Washington DC

Tuesday 27th March Now in the UK I rarely ever ventured forth with work but here the opportunities have come thick and fast and today I scooted off to Washington DC for a 1 day conference on the most recent changes in US patent law - the America Invents Act. The capital is a mere 2hr train ride from Philadelphia and it goes past some very interesting scenery along Chesapeake Bay (I think that some local camping will be required to check that out). The conference itself was much as you would expect but Daivd Kappos, head of the US Patent and Trade Mark Office, was a dynamic speaker. Although there was little time to explore I was reminded what a truly majestic city DC is, even Union Street station central concourse is on a scale that only Russian stations can compete with. We will need to return to do the Smithsonian justice. I also don't know who was more surprised to see the other - me or my old boss who last year decided to move to pastures new - it was good to catch up with him though and I am glad that things are gong well.

The Waldorf Astoria NYC

Friday 23rd March

It is not often that an unexpected pleasure arises as result of work, but today one such perk materialised completely out of the blue. I was invited by the outside counsel that we work with in NYC to join them at the NY Intellectual Property Law Association 90th Annual Dinner in Honor of the Judicuary at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel on Park Avenue http://www.waldorfnewyork.com/. The event is the largest hosted by the hotel in the year with approximately 2,500 professionals joining together for a black tie dinner held in function rooms throughout the building. The evening started with a cocktail reception on 18th floor laid on by my hosts - many of the major law firms were holding similar events throughout the hotel and I hadn't anticipated the queue for the lifts as all the smartly dressed glitterati manoeuvred themselves to the right networking session. For the meal of beet and mango salad, tournedos of beef and peach meringue tart I was seated at table 900 and something in the Starlight Roof Centre. The meal and speeches were followed by more networking as the law firms suites re-opened for dessert receptions and the gathered throng shimmied from one to another catching up into the early hours. Unfortunately the exterior of the hotel itself was being renovated but the interior architecture and 1930's design is amazing - great glass chandeliers, wooden panelled lifts with bell boys, a mirrored reception room with a gold painted ceiling and even beige marble and gold rimmed mirrors in the rest rooms. I enjoyed the company of our counsel, their interesting friends and some of my in- house colleagues and it was fun to get dressed up and participate in one of the legal social events of the year. Thank you very much - it was a special treat. On the way back to the train station the next morning, I caught up with the latest windows at Macy's - recently redesigned for their 2012 flower show on the theme of Brazil - great, but I do think they have something to learn from Nason's in Canterbury.

Shamrocks and Leprichauns

Tuesday 13th March

We knew that there were many Irish people, or people of Irish decent, living down the East Coast of America, but we had failed to put two and two together to appreciate that this would mean that St Patrick's Day is big news. In our local neighbouhood the Valentine's wreaths (which had replaced the Christmas ones) were removed and up went greenery of all sorts, with Leprichauns's springing up in gardens and mail boxes being adorned with yet more seasonal flags. Our well informed Kindergartener returned from school full of stories about pots of gold, rainbows and the lucky four leafed clover. A naughty Leprichaun even visited their classroom during recess and muddled everything up. For us it was the opportunity to tick off one of the "must -dos" and see our favourite Irish band, who friends know we have been following for far to long, The Saw Doctors (http://www.sawdoctors.com/) play in down town Philly at the Theatre of the Living Arts (http://tlaphilly.com/venue-information) on South Street. We had a fun evening - the band knew better than to play their new stuff to these seasoned followers and so the crowd was rocking in the Dail as firm favourite followed firm favourite. Their songs relating to immigration rang a whole new chord. One of the best things about seeing the Saw Doctors is that although the band seems to be getting a bit older the demographic profile of the fans doesn't change (well to us at least) and it fair takes us back to our student days. Anthony Thistlethwaite's saxophone solo was a high-light. We don't believe our Irish landlord was among the fans, but maybe the labourer suing him was - at least the Sheriff has stopped trying to serve the court papers to our house now, but that is an entirely different story.

Reflections after 3 months

Well, although it is hard to believe, we have now been forging our way on our new adventure for 3 months. Somethings are certainly getting easier (I can now drive to the girls school, work and the local shops without using the sat nav) and somethings, although still unfamiliar, at least we now know what to expect (those crazy supermarkets are one of them). There are many things to like about this part of East Coast of USA. The mostly bright and sunny days are a pleasure to wake up to in the mornings (and if it is raining it is usually at least proper rain and not grey drizzle UK sort of rain). There is lots of wild life where we live too - tall tall trees with lichen on them, interesting wood peckers and other birds and chipmunks and deer in the garden. I am also getting used to posting letters from our mail box at the end of the drive - finding a postbox must be sooooo inconvenient. We are now also enjoying a bit of basketball in the evenings. Somethings still remain a complete mystery though - the STOP signs in the road seem a bizarre way of controlling traffic flow, the banking system is positively archaic and the housing stock has still got me baffled (I have seen some great internal and external decoration on our hunt for somewhere permanent to live). I continue to remain amused by the local shops - the prevalence of pharmacies, nail bars, swimming pool supply stores, animal beauty salons and psychics I think all paint a strange picture of the demographics of the local population! But, spring is springing, I think we have moved on from counting the weeks and we are looking forward to the longer warmer days (especially as the ice cream parlour at the end of the road appears to have now opened for the season).

STOP!!!

Wednesday 7th March

Yippeeeeee - today I have managed to overcome one of the major requirements which comes with moving to Pennsylvania and acquire the hallowed accolade of a Pennsylvania State driving licence. The state acknowledges reciprocal arrangements with licence holders from France and Germany and citizens of these countries are able to pick up a local licence with nothing more than a by your leave, but for us Brits, we need to partake in the full local rigmorale. Fortunately when arriving Stateside the good citizens of PA allow British alien immigrants to drive on an international licence for 6 months but the clock is certainly ticking to "upgrade" to a local licence before your driving privileges are removed. The test is a two part process with a computer based theory test and the the road test. Having successfully managed the theory test a couple of weeks ago, I arrived for the driving test with two pieces of advice ringing in my ears - do not exceed the speed limit and stop at the stop signs. The instructors are against you from the start since you arrive with. O accompanying local licence holder, simply yourself and a little pink photo card but once the paperwork is done, and the jokes about driving on the "right" side of the road, the testegins. Well, in round 1 I managed to be ejected humiliatingly from the test within 1 minute. Apparently I had ignored the second piece of advice and let the front bumper of our car trickle over the stop sign line before coming to a complete standstill. By tracking the driving test web site I managed to get a cancellation slot for the next day and this time got up at 6.30 am to go and practice my stopping and parallel parking. Round 2 - well I got around the whole test this time but still managed to fail - apparently stop really does mean stop and yet again I didn't. Well, this was now getting on my nerves so I returned for round 3 a couple of days later. All was not looking great wheninstruct inner failed the previous person in 5 minutes and that the whole local road network was in chaos due to a major gas leak, but this time I made it through. Another hurdle tackled.

Philadelphia's International Flower Show

On one of my first evenings out as a fully fledged adult since arriving, I ventured this week to the International Flower Show in down town Philadelphia (think Chelsea but without the flowing summer dresses, Alan T or the champers). The exhibiton is being held at the Philadelphia Convention Centre which in itself is a jumbo sized arena to behold. The theme was Hawaii - Islands of Aloha and so the 12 or so major exhibits all reflected the far flung state. The major show piece included a 30 foot waterfall flowing down a mountain side covered with tropical plants and at the bottom a reed roofed hut onto which dancing hoola girls were projected. Other exhibits also included infinity pools, beach loungers and arches covered in orchids. They were amazing. Wednesday night was also wedding night, not just in terms of young couples coming to view their options but two of the exhibitors also married on stage and then took over the convention centre restaurant for their reception - only in the USA. Many thanks to the fellow Brit who accompanied me - it was good to chat to someone who had been through all this themselves and find out that our experiences are not so different.

Dr Seuss Day

I think that we have mentioned previously that the American's like to celebrate everything that moves and today was no exception with "wear a hat to school day" to celebrate Dr Seuss birthday - he would have been 108 years old this year. So ours, of course, got creative and made their own hats. C found a poem about taking tadpoles for a walk and so created a top hat with tadpoles swimming on top, and G was more traditional with a Mad Hatter tea party hat from Alice in Wonderland with a door mouse and everything (I don't know what we will do when the cardboard runs out!). Fortunately (although not from his perspective I think) I had signed M up for supervisory duties at Monday before school chess club so he managed to oversee both hats arriving in one piece. The girls enjoyed many Dr Seuss activities and it all tied in quite nicely with us having seen the Lorax at the cinema the weekend before - good film but we are still answering C's questions on what it all means...........