9th November 2012 Washington DC, USA
For me, election campaigning has been a constant element of life in the US. The entire year I have been lived here has involved the most prolonged, sustained, energetic excitement about choosing a country’s leader that I could have imagined. From the first day we arrived, the question of who was to be the next […]
5th November 2012 Washington DC, USA
Last weekend while sitting in the TEDx MidAtlantic conference, I found myself feeling edgy. I kept compulsively checking my e-mails and Twitter feed for mentions of “Sandy”. After almost a year in Washington DC, hurricane Sandy was my first experience of extreme weather in the US. Which is why, as photographs of empty DC grocery […]
Read more on Washington, New York, and the Blustery Day | Reply
12th October 2012 Washington DC, USA
At the last UK election, we borrowed from a US campaign staple and televised debates between the candidates for Prime Minister for the first time. And they generated a good amount of interest and engagement. But the excitement absolutely pales in comparison to what I experienced across the US following the first Obama/Romney Presidential debate […]
9th August 2012 Washington DC, USA
As a Londoner, I have to admit that sometimes Londoners can be cynical. As we left for the US last November, we left our friends muttering about anticipated congestion and transport angst and plans to let out their houses to Olympic-crazed tourists and spend the month in Florida. However, from the moment the fabulous opening […]
Read more on Life’s a breeze at the Olympics and in Florida | Reply
24th July 2012 Washington DC, USA
Many children dream of being an astronaut – but it wasn’t til I had qualified as a lawyer and worked for some years as a civil servant that the realisation hit me. It happened during my honeymoon, at New York’s Natural History Museum monthly SciCafe. Astrophysicist and Hayden Planetarium Director Neil deGrasse Tyson delivered an […]
29th June 2012 Washington DC, USA
Sometimes you don’t know you have an addiction until the thing you’re addicted to is suddenly snatched from you. This is what happened to me on moving to the US seven months ago, and finding myself embroiled in a lengthy procedure to get an American smartphone contract. My realisation happened insidiously. Getting ridiculously lost somewhere […]
Read more on Might as well face it, I’m addicted to Apps | Reply (1)
25th June 2012 Washington DC, USA
In my last job, colleagues – even my lovely former boss, the now famous Lord Justice Leveson would occasionally raise an eyebrow as I arrived with hair askew and rosy cheeks from cycling between meetings. Alas in DC, working at the top of a really fairly significant hill, I’ve reluctantly relinquished my addiction to the […]
Read more on An Enigma, an apology, and a hardcore commuter | Reply (2)
15th May 2012 Washington DC, USA
If someone had asked me to picture a stereotype of Los Angeles prior to my trip there at the end of last week, I might have imagined sun bouncing off the Hollywood sign, towering above huge highways where massive cars roared by, conveying wannabe starlets through the smog to their latest audition or waitress interview. […]
11th May 2012 Washington DC, USA
Something I always dread happened the other day. A lunch guest bounced up to me enthusiastically and asked me how I felt about the President’s announcement. I was uncharacteristically but completely nonplussed. I’d been in back to back meetings all morning in Sacramento (hearing a rather different view from that of the Bay on economics and innovation […]
Read more on An Evolving Debate in Europe and America | Reply (2)
9th May 2012 Washington DC, USA
I think I first started longing to go to San Francisco as I read my way through Amistead Maupin’s famous Tales of the City series. The books depict said city as a colourful whirl of decadence and debauchery, with a quirky cast of characters that rendered my own friends and neighbours disappointingly pedestrian by comparison. […]
Read more on Hacking for innovation: from Silicon Valley to a parking space near you | Reply