sebastian, Jeux Sans Frontieres and European footie on the telly; camping holidays; the first album I ever bought being Dutch (Focus 3), followed by Krautrock, Heldon, Magma and a fixation with all things Eurorock; Bowie's 'Berlin' period; getting into films by Herzog, Fassbender, Truffaut, Goddard etc; living in Strasbourg for a year; an Italian girlfriend; the food; the edginess & mystery of the Iron Curtain... 
When we joined the EU in 1973, it somehow brought all the above closer to home. Sure, the institutions of Brussels and Strasbourg were (still are) kind of impenetrable and aloof, and some of the directives, the Common Agricultural Policy etc aren't perfect. But anything that brings countries together is a good thing in my book. And of course there's never been a war between EU countries (the Balkans was pre those countries joining, right?). 
But the thing that really depresses me is what the vote signifies. Basically, it says We don't like you. We don't want to be part of Europe, we're proud Little Englanders, we don;t want you coming into our country and taking our jobs, we can't be bothered to speak other languages and who won the war anyway? 

Farewell 2

Unbelievable. The people have voted and... we're out of the EU. We were saying goodbye to some friends over dinner in a restaurant in Roma, confident that by the end of it (we're 7hrs behind UK time), we'd still be in the EU. Our friends were Mexican, Japanese, Dutch, and American. Furtive glances at smartphones as the meal progressed. "Don't worry, it'll be like the Scottish referendum". But by the time we'd said our goodbyes it didn't look promising. "Well, good luck" said our Dutch friends. By the time we got home we were out. I can't quite believe it. Is it a bad dream?

Farewell

This morning I took part in a small but moving ceremony to commemorate Jo Cox, the MP who was senselessly murdered last week and whose 42nd birthday it would have been today. There were about 40 of us gathered in the garden of the British Embassy. There were similar events in Trafalgar Square, Batley and Spen (her constituency), New York, Nairobi, Beirut and many other cities around the world. I read a poem. It was good to do.

Puebla

Puebla may have a population of over 3 million but it feels a lot smaller. Nice cathedral, lovely squares, but the two most striking things about the city are the colour of its houses and the gorgeous tiles everywhere. We bought a boxful, though it was tempting to get crates of the stuff. And why not paint our house in Chichester pink while we're about it? Works here, but in overcast England, perhaps not.  

Round the Volcanos

This morning we drove south-east from Mexico City, taking a circuitous route around the two volcanoes, Iztaccihuatl and Popcatapetl, both over 5,000m, and descending to Puebla via Cholula. Cholula is the site of an enormous Mesoamerican pryamid which gives Giza a run for its money. Much of it now looks like a hill, but bits have been restored and there's a tunnel which goes deep inside. When the Spanish came in the 16th Century they massacred a lot of people and plonked a church on top of it.
Our hotel in the centre of Puebla is one of the nicest we've stayed in in Mexico.  

Alfa 91.3

It would be fair to say that the in-car soundtrack of our time here has been Toño Esquinca's show on Alfa 91.3.  Donde Todo Nace!  So here are 15 songs that Alyssa has picked out which will always remind me of Mexico, even if none of them are Mexican. 

1. Stitches by Shawn Mendes
2. Hello, by Adele
3. Shit Up & Dance With Me, by Walk The Moon
4. Hotline Bling, by Drake
5. Stressed Out, by Twenty One Pilots
6. Cake by the Ocean, by ONCE
7. Can't Stop the Feeling, by Justin Timberlake
8. 7 Years, by Lukus Graham
9. Photograph, by Ed Sheeran
10. Fast Car, by James Blue
11. Adventures of a Lifetime, by Coldplay
12. Love Me Like You Do, by Ellie Golding
13. Geronimo, by Sheppard
14. Don't Let Me Down, by Chainsmokers
15. Sorry, by Justin Timberlake

Sizzling Hermosillo

Today I find myself in Hermosillo, state capital of Sonora in the north-west of Mexico, 200 miles from the US border. It's in the middle of nowhere, arid and incredibly hot. Yesterday was a jaw-dropping 46C. Today, a mere 42C but still, I think, the highest temperature I've experienced anywhere in the world. I'm here to sign an MoU with their Minister of Culture, as part of a broader series of events which include trade and education. The formality of the occasion means I have to wear a suit and tie but thankfully it's very dry heat and amazingly I hardly break sweat.    

Rio 2

A day walking the steep streets of Santa Teresa including the beautifully tiled Escadario Selaron; a cable car ride to the top of Sugar Loaf mountain; a make-believe game of footie on the beach. 
Yet somehow we're a bit disappointed. It's overcast, the streets are fairly quiet, and there's a cordoned off area of the beach where a body had been found. 
I mean, we weren't expecting Carnival and we didn't do the nightlife, but somehow, especially with the OIympics just round the corner, we were thinking it was going to be full of joie-de-vivre. Maybe our expectations were just way too high - I mean Rio! - or maybe the financial stresses of preparing for the Olympics is stressing everyone out. 

The Boys From Brazil

View from Christ the Redeemer

To be in Sao Paulo on a Weds & Thurs, well, who wouldn't grab the opportunity to hop over to Rio de Janeiro for the weekend?  So I did, joined by my good friend Bats. 
What a fabulous setting: the bay, the hills, the beach. We stayed at the southern end of the Copacabana, near Ipanema, and ate in the cafe where the 'The Girl From...' was written. Then took a taxi to the statue of Christ the Redeemer which was shrouded in cloud for most of the time, but at a viewing point a bit lower down had fantastic views. Can't believe I'm here.

Sao Paulo

Itau Culturel's botanical prints collection

With a month to go before we leave the Americas, I'm v grateful for an 11th hour opportunity to visit Brazil. It's a regional meeting in Sao Paulo, so I'll be in a conference room for most of the time but, hey, I'm not grumbling. 
I arrived in the morning so had the affernoon to look around, mainly the downtown Avenida Paulista area. Couple of interesting museums. The Museo de Arte de Sao Paulo (MASP) is a strange building on legs and, like the Soumaya Museum in Mexico City, its top-floor gallery exhibits paintings 'in the round' (ie you can see front & back). Just as strange is the Itau Culturel which houses a fantastically displayed botanical prints collection. 

Close To The Noise Floor

MFH / Pump's second life continues with a track on Close To The Noise Floor: Formative UK Electronica 1975-1984 out on Cherry Red this month. We are in exalted company: early Human League, Heaven 17, OMD, Throbbing Gristle, Blancmange, John Foxx... and a whole slew of lesser-knowns and bedroom bands. 
Our track is 'Mistral' from the MFH Ground Zero cassette album - an airy but edgy instrumental recorded in a bungalow in Cornwall in '81. It's a 4CD set complete with comprehensive notes and an essay by Dave Henderson. A fine piece of cultural documentation which unearths the key role of early analogue synthesizers in post-punk experimentalism. There are omissions: most importantly The Normal's 'Warm Leatherette' and no Cabaret Voltaire for example. But it's the additions that are intriguing. And the reviews have so far been excellent.