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.....
