Dr Moo in California

If you are wondering why I waited so long to post my last article and why I am immediately following up with this, my laptop died over the weekend. I was writing up our experiences and the things you will see below when my screen became corrupted. Some component in the graphics card appears to have failed (perhaps the RAMDAC) and so these posts have been delayed.

Houses: Well, we have finally cleared out Ali and Jamie’s old place and the new place is slowly becoming more like a home. It took much effort and Jamie spent many evenings working very hard to get the move out done in time (and even then, we had to request a few extensions). However, the new house is lovely and it is wonderful to finally look forwards to returning home each night!!

Intruders: However, not all has been 100% well at the new house. On Saturday night, we had intruders on our property! Alicyn woke me up to tell me that she had heard a sound in the back garden and when she investigated it, she saw someone fleeing down the road! Further investigation revealed that somone had indeed been in our back yard and that is when she woke me up. Given the disorientation when waking up to such news, I was worried that they had been trying to burgle our house. However, it appears they had just been using our garden as a hiding place/escape route. It appears that the police had been chasing or searching for someone and they had used our back garden to hide in.

I had been given a new tomato plant and left it outside in its pot and the intruder had kicked it quite hard (probably not seen it in the dark). An oxy-acetelyne torch had been moved and one of Jamie’s antenna’s broken. The sound Alicyn had heard was the person knocking over the antenna! There was a small amount of other miscellaneous damage, but not too much thankfully. What they were intending to do with the torch is unknown, but they ended up leaving it behind on top of one of our fences. I think perhaps they were trying to climb over the fence to escape and got disturbed by the police or Alicyn. They may also have been trying to use the antenna for a similar purpose. Thankfully, it appears they were caught shortly afterwards. It did however leave us a little startled, partially because of the damage, but also just because of the intrusion into our private space. Anyway, the tomato plant seems to be recovering (poor thing) and there wasn’t too much damage.

Dead Laptop: As a final straw, later that day, my laptop screen became corrupted. The same is true of any external monitor that is connected. The data appears fine and intact, but it is impossible to use the laptop for anything now. Windows no longer detects the graphics card (so it uses VGA mode) and half the screen just shows junk (lines of good interleaved with lines of corrupt graphics). I can’t really afford a new laptop at the moment and a new PC I ordered a while back is being constantly delayed by Dell.

As usual, it has been quite some time since my last post. However, in that time, much has happened. I will try to do this post the justice it deserves, because there is much to write about… I had two of my good friends (Chris and Simon) come over to visit from England and in the middle of their visit had to move house. So a very hectic, but fun, time.

Chris and Simon arrived on the June 24th and stayed for two weeks. On their arrival, we had a nice relaxing weekend to help them recover from their jet lag and then went into our full holiday. We had decided to hire an RV and drive up to Lake Tahoe and Yosemite. The RV we hired was a wonderful vehicle and felt very comfortable. We had intended to shop on the Sunday before we left on the Monday. However, due to a number of problems finding what we needed, we ended up doing much of our shopping Monday. One thing we realised was that we didn’t have enough space in our cool boxes to store all our stuff, so we ended up buying a HUGE one (its capacity was 142 litres or 248 cans) to store everything in. We also spent a small fortune on food and drink for the trip. We finally going going mid afternoon and were up at Lake Tahoe by the end of Monday.

We had paid in advance to have a berth at a KOA campsite in Lake Tahoe. We arrived later than intended, but thankfully they had left out instructions for us. The berth was very convenient (located near the entrance) and there was a great place to park my car (I forgot to mention above that we decided to tow my car on the journey). I could drive my car up behind the RV and easily exit. It was a good evening except for a bit of a panic when Alicyn realised that some tablets she needed were left behind. However, all in all, a good journey and good day.

Our plan for Tuesday was to go to Lake Tahoe and rent a couple of Jet Skis. We spent four hours racing around Lake Tahoe on these Jet Skis. It was a great experience and we managed to get to speeds of almost 50mph. Very exhilarating! After exploring the lake thoroughly, we decided to cross over the Nevada and go to a casino for some food and a bit of a dabble with the gambling. The buffet food was great, but I wasn’t massively impressed with the gambling. If I were to enjoy it, I’d want to play at the tables and the stakes are a little too high for me to do this just casually. However, we had a little fun with the slot machines and overall it was a fun experience.

Wednesday we headed down to Yosemite and found our new campsite. This one was very pleasant and was spacious enough that we could extend our awning and also have a separate cover up. Very nice. It is a long drive from Lake Tahoe to Yosemite in an RV with a car being towed (very narrow and mountainous roads), so we didn’t arrive until early evening. We then went to a Pizza place nearby. Opinions over the pizza were somewhat polarized (some described as very good and some as the worst they’d ever had).

Thursday we drove to Yosemite National Park (took the car, not the RV). I have been there once before, but was still completely blown away by the magnificent scenery. We got out of the car many times to view things on the way in. After viewing the park from the valley, we then drove all the way to the south entrace. We were rather rushed, because we had booked a horse ride through the area just south of Yosemite and barely had time to get there. A few bends were taken perhaps slightly faster than they should have been, but we arrived safely. Horse riding through the valleys in that part of the park was amazing. We had booked for two hours, but were probably out even longer. An amazing experience, but very dust experience. The ground was very dry and the horses kicked up huge volumes of dust to the point where are lungs felt full of the stuff. Finally we drove back via Glacier Point. We got there just in time to witness sunset over the park and it is hard to put into words how amazing the view was. Although photos can’t do it true justice (no criticism to the photographer), here are some photos from the trip.

Friday we had to drive home. I woke up with a splitting headache and was rather ill all morning. Luckily, the RV’s main bed was still usable (perhaps not legally) while driving, so I ended up taking some strong pain killers and trying to sleep it off (I suffer from Migraine and bad headache occasionally nowadays). We finally got home and immediately went to our new house to get the key.

Saturday and Sunday were move in days. The day didn’t start off too well. We had secured a van rental on a credit card before leaving for our vacation. However, no one told us that we only had 1 hour from the time the van was supposed to be collected to get it before it would be given to someone else. Jamie go there to find the van was no longer available. After much searching, we finally found a replacement and got the move underway, but we were running late. We managed to get most of my place moved on Saturday (having only been in CA for so short a time, I haven’t accumulated too much junk) and good portion of the big stuff from Alicyn’s place also. However, it was rather tight, because the van had to be back for 5pm for another customer. We also got to go see the new Superman film this weekend, which was pretty good. Well worth checking out.

Monday was the day we visited Alcatraz. We had booked well in advance and were glad we had, because there were no tickets available that day for anyone who hadn’t pre-booked. Visiting Alzatraz was great fun and we had a good time looking around the place and taking many photos (I might even get round to posting some of mine, but see above link for some good photos of all the places mentioned). On Alcatraz, we got a short tour about native American protests on the island and a truly amazing audio tour of the prison block. Great fun. We then went to Pier 39 and had a very nice meal at Neptune’s Seafood Restaurant.

Tuesday was July 4th, so we had a nice quiet day. Adobe had a great place to view the San Jose fireworks display, so Simon and I headed over there to watch them.

Wednesday we went down to Monterey. We visited the Monterey Aquarium and spent a good few hours enjoying the sights of the deep The aquarium is one of the best in world and a very good way to spend a long afternoon. We saw Sea Otters, Sharks, Seals, etc. and they have some very impressive tanks that are so big you can barely believe it. Highly recommended day out in Northern California.

Thursday Simon, Chris and I went back to San Francisco for the day. We started slightly late due to helping Alicyn and Jamie move a few more items from their place. We got there for lunch and then went exploring San Fran. We went up Coit Tower and then journeyed over to Union Square and had a look around. Finally we headed back to China Town to the House of Nanjing Restaurant. There we had one of the best Chinese meals I have ever had (and I eat a lot of Chinese food, have visited places like Hong Kong, etc. so this is saying something). The place has a reputation for not letting first timers order for themselves and we were very happy to allow this. We simply told them that we were adventurous and hungry and they went and produced four delicious (and huge) meals.

Friday we went up to Muir Woods. I had been to Muir Woods with my parents in April this year and it had been raining heavily and was very muddy (ruined my shoes). This time I came prepared with hiking boots. We took a moderate/strenuous (this is how it was labelled) 4 mile hike. There were some amazing views and we saw a Deer, Snake, Reptile and a number of other creatures on our travels. After a rather exhausting time walking up the hill (800 foot climb in quite a short distance), the rest of the walk seemed relatively easy. Some more amazing views were to be found up here and once again can be found here.

Saturday was when Chris and Simon had to return to England. However, we managed to fit in Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man’s Chest and a quick visit to the local IHoP before seeing them off at the airport. All in all it was a wonderful holiday.

So the application for the house that I talked about in my last post has just been accepted. The deposit is currently on its way to the realtors who we organised this through. Must admit it has been a bit of a stressful week.

We were told when we first applied for the house that we were the first applicants and would get first refusal (assuming we didn't fail any background checks, etc.). However, on the day we submitted our application, we also found out that the person who had been dealing with us was leaving. The same day! So our application was now being handled by another person at the same place. We were told it would take about three days to process and that they would let us know immediately upon completion (we needed to inform our landlord). However, contacting this new person turned out to be harder than first expected. He never seemed to be in the office and I was getting a little concerned when we'd heard nothing by Friday and I'd been unable to contact him either Thursday or Friday. Finally got through on Friday and he was "looking into it" and would get back to me ASAP.

Monday arrived and we'd heard nothing. Again, almost impossible to contact the person. Finally I got through, only to find that there were now three applications in total and each would have an equal chance of being accepted. All of a sudden, it seemed unlikely we would get it. If a married couple came along in a more stable situation (i.e. worked in the US longer), then I thought we stood no chance. Anyway, didn't get back to me Monday to let me know. Turned out the owner was reviewing the applications overnight.

Anyway, the news arrived yesterday that we had been selected as the top application (no idea why) and that, pending the credit and history checks, we had it. This was confirmed today when Alicyn was contacted and told they needed the deposit (I think I scared them by phoning them so often). So, we've given them the deposit and now all we need to do is sign the lease agreement! Yay!

Well, I've now been living in California for about 8 months. When I first arrived here, I was provided with temporary accommodation by my company (Adobe). However, if I had decided to stay at the original place, the monthly rent would have been $2,700/month. This was beyond my capabilities (or would have blown virtually all my spending money each month), so instead I moved closer to my friends (Alicyn and Jamie) in Sunnyvale and took up a cheaper apartment. My friends and I had talked about combining our finances and moving to a nicer place together and now that Ali and I are dating, it seemed a sensible choice. Therefore, we started looking for a nice house to rent.

We have just (today) submitted an application for a house. We must of course now wait to see if we get the place, but it is a lovely house. A very nice open-plan two-storey building in a lovely neighborhood. It is right next to a park with a swimming pool and other facilities, so should be a very pleasant place to live. More importantly to me, it has air conditioning, which I will be very grateful for as summer approaches. Anyway, needless to say we have our fingers crossed that our application is accepted and are just looking forwards to moving in.

As has been mentioned a number of times, Alicyn and I play tennis quite a bit (2-3 times per week) for fitness. We decided to finally bite the bullet and start taking some lessons. Yesterday (Tuesday) was our first lesson. I thought it went pretty well to say we are both entirely self taught.

The first part of the lesson consisted of serve practice. The tutor had laid out two cones on the court and had us serve at them. I actually managed to hit mine once and came very close a number of times. We practiced serving to both halves of the court. Because there were three people there, two people practiced serving at a time, while the other practiced their return of serve. This worked very well of course. The second part of the lesson was praticing our volleying technique. This consisted mainly of bouncing a ball and hitting it to the other side of the court, practicing putting spin on it. The final part of the lesson was a bit of a competition. Two people stood at one end of the court and one person at the other end. The tutor hit the ball to the single person, who then had to start volleying it over the net. The goal was to score a number of points. The two people took it in turns to play, coming off when they lost a point. I won two of the rounds (one when I was the lone player and one as the team). It was good fun, but very tiring.

It also happened to be one of the nights we normally play tennis, so after our lesson, we then headed over to our normal courts and played for another hour. Overall, a very good evening of Tennis, but very very tiring. My muscles ached from playing for nearly 2 1/2 hours in total.

So, apart from in my previous post, I hadn't previously mentioned having a girlfriend. However, astute readers will notice that the name Alicyn has cropped up in a number of previous posts. Alicyn is the friend I play tennis with and watched Shogun with (to reference relevant blog entries). So, why haven't I mentioned that we were dating previously? Well, for one reason, we were a little uncertain at the start. It is sometimes hard for friends to become more than friends. You worry that it might harm your friendship and other things.

So, I've known Alicyn for nearly 6 years now. She became friends with a friend of mine (my flatmate at university) online and they got to know each other fairly well. I was introduced to her online as well, but we didn't really know each other very well. Two things changed this. One was that Alicyn was visiting family in South Africa in 2001 and decided to visit my friend. What with me being his flatmate and the only driver, I was tasked with driving down to Heathrow and back to pick her up and return her. In fact, she actually visited on the way out and on the way back so I ended up making that trip four times in my awful banger of a car. The second change was that I was offered an internship at Adobe Systems in 2001 as part of my PhD. Alicyn lived in the area and so we got to know each other for the 3 months I was over.

When I came back to California late last year, I spent quite a bit of time at Alicyn's and we started doing a lot of things together. When I returned from my xmas trip to the UK, we both decided we wanted to get fitter. This meant we spent a lot of time together. Slowly I became interested in her as more than a friend and finally plucked up the courage to tell her that I liked her.

It has now been quite some time since then and things seem to be working well in general. Apart from the fact that I get dumped each day for minor transgressions (like this statement), we get on very well. It has definitely made life a lot more pleasant knowing that I have someon to come home to and spend time with.

So, my parents have now returned to England. They actually flew back Friday, but it takes me a few days to get round to writing up my blog. Had a great week with them. We had some very nice meals and had some great fun in the evenings. However, I did have to work Tuesday to Friday. Would have loved to have taken the whole week off, but all the time is ear-marked for other things and I had a number of meetings that I didn't want to miss. All in all though, a great week. The week was made even nicer by my girlfriend, Alicyn, taking part in all the activities. Alicyn and my parents got on very well, which was great. It felt very good to bring both parts of my life (California and UK) together like that and have it work.

So, I said that the weekend was over, but that wasn't actually true, because I booked the Monday off also. We decided to make a day trip down to Santa Cruz and then down to Monterey.

Although the sea is very cold, we wandered onto a beach in Santa Cruz and had a very nice paddle and wander. Great fun. Lovely day. Blue sky as far as the eye could see. I've been to Santa Cruz before, but I think I went to the wrong part, because it felt a bit like Blackpool (UK). However, if you drive a little further south, there are some very nice beaches and lovely scenery.

We then headed down to Monterey. Got stuck in a bit of a traffic jam. A car had somehow managed to flip through the air and slice a telephone pole in half. Very weird and there were news crews out and police. However, we got past this and finally arrived at Monterey. Another very nice place and we found another very good seafood restaurant to eat lunch at. The "Bucket of Fire" cocktail was particularly interesting shared among us (huge thing) and I decided to order something I'd never heard of (type of fish). Turned out to be gorgeous. Now if only I could remember what it was! Went for a nice walk around the area after lunch and did a bit of shopping. Finally drove over to the harbour to see if we could get on a boat ride, but most had closed for the day and the one reminaing was $44 per person for one hour, so we decided to leave it.

When we got back from Monterey, we went looking to see if we could find a replacement MP3 player for my uncle. His Creative Zen Touch 20GB MP3 player was stolen a few months back, so he asked if while my parents were visiting, we could try to find a new one for him. Thought we'd found a good one at Fry's (the new Zen Vision:M), but then it turned out that the price was wrong and it was much more expensive than shown on the device (doh). We also looked at Vacuum Cleaners and managed to dump the entire contents of a vacuum over the floor.

All in all, another very fun day.

It has been a while, so I thought I really should post something. Anyway, my parents are visiting me this week. They arrived mid-afternoon last Friday (14th) and are here until this coming Friday. As a treat, I booked us in at a hotel in the Fisherman's Wharf district of San Francisco and we spent the weekend there.

On Friday evening, we went out for a really nice meal on Pier 39 (Fisherman's Wharf). Obviously, the speciality in that area is seafood, so we went out for some very nice fish. I had a starter of crab spring rolls, followed by Sea Bass, Salmon and Prawns. Very nice.

On Saturday, we had planned to go up to Muir Woods National Monument, which is a lovely Redwood preserve about 10-15 miles North of San Francisco. Sadly, the weather turned rather bad and we ended up hiking through the woods in thick mud, with very inappropriate footwear. Still, the place is beautiful and despite the weather, we had a great time. We then headed back to San Francisco where we went down to Union Square and did a little shopping. Finally we ended up on Pier 39 again, this time at the Hard Rock Cafe.

Sunday we headed back after a lazy morning (both mornings we poisoned ourselves, by overeating at the breakfast buffet) and then spent the afternoon in Sunnyvale (where I live). We went out for a huge steak dinner at Cattlemen's and my father had a 2lb steak! Scary amount of food.

Finally it was the end of the weekend and we were back at my place. Sadly, my place doesn't have much in the way of furniture. I gave my parents my bed and tried to sleep in a chair, but failed. Ended up sleeping on the floor. Still, not too terrible

All in all, a very good weekend.

As anyone who reads my blog knows, my posts are pretty irregular and somewhat rare of late. However, to break that mold, I will now post a second article immediately after posting my last. Woot!*

I finally got my registration plates through for my car. As part of my integration into “American culture”, I had to buy a car (OK and because you can’t do anything without one). Having waited nearly two months, my new plates arrived and my official insurance documents were sent. Now if I’m stopped by the police (something I’m not planning on trying out), I can properly hand over my license, registration and insurance documents. It is official, Dr Moo is in California!

* there is a distinct possibility I’m losing it