In 2010, I took a year-long, work-related sabbatical in Paris. I was born and grew up there, but this sabbatical changed it all for me. As a little girl, Paris seemed gray, rainy and dreary. My French mom loved it to bits, not me. This time, though – rain or shine – it was dazzling. First, the jewels. Amazing…
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Goodbye Yellow Brick Road – My Farewell to Cambridge
It’s right outside our window, a winding yellow brick road, more like a path but (unlike Kansas) there’s green everywhere, including a 10-foot beech hedge on the right. Very British. Leading to the Clare Hall pool, scores of school kids use it and I love to hear their British voices chirping along with songbirds, as they make their way to…
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Royal Wedding, Birmingham & Beyoncé – Visiting the Capital of British Jewelry
Jewels everywhere! Yesterday on my bike in search of treasures in town, passing through the Cambridge market square I saw a huge TV screen with rows of union jacks flapping in the wind. But of course, this was the Royal Wedding. They were handing out foldout chairs so I hightailed it to Caffé Nero (my daughter works there) got my…
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A Bloom-Filled Spring in Cambridge & Exquisite Jewelled Flowers
Living in Cambridge, my calves have never been firmer. After all, cycling is our sole means of transportation and everyone here has a bike and actually uses it. In fact, this city is the cycling capital of England. For riding, I’ve adopted a slightly forward tilted position, the better to dissuade others from barring my path. Because while the English…
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Fond Memories of the Fontanka – March 2018
We’re just back from our Walking Tour of St. Petersburg Jewelers tour. This glorious city of the Russian tsars continues to yield a font of pleasant surprises and wonderful new discoveries. Fresh off the plane (quite literally for two of our guests) we shot off to the magnificent Yusupov Palace for our first private tour. The interiors were as impressive…
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The Day Miss Universe Wore a Real Diamond Crown – from the Romanovs!
Did beauty pageant queens ever wear original diamond crowns? The tiaras seen today – large, bright, light and glitzy – look like anything but the real thing. Take for example the one Sandra Bullock threw across the room in Miss Congeniality. Granted that one was loaded with dynamite and made for Hollywood, but you get the picture. The first Miss…
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