Barking in the USA

Well friends...

It's been a while I know.

What's up? Well - quite a lot really.

We've had a holiday in Italy, a "groupo inglese" going from Pisa to Florence to Verona, with a little Venice thrown in. A majestic time was had by all. Met the Bertoni family and visited the vinyard & chateau (what's the Italian equiv?) and saw first hand the money that is required to upkeep one of these places. So if you're thinking "let's buy that chateau, it looks really good VFM - think again!"

Then:

We got back and everything was progressing well with the move until BANG. A week before completion we have a serious issue to resolve which involves a third party, our neighbour!

We go 1 level down (or is it up) from suicidal. Let me describe our plight. Our Pets are now boarding at kennels in the US, our daughter has left London and is wending her way to Charlotte via trips to Europe and to Nantucket. We have a sh*tload of money pre allocated to dollars - more cash than we own, so MUST sell the house. And our belongings are being tossed on the ocean waves as I write! Meanwhile, we are camping out in our own empty house on a couple of mattresses. And at that very point, we're confronted with - "It Might Not Happen!" Gosh!

Well, good news is we have nearly resolved the issue. It will probs delay the completion by a couple of days, but I think we will get there in the end.

Good job I've just started reading the "meditation" section of my new book on Yoga - it really helped me get by...!

Still feeling as stressed as a squashed ballon, though....!

Good Question....

Well here's a few facts about Charlotte NC

2nd largest banking center in the nation (controls more than $1 trillion in assets)
3rd best metro for business location
4th among "Best Cities for Black Families" by www.BET.com
5th largest urban region in the U.S.
6th largest trading area in the U.S.
6th largest wholesale center in the U.S.
6th in number of Fortune headquartered companies
8th best city for entrepreneurship
One of the "10 Best Places to Live" by Money magazine
20th among "Best Cities for Women" by Ladies Home Journal
21st most active airport in the U.S. (in total passengers)
26th largest city in the U.S. (in total population)
28th among "America's Most Wired Cities" by Yahoo! Internet Life
One of "America's 32 most livable cities" by Partners for Livable Communities (2003, 2004)

And that's without mentioning the climate thing. Or the cost of living thing.

It's also without the hour away from aging parents thing and the one hour from the mountains and three hours from the beach things.

Here's a little video clip if you're interested....

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=3272735

If any visitor has first hand experience of Charlotte, please feel free to leave a comment...

A big hello to everone who happens to stumble across this blog.

A specially warm welcome to the person who is the first unique visitor to this page - Hello! and thanks for dropping by. Come back soon y'all...

As you can see I have started to practice some simple Americanisms. This is because in about 8 weeks time I will be arriving in the US to start a new life with my wife and daughter. This is a life-reinvention thing...a big step into the unknown where we will be starting new businesses from scratch, making new friends and living in a warm climate with a very low cost of living. OK so virtually anyware has a very low cost of living vs London, but you get my drift....

So, please feel free to keep dropping by to monitor progress as I unveil the riveting minuteae that will make all of this a success...