Foot race

It's a small world is an expression which is used disproportionately by Earthlings, but it does seem to raise its head every now and again with great relevance.

Take our trip to Boston and Falmouth in Cape Cod. The football festival in honour of SWMBO's brother  was a great success and the organisation was augmented by a PA announcer through out. Marc Davis is a teacher and cross country running coach but in the day he was a 3000m steeplechaser. He ran the PA system for us, and then this weekend he is going to be the finishing line commentator for the Falmouth 7.1k fun run. This will be the 50th year of the race and it is a linear route from the lighthouse to the Shipwrecked pub. The strange distance is due to the fact that it started as a pub run with about 6 bars being embraced on the route. I don't think many competitors stop on the way round these days.

Marc reached the final of the steeplechase at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. He broke his foot in the semi- final so ended 12th in the final. SWMBO and I were in the Olympic stadium little knowing we would meet Marc 25 years later. Interestingly he shared an agent with Michael Johnson who we also saw win the 400m final in his golden boots.

Diners dollars and dimes

 As my invincibility at knock-out golf disintegrates, it is time to take a break and travel again. This time we are attending the 10th anniversary football festival in Boston in memory of SWMBO brother Marin, who died there so young.

Firstly though we are having some beach time in Falmouth,Cape Cod. From the shore we  can watch the ferries to Martha's Vineyard and the whale watch vessels plying their trade. All very relaxing.

There are  similarities with our cruise to Croatia in so much as each town has a Main Street a ferry terminal and a harbour inlet. Main difference is that real estate prices start at about $2m. Yesterday we went to Hyannis where JFK had his Summer House. and we will drop into Sandwich on our way up to Boston on Thursday.

The motor Inn we are staying at has limited facilities although the pool is very handy, so we are eating out for breakfast and dinner. The diner options are interesting. The nearest,the Black Dog, is a semi-take-away with good coffee and muffins. Yesterday we tried a Portuguese cafe but that was poor, so Shipwrecked, on the beach is winning so far with just Betsy's to try tomorrow.

Evening meals have been good with the obligatory burger and Guinness in the local Irish bar followed by two Italian meals. The first was great but the second didn't suit me as their starter filled me up too much and the rissotto was too stoggy and a bit like porridge.

Micro breweries seem to be everywhere with cloudy IPA dominating, but the search for an amber beer continues.It will probably be Samuel Adams.

Up up and away, hic!

I have noticed a few comments starting to be posted against my ramblings, which is very gratifying. One regular poster, Martin, is my brother-in-law, who has recently become a snow bird, moving from Boston to Delray just North of Miami.

His last comment was to enquire how old the cuddly birds were as referred to on the second day of Christmas. Well Martin, about 32, which is far too old for you!!!

I am sure the family will all be looking at how they can get down there for a holiday come 2009, although hopefully the dollar will have recovered a bit by then to give them some spending money.

Best way to get to Miami is, of course, by air, and I have been flying a lot recently as I commute between various homes and Edinburgh. Recently I have noticed the airways equivalent of the nutter on the bus. That for those of you not familiar with the Billy Connolly story, relates to the hobo style character who gets on the bus talking to himself, and everybody shrivels up as small as they can and whisper to themselves, 'please no, don't sit next to me'

In airline terms, I just seem to attract the selfish idiot who insists on reclining their seat violently onto my knees even though its a 45 minutes journey, and if he moved up one row, he could have them all to himself.... my coffee goes everywhere I huff and puff, stick my knees in his back, but all to no avail. I remember reading once that an inventor in America was trying to design a clip you could put on the seat in front to stop it reclining, but it worked intermittently so it never caught on.

Never mind, its the season of goodwill, so I grin and bear it, in the knowledge that tonight is the staff party, when all bad memories will be dispersed in a cloud of alcohol induced euphoria. Make mine a pint please!