Ever been to Seattle? I have. You might want to hire a car from Thrifty or Avis; to stay in a hotel such as the Inn At The Market, which is agreeably close to Pike Place Market [who'd have thought that Americans would understand the joys of wet fish?]; to buy photographic supplies from Ken's Camera at 1327 2nd Avenue; irredeemable netheads can get their fix at the Speakeasy internet cafe. Or you can drive past Boeing field on your way south to SeaTac airport; you might get a chance to gawp at some shiny, new, or not so new aeroplanes. I saw the prototype 747, with no engines fitted; a new, unpainted 777; and a curious thing quite like a 767 but with an E-3's external apparatus fitted. I gather the Japanese ordered that one. Hey, you could even visit the Seattle Aquarium; lots of marine life in cunningly constructed habitats, in some instances just yards away from the real thing. You might even like coffee, from Seattle's Best [Est 1970]. And don't forget the Space Needle. Or Nordstrom's. The Experience Music Project? I'm not sure about that; it opened eighteen months after I visited.


Here are some views on, near, or from Pier 56, at the western end on Seneca Street, looking out across Elliott Bay. I had to flag down a passing Brazilian to take the last one; don't ask me what sort of bird it is, I asked but it didn't take the time to notice me.

102kB - the docks the other side of Elliot bay

111kB - some sort of seagull?

105kB - me, in my famous 1988 Southend United Football Club shirt, on Pier 56, Seattle. Note that damn seagull over my right shoulder!

... I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as though a thousand voices cried out in despair, and could not be consoled.

This may sound like idle gossip -- but every geek I know had a major crush on Kim.

It doesn't matter who wrote this -- what the heck, it was one of the guys at Pigdog -- but I know how he felt. And colour me a geek too, I suppose . Kim maintained her personal web pages, in the People area of her erstwhile significant other's corporate webserver, and they were an absolute joy to read and to look at. Wonderful pictures and wry, superbly crafted prose. A sense of humour just like mine, only much, much better. And Kim abruptly broke off her long-term relationship in mid-November 1998, in order to set up with someone else. We know this because she told us so in her online journal, "Sugar & Preserve".

Erm... Kim, if you read this, could you ? Just one more teeny confection of sublime Kimliness?

-- Lee Harvey Osmond


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