Matthew's end of year letter 2004

(In case you didn't see this annual email, I post it here too)

Hi. To paraphrase John Lennon, "And so this is New Years, and what have you done?" etc

Welcome to what is (I think) my 5th end of year letter. This is the one where I tell you a teeny bit about what I've been up to and then try to guilt you/inspire you/bore you into action on a number of charitable and vaguely political topics. And

Chamonix pictures

So I whipped over to Europe for the Christmas. I spent a few restful days in Chamonix, sadly not skiing because my knee still hurts. But I wondered around and got a little writing done. I was there because my friend Jenny Lobell (or Raffle as she's known now) was having another 40th birthday party (all organized by Tim her hubby). JB and Rebecca were there too as where a bunch of others. They

Christmas Party 2004

Friday night was the eventual almost annual drag out Holiday/ Christmas/ Channukah/ Kwanza/ Midwinter celebration, at the new pad in the Oriental Warehouse. There were some old faces who reappear once a year (Hi Mike--Hi Serena). Some very old friends appearing after a longer absence (Yo Freddie and gang). Some cute couples escaping their kids (Yo Eric & SuperJules) and some others who cant get

Ann & Jim's Wedding--Shock-Horror Probe

It was an amazing night at the Larson-Sweeny WWF (World Wedding Federation) Ultimate Smackdown contest held at the St Francis Drake on Saturday.


The Good Time Girls

A confused nanny from Wisconsin blundered into a wedding party and was heard screaming "I just love Lesley, what a milf!". Then three potential good time girls -- one apparently still lost on her way to Nebraska's 2002 Rose Bowl

A dam busy time doing nothing--Rocking with SMB and more at Thanksgiving

And in the continuing Seinfeld episode without the punchlines that is my life, stuff happened over Thanksgiving and I had a digital camera, so read on.

First up was a huge dinner at the amazing Susan Mactavish Best's opium den of sin and Turkey. Imagine the longest narrowest one bedroom Railroad apartment that you can.


Railroad Corridor

Then imagine setting up a table going down the middle of

SBC park photos

Matthew plays BarrySo I went to a conference at SBC Park, home of the SF Giants and conveniently located 3 blocks from my house! And they took us on a tour of the ground and I got to hit in the Giants batting cage (and I smoked a few n'all!). And then my friend Laura got to mug as Barry Bonds too.Laura plays Barry tooAnd here's the real thingThe rest of the SBC photos are here

Shakedown at Julie's

Julie showing that lingerie isn't just for the bedroom...

Here are the pics from Julis Smith's party. Go to here. Yup a drunk guy with a digital camera is not a pretty thing.

And yes I have the digital camera back, so this photoblog will be used a little more in the coming months...

The Utah Trip

Last June I went on a ten-day driving trip to Telluride where Sarah's brother and sister-in-law live (and where her parents would be visiting when we got there). This took us through a great driving trip across the best of the south-west's national parks.  As many of you know I think this is the most beautiful part of the world, with the possible exception of New Zealand's south island, and I

Rafting 2004

The annual Joe and Matthew rafting trip finally happened a month after it should have done. 8 hardy souls ventured up to the Merced river, stopping only to have tea on the way (too many Englishmen on board);

3 Englishman (and a New Jersey Jew) stop for tea as demanded by tradition

... and then having an outrageous amount of food and wine at a camp with no bears.

Mass Dinner; Mass Mess, with

TURKEY TRIP 4: Olu Deniz

So we finally staggered out of Capadoccia, a beautiful and great place. The next stop was a quick night in a very dodgy hotel in Istanbul. And after that we flew down to Dalaman and took a quick hop with a licensed bandit in a taxi to Olu Deniz. Olu Deniz is a seaside town full of English oiks where you can buy a full English breakfast and where the locals are amazed to hear anyone even try to

Turkey Trip 3: Cappadoccia

You may notice that the photos have changed slightly as I'm now using Blogger's new photo upload service, which appears to be very clever and also means that I don't have to host the photos on my website. So the first one is Sarah in Cappadoccia.

Sarah smiles in Cappadocia

We got to Cappadocia after a little too much drama with air tickets for the wrong day, and terrible food poisoning which

Turkey Trip 2: Istanbul

So we eventually got driven to the airport in Izmir and flew to Istanbul. After a quick nap to work off the Raki, we hit the Blue Mosque, which is only blue on the inside.



Next stop was into the Basilica Cistern, a huge underground water cistern built by the Byzantines and not discovered by the Ottomans until years after their conquest.



Later we made it to the Grand Bazaar, and then out

Turkey Trip 1

After extricating ourselves from Diana's post birthday brunch, we eventually made it to Gatwick for the plane to Bodrum airport. After paying most of our holiday money to a licenses bandit in a taxi we had a quick night in Milas, and took several buses to Selcuk, near Epehsus. There we fell into the company of Zeki a pension-owning, carpet- and jewellry-selling lunatic. We had a long day

Holiday recap 1: London

OK so now I'm back and jetlagged at 1 am and can put up all those photos from my trip!

Sarah and I flew to London on April 29. We started off with a great dinner with my family, and then zipped up to London where we went to the Cathederal at Stamford Bridge and saw Chelsea beat Southampton 4 - 0.



Then it was out to dinner with a host of friends including Diana, Jenny, Carter, Gabrielle and

Holiday news--Travel blogging coming back

I'm off with the lovely Sarah to the UK on Friday, and to Turkey on the following Monday--after hanging out with Diana France at her $#th birthday party on Sunday night. So please check in for the photos that will be emerging.....

The travel blog will thus resume, after a somewhat quiet period!

Football, How's Your Father and Hofmeister Lager

It's been a while since I've been, but I'll be in the UK watching footy on Saturday when Chelsea take on Southampton. The current Chelsea squad, despite being the most talented ever in the clubs history, is very annoying. Recent results atgainst Monaco and Newcastle prove my point. Both were games that should have been won by the forwards. The team plays very well to get in postition to score

So I have a new digital camera, so expect this page to come back to something approaching life. Here are the photos from Lish Woodgate's last easter party(View pictures) and here's a few of some paragliding from the group I was in up at Elk Mountain.

Meanwhile I had knee surgery on the 2nd of April, and the rehab is going quite well.

In case you didn't get the email....

Well it's that time of year again! I’ve been writing these for a few years now and have had a generally favorable response. (and you'll surely let me know if not!) So would you pleeeeze welcurme the 2003 and fourth edition of the not-quite-world famous “Matthew's end of year letter”....

I'm sitting in a lovely cabin in Lake Tahoe in the middle of a New