Dr Moo in California

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.