Problems = Opportunities?

That's what the corporate suit trainers and life coaches would have you believe, any way.

Putting consideration of positive mental attitude to one side the move, nevertheless, has opened up some opportunities. For a start, the garage in the new house is detached from the house but has a good mains power supply. Best of all, I'm allowed to drill through the walls!!

So, job number 1 as part of the move was to run some trunking between the house and garage and install a pair of CAT6 cables to act as tie-lines between house and server farm. While I was at it, another CAT6 cable was run from my new ground-floor study up into the loft space and further lines run down from there to the room where Louise now has her study and the main bedroom. This allows the wireless (WiFi) access point and a small network switch to be sited in the loft - out of sight (and harm's way!) and - with high-gain antennae installed - to broadcast a strong 802.11g signal throughout the house.

As home networks go, this is close to nirvana. The computers in the house are mostly now on a gigabit backbone connection that ties to the similar setup in the garage. Hence, file transfers and backups now take place at lightning-fast speed. The laptops get a solid 54Mbps connection - and this without the repeater I was forced to deploy previously. It's been raining of late so I haven't tried to read my emails on the patio - yet. But, when I do, I'm pretty sure there'll be a solid connection there too - and if not, there's always the WiFi repeater now sitting in the cupboard to extend the range.

Who said moving was easy?

While on our U.S. trip, Louise and I had decided that it was pretty daft continuing to maintain two houses - especially as they were 30 miles apart and our weeks were spent driving up and down the A19 - one of England's less attractive trunk roads. So, a plan was hatched ...

I've been living in rented accommodation for the past two years so giving up "my" house was an easy decision to take. The problems started to appear as soon as we began thinking through how to squeeze two lots of possessions into one space. Thankfully, neither of us are particularly "precious" about most of our possessions and we are both extremely tolerant of the few things we each have that are held dear to our hearts.

But, where most people moving in together have the problems of wardrobe space and deciding whose furniture to keep, those considerations were just the starting point for us. In my case, I arrive with a whole lot more "baggage" than the norm: the cars, the computers, the recording gear ...

Two things quickly became clear: If we were to set up home together this side of Christmas, we would have to move into Louise's existing 4-bed house and all thoughts of (sensibly) looking for a new home big enough to hold all our stuff would have to wait and ... the move itself was going to be a major exercise requiring some careful planning - and not a little bit of luck!

The search for a garage-friendly Outlook replacement

This quest started innocently enough - a desire to ditch Exchange Server and increasing frustration with Outlook. Managing an Exchange Server environment is a big enough job inside an enterprise - even when you can employ someone to do it. Now that I no longer own an international software business, I no longer have someone to run the servers for me - which shouldn't be a problem as theory suggests that life should have become somewhat simpler.

Not so ...

... I have developed multiple personalities - not in the hearing-voices sense but in my professional and personal activities. I'm out of touch with "consultant-speak" but I'd probably be described as a "multi-presenced" individual these days, what with the (now doubled) Maserati role, my music recording and my personal and business roles. Outlook had served me well for many years while I ran my company so, when I became "company-less" it was going to be a big drag to move to a less functional environment.

So, my garage became home to a small Exchange Server environment, initially on NT then a couple of years ago migrated to Windows Server 2003. Running it - especially keeping on top of the patches needed to keep it safe - became what felt like a full time job. It became increasingly obvious that Exchange was not a garage-friendly product. I don't mind if you ask why it took me so long to realise - I'd like to know myself!

What really killed Exchange Server for me was the number of bugs and open exploit holes and the ever increasing cost of upgrading. When it came to a decision about upgrading to Exchange 2003 the cost was prohibitive for my (relatively) humble needs.

The trouble is, if Exchange gets dropped, what happens to Outlook? The answer is that a lot of its functionality disappears. Let me look at what I do and don't like about Outlook:

Things I like about Outlook:

1. It brings most of the info I need daily into one place: Email, Contacts, Calendar, ToDo and Notes
2. Synchronisation between desktop PC, laptop and PocketPC are (suppposed to be) simple
3. It's reliable - even when it doesn't do what it's supposed to it does so consistently!

Things I didn't/don't like about Outlook

1. It really needs an Exchange Server back-end to work as advertised
2. It doesn't handle multiple identities - I need to originate and respond to emails acording to the 'hat' I'm wearing - eg, people who contact me via the Maserati Resource Centre should get messages from my MRC address.
3. I never did get it to integrate all its functions properly - not within itself let alone the rest of the MS Office suite. Even simple tasks (such as dragging an email to a ToDo list or calendar entry) never worked and as for being able to click on a contact to write a letter in Word with the address already copied across ... I gave up writing and editing the macros and VBA to do that after about the fifth change-of-mind within Microsoft.
4. It has no way to easily group tasks and ToDos into projects or sub-headings to cope with the way I work

Without Exchange Server, Outlook loses most of its - increasingly slender -appeal. While email can be stored on just about any server these days using IMAP to leave copies on the server and handle filing and archiving for later use, the same isn't true of contacts, calendar/diary, notes etc. In a non-Exchange environment, Outlook still offers these facilities but stores the data locally on the host workstation PC. Synchronising this data to a laptop and a Pocket PC becomes a royal PITA if you travel as often as I do.

Especially after having been used to it all just sort of happening.

A simple home network

Call me an old white-bearded geek but I continue to run a small cluster of servers at home - one main (Win2k3) server that provides LAN services and storage, another that acts as the mail and web development server here, another that runs Asterisk for the phone system, another NAS box that all the PCs here back up to. That's four if you're counting - all sitting in a nice rack powered by a big UPS.

Then there are the workstations: my lovingly crafted, SILENT workstation here in the study, the two in the recording studio, the laptops, the Sony VAIO Media Centre in the lounge (subject of another post before too long, I'm sure) the IPAQ pocket PC ... the media players ...

Networking this little lot is a bit of a problem as I'm currently (for a few more weeks at least) in a rented house so can't drill holes to run network cables between house and garage or between floors. I'm also stuck with the location where the phone line - and hence the broadband ADSL - comes into the building, in my study.

So the servers that talk to each other on their gigabit-LAN connect to the rest of the machines via a mains-borne network that is advertised to run at 85Mbps but actually runs at around 25Mbps on a good day. This mains-borne segment also has to carry the Internet traffic to and from the servers - including the phone traffic to the Asterisk box. The study has its own mini gigabit-LAN for the firewall, my main workstation, printers, the various IP phone devices etc. Finally, there's a WiFI segment driven off a Linksys WRT54GS with upgraded, open source firmware with a repeater to help cover the upper floor - that provides connection to the laptops and the machines in the music recording room upstairs.

Arriving at this mixed-bag approach to the network here took quite a while. The big problem is the connection between the house and garage. For practical reasons (noise, space) the server rack has to sit in the attached garage and there's no way to run a network cable between the two without causing problems with the landlord. My initial attempt used wireless links with a router in the house transmitting through the wall to the garage. Signal quality was appalling, however - maybe the wall has been lined with metal mesh or similar as the link was repeatedly dropped.

I went through several expensive antennae supposed to boost the signal along with equally expensive extension cables to locate the antennae as close to each other as possible with just that wall separating them - all to no avail. The link would still occasionally drop for no apparent reason.

Dropped links are not a good thing on the most critical segment of your network.

I stumbled across mains-borne networking while trawling the 'net looking for a solution to this problem. The units I bought came from Solwise (http://www.solwise.co.uk/net-powerline.htm) who have proved to be a nice company to deal with - one I'd heartily recommend - they quickly replaced one of the (now four) units I've bought from them when it stopped working.

So, are power line devices the networking panacea for the cable-free home or office?

Not quite. Apart from the hardware reliability (my one failed device might be an exception but the build quality of the plug-top units isn't that impressive) it's almost impossible to predict the actual throughput that can be achieved. In my case, I now have one of the units in the study that acts as the master and three slaves. I'll list them and their data rates as reported from the master unit:

• Garage - server farm - 27Mbps
• Lounge - media centre - 9Mbps
• Kitchen - WiFi router - 53Mbps
  

Note that none of the links is achieving the claimed 85Mbps transfer rate - the best rate is to the kitchen only about 20 feet of mains wiring away, while the garage (that sits on another mains ring the other side of the distribution panel) just manages half that - and less than a third of the claimed rate.

The stand-out oddity in the list is the lounge. As far as I can tell, this is on the same mains ring as the master but suffers interference from one of the PSUs that power some of the boxes surrounding the media centre or something else I haven't yet been able to track down.

It's interesting to note that even when plugged side-by-side, these units only manage about 60Mbps. I'd need to research the technology better to be certain about this but it seems to work on similar mechanisms to WiFi - only using the mains cable as its medium rather than radio waves. Of course, the carrier frequencies needed to carry network traffic at these rates has to be very high (in the GHz range, I suspect) so the mains wiring is surely acting as a very large radiator of UHF interference to the neighbourhood and, it would appear from the poor performance of the unit in the lounge here, the coupling of the power-line unit to the mains wiring is pretty critical.

Conclusions - if there are any from this?

• surprise, surprise - WiFi doesn't travel well through walls
  
• mains-borne networking can be a life saver - my garage link has proven reliable apart from the one hardware failure
• neither of these technologies replace a good old copper network cable

Solwise have been advertising a powerline device that's claimed to provide 200Mbps over mains cabling. Initially listed for release this summer, their web site now promises delivery some time in October. Had these devices been available earlier I would certainly have tried at least one pair on the garage link but as I'm hoping to move out of this rented place before too long, the £150 cost will go a long way toward a drum of CAT-6 cable and some fascia outlets.

Of printers

Last week also saw me finally install the new Xerox Phaser 6100 colour laser printer I had ordered before leaving for the States. Bought as an end-of-run bargain complete with extra paper tray this machine replaces the venerable HP5100 mono whose noise and smell finally got the better of me (donated to a local school where it will, I'm sure, continue to do sterling work for years to come) and the HP4500 colour laser recently recovered from my ex-wife in non-working condition.

I had initially hoped that the HP4500 would become my main work-horse printer after I'd got it working again with a thorough clean, removal of the jammed paper that was wrapped many, many times round the fuser(!) and replacement of a couple of cartridges but it was not to be. Just days after I'd started to use it, the machine demanded a new set of imaging belt etc. and the cost of these items for what remains an oldish device - and one that may yet have thrown up further problems - swung me into looking for a replacement. The offer of the Phaser 6100 at a price just a few pounds more than the cost of the replacement parts for the HP made the decision easy.

So far, I have to say I'm extremely pleased with the Xerox machine. It warms up faster than the old HP, produces very acceptable print quality for my needs (mainly general office printing and correspondence) prints duplex to save paper and doesn't smell. Best of all - in power-save mode it is SILENT.

Bliss!

Back home (can I go away again ... please?)

Back from the USA and, after a brief, hectic but most pleasant interlude entertaining and being entertained by Aussie friends it's back to the grindstone. I have a mountain of letters, emails and phone calls to write / make / do following the U.S. trip and the small matter of a magazine to put together over the next few weeks.

I returned from the States to find that one of the hard disks in one of the servers here had crashed, losing the entire content of my software repository. No biggie - all the machines here are backed up at least nightly to the big NAS server so the task involved no more than installing a replacement hard drive and restoring from the backup. A new 320GB drive was duly ordered and installed and (thanks to Acronis) with just a little bit of fiddling with Windows drive letters all the data (about 150GB) was back on the server in pretty quick order - though it could have been quicker had I installed the gigabit ethernet cards I had intended to buy a while ago - a job for later this month, methinks, especially as the network switch in the garage has now been upgraded to gigabit - thanks to a special offer that couldn't be turned down.

Before installing the new drive I had checked on the current inventory of drives installed in the machine which now runs Win2K3 - an odd mix due to the historic nature of ths particular beast thast started life as the primary LAN server here running good old NT (hah!). The error that was being reported for the faulty drive was "unable to read MFT". In my experience, the loss of the MFT (master file table) on an NTFS drive is more likely to be due to some form of software driven corruption than hardware so I left the old drive in the machine and, once the data was restored, told Windows to delete and recreate its partition. Bingo, the drive sprang into life without a problem and, diagnostics report no errors.

This leaves me with the worrying question of just how the data was lost while I was away and (in theory at least) the machine was inactive apart from servicing the occasional DHCP and DNS request for the network. A thorough check with anti-virus and anti-spyware software revealed no nasties present so it may just get written off as one of those questions that never gets answered.

I don't like those questions but I may just have to play wait-and-see with the machine to see if it happens again.

In the mean time, another example of how important it is to back up regularly. Without the backup, this would have proved - if not quite a disaster - a major upset and time taker. Later in the week, another example had me giving thanks to backups in even bigger style after a planned upgrade to the mail server caused a system fault that saw the complete machine become unusable.

Redwood Forest

Redwood Forest
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Although standing no more than a hundred yards or so from Highway 101, the sense of quiet and peacefulness among the redwood groves is almost over-powering.

This is the best of several shots I took trying to capture the magic of the place.

Sadly, we had to leave (though I'd be sorely tempted to come back and make my home amongst the trees and mountains of Northern California) as the afternoon wore on and the 260 mile drive to San Francisco and our hotel for the night was yet to be tackled.

These things are BIG!

These things are BIG!
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Thursday and time to head back south in preparation for the homeward flight in two days time. About 30 minutes south of Eureka on Hwy-101 finds the start of "The Avenue of the Giants" - as it turns out no misnomer or idle boast.

This scenic road winds through some of the surviving groves of giant redwood trees. Stunning, majestic, gigantic, humbling - all words that have been used before but words you may not fully appreciate until you have stood among these ancient trees - some of which have been here since Egyptian times.

The scenic route is supposed to add just 30 minutes to a journey but we lingered far longer, stopping repeatedly to take photos or just take in the feeling of being there.

One stop we made was when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a fallen tree a little way off the road. It looked big from the car - up close ... well, you can see for yourself. Louise took this photo of me standing inside the fallen trunk - about 25 feet across I think!

Stink hole

Stink hole
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

On the descent through Lassen Volcano National Park you reach this stinky hole - actually one of several - marking an old natural sulphur works. Yes, the place stinks of rotten eggs (it's hydrogen sulphide steam escaping from the rocks) and signs warn of not stepping off the paved areas as burns are likely.

Quite likely if the boiling noises that can be clearly heard emanating from the steam-holes is any guide.

By the time we were out of the park, it was after 3pm and still had the (now) almost 200 mile drive to Eureka to cover.

That drive (over Hwy-299) across the Coastal Range of mountains was also stunning. This is one of the best driving roads I have discovered in the USA - mile after mile of twisting, roller-coaster roads - almost entirely smooth surfaced and a complete contrast to the pot-hole ridden farm tracks they call roads further south in the state.

We stopped at a town about half-way across for coffee and to top up the essential travel supplies (GatorAid and M&Ms! :) ) but didn't stop to take any photos - we were too busy enjoying the drive and the scenery.

Managed to stay awake long enough to find yet another Red Lion Hotel and crashed into bed around 9pm.

Volcanoes as far as ...

Volcanoes as far as ...
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

The road through Lassen Volcano National Park gets up to about 8,500 feet above sea level. Even in late August, snow lies on the ground here and seems impervious even to direct sunlight.

My blue period

My blue period
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Taken at around 8,000 feet ... amazing scenery in every direction. I love the way the shades of blue band up through this shot.

Upper Meadow

Upper Meadow
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Up around the 7,000 foot level lies the Upper Meadow ... peace and tranquility next to the harshness of the volcanic peak.

Torrent

Torrent
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

A cliched blurred water shot, I know but an abiding memory of Kings Creek - a beautiful part of the park as we drove through. This creek crosses the Upper Meadow then tumbles over some rocks as it falls - eventually (I think) forming an impressive waterfall that we saw as we descended the mountain.

Framed

Framed
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Driving through the 31 miles of Lassen Volcano National Park it seemed that every turn of the road brought a new vista. We had planned to spend no more than an hour in the park but spent a whole morning and would - had time permitted - have spent a day or two exploring it.

The main peak here last erupted in 1915 and seems stable enough ... for now!

Looking across the park as the road (Hwy 89) traverses it, the number of smaller volcanic peaks is obvious.

Volcano

Volcano
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Spent Monday in Sacramento, just lazing about after the hectic weekend, washing clothes etc. Tuesday morning was much of the same, added to the panic of packing everything into bags for the journey (eventually) homeward.

On Tuesday afternoon, we drove north as far as Redding and stayed in the Red Lion Hotel again. I say again, because it is the same chain I stayed at in Winemucca several years ago. More of a multi-storey motel, the rooms are nonetheless, clean, large and have coffee and wi-fi.

Had we started out earlier, my plan was to swing east on the way to Redding through the Lassen Volcano National Park. Time (and tiredness) being against that on Tuesday, a little overnight route planning (thank you Autoroute) told me we could just manage the trip before heading west that night. It was looking like a long day in prospect as there was nowhere but campgrounds and "bring your own sheets" cabins to stay over the 140 mile mountain road between Redding and Eureka on the coast.

I am SO very glad we made the trip through the park. To say that Lassen's scenery is stunning is a major understatement. Personally (as someone whoe prefers to do his sight-seeing within 50 yards of his car) Lassen is much more beautiful than Yosemite or other American parks I have visited.

California coast

California coast
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

I got a few good shots of the coastline along Highway 1

Hail fellow, well met!

Hail fellow, well met!
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Sunday morning - throat still sore but feeling a bit better thanks to a mix of medicines so we decided to take a drive down the famous - and stunningly beautiful - Highway 1 south from Carmel toward Big Sur.

Stopped at Hurricane Point to take some photos of the coastline and who should pull in behind us but Steve Garran from the Denver Maserati crowd. We'd seen Steve a couple of times over the weekend - he'd driven his Lancia Scorpion (known as the Monte Carlo in Europe) from Denver to Monterey for the Lancia 100th Anniversary celebration at Concorso and was now on his way to L.A. for business next week.

It was the right time for lunch so we stopped at a place called Nepenthe that had been recommended. Situated on a promontory overlooking Big Sur the view from the dining terrace was magnificent. The food was ... OK.

Chat went on covering Bora rebuilds, the provenance of historic racing Maseratis and life in general ... till we realised how much time had passed. Steve needed to be on his way to L.A. and our plan to drive further south before heading across the mountains to pick up Hwy-25 north to Hollister had flown out the window so we hurriedly retraced our tracks to Monterey and joined the traffic heading out of the peninsula.

Four hours later we were back in Sacramento with just enough energy to eat an ordered-in pizza and crash into a warm and, for the first time in over a week, comfy bed.

"THE" Red Bora

"THE" Red Bora
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Not even a concours entrant but the old girl got many an admiring glance nonetheless as she sat shining in the sunlight on the Concorso green.

More importantly, "my" red Bora (I've driven more miles in it than Paul has these past few years) got me safely around another 700 mile trip without incident or mishap.

Concorso Italiano

IMG_3725
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Friday is, of course, Concorso day over the Monterey weekend and the show is bigger than it used to be when at Quail Lodge (which now holds its own, competing event)

Great to meet up with everyone again and see plenty of Maseratis standing on the greens - about half new cars.

We left the event around 4pm to get back for an hour's sleep before the TMC dinner at Tarpy's Roadhouse Grill ... an odd name for what turned out to be a very good restaurant in true California style.

I ate the buffalo!

Saturday was the turn of the MCI awards dinner which was again very pleasant - great to put faces to names I'd only spoken to over the Internet - Harry Garschagen and Elliot Siegel among others.

On Sunday, I had planned to go into Pebble Beach early (the crowds make it impossible to get near the place after about 8am - despite the public opening not being till 10) but a feverish sore throat and respiratory infection meant I stayed in bed until the medicine took effect :(

Reflected glory

Reflected glory
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

... or, come to that, this stunning Alfa Romeo

Otto Vu

IMG_3703
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

... though I'd have preferred to drive this home with me

a fabulous FIAT Otto Vu (literally, V8)

Envy

Envy
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Looks like I got caught lusting after this OSCA MT4

Louise was extremely patient while I wandered among the cars, snapping photos, noting down chassis numbers and generally lusting after voluptuous bodies - luckily for Louise, all of the automotive kind!

Pebble grill

Pebble grill
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Press credentials to the Pebble Beach Concours meant I just had to go - for the first time in about ten years.

Almost no Maserati interest (just a 4CLT and one OSCA among the entrants) but that didn't stop me from oogling a few of the cars.

Gus's place

Gus's place
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

It's good to have good friends. Especially when they go out of town each year just as you'd like to stay in their luxurious house which just happens to be conveniently positioned on a hill-side above the track at Laguna Seca - as the Historic Races are on!!

Not quite as it left the factory

Not quite as it left the factory
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Jay's Quattroporte III engine bay - with just a few changes visible. The main one being the large, straight-cut-gears supercharger that help the venerable (and much internally modified) V8 push out a shade over 700BHP last time it was on a dyno.

I can attest that this car goes "quite well" for such a big old bus!! :)

To Monterey and the cars

Line up
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

After Sonoma it was time, on Wednesday, to drive south - stopping for just an hour in San Francisco at Fisherman's Wharf for old time's sake and for a quick burger lunch. The old Dehavilland Beaver seaplane we rode in a few years ago doesn't seem to be there any more. Shame :(

A quick dash to Pleasanton to meet up with Paul and Ellen at Jay & Bev Witham's house was followed by an even quicker dash down 101 to Gilroy and the "Pre-Monterey" party thrown by Don and Sandi Treadwell at their home.

An interesting group of friends, old and new, was assembled with some interesting cars. Check out the Maclaren CanAm car they had parked on their lawn!

The party went on late so it was very dark when I had to lead Paul and Jay out of Gilroy. Thank heaven for GPS ... but not for the Bora's headlights which are both as dim as a candle and point wildly heaven-ward! Not much use when you need to see where you're going along unlit country lanes!

At least once we reached 101 I could drop back and let Paul and Jay overtake - allowing me to follow their lights. About 20 minutes shy of our destination (Paul's friend Gus's empty house above Laguna Seca) Jay came to a sudden halt in front of me, clouds of smoke appearing from his (much modified) engine bay. The water-pump belt had snapped. Thankfully, AAA got there in record time and the only damage was the belt and a little lost coolant so the car was back on the road the following morning.

Aerial photography

Aerial photography
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Paul's a wine buff so a visit to the northern California wine country was always on the cards.

As it was Louise's birthday on this part of the trip, I had booked us a couple of nights in a superb spa hotel in Sonoma. On Louise's actual birthday I dragged her (and me!) out of bed at 4am for the ride in a hot air balloon I'd booked as a surprise.

I'd booked a ride over the Sonoma valley but, as luck would have it, one of the fogs the area is famous for made flying over either Sonoma or Napa valleys impossible so the early start was followed by an hour's drive to Winters - half way back to Sacramento (just a short way north of Vacaville).

The company we were flying with flew five large balloons - each taking between 16 and 20 passsengers - and the sight of so many balloons in the air at once added greatly to the experience. Flying over the farm area around Winters was possibly more interesting than the wine valleys anyway as the fields held varying crops - several of which were being harvested.

After the flight it was back to Napa for a champagne brunch before being taken back to our hotel - where Louise had appointments for a cornucopia of spa treatments.

And I fell asleep in the room!

All in all, not a bad way to start the day.

Lazy days

Pattern
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

We spent a few days at Paul's in Sacramento, recharging batteries (especially mine!) after the hectic pace set by Seymour in New York and the military grade agenda set by David in Virginia!

We borrowed Paul's Lincoln one day and took a trip down memory-lane - actually along I-80 over Emigrant's Gap to Donner Lake then south and along the western edge of Lake Tahoe before returning via Hwy-50 to Sacramento. Memory lane for me, at least. For Louise this was her first visit to this part of the U.S. but her desire to see lakes and mountains was most assuredly satisfied on this day alone.

At the south-west edge of Tahoe lies Emerald Bay. Idylically beautiful, surrounded by high rock walls with a small island nesteled at its heart it's obviously a popular spot. I was attracted by the pattern made by these boats as they powered into the bay.

The road out is interesting... it runs over the ridge between Emerald bay and the smaller bay to its south. No photo as the ridge is exactly one road-width wide and there were no barriers to prevent the plummet a momentary lapse of concentration might cause.

Hotel California

Looking good
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Sad goodbyes said to Gail and David in the hotel car park in Annapolis before we drove back to Newark to crash out in Seymour's sumptuous home again. Up the following morning to reassemble our travelling gear (ie, try to cram everything back in cases) and off to Newark Airport to catch our west-bound flight (cue Joni Mitchell!)

It took a full day to travel from New York via Chicago to Sacramento so it was a great relief to find Paul waiting at the airport to meet us and our luggage. 20 minutes later and we arrived "chez Muizelaar" where I discovered just how much had changed since I was here exactly a year ago. Jay Witham was up bright and early the following morning to fit railings round the new balcony. The patio had just been relaid the week before.

Good advice, always

Good advice, always
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

After the ballgame, we drove to the nearby coastal city of Annapolis - capital of Maryland and home to the U.S. Naval Academy. David was very good about being forced away from the game before it had finished and felt only slightly better when we heard that (to nobody's great surprise) the Yankees had continued their form and won the game by what we would call a landslide.

That evening, we all had a great steak in an Outback steak house (oddly, Audstralian themed). Louise had discovered this chain on one of her previous visits to Gail and David and I had been promised an "Outback steak and flowering onion" for months. Happy to report that the wait was worth it.

We spent Monday wandering the town and taking a guided tour of the naval academy.

The city of Annapolis is American-cutesy with plenty of preserved old buildings. Very touristy - more T-shirt shops than anything else on Main Street.

The Naval Academy is enormous and extremely impressive - there's no doubt the US military is well funded and has been for a very long time. Tour guide Bob had one of the loudest voices I've heard in a while and an enthusiastic presentation style. In return for promising "five years of their lives" students at the academy get a free university education and a career as a naval officer.

And, of course, they also get brainwashed in that universal, military manner. We watched as a group of "plebes" (new recruits) were marched across the campus to a parade ground to meet 1200 of their new closest buddies in an assembly with presentation of flags and a full marching band before being marched into lunch. This ritual takes place every day at precisely the same time - even when all 4400 of the students are on campus - and everyone sits down at tables of 12 and gets served lunch and back out the door within 20 minutes.

Scariest comment? The window in the campus chapel that reminded recruits they serve on behalf of "God and country".

Not only are they protecting their backyard, they are doing it because they are RIGHT!

Sheesh - when do we learn that other people's beliefs and views count too?

Baseball

Baseball
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Sunday and a very early, 5am start followed by a four hour drive north from Norfolk - all to get to Baltimore in time for the Orioles v New York Yankees baseball game ... the first I have ever been to.

The Orioles have an impressive stadium right in downtown Baltimore - about the size of St James's Park in Newcastle. The first thing that struck me was the sheer friendliness of the crowd - both Orioles and Yankees fans jibing each other but in a friendly manner. None of the tribal antagonism and hostility we see at football matches.

The weather was - once again - roasting hot. And I do mean roasting! Our seats were on one of the upper decks but sadly with no shade so exposed to the full force of the sun. The seat was so hot that I really did burn my bum when I first sat on it :( I had to put my game program on it before I could sit.

The Yankees won by an embarrassing margin - with four home runs in their tally.

Maybe it was the heat but I couldn't get as excited as everyone around me about the game. It remonded me of cricket but played at a much faster pace. When even my frequent and regular trips to the drinks stall for more water/ice cream/frozen lollies failed to keep me healthy and with the outcome a foregone conclusion, I left before the crowds at "the bottom of the ninth"

Lump in throat moment

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Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Spent a day visiting Virginia's Outer Banks among whose claims to fame is the site of the first English settlers to set foot on American soil and the site at Kittyhawk where the Wright Brothers made the first powered flight.

This visit was truly a "lump in the throat" moment for me. There's a good little museum dedicated to the achievement containing recreations of the Flyer and the earlier glider that proved their theories on 3-axis flight control. Most moving for me though was to walk along the field where the flights took place - the fourth and last of which over a distance of just 852 feet. Considering I was there thanks to a jet aircraft that had whisked usfrom Paris to New York (a distance of 3,000 or so miles) in about 7 hours and that we are only a little over 100 years from the Wright Brothers first success it's hard not to think about the rate of technological progress over the past century - and speculate on what may come over the next.

Personally, I hope to stay around to see as much of it as I can.

Wisconsin ... Norfolk!

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Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Interesting town, Norfolk Virginia. Turn a corner on a city street and the sight of a large battleship confronts you. The USS Wisconsin - a WWII destroyer - is moored downtown, permanently attached to the naval museum and free to wander around.

One famous van

One famous van
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Thursday morning and a visit to see and interview Kyle Fleming for iL Tridente. Kyle is one of "the good guys" in Maserati circles, having spent 35 years supplying parts at reasonable prices - along with a willingness to share his vast knowledge on just how old Maseratis are put together with anyone who cares to phone him.

I'm saving the full description and photos for the magazine but it was great to meet Kyle (and his wife, Pat) again and get to see his garage and hear some of his stories.

I have an invitation to visit Kyle's mythical barn (the home of the fantastic store of rare Maserati parts) and I hope I can find time to do that before I have to head back north.

Remains of a blow-out

Remains of a blow-out
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Hmmm ... this is where it gets scary. When this tyre blew, it went big-time! I had thought I must have run over some debris that had cut through the tread but when the wheel was taken off, the entire inner sidewall had separated from the tread. That is one SERIOUS failure!

The damage was too severe to be able to see whether something had cut through the side wall (though there was no damage or sign of any object being thrown around inside the wheel-arch) and I suspect that the tyre may have become blistered due to the proximity of the rear silencer box on the Spyder - something I have heard of happening to other cars.

So, I wasn't too unhappy to fit two new tyres to the back (so the tread patterns would match) as I at least can expect them to last the rest of my time in the car - road debris permitting!

Interstate blowout

Interstate blowout
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Wednesday morning we left Washington for the approximately four hour drive south to Virginia Beach. Getting out of Washington at around 9:30am proved just as easy as getting into the city - a couple of turns and we were on a feeder road that led straight to the Interstate highway we wanted.

The Interstate came to a halt, followed by a slow crawl after a few miles so we turned off onto Hwy-1 and saw a little local life for around 30 miles, stopping for brunch in a Subway along the way.

Back on I-95 and making good progress with traffic flowing at a smooth 70-80MPH, we had an interesting interlude arising from a rear tyre that blew out quite spectacularly. I managed to bring the car to a halt safely but, as can be seen, the tyre was beyond serviceable use!

The interesting part came when, having removed all my luggage from the boot, we discovered a complete set of tools and a complete lack of spare wheels - the space normally occupied by the spare now taken up by the extra oil cooler Seymour had fitted ...

Maybe I spend too much time awake in the early hours but I remember seeing one of thosed "Police, camera action!" shows of the kind of thing that can happen to a car stranded on the shoulder of an Interstate so I was paying special care to traffic - still blasting by at 70+MPH.

I told Louise to stand by the back of the car and look out for anyone straying off the carriageway in our direction.

Sure enough, after a few minutes, a young woman in a red Toyota came swaying off the road and hurtling down the rumble strip that you can see in the photo (harsh enough to rattle your teeth!) missing the door mirror of the Maserati by about the width of a cigarette paper!

Drugged or asleep, the woman carried on with two wheels rattling along the rumble strip until she was out of sight. Which was not quite as far as might have been the case because by now Louise and I were across the drainage ditch and in the bushes! At least our self-preservation instincts remain intact! :)

Next excitement? A Nissan pulled on to the shoulder about 1/4 mile beyond our position and reversed back to us. Half suspecting we were about to be held up at gunpoint and all our possessions removed for the good of the driver, we got ready to jump back into the bushes.

To our utter amazement and gratitude, the driver turned out to be a well dressed man who said he had stopped because he couldn't in all conscience see us standing at the side of the road in the intense heat - and offered a lift to the next town. Chivalry and good manners are alive and well - and I got a good lesson in cynicism.

I phoned Seymour who arranged for AAA to come and collect the car. I was still worried about being rear-ended by another dozy driver so I was extremely relieved when a highway security patrol arrived and parked behind us, lights and big warning arrow signs ablaze. The guy was extremely friendly and chatted away for the hour it took for the tow truck to arrive - during which Louise sta in the one remaining seat in his air-conditioned cab and I spent more time "sunbathing" than I had honestly planned - I now have medium-rare calf muscles!

Once the car was on the back of the flat-bed, things got better - a short ride to the nearest town found a tyre depot that had tyres of the right size (if not the brand Seymour would have preferred) and an hour's wait while they were fitted was the easy part - the $240 bill was the OUCH factor of the whole episode.

The hour Louise spent in the beauty parlour next to the tyre shop having a manicure was the bonus of the episode - or so I am told! ;)

Capitol

Capitol closer
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

The Old Post Office was originally just that. It was scheduled for demolition some years ago but saved by one of those determined American women who interest themselves in good causes - and all power to her (sorry I forgot her name ... Nancy something, I think).

The building now houses some of the Smithsonian admin offices and the central courtyard has been roofed over, air conditioned with some small shops and a food court in its lower levels. Oddly, as it's considered a "government building" (because of the Smithsonian offices I assume) there's a full X-ray scan and metal detector search to get into the place - a truly bizarre way to enter what is, in essence, a small shopping mall.

Never mind - maybe it was the security that kept the crowds away as inside it was cool, airy and refreshingly crowd-free.

The building has a tower, making it one of the highest buildings in the downtown area and the ride to the top (on two elevators) is free. There's even a friendly guide once you get up there to give the names of the buildings you can see and describe the sights.

Lincoln Memorial

Lincoln Memorial
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

From Union Station, we took the trolley bus to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum where, had we had the time, we would have happily spent most of the day. We watched an IMAX movie about moon walks and lunar landscapes - very odd movie as, in part, it talked about the conspiracy theory (the one that insists the moon landings never took place but were filmed on a Holliwood back-lot) - obviously pooh-poohing that idea.

But then, just about the entire film was CGI generated!!

Understandable (the lack of high-definition IMAX technology in the 1960s being a bit of a hindrance) but ironic nevertheless.

All the Smithsonian museums in Washington are free to visit - a wonderful treasure trove - and I wish I'd had more time to spend in them. Just have to come back and spend a week here some time.

After the Air & Space museum, we took the bus round to see the war memorials and to take a peek at Abe. Impressive but so hot by then (around 4pm) we had had more than enough of the open air so headed back to an interesting looking building we'd passed earlier in the day - the Old Post Office.

Union Station

Union Station
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

I like American railway stations - especially the ones in the big cities I've visited. They are inevitably spotlessly clean, air conditioned and offer a collection of interesting food and shopping opportunities!

Union Station lived up to expectations with some superb architecture to match. We had lunch in the cafe on the roof of the information booth then wandered around - probably spent more time there than we would normally but it was COOL! :)

Clang, clang, clang

Clang, clang, clang
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Given the weather, the only sensible way to get round the city and see the sights without flaking out (or losing the sight in one eye!) was on a tour bus.

A company called Oldtown Trollies runs an excellent service using buses built to look like old trolley cars - not air conditioned but shady and easy to take pictures from. Not that I took many pictures 'cos it was too darned hot to hold a camera!

Buddha Belly

Buddha Belly
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Fine figure of a man, eh? ;)

Washington is a fascinating city - well laid out with monumental architecture and normally a city I'd walk round. Not this time! With shade temperature at 100F with humidity to match (the tour bus driver came up with the term "humature" to describe the combined effect of high temperature and humidity :)) any time outside is asking for trouble.

Louise took this photo of me anyway ... just to prove I was there! :)

Manhattan skyline at night

Manhattan skyline at night
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

On enormous benefit of being shown a city by locals is getting to places you would otherwise never discover for yourself. After a magnificent steak in New York's oldest steak house in Brooklyn, Seymour and Cynthia took us down to the Esplanade - this, unedited, is the view.

The missing part of any photo of the Manhattan skyline these days is, of course, the twin towers of the World Trade Centre. I couldn't look at this view without thinking of that tragic, destructive act that I, like many others, watched happen live on TV with incredulity and sickness. The building of the new Freedom Tower on the WTC site is surely the best response to terrorists.

And ... though the WTC is missing (and without wishing to reduce the suffering and harm caused to so many people in any way) just look at that skyline to understand that, horrific though the event was, the amount of damage caused was no more than a scratch. New York and the free world remains as strong and resolute as ever.

Grand Central Station

Patriotism
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

I just had to visit this place again. If memory serves, it has been restored since I was last here in the early 1980's and now looks more magnificent than I remember it. Louise had never been here so her reaction - and comparison to our main stations such as Kings Cross - was fun to see.

Of course, it's hard not to look at the main hall here without smiling at the thought of the surreal dance scene Terry Gilliam shot here for Baron Munchhausen.

Village life

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Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Sad to say that much of the character of Greenwich Village has disappeared - the coffee shops, Tibetan artefact merchants, art and book stores have disappeared as the area has become prime real estate.

So, it was good to see that Linda, the "psychic consultant - first session $10" was still in business!

Right next door to a Tibetan store, too :)

Live music

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Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Despitethe traffic, we beat our hosts to the Village so sat behind the monument in Washington Square Park to listen to this group of musicians who were jamming along.

If these guys weren't professionals, they darn well should be. The best though was hearing them perform just for the pleasure of making music.

Busy city

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Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Discussing music with Seymour (he was a rock musician for many years) I mentioned seeing Eric Sardinas a few months ago with Leo. Seymour had never heard of him so we scoured NYC looking for a CD - eventually finding one in the fifth store I tried - the Virgin Megastore on Times Square. By then, we were late for the lunch appointment with Seymour & Cynthia in an Italian restaurant down in Greenwich Village so jumped into a cab.

This was the result!

Mecca

Mecca
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

After the park, we took a walk part-way down 5th Avenue, stopping in department stores and buildings to cool down (America's mastery over its climate remains evident in the way the buildings are super-cooled in summer and super-heated in winter).

Coming across this Gant store, imagine my delight on finding its summer sale was in full swing. Just had to buy a few shirts! :)

Japanese Koto

Japanese Koto
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

The Koto is a kind of Japanese harp (at least that's the closest thing it sounds to). Music is everywhere in New York - these ladies were tuning up prior to giving a free performance in the band shell

A view of Central Park

A view of Central Park
Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

Yegods it's hot here! Well into the 90's F with humidity to match. I always prefer to walk round cities, finding that the best way to discover sights and sounds you'd miss any other way but i managed to lose the vision in my left eye on the second day through heatstroke or a blood pressure problem and had to be helped into a cool restaurant by Louise and Seymour where I eventually recovered after about an hour and plenty of fluids :( Ho hum ...

New York is a great city - it's hard to think of anywhere else on the planet that has such a buzz about the place. Even in the summer heat, New Yorkers go about their business like over-wound clockwork mice. Me, I just amble along trying to keep cool. Staying in Cynthia's apartment on W.71st right next to Central Park, an obvious starting point was to walk through the park. Coming back after around 20 years, the changes are manifold - not to the park but to the feel of the place. The druggies and winos have all gone and the park feels SAFE!

On a hot afternoon, we found a shady place in the park and lay down - this photo is one of my favourite memories of the park ... I was cool for a while!

Seymour and Cynthia were not just great and generous hosts, they also love their city and took me to some fantastic restaurants and sights I

I want one

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Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

In fact, this is the one I want as it's the only one! The car is the Drogo bodied Maserati Birdcage and Matteo Panini should consider himself very lucky that it's still in his museum.

Ermanno Cozza

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Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

The panel Sig Cozza is holding happens to be the engine cover of an original Maserati 250F Grand Prix car.

Maserati factory visit (MK???)

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Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

May 2006: A visit with other TMC members to the Maseratoi factory where I was able to meet the company's CEO and several other members of the (largely new) senior management team as well as interview the venerable Ermanno Cozza, who has worked at the factory for over 50 years - much of that time in the racing department.

Do Italians love cars?

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Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

May 2006: Venice - the town of Mestre, near Venice, on hearing that about 40 Maseratis would be in the nearby city for a rally (I know - a car rally in a city whose streets are water - only in Italy!) invited the cars and drivers to a charming presentation where we were all given a small bag of souvenirs and asked to cut the cake baked especially in our honour.

Lake Como, Italy

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Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

May 2005: After Belgium, I drove through Luxembourg, Germany and Switzerland to Italy to visit the Maserati factory and to attend Maser Miglia 9 in Venice.

A one night stopover - and, by happy circumstance - the chance to meet up with son, Adam who was on his own motoring holiday led to a pleasant morning around and across the lake and some time spent in the very pretty town of Bellagio.

Ghana

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Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

This photo sums up the people of Ghana for me. This group of young girls had just finished dancing in their school's end-of-term dance/drama performance put on for parents and local dignitaries. Their dancing was wonderful to watch. They asked me to take a group photo - the first shot was very formal but as the camera kept clicking, they lost their nerves and this is the joyful result.

Maserati Club Spring Rally 2006

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Originally uploaded by eqdynamics.

May 2006: Belgium for the UK Maserati Club's Spring Rally organised by John and Susan Bennett. This photo was taken at one of the lunch stops - at a cafe just outside the Spa Francorchamps race circuit.