The last couple of days I have been making firewood with a chainsaw and driving around in a little John Deere tractor.
I also went for a nice long drive on some car advert roads through the mountains. A Simple existence, but one which I find myself growing rather fond of.
Friday, 23 December 2011
Monday, 19 December 2011
One Month
Yesterday it was a calendar month since I completed my CELTA course. That's it. So I thought I'd reflect on some of the things I've done in the month between polishing that little nugget off and writing this for you now;
#FamilyFarewells - literally the day after I finished, my entire family descended on my house to wish me and Elle well on our travels. I sloped off to watch football and temper my hangover while my dear old mother and her faithful helpers sorted it out, and on my return much hilarity and a few tears ensued. Good times.
#VietnameseEmbassy - Monday found me in London, 9.30am outside the Vietnamese embassy trying to score a fast-track visa. The exchange of 90 notes and a two day wait sorted this, in the meantime me and Elle wandered around London, visiting winter fairs and sleeping where we could find a space (thanks Annie and Hannah!!).
#LeavingParty - Friday was our leaving party. We did this properly, hired out the basement of the Cow and filled it with many people and much love. My last UK gig for a while, I got to play a tear-out dubstep set which left ears ringing, and finished off old-school style playing trance and hard trance B2B with Mr Gareth Ray. A fine send off.
#Farewells - After the weekend I spent my days finalising some details, and my evenings saying goodbye to everybody. Football with Gaz, lunch with Mum, a visit from Charlie and an unrelated visit from some other coppers chasing a bail skipper - who incidentally we've never even heard of. A Sign of the bizarreness awaiting us....?
#Flights - Unremarkable save for being taken ill on the plane. I arrived in a right state, wheeled off the plane in a chair clutching a sick-bag in one hand and a bottle of water in the other. So much for making a decent first impression, eh?!
#SantaCon - My first visit to San Francisco was spent dressed as Santa, running around the city getting drunk with about 10,000 other Santa's, hopping between bars and wondering what the hell happened - this kind of thing just would not happen in London!!
#Google - After SantaCon we hot-footed it out of the city to Mountain View to catch up with the fine Richard Smith. We spent Sunday being dragged, hungover, to SF by Elle - who woke up full of enough beans for the three of us and decided to share. So much for a chill. Was a good day once the fog cleared though. Monday, we went for lunch at Google. Now, if I was going to design a place of work, it would be like this - free food, dinosaur skeletons in the garden, a volleyball court, random colourful stuff scattered around the place, and free bikes to hop around the frankly huge campus. I'm certain there's plenty more, but we were only there an hour!!
#SanFranciscoLunacy - Ok, so now we get to the heart of the matter. We spent two days in SF, just checking out the city properly. We stayed in North Beach, famed home of the Beat movement. City Lights bookstore was visible from our hotel, which was crammed between two strip clubs and a tacqueria. Classy. Monday, we headed out into town to sample some local nightlife, spending far too much money, meeting some local party people and returning to the hotel thoroughly inebriated. Tuesday, we dragged our sorry selves down to Mario's Bohemian Cigar Store and Cafe for a grilled focaccia sandwich. In the hangover cure stakes, next best thing to a bacon sandwich. Then we trundled off to the pier for a jaunt to Musee Mecanique - which is a penny arcade museum, spanning today back a hundred-odd years. Three hours and a mere $10 bucks later I've played an original Pole Position, an original Pong (ok, a clone, but sue me Atari!!), the Godfather of driving games (http://www.pinrepair.com/arcade/roadrac.htm), the Godfather of Carmageddon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Race_(1976_game)), beaten Elle at fuisball, got beaten by Elle at some sort of primitive air hockey thing, watched flick-book picture shows from the early 1900's, shot things, watched mechanical things move around, and generally had a bit of a nerd-gasm at each and every new wonder. Then we wandered up Telegraph Hill, home of the SF parrots, to watch the sunset. Then we wandered up to Ghiradelli Square, home of Ghiradelli chocolates, for sundaes and hot chocolate, before retiring to the hotel briefly prior to another jaunt into the city with some new friends - which ended up on Twin Peaks, surveying the whole of the city laid out below us. An amazing view which I suspect many tourists don't get to see - lucky for us, eh?
#Recovery - Which in this instance meant going for a lovely Thai and some wine tasting with Irina, before a trundle into SF with Grant to see some of his old haunts and lunch at the Cliff House (http://www.cliffhouse.com/) which is pretty well regarded in SF as one of the nicest restaurants you can dine at - a sentiment I now wholeheartedly agree with.
#WineTasting - Today Karen, Elle's aunt, is finishing her finals for the term (or semester, for any American friends reading this) so we're off to the Napa Valley for some wine tasting. As you all know we love a drink, but I'm not sure Karen appreciates just quite how much we like a drink. We'll find out if she knows what she's let herself in for in a mere two hours......
#FamilyFarewells - literally the day after I finished, my entire family descended on my house to wish me and Elle well on our travels. I sloped off to watch football and temper my hangover while my dear old mother and her faithful helpers sorted it out, and on my return much hilarity and a few tears ensued. Good times.
#VietnameseEmbassy - Monday found me in London, 9.30am outside the Vietnamese embassy trying to score a fast-track visa. The exchange of 90 notes and a two day wait sorted this, in the meantime me and Elle wandered around London, visiting winter fairs and sleeping where we could find a space (thanks Annie and Hannah!!).
#LeavingParty - Friday was our leaving party. We did this properly, hired out the basement of the Cow and filled it with many people and much love. My last UK gig for a while, I got to play a tear-out dubstep set which left ears ringing, and finished off old-school style playing trance and hard trance B2B with Mr Gareth Ray. A fine send off.
#Farewells - After the weekend I spent my days finalising some details, and my evenings saying goodbye to everybody. Football with Gaz, lunch with Mum, a visit from Charlie and an unrelated visit from some other coppers chasing a bail skipper - who incidentally we've never even heard of. A Sign of the bizarreness awaiting us....?
#Flights - Unremarkable save for being taken ill on the plane. I arrived in a right state, wheeled off the plane in a chair clutching a sick-bag in one hand and a bottle of water in the other. So much for making a decent first impression, eh?!
#SantaCon - My first visit to San Francisco was spent dressed as Santa, running around the city getting drunk with about 10,000 other Santa's, hopping between bars and wondering what the hell happened - this kind of thing just would not happen in London!!
#Google - After SantaCon we hot-footed it out of the city to Mountain View to catch up with the fine Richard Smith. We spent Sunday being dragged, hungover, to SF by Elle - who woke up full of enough beans for the three of us and decided to share. So much for a chill. Was a good day once the fog cleared though. Monday, we went for lunch at Google. Now, if I was going to design a place of work, it would be like this - free food, dinosaur skeletons in the garden, a volleyball court, random colourful stuff scattered around the place, and free bikes to hop around the frankly huge campus. I'm certain there's plenty more, but we were only there an hour!!
#SanFranciscoLunacy - Ok, so now we get to the heart of the matter. We spent two days in SF, just checking out the city properly. We stayed in North Beach, famed home of the Beat movement. City Lights bookstore was visible from our hotel, which was crammed between two strip clubs and a tacqueria. Classy. Monday, we headed out into town to sample some local nightlife, spending far too much money, meeting some local party people and returning to the hotel thoroughly inebriated. Tuesday, we dragged our sorry selves down to Mario's Bohemian Cigar Store and Cafe for a grilled focaccia sandwich. In the hangover cure stakes, next best thing to a bacon sandwich. Then we trundled off to the pier for a jaunt to Musee Mecanique - which is a penny arcade museum, spanning today back a hundred-odd years. Three hours and a mere $10 bucks later I've played an original Pole Position, an original Pong (ok, a clone, but sue me Atari!!), the Godfather of driving games (http://www.pinrepair.com/arcade/roadrac.htm), the Godfather of Carmageddon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Race_(1976_game)), beaten Elle at fuisball, got beaten by Elle at some sort of primitive air hockey thing, watched flick-book picture shows from the early 1900's, shot things, watched mechanical things move around, and generally had a bit of a nerd-gasm at each and every new wonder. Then we wandered up Telegraph Hill, home of the SF parrots, to watch the sunset. Then we wandered up to Ghiradelli Square, home of Ghiradelli chocolates, for sundaes and hot chocolate, before retiring to the hotel briefly prior to another jaunt into the city with some new friends - which ended up on Twin Peaks, surveying the whole of the city laid out below us. An amazing view which I suspect many tourists don't get to see - lucky for us, eh?
#Recovery - Which in this instance meant going for a lovely Thai and some wine tasting with Irina, before a trundle into SF with Grant to see some of his old haunts and lunch at the Cliff House (http://www.cliffhouse.com/) which is pretty well regarded in SF as one of the nicest restaurants you can dine at - a sentiment I now wholeheartedly agree with.
#WineTasting - Today Karen, Elle's aunt, is finishing her finals for the term (or semester, for any American friends reading this) so we're off to the Napa Valley for some wine tasting. As you all know we love a drink, but I'm not sure Karen appreciates just quite how much we like a drink. We'll find out if she knows what she's let herself in for in a mere two hours......
Thursday, 8 December 2011
Week One - Sebastopol
I anticipate that the contrast between my posts and Matt's will often be stark! I had a lot of fun reading his take on the car adventures, my only contribution can really be - "shiny, purry...and fast!" It really was fantastic to see his face light up in the Merc. When John suggested he take it out for a spin, he made the effort to stay calm and collected, Grandpa Barnes [Grant to most, GpB to me and henceforth written thusly, ed.] giving me Shakesperean asides with thumbs up - as soon as John left the room they giggled like schoolgirls and jumped up and down, high fives all around! The excitement was contagious.
So as you will no doubt have gathered we're very well and happy here and being spoilt beyond imagination. The liquor cabinet is well stocked and has us sending ourselves off to bed at absurdly early hours due to overindulgence. The food is heavenly. There is an endless supply of chocolate and wine and all things divine. There's a lemon growing in the garden as big as my head. No exaggeration! World's best olives. Avvvvvooooocaaaaadooooooos. It is crab season - turns out I love crab. The sun has been shining and we've been up early to catch the sunrise over the Napa Valley hills - just the everyday view from my grandparent's yard. I am trying very hard not to get so fat I have to be rolled to Nam like a ten pin. GpB bought me a beautiful white raincoat for the monsoon, with removable fleece lining for Yosemite. Tutu (my Grandmother, as in "Grandma Two") took me to the outlet mall yesterday and bought me practically a whole new wardrobe. Matt has not been left out with gifts and became instant family. Gpa calls him his "grand-boyfriend-out-law". Haha. He has been wonderful with my little cousin James, which is very touching. After their first hang out the other day James returned home bubbling with conversation about him. This means so much to all of us, as many of you can imagine.
John Alkire, who Matt mentions, is Tutu's cousin, though was the same age as my dad. They lived together in Kobe, Japan (dad went to school there for a year when he was 15). They got up to all sorts of mischief and hijinks in the states in their early twenties. It's wonderful to hear the stories, I don't think John can know how much it means to hear them and share his company. He's done very well for himself but is very down to earth, humble, funny and kind. And he travels to Vietnam four times a year for business! So he was full of useful insights, and we look forward to seeing him there. Several people have asked what the main exports are from Vietnam - I can now answer that they are rice, lace, a type of dark hardwood called Guo (similar to Mahogany), and SHRIMP - most of the shrimp you will find in the supermarket, in fact. He also told us that export for the country has risen from $10 billion to $100 billion in just the last ten years. Exciting times. Inflation is over 20% though... John said they are embracing of enterprise and it's a great place for an imaginative start up. Social Enterprise keeps ringing though my mind - the chimes of the bells on the tower of the future? I shall follow them on the back of the horse of hope along the path of blown in the wind!
Sorry, I think California must be getting to me...ahem.
Other adventures include our trip to Berkeley (Matt told you about our lucky food find - oh the fruitful joys of getting a bit lost!); Sunset, cocktails and toes dipped in sea at Bodega Bay (famous as the setting of Hitchcock's The Birds); the first Monday Night - wonderful company and bottomless bottles of wine; and a five mile walk into downtown Sebastopol.
Coming up over the next week...
- Armstrong woods
- Reconnect with Anna and Richard
- Santacon and exploring in San Francisco
- Monterey bay - aquarium and whale-watching
Over and out, Elle xxx
Driving
I've had an introduction to American motoring the last couple of days, which has been very fun. My first experience of this came when we drove to Berkeley with Elle's grandfather, Grant, so he could have a lunch with some old colleagues from U-Cal. Me and Eleanor were left to our own devices for a while and stumbled across a wonderful restaurant hidden at the bottom of Telegraph Street, the main drag through Berkeley, just off campus. It's pretty hip and trendy, lots of old well established records stores and bookshops. For $8 each we had an all-you-can-eat buffet designed with vegans in mind - and it was amazing. All sorts of weird and wonderful concoctions, including some leek rosti which had Elle experimenting in the kitchen upon her return!!!
Anyway, lunch done and dusted we returned to collect Grant, who it appeared had planned ahead - the offer of driving home being extended prior to leaving Sebastopol. We drove out of Berkeley with me in charge of a big Infiniti V8 and a rather cheerful Grant in the front seat next to me offering useful directions mixed in with his lunch-fuelled ramblings. Infiniti are a luxury brand made by Nissan, in the same vein as Lexus from Toyota - a big thing in America is manufacturers offer different brands for different segments of the market, in order to maximise revenues and, I guess, ensure customers don't move away when they want to move up. Driving on the wrong side of the road was a little strange to start with, but the big V8 automatic was easy around town, especially on the wide city streets of Berkeley. Once we hit the freeway though, things began to get a bit more interesting - Grant encouraging me to give the accelerator some beans and my right foot only too happy to comply. One gentle mashing of the peddle later and the lump under the bonnet has roared approval, booted me in the back and shot the Infiniti forward like a scalded rabbit. Cue much laughter and hilarity and all worries about the wrong side of the road disappear without trace as we begin to eat the miles up with gusto.
Later that same evening Grant and myself were commencing 'the garbage run' - the great American tradition of taking out the trash amplified by the run down to the road necessitated due to the gorgeous location of the property. This was done by loading up 'manly truck', a big 15 year old Ford F-250 which, for those of you who're scratching their heads, is an even bigger version of the giant F-150 pickup truck occasionally spotted in the UK. I'm not kidding, this thing is like the bastard lovechild of a Transit and a Land Rover Defender, with a bit of monster truck somewhere in the lineage. Now, I've driven a lot of things, including high-sided Luton panel vans, but I have never driven anything that felt quite so huge. I'm not kidding, cornering it had to be approached as though you were driving a bus or an arctic - head right past the apex, then swing hard into the turn to make sure the back wheels are going to come around and the side isn't going to mash into whatever object appears to be on the corner. Not helping matters is the huge supercharged diesel under the bonnet, which rears its head with an animal growl every time you feather the accelerator, threatening to take your head off unless you treat it with respect. A strange, wonderful, scary, powerful beast, despite my reservations about this type of vehicle I think I began to see just a glimmer of the appeal.
Of course, neither of these two cars can compare to the motor I've just been driving. We are sitting quietly with our thoughts, in the wake of a gentleman named John's departure. John is a good friend of Grant and Irina, Elle's grandmother, and was a very good friend of Ted, Elle's father, in his youth. Elle and John had never met, and we spent a wonderful evening together with John, Grant and Irina reminiscing, Elle listening and asking questions about her father and me soaking it all in, trying to make sense of the family lines and enjoying very much the stories of John and Ted in their youth - from what I can tell of it, Ted was a bit of a boy!! Anyway, John had arrived earlier in a Mercedes E550, and as most of you will know this piqued my curiosity. Turns out John has had a few nice motors, including a Nissan GT-R. Of course, we spent a fair amount of time chatting about cars and at the end of the evening John offers us the use of his Merc the next day. I cannot believe my luck, especially because on closer inspection this particular Merc has got an AMG pack on it. So, picture the scene - a bright, sunny California day. A black, brand new Mercedes E550 with an AMG pack on it. Me. With a smile like the Cheshire Cat on his birthday - a smile that gets wider when John insists we should take the motor out of Comfort and put it into Sport. I can safely say this is the most wonderful car I have ever driven - everything about it is just..... perfect. The way the steering provides detail, the way the car feels planted on the road, the way the accelerator responds to the application of right foot despite the automatic, the way the engine note changes depending on how enthusiastically you apply the loud pedal. My favourite thing about it was the way it cornered - especially with the active boosters that hold you in place as you hit and the leave the apex behind. Feed it in, hold the apex, give it the beans to come out the other side and feel the car working your lumber from all the inputs, your senses heightened by the feedback through your fingertips as the engine growls approval and the world begins to pass you by in a blur of green and blue. Suffice to say, I was very happy to get hold of the keys and distinctly less inclined to give them back after my B-Road Hero antics. My overriding thought during all of this was 'I gotta get me one of these'......
So, motoring in America. Pretty much like motoring in the UK - the roads are similar, the speeds are similar, you get some good drivers some bad drivers and some dickheads, and it's on the wrong side of the road. Bearing in mind the cars I've driven, I figure the main difference between the two for me can be summed up with a classic quote from Nintendo; "Now, you're playing with power!"
Anyway, lunch done and dusted we returned to collect Grant, who it appeared had planned ahead - the offer of driving home being extended prior to leaving Sebastopol. We drove out of Berkeley with me in charge of a big Infiniti V8 and a rather cheerful Grant in the front seat next to me offering useful directions mixed in with his lunch-fuelled ramblings. Infiniti are a luxury brand made by Nissan, in the same vein as Lexus from Toyota - a big thing in America is manufacturers offer different brands for different segments of the market, in order to maximise revenues and, I guess, ensure customers don't move away when they want to move up. Driving on the wrong side of the road was a little strange to start with, but the big V8 automatic was easy around town, especially on the wide city streets of Berkeley. Once we hit the freeway though, things began to get a bit more interesting - Grant encouraging me to give the accelerator some beans and my right foot only too happy to comply. One gentle mashing of the peddle later and the lump under the bonnet has roared approval, booted me in the back and shot the Infiniti forward like a scalded rabbit. Cue much laughter and hilarity and all worries about the wrong side of the road disappear without trace as we begin to eat the miles up with gusto.
Later that same evening Grant and myself were commencing 'the garbage run' - the great American tradition of taking out the trash amplified by the run down to the road necessitated due to the gorgeous location of the property. This was done by loading up 'manly truck', a big 15 year old Ford F-250 which, for those of you who're scratching their heads, is an even bigger version of the giant F-150 pickup truck occasionally spotted in the UK. I'm not kidding, this thing is like the bastard lovechild of a Transit and a Land Rover Defender, with a bit of monster truck somewhere in the lineage. Now, I've driven a lot of things, including high-sided Luton panel vans, but I have never driven anything that felt quite so huge. I'm not kidding, cornering it had to be approached as though you were driving a bus or an arctic - head right past the apex, then swing hard into the turn to make sure the back wheels are going to come around and the side isn't going to mash into whatever object appears to be on the corner. Not helping matters is the huge supercharged diesel under the bonnet, which rears its head with an animal growl every time you feather the accelerator, threatening to take your head off unless you treat it with respect. A strange, wonderful, scary, powerful beast, despite my reservations about this type of vehicle I think I began to see just a glimmer of the appeal.
Of course, neither of these two cars can compare to the motor I've just been driving. We are sitting quietly with our thoughts, in the wake of a gentleman named John's departure. John is a good friend of Grant and Irina, Elle's grandmother, and was a very good friend of Ted, Elle's father, in his youth. Elle and John had never met, and we spent a wonderful evening together with John, Grant and Irina reminiscing, Elle listening and asking questions about her father and me soaking it all in, trying to make sense of the family lines and enjoying very much the stories of John and Ted in their youth - from what I can tell of it, Ted was a bit of a boy!! Anyway, John had arrived earlier in a Mercedes E550, and as most of you will know this piqued my curiosity. Turns out John has had a few nice motors, including a Nissan GT-R. Of course, we spent a fair amount of time chatting about cars and at the end of the evening John offers us the use of his Merc the next day. I cannot believe my luck, especially because on closer inspection this particular Merc has got an AMG pack on it. So, picture the scene - a bright, sunny California day. A black, brand new Mercedes E550 with an AMG pack on it. Me. With a smile like the Cheshire Cat on his birthday - a smile that gets wider when John insists we should take the motor out of Comfort and put it into Sport. I can safely say this is the most wonderful car I have ever driven - everything about it is just..... perfect. The way the steering provides detail, the way the car feels planted on the road, the way the accelerator responds to the application of right foot despite the automatic, the way the engine note changes depending on how enthusiastically you apply the loud pedal. My favourite thing about it was the way it cornered - especially with the active boosters that hold you in place as you hit and the leave the apex behind. Feed it in, hold the apex, give it the beans to come out the other side and feel the car working your lumber from all the inputs, your senses heightened by the feedback through your fingertips as the engine growls approval and the world begins to pass you by in a blur of green and blue. Suffice to say, I was very happy to get hold of the keys and distinctly less inclined to give them back after my B-Road Hero antics. My overriding thought during all of this was 'I gotta get me one of these'......
So, motoring in America. Pretty much like motoring in the UK - the roads are similar, the speeds are similar, you get some good drivers some bad drivers and some dickheads, and it's on the wrong side of the road. Bearing in mind the cars I've driven, I figure the main difference between the two for me can be summed up with a classic quote from Nintendo; "Now, you're playing with power!"
Saturday, 3 December 2011
Arrived in Sebastopol
So, we both arrived in California safe and sound after a long and draining flight, taking in two planes and three airports during a day which shifted back first by five and then a further three to eight hours. Like the opposite of a Nordic winter, we had around 20 hours of daylight, the sun only setting as the plane approached San Francisco - which allowed us to see the city lit up below us, the streetlights like jewels accentuating the bay below.
Our body clocks have adjusted quite quickly, and we're settling down onto local time pretty well. The only problem so far is that I keep waking up at five am or so - which is midday GMT. However, problematic as this may sound, it does have it's own inherent advantage - that being the glory of the sun rising across the Napa Valley. I've just spent a wonderful two hours on the patio with Elle, drinking coffee and shooting the breeze, marvelling at the colours as they change literally in front of your eyes - red, orange and amber hues creeping over the hill, bleeding into softer shades as they reach into the clear blue of the sky which darkens like a ripening plum, the gradient from light blue to navy to starry night jaw droppingly beautiful.
Today we have a little shopping to do - but I don't mind, because we have an awesome addition to our list - fancy dress. We're headed to a party tonight, dressed as our favourite cartoon characters. Elle was debating going as the fox from Animals of Farthing Wood, or a Moomin. Me, I'm wondering if the Americans do fancy dress like they do everything else - namely, bigger and more full-on - and if I'll be able to lay my hands on a Matt Tracker suit. I'll let you know how we go.
Our body clocks have adjusted quite quickly, and we're settling down onto local time pretty well. The only problem so far is that I keep waking up at five am or so - which is midday GMT. However, problematic as this may sound, it does have it's own inherent advantage - that being the glory of the sun rising across the Napa Valley. I've just spent a wonderful two hours on the patio with Elle, drinking coffee and shooting the breeze, marvelling at the colours as they change literally in front of your eyes - red, orange and amber hues creeping over the hill, bleeding into softer shades as they reach into the clear blue of the sky which darkens like a ripening plum, the gradient from light blue to navy to starry night jaw droppingly beautiful.
Today we have a little shopping to do - but I don't mind, because we have an awesome addition to our list - fancy dress. We're headed to a party tonight, dressed as our favourite cartoon characters. Elle was debating going as the fox from Animals of Farthing Wood, or a Moomin. Me, I'm wondering if the Americans do fancy dress like they do everything else - namely, bigger and more full-on - and if I'll be able to lay my hands on a Matt Tracker suit. I'll let you know how we go.
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