Amsterdam is my favorite city. When I sold my veterinary practice and retired four years ago, I bought an apartment there, so I would have a place of my own to stay during my frequent visits. I had an especially great time there in August of 2019, first with my friend Robb who visited the first week of August during…
Mike arrived in New York last night. His plane landed at Newark, and he took the train to Penn Station, and then walked to my apartment. He had a memorable flight, mainly because a passenger on his flight fainted in the aisle. Oh, I should mention that the passenger was … him! Apparently, a crappy night’s sleep, a very early…
So, after what seems like an interminable wait, the Mission Rabies Tanzania journey begins. My college buddy, Mike Rosen, is joining me on this trip, and he arrives here in New York in about 8 hours. He’ll stay overnight, and then we both depart from JFK airport tomorrow evening. In these times of Covid-19, planning this trip has been a…
Last year, I went to Ghana for a Mission Rabies project. I got to see several small village communities and I took many great photos. I’ll be going to Tanzania in mid-January for another Mission Rabies project, and I wanted to read some inspirational photography books to prepare me for (what I hope will be) more excellent photography opportunities. This…
With 2020 finally over, I’m ready to start the new year with a new project. I’m going to take one good photo every day and post it on social media. I will use either my iPhone, my Ricoh GR III, or my new Fuji XT-30. The photo has to have been taken that day; I won’t save up a few…
Regular readers of my blog know that even though I retired from veterinary practice three years ago, I’ve remained active in the veterinary community. I still author the bimonthly “The Vet Is In” column for Catster magazine, and I still pop into Dr. Soboroff’s practice, New York Cat Hospital, every now and then to visit him and Dr. Sheheri and…
Photography has become my main passion since I retired three years ago. Although I used to use a Sony camera for my photography, the improvement in the quality of the photos achievable on the iPhone has gradually led me to rely solely on the iPhone camera. It’s not like the size of the Sony camera was a big deterrent. I…
Today is World Rabies Day. With a mortality rate of 99.9%, rabies is the deadliest disease in the world. Human cases of rabies are rare in the U.S., but in underdeveloped parts of the world (Asia and Africa in particular), rabies kills approximately 60,000 people annually, the majority being children under the age of 15. Most cases result from…
In March of last year, I visited the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam. I had purchased a MuseumCard which gave me access to a slew of museums in Amsterdam and elsewhere in the Netherlands, and I had been methodically going down the list and visiting each one. The Allard Pierson is an archaeological museum with a permanent collection that contains…
These aren’t necessarily “plans” however they are all amazing events I just may find myself at. – DIRECT AMSTERDAM TO LONDON TRAIN TO START RUNNING APRIL 30 The direct train from Amsterdam to London will officially start running on April 30th, NS and Eurostar announced on Tuesday. The direct connection from Rotterdam to London will follow on May 18th. Tickets go on sale…
Every December, Mark and I try to take a big trip somewhere. Mark works for a huge international pharmaceutical company, and his company closes down the week of Christmas, and the week after. He will usually tack on a few extra days of vacation at the beginning of this stretch, giving us a little over two weeks to take a…
I like to be busy, and my agenda is starting to look pretty full for the next few months. Tomorrow, we leave for Mexico, for five days. Puerto Vallarta. It’s my fifth time there, and Mark’s fourth time there. We’re going to be sharing an Airbnb with another couple. We’ve never really vacationed with another couple, so it’ll be interesting.…
Mark and I have decided (last night), for our December 2019 trip, to go to Kenya and Ethiopia. UPDATE: TRIP TO KENYA AND ETHIOPIA A few days in Nairobi, with a day trip to Mombassa and a few days in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with a side trip to a cool place called Lalibela. All details and plans to come soon.
Introduction: The Backstory In early 1978, as I was finishing up my freshman year of college at New York University (NYU), I realized that this wasn’t the collegiate experience that I was expecting or hoping for. I was still living at home, riding the subway into the city for my classes, and then coming back home to Brooklyn to try…
It’s Tuesday in Amsterdam. In two more days, four of my college buddies fly across the Atlantic to join me for five days of eating, drinking, exploring, laughing, and reminiscing about the good old days, i.e., our days together at SUNY Binghamton, back when life seemed like one continuous party. Forty-one years have passed and we’re still good friends, and…