cc: file, Andrea, Tony Hafen, Sara and Des Penny, & Maxine Shirts
"Well, here I am in Utah on July 24th. We have just got back from the parade and a very nice morning in the City Park. Andrea's 30 year High School Class Reunion (0331.html) is tomorrow night at Brian Head. And I'm going to spend the time I have between now and when I drive back to Salt Lake on Saturday morning to catchup on the 8 Thoughtlets I'm behind on. I had not received a note from Sara nor Audrey describing their memories of our trip to London, and so that will come in a later Thoughtlet (0332.html?). For this Thoughtlet, summarizing our London Vacation, I will include my thoughts, basically a summary of what we did when, and will start with the notes Andrea wrote out about the trip:
The last time I took a real family vacation was when we rented a travel
home and went on a church history tour about 8 or 9 years ago. When
we got back from that trip, there was a letter from Bob Sneider telling me
he no longer wished to work with me. HyperMedia was cratering. And
the time since then has largely been spent digging out of that financial
hole. Sure Andrea and Matt and I went to China, and Andrea and I
went to Nigeria, and there have been numerous trips to Utah and to
SEG and AAPG Conventions. However, there was always an underlying
business or funeral or other reason behind the trip. This trip was nice
because it was set up to congratulate Audrey and Sara on graduating
from university. Just imagine what I will need to figure out to do for Paul
once he gets his Ph.D.
Originally this was set up as a business trip for me. I was going to give a talk at the Hedberg Conference. It was moved from London to Vienna and then was postponed because of the second Iraq war. Without the meeting, there was not a driving business reason to go to Europe. Of course, I found more business meetings to go to than Andrea was comfortable with. Oh well! I'm still in HyperMedia Stress-Recovery mode, and it will probably never again happen that I'm not slipping off from a family vacation to talk about business opportunities with someone.
The night before we left I stayed up all night to finish up documenting interpretation work I had done for Phoenix Hydrocarbons. As mentioned in the last Thoughtlets, 11:00 Saturday morning came, and I had not shaved, showered, packed, or started to get ready to leave. And we were set to leave for the airport at 12:00 noon. Oh well! It worked out. And soon Saturday, the 7th of June we got to the airport and I proceeded to sleep in the waiting lounge. Then when we got on the plane and I was in my seat, I was able to really go to sleep. I watched no movies on the way over to London. I slept. I was pretty much caught up on my sleep and recovered from jet lag by the time we got to Gatwick Airport.
We arrived on Sunday morning. Audrey and I stood in the line to change money. We should not have done this. There were a lot of international money exchage places outside of customs and baggage claim. Maybe more important to pass on, it was a big mistake to bring a bunch of U.S. cash over with us. There are bank machines everywhere, and it makes much more sense to just pull some cash from an automatic teller when you need cash. Sara knew this, and I didn't. I felt like the tourch had been handed off, and I didn't even know it had happened. Todd Staheli was waiting for us, and he took all of our bags and we caught the Gatwick Express train into Victoria Station. It was nice to be traveling with three lovely ladies.
We got on the underground at Victoria Station and went to South Kennsington Tube Stop. Hasn't really changed since I served my mission from 1970-1972. We walked up the underground walkway past the museums, someone playing music for donations, until we got to the stairs that come up and look out at the Hyde Park Chapel. We got to church a little late and ended up sitting in the overflow room. They changed all of the wood from a cherry or mahogany to a pine or ash color, and so the building looked similar and yet different. We sat by a family named Nelson, who is a builder in Northern Utah and served a mission here in about 1965. I enjoyed Sunday School and Priesthood meetings. However, my companions went for walks around the neighborhood. It was especially nice to see Ray and Tina McConnell again. Ray was the Ward Mission Leader and had joined the church a few months before I was transferred to Hyde Park Ward as the District Leader. They are going to be visiting children in San Antonio and hopefully will have time to come by and visit. They have a lunch to help everyone get to know each other once a month, and this was the day. So we had our lunch for free at church.
After church we walked up to Hyde Park, up to the Surpentine River, and backdown to the Albert Memorial which was built to place on top of the Royal Albert Hall. It was fun to see, and to relive my own discovery 30 years ago, the excitement in the eyes of the three of you. We walked down past Imperial College where the Continuum Resources Theater is located.
Then we went into The Museum of Natural Science. Jet lag was starting to catch up, and we were all pretty tired. Some of us ate an ice cream bar. Then we went outside and saw a special large photograph exhibit called 'Earth From The Air.' There is a web site, www.earthfromtheair.com, which based on the exhibits, I anticipate is worth each of taking the time to visit. It rained on us a little bit, and this was about the only time all week we had to use our umbrellas. We then went down by Kennsington Tube Stop to Pinos, an Italian Restaurant which has been there since before my mission, and ate dinner. I ate a salmon steak.
After dinner, we took the tube to Westminster, and got out to look at and take photos at Big Ben. We walked over by The Houses of Parliment, where there were protests about Iraq going on. Then we went to Westminister Abby, were we attended an organ recital. There were four numbers:
It was nice, and yes, I think we all fell asleep a little bit. After this it was time to take the train to Oxshott. We didn't have time to call Todd from Waterloo, and so we got to wait for a while when we got to the train station. What a quaint place.
We slept in longer than we intended the next morning. We walked to the train station. What a beautiful walk through the woods. We had bought the wrong kind of disks for the digital camera, and so the first thing to do was to buy some new disk. They didn't have any at Waterloo and recommended we go to Charing Cross. They didn't have any here, and recommend we go to Oxford Street. They didn't have any here, and I was getting frustrated. They said they might have them at a store 10 minutes walk up Oxford Street. They did, and I was glad to pay 3 x what I'd pay in the states. We walked from here down past Trafalgar Square, so Sara could see Lord Nelson. It interesting to me to learn the French were not enamoured, specifically because her last name is Nelson.
So I told her the story of the Nelson Field, the largest oil field found in the North Sea in the last 20 years. It was discovered by Enterprise Oil, using a Landmark Workstation, and extracting amplitudes, using some techniques I had taught at a school in London shortly before the discovery. When Enterprise realized what they had, they started negotiations with two other companies, which held the adjacent blocks, which were covered by the anomally. They were able to close both deals on the same day, and then they drilled the discovery well. When they learned it was a discovery and they needed a name, Malcolm Holmes, the exploration manager, looked out his window and saw the statue of Lord Nelson, and named it the Nelson Field. I visited him a couple of years after the discovery, and told him I was disappointed they didn't name it for a a Houston based Nelson. We both laughed.
We were running a little late, as we walked past the bunker where Churchill ran World War II and down to Buckingham Palace for the Changing of the Guards. I don't think I have ever stood through the entire ceremony before. And I'm not sure. It was the first time I saw it from the statue island across the street.
From here we walked over to Hyde Park Corner, where the early brethern first preached the restored gospel in London. When I was on my mission, I brought the mission group up to Hyde Park and we had a concert, following which I had Elders stand up and preach the gospel. There were all of the folks in speedos and bikini's, and as soon as the preaching started they all left the area. It was a REAL experience.
From here we walked down Kennsington towards South Kennsyington and The Victoria and Albert Museum. On the way I showed where Landmark's first office in London was. Told how I would stay up all night before a trip, sleep on the plane, get to the office, change and go for a run in Hyde Park, and then have meetings all day. These were the days when I was making 6-10 trips to London a year. I showed where I was standing, after returning from Oman very sick, when I learned about the explosion of Challenger on take-off. I'm not sure anyone was very interested but me. We were all hungry, and Sara wanted to have Benini Sandwiches for lunch. We stoped at an Indian restaurant called Ishbilia's, sat down and were going to eat, when Sara came back from checking out a neighboring restaurant which served Benini's. They were good.
Across the street was the Sheridan Park Tower Hotel. After we ate, I took everyone across the street and tried to find the conference room. We didn't find it, and so we sat in the waiting area and I described how this hotel played a key role in the success of Landmark Graphics.
After the 1984 EAEG (European Association of Exploration Geophysicists) in London, where we sold the two workstations on the floor to Marathon, I had one of the workstations brought to the Sheridan Park Tower for an IHRDC course I taught. IHRDC is International Human Resources Development Corporation, and they picked up on my book, New Technologies in Exploration Geophysics, and had me teach a course around the book. It was great marketing for Landmark, and so we did it following major conventions in Europe, Canada, Venezuela, Australia, and the US. This was the first of these courses. I started the course off explaining that the text was already out of date, because it was dedicated to my wife and 5 children, and we now had six children. Two of the attendees were from Shell Oil, one from research in Risjwick, Holland and one from EXPO, the exploration office in England.
Years later I learned that at the first break, standing at the urinal in The Sheridan Park Tower, these two guys made a $5 bet to see who could get through the bureauacy and get the first Landmark Workstation into Shell. They both got systems, Shell endorsed Landmark worldwide, and that was the key reason for success. As we left, Sara pointed out to Audrey how I am always boiling things down to a single decision point. I didn't realize I do this.
From here we walked down to the Albert & Victoria Museum, where we found Ray McConnell, and he showed us some of the most interesting things in the room he was at. The girls went different directions, I went across the street and called Pali Walia, came back and found Andrea, and then took off.
I walked up to Imperial College and checked out where we had put the Continuum Resources Theater. It is still there, and Kjell Finstad still uses it as a London office. They still have Continuum business cards, and the manager is Glyn Roberts. They call it CRUK, Continuum Resources United Kingdom, and it is pronounced CROOK. Appropriate and interesting information. It is interesting that the theater is available for use, and if I get some stuff going in Europe or Nigeria, it could easily become my European office too.
From here I walked and took a cab to Pali Walia's office. We had a nice discusison, and he was interested in my proposal for a different way to create a large oil company, i.e. to drill in some other places, and then back into Nigeria. From here I took a cab to Barker Shoes on Regency Street, where I met Andrea and the girls. Ajay Kalsi had instructed his employees to give me a pair of shoes, and they ended up giving me two pairs, and each of the three girls one pair. The store manager, Rajiv Gujral, was very nice, and he also provided us with three tickets to see 'Bombay Dreams.'
From here we walked up to Oxford Street Station and took the tube to Leister Square to get tickets for a play. We ate at an Indian Restaurant. The waiter was rude, and Sara did not like him. Then we went to see Les Miserables. I always cry, and it was especially touching to be holding Sara's hand at the end of the play.
Todd and Michelle were still up when we got back. It was after midnight. Michelle and Madison had been to Whales on a school trip, and there was all kinds of news to catch up on. Todd showed me a book that I would love to receive as a Christmas present some time: "The Map That Changed The World" by Simon Winchester, and published by Penguin Books. It is about the creation of the first geologic map of Great Britian. We stayed up too late talking and enjoying each other. What great people.
When we were up and ready the next morning, Michelle and Carley drove us over to Hampton Court. We enjoyed the gardens, the maze, and the rooms. One of the three tenors was singing there, and Andrea wanted to come back in the evening for the concert. However, we already had tickets to "Bombay Dreams." We took the train to London, and then the tube to the Tower of London, where we spent the afternoon. Neat castle. They no longer have the wooden tree stump where they said Ann Bolyn was beheaded (somewhere there is a photo of Marti with her head on this stump). Yes, there are memories and feelings which I don't talk about nor write about much. Part of life.
From here we went back to the Tower of London, took more photos of Big Ben, walked all the way to Westminister Cathederal, the Catholic Cathederal in the area, and on down to Victoria Station. We found a Fish & Chips shop, and sat down outside the theater to eat them. I felt like I was on my mission again. The girls said it was worth doing once in their life, and they would probably never have them again. Then we went to see Bombay Dreams.
The play is about gangsters, it is about the disenfranchised poor of New Delhi, and it is about a poor boy who makes it good in the movies and ends up marrying the rich gangster's daughter. Two Indian drummers on either side of the set, kept the beat going. The songs were different, and we all liked 'Shakalaka Baby' best. Andrew Lloyd Webber has provided his name as a co-producer. Many in the audience were Indian. It is worth seeing, and it does not reach me anywhere near the same way 'Les Miserables' does.
On the train on the way back to Oxshott, there was a cute little English girl, a little older than Ethan. The train stopped and the lights went out for a minute. The Mom said, "Opps, somebody unplugged the train." The little girl looked up and said, "I didn't do it." I wish I could have caught the moment with the digital camera.
Wednesday morning, June 11th, we left Audrey and Sara at Victoria Station, and Andrea and I took a train to Luton to have lunch with Elder Sneidman from our ward. He looks good, and is much more humble than when he left. He has had a good mission, and it was very nice to go out and see him. I think he was a little disappointed there were not two beautiful young women with us. However, he never said as much, and we had a good visit.We provided him with twizzles and good'n'plenty candy which he had requested to bring if at all possible. He seemed very pleased.
When we got back to London, I left Andrea, who went to meet the girls at St. Paul's Cathederal. I went over for a follow-up meeting with Pali Walia. He was stuck in Paris, and wanted to reschedule our meeting. We met back at the show store, where Andrea's shoes were in, and she could try them on. They were too large, and so they ordered some smaller ones, and Sara ended up picking them up on her way back from Prague.
From here we took tubes and trains to Chem for dinner with Sean & Anasuya, Priya & Jia McQuaid. I have known Sean for several years, and have had some good times with him. I stayed with them once. He picked me up at the airport, and was so engrossed with our conversation he had an accident on the way home. His insurance had just run out, and it was more traumatic than I realized. Then his daughter fell off a swing and it hit her in the back of the head while I was suppose to be watching her, and we all ended up at the hospital. I wrote about this trip in a Thoughtlet titled cowboy boots (../9811.html).
We had an absolutely wonderful evening. The Pakistani food was wonderful. The conversation was sensational. The kids gave us a concert on the piano and the violin. I played 'The Wooden Shoe' and 'Sara Ellyn' on the guitar (I have not memorized Audrey's song). Sean drove us across country back to Todd's house. Todd was asleep and somewhat incoherent. Other than being able to spend time with Audrey and Sara, this evening was the highlight of the trip for me.
On Thursday I called Enterprise Rental and they came and picked me up. I rented a car, and we drove to Stratford-on-Avon. We ate lunch. We each did a Brass Rubbing. We drove back through the country roads, including Cottswold where Andrea's ancestors are from, and Oxford. We got back to Staheli's earlier than any other night. I hit two curbs pretty bad, driving on the other side of the road, and was worried about having to pay the fee. We also got a Thirty Pound parking ticket, which I forgot to pay when we got back to the states. Oh well! Guess I'm on the lam now.
Friday we drove to Windsor and spent the morning at Windsor Castle. This is my favorite castle. Lots to see. We went rowing in the Thames and ate lunch. Then we drove to Stonehenge, where I bought a Father's Day Tie from Sara which I really like, and which everytime I wear someone says 'What a nice tie.' I like Stonehenge, and I think the three girls did also. We had a wonderful dinner with the Staheli's at one of their favorite restaurants that evening.
Saturday morning Todd took Audrey and Sara out on his Harley Motorcycle. They loved it. He was in the middle of planning a marketing meeting where he will ride his motorcycle into the conference room with his boss on the back in leathers in the second floor of his office building. They are hiring a crane to take a window out and lift the motorcycle up. Wish I could be there to see this. When he finishes his London assignment, he is going to Brazil to be the Vice-President of Gas Marketing and Business Development. He is doing very good. Earlier in the morning he took his family to the airport to go to their new home in Eden (by Ogden), where they will spend their summers.
We went to the British Museum, except Sara who went to meet a friend who was studying abroad. Todd and I were together, and we had a good time. He left and went home after the museum. We went to the shoe store a third time, met up with Sara and her friend. took a cab to the Hard Rock Cafe, and then we went to dinner with Pali Walia and his family. They chose an Indian Restaurant called Ishbilia's, which is where we almost had lunch earlier in the week. What a wonderful family. They are from Punjab. The two daughters are beautiful and very self-confident. The son is obviously competent. His wife is amazing. Following a lovely dinner, they took us to a very upscale bar, where we met a member of the church, Marcus Heal, and sat around and talked for a couple of hours. It was very interesting, and hopefully, Audrey and Sara, you both saw how shallow this environment is compared to the Staheli's and the McQuaids.
Sunday morning Todd took Andrea for a motorcycle ride at about 5:00 in the morning. I'm glad she had fun, because I doubt she will get me giving her a motorcycle ride. The morning started with a very nice Father's Day Card and a book from Audrey. (When we got home there were nice Father's Day messages from Melanie, Roice, and Rob.) Then we got ready and drove to Canterbury. Church was not until 9:30, and so we went over to the Canterbury Cathederal. They were having a service, and we went in to listen to the service. We left early to go to the Canterbury Ward. I spent the first 4 1/2 months of my mission in Canterbury. As we left the cathederal, I mentioned to Todd how quiet it was. He said, 'That is the difference between entertainment and worship.' I wrote a stanza for Prime Words words after church:
After church, we changed in the parking lot, took a photo
of Andrea and me in front of a sign saying 'Old Folks,' and
drove to Dover. Audrey wanted to see The White Cliffs,
and I told her we would be above them and not see them
very well. I was yet again proven wrong. I didn't want to
wear my new $150 shoes to climb down the trail, so I
went back to the car and talked with Todd. He read part
of 'An Open Mind,' was very complimentary and
encouraged me to finish it. We talked about how much fun
our discussions are, and decided I need to host a "seminar"
and invite my out-of-the-box friends to attend and to get to
know each other. Whie we sat there and Todd read, I
made the following list:
What a wonderful life I have had, to know so many good people who like to think. Later I realized that at exactly the same time I was making this list, my High Priest Quorum in The Nottingham Country Ward in Katy was reading a one page personal biography we were each asked to prepare. The words they read were:
When we got back from Dover, Todd ordered
pizza and we all watched 'The Other Side of the
Heaven.' I really like that movie. Todd talked about
the movie Billy Elliott, which he said I would really
like. Someday we need to rent it and watch it.
It was 1:00 AM when we went to sleep, and we were
all up at 4:00 AM to get packed and to the train station
so Sara could make her flight to Prague and we could
catch the Gatwick Express from London back to the
airport. We had to wait, and between waiting and the
plane ride, I read the book Audrey gave me. Two
quotes from 'Daddyhood' by Hodding Carter I would
like to share here are below:
The plane ride home was uneventful until we started circling
because of storms in Houston. We ended up in Dallas because
we were running out of fuel. Rachel and Matt were stuck at
the airport. They didn't have money for parking because they
spent it on dinner. We were able to catch a Delta shuttle plane
ride back to Houston, and got back to the house about midnight.
We were very tired and glad to be home.
As I listened to the voice mail messages, there was one from Melanie, announcing they are expecting their second child and our fourth grandchild. Life doesn't get better than this kind of news upon return from a wonderful London Vacation."