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Showing posts from 2016

Happy Last Year

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2016 has been A Magic Carpet Ride. Happy New Year? Happy Last Year! ▼    September 2016  (8) Rome Sweet Rome-Up On The Roof Venice, Italy-Picturesque Floating City Vigo, Spain-Seas The Day Lisbon- Eat Pray And Fly Channel Islands-Guernsey Brooklyn, New York-Sail Away Mid Atlantic Ocean-At Sea Southampton, UK-QM2The English Channeler ▼    August 2016  (7) Arundel, UK -Greener Pastures Greece-Nafplio Palamidi Fortress Corinth-Ancient City Mykonos Steeplechase Cyprus-DIGGING it Crete-The Big Island Greece-An Instant Classic ▼    July 2016  (3) Dubai I Vote For -Emirates The U.K. England-Rainy Day Mid West Tour- The Heartland Of America-IN,OH,KY,I... ▼    June 2016  (4) Chesapeake Bay, MD-Sailing The Manhattan Project-Unique New York Annapolis, MD--- US NAVY-Tradition Never Graduates... The U.K.-Fields Of Gold ▼    April 201...

Yachta.Yachta.Yachta-Q Is For Qatar

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In  Doha, Qatar's capital, entire new neighborhoods have been built  on land reclaimed from the sea. And the buildings have one thing in common: Bling. We are lucky to be living HERE at The Pearl Quarter. From A to Z What a year it has been: - Annapolis, MD to Livingstone Zambia ... We missed ONLY one letter Q, hence  Q atar, a tiny, oil-rich country wedged between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Doha's skyline looks like it was designed by architects who didn't talk to each other, didn't like each other, and engaged in experiments they could never get away with at home. And a Qatari can live anywhere without ever leaving home. A virtual Venice is around the corner. Rodeo Drive is down the block. And there are world-class restaurants in the ancient Arab souk, which was rebuilt as well. Qatar's 250,000 citizens are, quite literally, the richest people in the world and very content with their lives in this oil-and-gas-rich speck of a nation. It's a great place to be as w...

Doha- The Pearl- Venice of Qatar

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The Pearl is an artifical island, creating over 32 kilometres of new coastline and  extensive canal system. It's Venice again.  With the king of all birds, The Falcon With 31 towers and over  42,000 apartments, villas, and townhouses, it's quite impressive. Ferrari, Maserati and Rolls Royce have dealership but I'll take a Ducati bike anytime. Talking Turkey At The Marriot for Thanksgiving 2016

Lawton, Ok-Where the Buffalo Roam

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Your mother said, "Bi-son". Home on the range under an immaculate sky An estimated 50-60 million buffalo freely roamed upon the Great Plains (PRE Civil War) American Indians hunted them for food and they were a sacred animal. Their numbers dwindled when the wilderness was settled, and if not for the efforts of modern-day conservationists, the plight of the Bison would be one of extinction. It is nice to see them on private lands and in National Parks.The Buffalo is a symbol of life and love of this land.

Oklahoma City- EGAT

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In America's fiction--- Everyone gets a trophy, for just showing up. EGAT undermines the spirit of competition and breeds mediocrity. That sense of just showing up for the longest time informed and infected my thinking- A thought virus or meme started by a Woody Allen quote " 80% of success in life is showing up.". I suppose I bought into making the world safe for hypocrisy. Now I am more cynical. I am more interested in the other 20% these days-the difference between good and great, between winners and learners. Showing up isn't good enough. That's Trophy Communism. The wussifcation of America  and Generation Snowflake  makes us soft.  America has essentially got rid of losing and many are suffering for it, and that is: The Millennial truth. "Hay look how fantastic I am. I'm here,  at The US Olympic Rowing training facility. I participated. Sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose. And when you lose, you have something to strive for-first prize. ...

Rome Sweet Rome-Up On The Roof

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The cure for anything is salt-the sea, sweat or tears Not many  folks realize it, but you can take the stairs to the top of the dome in St Peter's Basilica., which is exactly what I did. It is the highlight of my trip so far in Italy. That is saying a lot since yesterday I was in  magical Venice. Put this on your bucket list-ringing the bells in Vatican City My last trip to Rome was seven years ago. Here is that trip report: Reprinted from Sept 18, 2009 I'm thinking of starting a Christian rock band. I got the perfect name-Heritic. You guys know any base players? Broken Arrow I spent this morning at the epicenter of Roman Catholicism, Saint Peter's Basilica. PPL were queing up for Kodak moments. The only place were there were no lines were the confessionals. CNN verses The Alphabet Religion is so pre September 11th. Of course, 20th century psychology has replaced sin with guilt. The fusion of cyberspac...

Venice, Italy-Picturesque Floating City

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It is like I am walking through a painting Going, Going, Gondola Back in 2014 and Today-Where the Earth revolves around The Sea Venice is  a city built on the water, a working, living city, and everybody gets around in boats. NO CARS! All the traffic is waterborne- All the emergency services--water ambulance , police boats, fireman; garage collection boats, Fidelity armored cash couriers. All the delivery-boats that deliver goods of every sort; and all the postal service delivering packages and  letters. What a cool place. Put it on your Bucket list.

Vigo, Spain-Seas The Day

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Onboard The Britannia  Cruisers, talk to each other, and influences each other. So progress gets amplified through WOM, Word of Mouth.. The more people who have ocean cruised, the more who will tell others, the more who will want to take an ocean cruise too. I am doing my part by blogging about my travels, with over a million page views. A View with a room- The Gym  with Lisbon as the backdrop Atrium of Britannia is impressive

Lisbon- Eat Pray And Fly

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After  debarking The QM2  in SOTON, took a train to LGW and flew to Lisbon via Porto in this puddle jumper, to join the newest and biggest ship in the P& O Fleet-Britannia. We sailed directly to Vigo, Spain. Here is our arrival at 7AM yesterday  We had a nice sailaway, two days ago with "Rule Britannia. Britannia rules the waves" as the soundtrack. Roll Video:

Channel Islands-Guernsey

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Victor Hugo was exiled here for 15 years and I had the good fortune of taking a tour today of the writer's home. It's as if each room was a chapter and the home was actually another book. I'll let a few of the pictures speak for themselves. He is certainly quotable but thus one resonates- "Nothing makes a man so adventurous as an empty pocket.' It is here where the writer completed his masterpiece,  Les Miserables, using a stand up desk..Sitting was the new smoking back then too. Hugo wrote Latin phrases into his furniture, honoring God and also his beloved writers Moliere and Shakespeare. HEReif@blueforceinc.com in his kitchen, the "H" in the wall tiles, we'll that stands for hisfamily's name obviously. 

Brooklyn, New York-Sail Away

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  Our smokestack just cleared the Verranzano Narrows Bridge by a few feet!

Mid Atlantic Ocean-At Sea

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Hat Trick- My 3rd time crossing The Atlantic SOTON to NYC onboard the world's greatest ocean liner-Cunard's QM 2 Around the world with @fernmallis---creator of Fashion Week (s) in NYC, LA, Miami,Berlin, Moscow, Sydney and Melbourne onboard The Queen Mary2 I love the wet look of the ship's teak deck with the morning light reflecting-it's cinematic.