Forgive me, it's been 7 weeks since I blogged here.

Time just runs away! We've now been here for the best part of 3 months, but it seems like a quarter of that. But hey!, no excuses, and here's a quick update.

Our shipment from the UK arrived a couple of weeks back, and while 'her indoors' was at work escaping the ups and downs of moving stuff about, I helped install all our stuff (bed, sofa, chairs, table, HiFi, computer, printer, scanner, CDs, LPs, Cassettes, books, pictures, photos, ornaments, bikes, BBQ etc.), most of which we'd forgotten about. The good news is that all the UK electrical equipment (bar the hifi turntable) works through the transformer we bought from a specialist company in Illinois. That includes my pride and joy Canon 9950F scanner, and the UK PAL TV for watching DVDs through the region free Toshiba DVD player that I selected as my retirement gift from IBM. We were especially pleased that our Desktop computer ('Tomcat' from Chillblast) has a selectable voltage power supply, survived the 3 months cooped up in a container, and is back performing all the tasks we come to expect a computer to do.

We've settled into a routine that allows Cisco its' pound of flesh, and gives us time together. In fact, although Lynda works the same or slightly more hours than she did in the UK, the US habit of starting early has its' benefits. Lynda will start at around 6 to 7 in the morning, and be finished between 5 and 6pm. This allows us time for a dip in the pool, a relax in the jacuzzi (right next to the pool), a couple of cocktails, dinner and some quality nerd time fiddling with technology before bed at around 10:30 to 11pm. Weekends are sacrosanct, and since L will normally finish work at around 2pm on a Friday, we can get out of town to the beach, mountains etc. before the rush.

And that's what we did last weekend. After 3 months of continuous daytime temperatures in the mid 80s to high 100s without a drop of rain, we thought we'd spend a weekend at the coast in the Monterey area, where it rained, was misty (low cloud) with temps in the 50s and 60s. We would have preferred a more gentle introduction, but no matter. Lunch at Sierra Mar at Big Sur on Saturday, where we had a table overlooking the coast, and amidst swirling clouds, was outstanding, the Pommes Frites with Fines Herbes Aïoli being especially good. The general idea was to exercise our photographic skills, but the light was never quite right, thus we ended up returning to Dublin earlier than we otherwise would have.

We took our second trip on the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transport) system last Sunday, the first being to Coliseum to watch Oakland A's beat Detroit Tigers 3 to 2 at the end of the 9th. It only takes 45 mins on the BART train from Dublin/Pleasanton station to Montgomery St. in the heart of San Francisco's financial district, and at $11 return (each) with no parking costs, it's a bargain. We met our friend Chris from Hong Kong, in San Francisco on business, at his hotel for few glasses before repairing to RN74 for dinner. As is usual at these events, my memory is hazy, but I can say that the wine was fine Burgundy, the sommelier showed me around his cellar, and was very helpful with our selections, and that they had a unique method of showing bin ends. A railway train station indicator board stood at one end of the restaurant, but instead of train arrivals and departures, the bin end wines were shown and updated throughout the evening as they became sold, and this included wines by the glass. Fascinating. I remember enjoying the food, but I can't remember what I had. The restaurant was named for the Route National 74, a road that runs through Beaune, not the night bus that runs from Baker street to Roehampton in dear old London.

On the wine front, we've joined the wine clubs of Wente, Beringer and St Supery, the first being just down the road in the Livermore Valley, the other 2 in Napa, and are beginning to enjoy the fruits of their labours. As I've blogged before, wine is cheap here, well, that's not exactly true. We can buy cheap wine, including the so called 2 buck chuck, and these can be remarkably good in their own right, but if you're wanting named vineyards, and especially 'old world' wines, you'll probably end up paying much the same as you'd pay in England.

Let me end on a coffee note. Most of you will know that Lynda and I bought a Gaggia espresso machine in the UK, which produced fine espresso, americano, and with the steam feature, passable cappuccino. Although we were happy with it, we decided not to bring it with us to the US, in part because friends Tony and Liz, who had just returned from a stint in Indianapolis, couldn't get their US espresso machine to work on UK voltage, even with a transformer. So we sold the Gaggia, and took Liz & Tony's D290 back from whence it came. We added a milk frother, and hey presto, a very good coffee maker! I know some will say say, (you know who you are!) that Nespresso pods are a pale imitation of true, artisan, Italian espresso, but we really like it, and it's so convenient and tidy. From turning the D290 and frother on, to sipping a very drinkable espresso and cappuccino, it takes less than 2 minutes.

OK, that's enough for today, but do remember, we now have a kitted out 2nd bedroom, with a bed and everything! So, get off your bottoms and visit us!

'Till next time.....

Tri-Valley, the med of California

We've been doing a little research on our new location. Our postal address is Dublin California, Zipcode 94568, but actually we're closer to Pleasanton. Both towns are part of the Tri-Valley, a triangle shaped valley in the East Bay of the San Franciso Bay Area, consisting of the Amador, Livermore and San Ramon valleys. We're blessed with a Mediterainean-like climate which in turn makes the valleys home to many working vineyards, most in the Livermore area. Other than the towns of Dublin and Pleasanton, Tri-Valley also has Danville, Livermore, San Ramon and the newly established gate-town of Blackhawk. We're about 30 miles east of San Francisco and we do know the way to San Jose!

Our apartment block is more or less in the centre of the Tri-Valley, right where the three valleys meet. The towns of Blackhawk, Danville and San Ramon are to our north, Dublin to our west, Pleasanton to the south and Livermore to the east. The Tri-Valley is surrounded by the Diablo mountain range, which in itself is part of the California Coast ranges, themselves part of the much larger Pacific Coast Range.

Don't ask about earthquakes! Oh you did! Right then. Everyone's heard of the San Andreas fault, which runs almost the length of California, and right through the Bay Area. The San Andreas Fault is the sliding boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate. It slices California in two from Cape Mendocino to the Mexican border. San Diego, Los Angeles and Big Sur are on the Pacific Plate. San Francisco, Sacramento and the Sierra Nevada are on the North American Plate. And despite San Francisco’s legendary 1906 earthquake, the San Andreas Fault does not go through the city. Look at a map and you'll find it runs pretty much down the west side of the Bay, and since we're way over on the East Bay, the other side of the East Bay Hills, you'd think we'd be OK. But you'd be wrong. You see, the San Andreas is just a cover for a whole fault system. In our local area there are more than 20 individual faults making up the San Andreas fault system, see the main ones in the diagram below.



The light blue fault is what everyone calls the San Andreas Fault, but our apartment lies almost slap bang at the top of the orange fault, the Calaveras Fault. Don't be too concerned however, since a major 'quake has not occurred on the Calaveras fault in recorded history, the last moderate tremble, mag 5.6, occurred near Alum rock, more or less 25 miles due south of us, on Oct 30th 2007.

In general, the sun shines, there is little or no cloud, and not much rain. Sunrise is never earlier than 5:30 (June) and no later than than 7:10 (Mar & October - daylight savings changeover), while sunset is between 5pm and 9pm. Average daily temperatures range from 8C in Dec and Jan to 24C in July. During the summer months we rarely have more than 2 days of rain, but this increases to an average 9 days/month in Dec and Jan.

Hopefully, that gives y'all an overview of our geography.

Until next time....

Pete & Lynda

Our Credit Crunch

I know we were told, and we did listen, but not being able to purchase stuff because we have no credit rating is getting pretty stressful. It shouldn't matter of course since we have enough real cash, but sometimes, well that's just not enough for some businesses. Take AT&T, or at&t as it wishes to be now known, eschewing the niceties of capitalisation (note: no z). Now, Lynda and I are well known geeks, not at all technophobic, and we love spending our evenings playing with new electronic toys (no sniggering at the back!). We'd love to spend our hard-earned cash with at&t for one (to start with) of those beautiful iPhone 3Gs. Just think of it, being on-line all the time, tweeting, FB-ing, blogging, using Google maps, e-mailing, etc., from just about anywhere where there is a 3G signal, and guess what, unlike the UK, we do have good 3G signals all around us, except in the hills of course, 'natch. But no, Apple have signed an exclusivity deal with at&t, and the iPhone is only available on at&t's subscription service, and at&t won't let us subscribe because we don't have a credit rating, so we're stuck with pay-as-you-go 'phones. at&t blame Equifax.

And how about this! We would like to save, yes save money with a bank. Not borrow money, no, save money. We can't, because we don't have a credit rating. This bank is HSBC, who we bank with in the UK. Arggggggggggggghhhhhhhh! HSBC blame Equifax.

We cannot get a credit card, because we have no credit rating. We blame Equifax.

It will get better we are told, in about 3 months when the credit agencies (Equifax) have caught up with us.

I am off to bang my head against a 4-pack of Sam Smith's Old Pale Ale - available at a Bevmo! near you.

Hooking Up

Forgive me, it's been 11 days since my last post... how many Hail Marys!?

We've hooked up with some old IBM friends: Dan in downtown Palo Alto, Graham in Lafayette and DMT in Santa Barbara.

Dan and I worked on IEEE 802.5 architecture together when we were both working in Raleigh, NC. His family are plugged into the Bay Area music scene, he plays mandolin and horns, son Julian drums and wife Claudia violin, all for different ensembles; maybe it'll give me the push I need to get back performing?

I got together with Graham in a Danville pub after a pick-up game of soccer, (him not me), the old boy still looks fit and is still enthusiastic about his football, so much so that he's just got an MBA from Liverpool Uni specialising in football administration, so look out for a resurgence in football in Northern California! Graham and I also met while we were both on assignment in Raleigh. The weeked before last, he invited us up to his lakeside property for a spot of jet skiing, lazing about and drinking. Now that IS the way to relax into a weekend. Several attempts at doubling up with Lynda on a jet-ski resulted in us being dumped ceremoniously in the lake, but I did manage to get a good circuit on my own. Watched the sun disappear over the Lakeside mountains while glugging Californian micro brewery ales. Need to decide if I'm too old to take up footy again.

Drove down to Santa Barbara last Friday to stay with DMT and Barbara. DMT is my mentor cocktail-wise, Lynda swears by his Cosmos. We both worked for IBM in Croydon in the bad old days, he in telephony and me in performance management, and we discovered a mutual liking for ale. I picked up a few tips on the art of the Cocktail, did some wine and beer tasting in Santa Barbara itself, and rounded off with the all-American Breakfast at Cody's on Sunday morning. Took us 5 hours for the 310 miles from SB to home, up US 101 to San Jose and 680 home, maybe a bit slower than I5, but a much nicer drive.

I've been having fun reading bed-time stories for the grand children across t'interweb. I've chosen Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr Fox and I'm currently at Chapter 8. Thanks to Facebook and our new Flip cam-corder, it's really easy to post short, nearly HD videos on to FB. Now, how can I make money at this?

Some good and some bad, NB incomplete lists:

Bad: companies cold calling on the telephone via automated call systems; road discipline; parochialism, the bureaucratic civil service and "little Hitlers", talk radio, biscuits, bars (expensive), food from service stations, lock-in culture masquerading as marketing, california taxes,

Good: weather, store opening hours, postal delivery, internet speed, cheap liquor, wine & lager (except in bars), Trader Joe's, Ranch 99 (availability of asian food stuffs), food in general, magazines, Border's, Bagels - proper bagels, kitchen shops, gas (petrol) price, geography

So far, so good. Missing all the usual things (people, ale), but enjoying the good (see above) stuff.

Until next time...

P & L

So far so good

Still got about a month or two to wait for our shipment (PC, dining room table bed, books, CDs Vinyl, scanner, music system etc), so it does feel a bit like camping here. But things improved yesterday - Pete bought a small Altec Lansing speaker system to plug into the noble NC10 netbook. This, with the much improved internet connection from Comcast (so much better than BT) has revolutionised our evenings. We've listened to "I'm sorry I Haven't a Clue", the Paul Jones RnB show, the Bob Harris's Country show, the News and Pete experienced a truly execrable right-on PC comedy on R4 by Shappi Khorsandi. Maybe we don't need a tele?

We're gradually getting used to apartment living, we especially like having the pool on-site, and the fact that it's relatively empty; we've haven't tried the gym yet, but it's likely we'll have to soon, before Pete's latest jeans purchase (still a trim 36" waist) gives way to a 38". And then there's the TV theatre where we can play our DVDs, so long as , we suspect, they are region compliant. Pete feels a rant coming on here, but he'll leave to his ranting blog (http://box57.blogspot.com).

On the food and wine front, we really are ahead of the game. PF Chang's is a better local chinese than any of the Fleet ones were, our local winery's restaurant (Wente in Livermore) is really v good, we'd rate it up there with Chez Bruce, and our local fast food Mexican ("Baja Fresh") is exceptional for a fast food restaurant. And we've got a local "Trader Joes" and "Ranch 99", our local Asian supermarket. Still mastering eating at home, so far we've had one failure featuring a portugese sausage!

While Lynda works, Pete expected he'd be in Borders or Barnes & Noble for coffee and a free read of the mags, books etc., but so far he's shopped, laundried and played on the NC10. We'll see what next week brings.

Just taken delivery of a FLIP minoHD, so if you're lucky, or even if you're not, we might be posting small but perfectly formed videos on t'interweb thingy.

Missing you all, and do come and visit, we'll tell you when the spare bed arrives.

P & L in the USA

Phew! What a scorcher!

I hear that the UK has had an unseasonal hot spell, and this in June! Well, here in Dublin (the US city without a brewery) we've had a scorcher of a weekend too, all of 107F, yes and we were grateful for air conditioning.

This was our first weekend in Dublin, and since our shipment from the UK is not expected for some weeks, we've had 2 days of shopping. Bed, desk, table, chairs, printer, internet, phone, cutlery, plates etc., bookshelf; thank God for IKEA. Yes, IKEA. In the USA. 'Twas easy, shopping in the morning, filling up the rental RAV4, lunch, then building, screwing, and wielding allen keys during the afternoon. Looks nice now, from my vantage point at the PC in the den (study to you), I can enjoy the fruits of a weekend's work.

I took L to work in the rush hour this morning, west on 580, south on 680, then south on 880 to a Cisco building on McCarthy Blvd, it took about 40 mins. Some observations:

• Drivers change lanes frequently and at high speed
• When on the Freeway, entrances precede exits by about 200 yds ensuring frequent lane changing, in practice lane changing becomes exaggerated swerving.
• Rear indicators are red, same as the stop & rear lights

All this makes for a interesting journey. Even though I am an experienced driver, who drives faster than the average in the UK, for most of the 40 minute journey I did feel that people were driving too fast for the conditions. I'll get used to it, or I'll die trying.