Week 9 observations

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After a weekend celebrating my CMA graduation with my classmates (first, in an informal get together on Friday then the formal event put on by the CMA Society on Saturday), I was in dire need of the right kind of football snack on Sunday afternoon.   Queso Fundido (via a recipe from Rick Bayless’ “Authentic Mexican” cookbook) served with Covered Bridge tortilla chips was the perfect mix of cheese, chorizo, poblano and onion needed to chase away a weekend of celebrating.  Here it is, piping hot out of the oven:

What looked to be an interesting set of early match-ups really fizzled.  Only one of the early games was close in the last 5 minutes.   The lackluster games resulted in this delicious apple crumble being made when Jodi grew tired of keeping tabs on a slew of boring matches:

The later games were the complete opposite, with every game being decided late in the 4th quarter or OT.   I ended up watching bits/pieces of all the games rather than watching 1-2 in depth.

Steelers:  I didn’t want to, but with a long week ahead (including the Monday night Eagles game), I bailed on the late night game at half-time to get some sleep.  The last second loss means an unhappy household and a critical game coming up against the Bengals next week. 

Green Bay:  Aaron Rogers and the offense look super human and uber efficient.  Their defence continues to look like the soft underbelly of this team, but few teams can go point for point with the Packers.

San Diego / AFC West:  What a few weeks back was trending toward a shoo-in division title is looking a lot more suspect.  Proving last year was no fluke for strange outcomes (1st in the NFL in offence and defence but missing the playoffs), the Chargers continue to put up astronomical numbers on offence, but this year, are getting burned by turnovers.  Rivers is uncharacteristically off target in his passes and is fumbling at a clip he’s never seen.   They have the most talent of anyone in the AFC West, but have let the Raiders, Chiefs and Broncos stay in the playoff hunt.

Bengals:  At 6-2, they’re really the surprise team of the year.  Next week’s game against Pittsburgh has playoff implications for both teams.  It will be interesting to see if they can keep up the pace on offence or if under a rookie QB they’ll wear down over the season.   Their defence continues to look like a top 5 unit.

Giants-Pats:  The Giants got another “good Eli” game (and they’re getting way too many of those so far).  Hard for me to watch this and do anything but cheer for the Pats as the Giants have a healthy lead on my Eagles.   I read something last night that this game finally signals the end of the Patriots dynasty.  I wouldn’t go that far as I thought that ended a few years ago to be honest.   

Eagles:  Another frustrating loss, the 4th time this year they’ve lost after having a 4th quarter lead.   The offense had very little rhythm as the Bears bullied the WRs at the line of scrimmage.  It honestly looks like D. Jackson is playing not to get hurt so he can cash in on a new contract next season.  Aside from McCoy and the left side of the offensive line, everyone else contributed to the loss.  Overall, the Eagles looked soft.  The Bears are a physical team, and they were able to exert their will on both sides of the ball.  On defence, Samuel got burned badly on the Bears last TD and Rogers-Cromartie looks like he isn’t even trying on most plays and got torched all game long.   As a unit, they couldn’t get off the field on 3rd down and got no pressure on Cutler all game (it was easily the worst game for the D-line this year).   Bad penalties, a couple of terrible turnovers and a horrible throw by the punter on a fake punt killed any chance for a win.     Though not yet close to being eliminated from playoff contention, the Eagles have to go 7-1 or 6-2 the rest of the way and hope for help in the form of losses by the Giants, Bucs/Saints/Falcons and Lions/Bears to find a way to the postseason.  I’m not sure this team can play consistent enough football to go on that kind of run.

Philadelphia – the first two days

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A year into my new role at the Medical School at Dalhousie, and my business related travels have involved trips to Toronto and Philadelphia, the two places I’ve spent the most time in from my previous career.   I was off to Philadelphia to attend the Educause conference on information technology in higher education.  It was an incredible experience professionally, and it allowed me to reacquaint myself with my one of my favourite American cities.

October 18 – I take an earlier morning flight which lets me squeeze in a cheesesteak for lunch at Jim’s Steaks on South and 4th in Center City before the conference gets underway.   It’s a mess to eat and I don’t want to know what it does for my heart, but I walked about 45 minutes round-trip from my hotel for this to at least make my conscience feel better about my dietary choice:

After a great happy hour with project/portfolio managers in higher education from around the world, I was planning on having dinner at an old favourite place near Rittenhouse Square.  It was jammed, but I stumbled on a really interesting place called Ladder 15 (on Sansom St).  It’s a gastro pub in a converted firehouse.  The food was really good.  I had two Korean tacos (one with shortribs, one with pork belly) – spectacular fresh flavours that went well with a Victory Prima Pilsner from Downingtown, PA.   The guy sitting beside me was a huge Eagles fan so we lamented the season together.  When I told him I was from Nova Scotia he asked “…. that’s close to Greenland, right?”  Um, no.

October 19 – Conference days can feel very long.  A multitude of sessions and lots of discussions with colleagues is both exhilarating and draining.   I take my evening respite at Tria, really, one of my all-time favourite places anywhere I’ve traveled.   I grab a seat at the bar and try to make up my mind – they’ve got an outstanding selection of wines by the glass and beers from around the world.  The food menu is small focusing on cheese tastings, higher end sandwiches, salads and appetizers.  I end up selecting a beer (Allagash White from Maine) to drink and a sandwich with crispy prosciutto, fresh mozzarella, roasted tomatoes, arugula, roasted tomatoes and garlic oil:

On the way back to the hotel, I get caught in a torrential downpour (one which hits Halifax the next day), but it does little to dampen my spirits after a great conference day and wonderful supper.

Zurich, Frankfurt, then home

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October 13 (Zurich) – As trips draw to a close, floating in the air is the odd mix of excitement of where you are, combined with the first feelings of a pull to more familiar surroundings back home.    For us, that means a slower pace in the final day or two, which in a European context means sitting on park benches or in a cafe and watching the city from a perspective slightly outside the bubble.  The train ride from Bern to Zurich reinforces this.   At less than an hour, it’s a quick trip, but one where my mind starts to drift to the flight home early the next day.

Our first plan for our return Zurich is pretty simple – find a place for lunch (a second floor restaurant overlooking the train station fits the bill and surprises with a really exceptional pumpkin risotto).   After lunch, we do some shopping along the Banhofstrasse to pick up a few small things to bring home.    Of prime importance is a stop at Sprungli for a box of mini macaroons.   Leaving the store we start looking for a bench in the sun to enjoy our snack.

Crossing the river Limmat, this is the view back toward central Zurich:

The Sprungli macaroons (these were really good, especially the vanilla and champagne ones):

After some time lounging on a bench, we walk back to our hotel through Zurich’s old town.   With an early morning flight home, our evening is one of packing, picking up a quick supper and getting some sleep for a long travel day ahead.

October 14 (Frankfurt) – One of the “perks” of our flight arrangement is a 6 hour layover in Frankfurt – ample time to get out of the airport and into the city for a quick walking tour before getting on the flight back to Halifax.   

When we packed the night before, I didn’t account for a beautiful yet chilly morning in the German hub city (my gloves would have been nice).   We took the train from the airport into a station close to the old town area in Frankfurt from where we began our walking tour.

First stop was Saint Bartholomeus’s Cathedral:

Next, we made our way toward the Romerberg town square to look around:

It’s a very beautiful area which was nice to explore without any crowds (an early morning wedding party surrounded the church in the square, but that was about it for people walking around). 

Taking our walking tour back toward the train station for a return to the airport, although it was too early to have a stein of beer (it really was, so lookout Germany when I get back on your soil someday in the future because I really want to spend an afternoon listening to accordion music and drinking from 32oz beer steins), it wasn’t too early to try a pretzel (or as it turned out, two).  First pretzel was delicious – perfect amount of salt, nice chew – a great morning snack:

Coming back from the pretzel stand with pretzel #2:

The second pretzel was a bit of a disappointment compared to the first.  I stashed half of it for the trip home and we made our way back to the airport for what ended up to be an uneventful flight home.  

Bern

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October 12-13:  It was really difficult to leave Montreux.  Just the one day there reinforced that I’m going to have to live in a French area in Europe at some point in my life.   The consolation to leaving is another beautiful train ride – this time to Bern via Lausanne.   On the way to Lausanne, there are views of the area’s wineries, perched on the hills above Lake Geneva:

As the train heads north toward Bern, the clouds melt away and we’re presented with yet another sunny day.  We find our way from the train station to our small hotel in the old town of Bern, drop off our bags and after a late lunch eaten sitting along side a cobblestone street, we take in a small museum set up in Albert Einstein’s apartment for his time in Bern.  It’s not a good museum – Jodi quipped that it was like someone just printed out a bunch of stuff from wikipedia. 

With a beautiful afternoon upon us, we stroll over to Bern’s Bear Park to see the bears who are a symbol of the city.   We’re lucky that two of the bears are playing in the water when we arrive:

The bears were very amusing playing in the water.  Jodi decided to shoot this video, and hilarity ensues around the 0:30 mark. After the laughing subsides, we take in some of the sights of Bern as we make our way back to our hotel before supper:

No photo tour of Bern is complete without a picture of the Zytglogge, the 800+ year old medieval clock tower in the heart of Bern’s old town:

In the evening, we have a spectacular meal at cozy Pizzeria da Bucolo.  Wood-oven pizzas, better than any we’ve had, filled the night.  Desert, something I usually take a pass one, was really unique – a panna cotta gelato (so creamy!):

Our second day in Bern and the weather is starting to feel more fall like.  In the morning, you can see your breath, but it warms up nicely for the afternoon.  

Münster of Bern from across the River Aare:

Here’s our morning destination – the Swiss Museum, and in particular, the Einstein Museum located within:

We have the Einstein Museum to ourselves and spend a couple of hours learning the story of his life.  The museum does a great job of putting his life and work in context of world events and the pressures on him academically and politically.   There are wonderful artifacts like old school report cards, essays he wrote to enter university and this one, his immigration document when we moved to the US:

We spend the afternoon being pretty lazy and wander around town a bit:

I really liked Bern.  It’s old town is a UNESCO site and is beautifully preserved.   But it’s also a town with a bit of personality and humour, perhaps best demonstrated by Kindlifresserbrunnen, a monument in a busy town square of an ogre eating a child (with a few more at the ready in his sack).  Ok, that’s not really funny (among a couple of interpretations, the most likely one is it’s a symbol to scare disobedient children), but the fact that it’s still there in a busy square makes me chuckle:

On our last night in Bern, we decide to violate one of our principle travel rules (“Thou shalt never return to the same restaurant on the same trip lest ye be disappointed”) and go back to da Bucolo for supper.  It’s wonderful the second time around.  This place is so good, that for 2 nights we forgot to take pictures of our pizzas. 

Week 8 observations

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What a week 8 it was for the household.  The Steelers get past New England and have now created some debate as to who is the top team in the AFC and the Eagles smoke the Cowboys and are hopefully rounding into shape for a run to the playoffs.

Eagles:  Any win against division rival Dallas is a big one – doing it in convincing 34-7 fashion made it that much more enjoyable.   This was as close to a perfect game as they could play – no turnovers, well more than 200 yards rushing, more than 250 yards passing, a significant time of possession difference.  I’m going to keep saying what I’ve been saying since week one – the Eagles offensive line is one of the top run blocking lines in the NFL, and in the past two weeks, their play calling has adjusted the play mix to this reality.   Give McCoy credit for his running, but he had massive holes to run through all night.   Peters on the left side was a monster, Herremans on the right was tremendous in the traps and draws to his side.  Celek, not well known as a run blocking TE, sealed the edges on runs all night.    Defensively, I didn’t see one blitz all game.  The coverage was outstanding and the front four got enough pressure on Romo to create a couple of sacks and hurry a number of his throws.   This defence looks like it’s starting to gel.    A completely dominant performance from top to bottom – it was a great game to watch! 

Steelers:  They managed to keep the Patriots off the field and the ball out of Brady’s hands with 5 drives of more than 10 plays.  It looked like the Steelers stole the Pats playbook and used it against them with 50 passes in the game, many of the short/intermediate variety to keep the chains moving.   The Steelers secondary was outstanding in coverage all night.   Underneath routes were well covered, and there was never anyone running free down the field for Brady to find.    The Steelers are an under-appreciated passing team.   Roethlisberger doesn’t look smooth, but he’s highly effective and needs to be considered among the top QBs in the league.

A few other things I saw in what was otherwise a Sunday of underwhelming match-ups on paper:

  • Patriots – If anyone other than Belichick put together this defence, there would be mass mockery of that individual.  The Pats defence has let the team down the past few seasons and is poised to do so again.   Some of Belichick’s shine as a personnel genius is wearing off.   You have to be able to win games in multiple ways and right now it doesn’t look like the Pats defence can win a game or cover up for a sub par offensive day.  On the other side of the ball, with no deep threat (wasn’t that supposed to be Ochocinco and why hasn’t he been cut yet?), teams with reasonable corners are going to play press coverage, take away space underneath and dare the Pats to beat them throwing deep.  Not all teams have the personnel to do this, but if the playoffs go through the Jets, Steelers, or Bengals, the Pats are going to struggle unless they find a deep threat to open up the field.
  • I continue to think Baltimore is overrated.  Yes they had a wonderful comeback from 24 down to win, but it should never have been that close against Arizona.  I’m not sure they can string together the 3-4 playoff wins in a row to be Super Bowl champs this year.
  • Washington is a mess.  Much of it has to do with an OL that has been decimated by injuries.   It’s good to see Shanahan lose – he’s got to be one of the most overrated NFL coaches. 
  • Detroit really rubbed it into Denver in their 45-10 beat-down.  Tebow looks completely lost, and to add insult to injury, was mocked at every turn by the Lions defenders.  
  • Good to see St Louis get their first win of the year.  Early in the 2nd quarter with the game close, they went for it on 4th and 2 from around mid-field.  After they were successful, you could see the emotion build.  Later, 4th and 2 from inside the Saints 40, they went for it and were successful again.  I loved the calls as they have nothing to lose and I think it helped spur them on to a victory no one saw coming.
  • The Chargers must frustrate their fans like the Eagles to do theirs.   Fighting from behind all game, a fumbled snap costs them a chance for a last second winning field goal before they lose in OT.   A fumbled snap on what was a straight ahead run play is inexcusable.   Suddenly the AFC West is a 3 team race now.

Snacks:  Because of Sobeys’ lack of ingredients for a Queso Fundido (that’ll be next week), I went with pita chips early and relied on an old trustworthy (and easy) slow cooker rib recipe for supper so we wouldn’t have to take our eyes off the Steelers game (2.5 lbs of back ribs liberally salted/peppered and browned in a frying pan on all sides; then added to a slow cooker with 500ml of Coke, garlic salt, 1/3 cup of soya sauce and 1.5 cups of brown sugar for about 5 hours on low).  Put together with some fries/aioli and a delicious Steam Whistle (smuggled back from a recent trip to Toronto) and it looks a little something like this:

Montreux

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October 11 – We spend a cloudy, rainy morning on the train from Milan to Montreux.  The clouds obscure what would have been spectacular mountain views as the train enters Switzerland and turns to the north west before hugging Lake Geneva.   We’ve been fortunate with weather so far – almost perfectly sunny, not a drop of rain has touched our skin and the daytime temperatures have been in the low 20s.   As the train pulls into Montreux, the rain has stopped.

Walking through this town feels comfortable.  It’s a quaint, quintessential French town.  Being able to easily understand the language feels reassuring after the first half of the trip battling through our limited understanding of German and Italian. We keep our streak alive of being able to check into our hotel early (traveling in October has its perks).   The Hotel Splendid is an older property that hangs over Grand Rue.  The view from our room over Lake Geneva is spectacular (more on that later).   After a quick spot of lunch, we leave by bus for the Chateau de Chillon.

The castle dates back to 1150 and was developed in a number of stages.  We take an audio-guided tour which tells the story of the castle (construction, battles/occupation, trade, prisons).  It’s a fascinating afternoon wandering through the halls of the castle and learning about life in this area over 7 centuries.  Here are some photos of the castle and views from its many towers:

Leaving the castle, we head back into town.  As it’s Canadian Thanksgiving and we have a room with a view and a deck, we decide to pick up a few items from a grocery store on the lake.  On the way to the store, we walk past this statue of Freddy Mercury:

A view from the lake front boardwalk:

Thanksgiving supper, so we pick up a roast chicken, some potato salad, some cheese, a baguette, and of course some wine (a local one from Sion):

The hotel succeeds because of it’s spectacular location.  Inside the room, it’s a bit grimy in places.  In particular, the two drinking glasses are really dirty – luckily wine comes in its own drinking vessel:

As the sun begins to set over Lake Geneva, it lights up the town perched on the hill:

Too bad the crane is there, but here’s a view of snow-capped mountains as we look east from our patio:

This is how we spend Thanksgiving evening – watching the sun set behind the mountains and into Lake Geneva on the horizon:

Not a traditional Thanksgiving, but appropriate nonetheless.  Although we only had the one day/night in Montreux, the evening spent passing a wine bottle back and forth in the shadows of mountains with a spectacular view of a sun set was special.   We both were smiling from ear to ear thankful to be in such a beautiful place.

Everything is better in Italy

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October 8 – Two days in beautiful Milan start with an easy check-in to Hotel Berna close to the train station.  We drop our bags and head to Santa Maria della Grazie for a 15 minute appointment to view The Last Supper by da Vinci.   Spending time with the painting was moving – it’s fragile based on the technique used, and there was a door cut where Jesus’ feet were painted (I guess no one thought it would be such a big deal). Pictures are strictly forbidden so all we have is this picture of the outside of the beautiful church:

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Week 7 observations

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It’s the Eagles’ bye week, so for me, it was a fun Sunday of watching football without much emotionally invested.   I watched most of the Jets-Chargers game early, the Steelers-Cardinals game late afternoon then the Saints-Colts game late (with NFL Redzone running throughout to keep me posted on everything else)  Here’s a few things I saw:

Tim Tebow: So I was wrong in my prediction that he wouldn’t see the field this year.  For a bit more than three quarters, he was absolutely terrible.   He looked confused, started to run around whenever he felt any pressure and was as inaccurate as any QB I’ve seen in a while.  Truly, it was one of the worst performances I’ve ever seen by a quarterback, and it was against one of the league’s worst defences.  But (and a big but), in the end, he rallied his team past the Dolphins.   Good on him for getting his team the win, but much tougher challenges lay ahead for him.

Coaches of bad teams coaching scared:

(1) Arizona scores to close the gap to 12 points against Pittsburgh with less than 4 minutes to go in the 4th quarter.   Instead of attempting an onside kick (they need 2 possessions to have any chance of winning), they kick deep and never see the ball again.  

(2) Minnesota plays a competitive game against perhaps the top team in the league and is losing by 6 to the Packers with less than 3 minutes to play.  On a 4th and 10, they elect to punt (with the hope that they can use their timeouts and get the ball back for a game winning drive) – they never see the ball again.  

It baffles me that coaches of teams with nothing to lose continually make ultra conservative decisions like these.   By making the conservative calls, they are taking the heat of failure off themselves and putting it on their players (I’m not sure I’ve ever read that tactic in any book on leadership).   Every week you’ll see a couple of examples of this type of coaching behaviour, but never from championship-caliber teams.

Chargers slipping?:  I think Darren Sproles was more important to this team than many thought.  They lack a dynamic backfield presence, and that’s allowing opposition linebackers to help out in underneath coverage on short passing routes.   Their offence against the Jets looked confused at times (none more so than during their 4th quarter 2 minute drill where they couldn’t get plays called and when Rivers threw a pass out of bounds to avoid a sack on 4th down that ended the game).   With Kansas City suddenly coming on, perhaps they’ll be in for a challenge for the NFC west title.  The Chargers do have a habit of improving through the course of the season, so perhaps the loss to the Jets was just a bad day at the office.

Defences catching up:  The days of video game style offences seem to be cooling off (well, except for the 62 points that the Saints hung on the Colts).  Although the NFL is still a pass-oriented offensive league, the gap between offence and defence has narrowed as the affects of the lock-out on defences have mostly vanished after 7 weeks of practice and games.

Colts:  I probably should write about the Saints and their 62 points, but the Colts defence offered absolutely no resistance.   The Saints ran 30 offensive plays and put up 28 points before they had to convert a 3rd down.  Receivers were running wide open by 20 yards in places.  Granted, the Colts lack talent in their secondary, but they looked poorly coached.  If ever a team looked like it gave up on a game, it was the Colts on Sunday night. 

Steelers quietly win another game:  Without much fanfare, the Steelers have rolled off a couple of wins in a row.   Roethlisberger was as impressive as ever when scrambling to make passes downfield.  For the first time in years, the Steelers have speed to burn at WR.  The match-up next week against the Pats should be a great high scoring affair.   I foresee Brady and Roethlisberger battling to see who can get the ball last with a chance to win the game on the final drive.

Ravens offensive woes:  Their Monday night game was horrible.  No first downs until well into the 3rd quarter.   Joe Flacco looking like a rookie for most of the night.  That team can look spectacular one week and downright awful the next.  I still feel they’re not a true Super Bowl contender because of their ability to stink up the joint on any given day.

After 3+ weeks of almost constant traveling (10 places in 23 days in 5 countries), it was a week for easy repeat snacks.   Previously made and frozen pretzels early with nacho dip later in the afternoon. A nice twist this week was a 1L jug of homemade beer from Jodi’s brother.   It’s was outstanding with had a European blonde/wheat flavour.

Milan: Duomo in pictures

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October 8-9 – Ask people what they think of when you say “Italy”, and Milan will be a fair bit down the list for most.  We booked these couple of days here on speculation since we were so close, had never been to Italy before, and I thought I would be getting to see either AC Milan or Inter Milan play at San Siro.  The soccer schedule didn’t work out for me, but the time we spent around the Duomo more than made up for missing out on soccer.  More on our two days in Milan in a later post – for now, here’s a photo blog of the beautiful Duomo in Milan.

The Duomo at around 9am, before the crowds:

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Airports

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I wrote this at the airport waiting for my flight home last night…

Maybe it’s the death defying cab ride from my hotel to the airport this afternoon (115 mph on I-95 and lane changes that would make a NASCAR driver proud) that has me thinking about life as I sit in a rocking chair across from a Chick-fil-A at PHL.  But then again, maybe it’s just the airport itself that has this affect on me.  I’m wondering about the stories of each of the people that walk through my view.  Is the young woman heading off on a voyage she’s been dreaming about for months?   Is the gentleman in the orange sweater leaving or returning to a lover?

I think airports are a portal to deeper thinking about one’s life.   I know of no one who has set foot in one who hasn’t thought of the opportunities waiting for them or dreaded an inevitability at the other end.  Airports are places where your mind can wander uninhibited into the brighter or darker places within yourself.  The time before or between flights is a sort of artificial suspension of your life.  You’re trapped between your origin and where you are headed – physically and spiritually.  In that space, the mind is freed to explore.

Though I have a ravenous traveling soul, in a near empty airport tonight, I’m longing to be back home, in my bed, next to the woman I love.