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ZumBurgess

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65. Taste the stars with a widow and the good brother

Forward: I turn 65 today and I can’t think of a better way to celebrate than by drinking my favourite adult beverage: champagne. I want to thank you, dear reader, for viewing my ramblings over the past 65 weeks. Today’s post is a joint effort with my friend and travel... Continue reading

Posted Jul 27, 2016 at 65 by 65

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63. Watch craftsmen, using a 400-year-old skill, create sublimely beautiful, stone inlays

In a little studio located on Gwallor Road in the center of Agra in India, a small group of men sits on the floor, each behind a hand-turned grindstone. The right hand runs a rope-bound pole to keep the wheel moving, while the left hand files a tiny piece of... Continue reading

Posted Jul 13, 2016 at 65 by 65

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63. Hunting peacocks, banyans and baghs

Last week I mentioned that I’m not that interested in going on safari. In Africa. It’s not that I’m not interested in wild animals - big wild animals. It’s more that I am afraid of the little ones. Spiders, snakes and other creepy crawlies. Having lived in Arizona where some... Continue reading

Posted Jul 6, 2016 at 65 by 65

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62. Get lost in the souks

First time to Africa this past November. Frankly, it wasn’t on my bucket list and I probably could have died happy without every going. I’m not a safari person and I’m not all that enamoured with the continent in general. But my Malta Four friends were going, and so of... Continue reading

Posted Jun 29, 2016 at 65 by 65

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61. Let a tiger lick your hand

I posted about this last year (What's all this I hear about Tigers in Slovakia? ) but it really does count as a cool thing I’ve done before I’m 65. This is the tiger: This is the tiger licking my hand (because it's full of yummy whipped cream): She was... Continue reading

Posted Jun 22, 2016 at 65 by 65

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60. Take a private cooking lesson with a world-class chef

I’ve had the privilege of eating in some pretty awesome restaurants in my life. But my friend Arlye introduced me to the privilege of learning to cook with a chef from one of those world-class restaurants. There was this little restaurant just down the street from where our friends live... Continue reading

Posted Jun 15, 2016 at 65 by 65

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59. Watch the sun rise…. and set over the Vatican

Last week, I posted on a trip I made to Malta. What I didn’t mention was, that particular trip was made with “The Malta Four”. The Malta Four is made up of four people: (from left: Jo, Jackie, Fiona and Caroline.) These three women have been my friends since I... Continue reading

Posted Jun 8, 2016 at 65 by 65

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58. Have an ice cream in the bay where St Paul landed in chains

Malta. Thank you, Google Earth It’s not very far away from Sicily (closer than Cuba is to Miami); but it is not part of Italy. Malta is its own country, part of the European Union and in the Euro Zone. Malta has been inhabited for millennia - and some of... Continue reading

Posted Jun 1, 2016 at 65 by 65

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57. Drive into the wolf's mouth

One of the more popular books for sale in souvenir shops located in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is You Wouldn’t Like It Here, a humorous history and cultural geography of the peninsula. Besides perhaps the simplest description of this part of my home state right on the cover, this book relates... Continue reading

Posted May 25, 2016 at 65 by 65

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56. Hum "Die Lorelei" while driving along the Rheingau

When I was a junior in high school at East Grand Rapids High in Michigan, my teacher, Herr Partin assigned us the task of learning the poem, Die Lorelei by heart, and reciting it to him individually, as part of our final exam. The poem was written in 1822 by... Continue reading

Posted May 17, 2016 at 65 by 65

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55. Butcher a pig

Scott and I are unapologetic carnivores. We currently live on a semi-paleo diet, which precludes carbs and sugar, ‘though we do allow ourselves fresh strawberries on occasion, and we eat a lot of green vegetables. A friend of ours in London turned us on to a guy from Dorset who... Continue reading

Posted May 11, 2016 at 65 by 65

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54. Dine at Commander’s Palace then pop out to Bucktown for a po’boy

The Boy (my husband, Scott) is from New Orleans. I’m a northerner, originally from Michigan. I hate hot humid weather. I resisted visiting New Orleans for 14 years after meeting The Boy, but finally agreed to visit the Crescent City in 2009. My one caveat was to visit during the... Continue reading

Posted May 4, 2016 at 65 by 65

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53. Drive the Beartooth Highway

Have you ever looked a bear in the mouth? I have (not a live one, silly). Dad shot a grizzly in Alaska when he was up there doing survey work just after he married Mom. He had it made into a bear skin rug that graced the basement floor then... Continue reading

Posted Apr 27, 2016 at 65 by 65

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52. See Mt. Rushmore with the bikers

The summer after I retired, Scott and I took a two-week-long road trip through the U.S. We had a wedding to go to in Jackson Hole, so we kind of built an itinerary with that as a centerpiece, We started out in Minneapolis to visit cousins then rented a big... Continue reading

Posted Apr 20, 2016 at 65 by 65

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51. Become deaf, dumb and illiterate

I’m not sure this is a cool thing or not. But it has surely been an adventure. After living for twenty years in multi-million-people cities (Los Angeles, New York, London), I’m not exactly sure what we were thinking, moving to the middle of a former soviet satellite with an entire... Continue reading

Posted Apr 13, 2016 at 65 by 65

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50. Champagne, strawberries n' cream, Centre Court, Wimbledon

Is there really anything more to say? (Note: this was probably in '06 when Rafa was on his way up in the rankings. I saw him in the first round. Mom loved him, referring to him as 'That cute little Spaniard") (Another note: one can of course be served strawberries... Continue reading

Posted Apr 6, 2016 at 65 by 65

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49. Vodka & Veuve in Moscow

My team’s last major assignment before I retired was to support a major client event on Red Square. We stayed in the Moscow Hilton, housed in one of Stalin’s original “Seven Sisters.” Those are the towering white marble buildings Stalin wanted built to rival the skyscrapers of the West. Muscovites... Continue reading

Posted Mar 30, 2016 at 65 by 65

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48. Attend the opera in Paris

I’m not a big fan of opera, I don’t know much about it, but there are a few I really like. The first time I attended the opera was with my mother when we still lived in Ann Arbor, to see Madame Butterfly. I was nine (I think she just... Continue reading

Posted Mar 23, 2016 at 65 by 65

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47. Give 20 Euros to a street musician

I hate street musicians. They're called buskers in London and they oftentimes jump onto the tube just before the doors close, play badly (usually) then, hat in hand, ask for your money. The London underground has set up legitimate play stations for musicians in the vast network of underground corridors.... Continue reading

Posted Mar 16, 2016 at 65 by 65

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46. Watch St Michael's Mount become an island

Last week I posted a story about our time in Coverack, Cornwall. This week’s memorable moment took place during that same visit. Up the coast west of Coverack, toward Penzance is Mount’s Bay, where there is a tidal island 500 yards off the coast. St. Michael’s Mount has been inhabited... Continue reading

Posted Mar 9, 2016 at 65 by 65

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45. Eat wild sea bass in Cornwall

During the decade Scott and I lived in London, we visited Cornwall several times. The first was to spend the Millennial New Year’s Eve in a small village called Port Scatho. Scott thought it best to be out of the big bad city in case the Millennial Bug screwed everybody... Continue reading

Posted Mar 2, 2016 at 65 by 65

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44. Lunch at Rolex

(note: There are no photos of this experience. That would be unseemly.) Rolex has long been an icon, at least in my mind, of luxury. I remember when my Dad bought himself one back in the ‘50s. He said it was because it would better withstand the harsh conditions on... Continue reading

Posted Feb 24, 2016 at 65 by 65

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43. Watch the sun set on the pitch at the Cricket Club of India

If you’re an American who knows little or nothing about cricket, please do not stop reading! You may be surprised to learn that there are several major cricket grounds in the U.S. notably New York (where the first international cricket game was played in 1844), Los Angeles, Indianapolis, Broward County... Continue reading

Posted Feb 17, 2016 at 65 by 65

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42. Sip a Cosmo on top of the Peninsula

During both my private life and my business life, I have been fortunate (lucky) to have had the opportunity to stay in some really spectacular luxury hotels. The Beverly Wilshire was probably the first, in a two-floor penthouse suite (with my parents) The Fontainebleau in Miami Beach (with my parents)... Continue reading

Posted Feb 10, 2016 at 65 by 65

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41. Eat a "plat de fruits de mer" in Cancale

Brittany. English Channel. Located on the western shores of the Mont Saint Michel Bay, Cancale is what the French call a “commune,” it was immortalized by the painter, John Singer Sargent, an American who lived most all of his life in Europe. While the town has more excellent seafood restaurants... Continue reading

Posted Feb 3, 2016 at 65 by 65

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