Andrew Brennan

Um, where did the past six weeks go? Before I head off to China tonight (for the “2009 Xinjin Water City ‘Longhu Cup’ International University Rowing Show and Dragon Boat Festival” in Chengdu where there are pandas), some highlights:

Barbados (14-22 March)

Anthony and I had a fantastic time. So sunny and so relaxing–there was time to just sit around and read, which there never is in London. The beaches were great and our hotel, the All Seasons Resort Europa, was very nice and in a great location (the west ‘Platinum’ coast, which is less touristy than the south coast). I ran a ton and got to see a lot of the island that way. We also had some great dinners at The Tides and The Cliff, and spent one day on a catamaran snorkeling in a coral reef and swimming with sea turtles.

 

Boat Race Weekend (28-29 March) 

Always great to see all the old boys together around Boat Race time, particularly the guys who flew in for the weekend. On Saturday night there was a loud and rowdy boat party on the Thames. And on Sunday there was a similarly loud and rowdy Boat Race Ball after Oxford won both races.

 

Easter Weekend (10-13 April)

We definitely took advantage of the time off for Easter. On Thursday night Anthony and I went to Oxford to Alex’s leaving dinner — she’s spending 8 weeks in Malawi traficking orphans for Madonna working at a hospital. Caught up with Jamie, Greg, Martin, Yannis, Robbie, Henry, Nick, Pango and several other Oxford types. Friday night was a very fun at Trash Palace, Saturday night was a late one at Kensington Roof Gardens, then on Sunday we had a fantastic Easter lunch at Dottie and Bianca’s–so much delicious moussaka.

 

Other highlights

Sara’s Hats, Cats & Spats party at the Albert & Pearl (27 March) — there were many great hats, cats, and cat-themed hats, but not so many spats.

 

Wired UK Launch Party (31 March) — Anthony was able to snag us invitations. It was fun (and there were great canapes and an open bar), but I couldn’t shake the feeling that this is just the wrong time to launch a high-brow tech magazine.

 

Dinners — We had Buddy, Sam, Chris E., and Sara over for what turned out to be some very good chicken tacos (2 April). Andrew (sans David) had us over for another rather boozy dinner in Belsize (15 April). And last night we went to Asia de Cuba for Ryan’s birthday–having heard bad things about the one in San Francisco, I was pleasantly surprised. The Asian-Cuban fusion concept actually worked, and the food was very good (highlights: the beef spring rolls and the miso-blackened cod).

 

Chengdu

And now I’m off to China for just over a week, to race in a regatta with a bunch of guys I rowed with at Yale. I’ve been back on the erg quite a bit in the past six weeks, and it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. Chengdu appears to be the Chicago of China–important internally but not well known internationally. Bianca and Tony have been there before, and Bianca said that the downtown area at night is “seriously surreal in an asian-futuristic-hello-kitty-meets-jetsons kind of way. Everything is pastel neon.” So that should be interesting. And there’s a panda nursery, which makes Anthony insanely jealous. We’ll see about this place.