Visiting the Holy Land

I've just returned from a trip to the land that is considered holiest for several religions, Israel. Israel is another interesting destination that I never would have thought that my work would take me to and not necessarily a place I would have thought to ever visit on my own. It's a beautiful country with very kind and hospitable people. Similar to Cape Town, the climate and culture reminded me very much of my beloved California. My hotel was right on the beach so every morning I was able to wake up to a beautiful sunrise and crashing waves. I was also very glad to be back in warm weather again where I could wear short sleeve shirts and not worry about whether or not I had brought a hat with me. I spent most of my time in Tel Aviv but was able to get out to see Haifa, Jerusalem, and Bethlehem. I arrived late in the evening in Haifa so wasn't able to do much except see the view of the city and have a very satisfying dinner. I'd like to visit Haifa again some time and actually walk through the Baha'i Shrine and Gardens.

Although I was raised Roman Catholic, I have never considered myself to be a very religious person. Being raised Roman Catholic did mean that I spent many a Saturday and Sunday at church studying the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, therefore I was keen to see the places where all of the strange and miraculous events had occured. I decided to take a day off (considering I had to work on a Sunday) to visit the religious/historical sites in Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

On my visit to Jerusalem we first stopped at the Mount of Olives to get a panaromic view of the entire city of Jerusalem. The Mount of Olives is said to be the place where God will redeem the dead at the end of days so many Jewish people pay big money to be buried there. This gives them the benefit of proximity to be one of the first to raise from the dead and re-enter the gates of Jerusalem. From the Mount of Olives we headed to the old city which is the center of Jerusalem. The old city is divided into 4 quarters: Armenian, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim. Jerusalem has great significance to all these religions considering it is where Abraham nearly sacrificed his son to God, Muhammed ascended to heaven, and where Christ lived, taught, and was crucified. The most amazing thing to me was how all these religions/cultures co-exist in such small proximity to each other and all share rights to the same religious sites. As a Catholic, I was blown away to be walking the same path that Jesus walked, touch the place where he was crucified and buried, and to see all the stories of the Bible come to life.

After spending most of the day wandering around Jerusalem we headed to Bethlehem. Here I have to admit that I didn't do very much research before coming to Israel. Bethlehem is a Palestinian controlled state where Israeli's are not allowed to visit. There is a huge border between Jerusalem and Bethlehem where our Israeli guide had to drop us off to be picked up by a Palestinian guide on the other side. Bethlehem is the only Palestinian state in Israel where tourists are allowed to visit because of its religious significance and pressure from the Vatican. Crossing over to Bethlehem was a surreal experience as you could easily see that there was a state of military activity and chaos that I didn't observe at all in the rest of Israel. Apparently the day before I arrived Israeli troops had kidnapped 2 men and the day after I left Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian policeman. It was inspiring to visit the Church of the Nativity where Jesus was born in a manger but I'm not sure if I'll be finding my way to Bethlehem again.

Finally I do have to comment on the cuisine in Israel. I was given fair warning that I would probably come back to London weighing more than when I'd left and I did my best to ensure that with 3 courses at almost every meal. Israel has a wealth of food options and I ate everything from Italian pasta to Asian noodles. I also had the freshest and most delicious hummus and falafels that I've ever tasted. I definitely hope I'll have another trip back to see more of Jerusalem and Haifa and to eat some more.

Just When I Thought It Couldn't Get Colder

I am now in Nurnberg, Germany where the car showed -1.5C (29F) when I arrived. Side bar - this time I got an Opel which isn't much better than the Skoda and the speed limiter was set to 200km/hr (124 mph), no fun at all. I don't have much to share right now except that Nurnberg is another quaint and beautiful European city. Spotlessly clean as I would expect of any major city in Germany with not even a hint of litter around. The one really nice thing about being in Nurnberg this time of year that almost makes up for the cold is the Christkindlesmarkt (Christmas market). Germans take Christmas very seriously (well they take most things seriously) so all major towns have a Christmas market leading up to the big day, however the Nurnberg market is one of the most popular. Vendors set up stalls in the town center and sell lovingly made (in China) ornaments, dolls, cakes, cider, mugs, etc. to the unknowing tourists. Nurnberg is also famous for its sausages so every other stall sells you three sausages in a bun for 1.50 Euro. I would have shown you a picture of one but I devoured mine before I could get my camera out.

It's sad that I've become so accustomed to cold weather that I don't know what to pack for my trip to 20C (70F) weather next week.

Rain, Rain Go Away...

My passport is being held hostage in order to get a visa so I haven't had much to write about lately. Only that it's been raining so much lately and I've never quite felt cold like this before. The temperature has been settling around 3C ( 37F) to 10C (50F) and with the humidity it's just been plain freezing. Be glad my fair weather friends in California. The days have also gotten extremely short since day light savings time and any ray of light is gone by 4:30pm. Some nights I feel so ready for bed and I realize that it's only 8pm but with the darkness makes it feel like midnight.

This week I am excited to celebrate Thanksgiving with some other Americans. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because it's centered around spending time with the ones you care about, eating yourself silly, and vegging out in front of the television. I do really look forward to Christmas as well but it has gotten so commercial that it's hard to recall what you're supposed to be celebrating. Christmas is especially commercial here in the UK because there are no other holidays like Thanksgiving or Halloween in between so the ornaments and store decorations go up by early October. Thanksgiving will be nice though with my friend Tonya hosting a dinner Thursday night with a mixed group of people. I also have two good friends in town visiting so I'm happy to see them again. I'll be sure to take some pictures and let you know how the turkey turns out.

South Africa: Part Deux

The second part of my trip in South Africa took me to Cape Town for my final few days. This was probably the exact opposite of my experience in Johannesburg. To begin with, I had a uneventeful direct flight from London Heathrow to Johannesburg, this was not the case flying from Johannesburg to Cape Town. I left at 2:30pm for a 2 hour flight and about 10 minutes before landing in Cape Town our captain announced a slight change in plans. Apparently a plane that had just taken off left a few spare parts on the runway along with some fuel that now had to be cleared up so we would need to circle in the air for ~30 minutes. Then 15 minutes later the captain came back on informing us that this plane now needed to make an emergency landing at the Cape Town airport so there was no ETA for our landing. Finally it was decided that we had been circling for so long that we were beginning to run out of fuel and that we would need to land at the airport in George, ~400 km away. In George we were allowed to make phone calls and rearrange our arrival plans but we could not get off the plane. Finally the mess at Cape Town was cleaned and we made our way back arriving at 7:30pm. To top it all off we had the screaming child who wouldn't stop to take a breath for the entire 5 hour ordeal. Typically I do feel for these parents but today was just not the day. Apparently events similar to this have occured twice in one week now at the Cape Town airport.


Once we arrived we were told that we had to go directly to the hotel, drop off our bags, and head right back out for a go-karting event. After the events of the day none of us were looking forward to pizzas, beers, and go-karting but we were obliged to be considerate to our host. I've been go-karting before but never driven competitively against 16 other men made up of mostly Germans who pride themselves in driving at 250 km/hr (155mph) on icy autobahns and drifting through motorway exits. I myself have only gotten to 200 km/hr (124 mph) on the autobahn. They split us into 3 groups where we drove 2 heats of 10 laps. The drivers with the best time made it into the semifinal for another 15 laps for best time. Then it was down to 6 of us in the final where we were racing full out against each other and not for lap times. It was a daunting race where I inadvertently pissed off a few Germans by not allowing them to pass. Sadly I did not clinch the race but I did make it onto the podium with third place with a German in second and a Brit taking home the gold. Third out of 17 drivers isn't too bad I think. How the other Germans must feel being beaten by a girl ;-)


On my one free day in Cape Town I was taken around to a few of the local wineries in the Stellenbosch wine region. I was very excited to go as Stellenbosch is a major up and coming wine region and never again would I probably be able to see these wineries first hand. The climate, scenery, atmosphere all reminded me so much of Sonoma and Napa Valley. It isn't quite as isolated though as you tend to drive through dodgier parts of town to go between some of the wineries. We visited Meerlust Winery, started in 1756, which had a great Bordeaux blend called Rubicon. My tour guides were very excited to share the Rubicon wine with me but unbeknownst to them I had tried two bottles the night before so I knew I was in for a treat. Following Meerlust we headed to Rust en Vrede Winery (Rest in Peace). They call in an "Estate of Mind" which I thought was really cute. They had a nice Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon but their Shiraz was unimpressive. Finally we went on to Neil Ellis which I had dragged my guides off the main road to see as a friend is in love with their Sauvignon Blanc. The setting at Neil Ellis was just superb at is in deep in the valley with the mountains all around, small lake beside, and lily pond. Unfortunately they did not have the wine that I was in search of as they only produce it for export but I was able to try a couple other very nice Sauv Blancs and Chardonnays. They do make some excellent white wines. At this point we were fairly drunk and my guides had made late lunch reservations so we headed out. Lunch was at La Petit Ferme which is a restaurant, winery, and hotel in the most picturesque spot in the French quarter of Cape Town. We ate out on the open all-weather veranda and I gobbled up a 3-course meal starting with a grilled pear salad, hoisin marinated roast duck, and finished with a warm apple tart topped with vanilla ice cream. I'm getting sick just remembering how much I ate. The best part about La Petit Ferme was that the 3 of us each had a 3-course meal with a bottle of wine for $75.


All in all I had a once in a lifetime experience in South Africa from "roughing it" in the safari to wine tasting in the valley. Honestly with the distance from the US I probably would never have considered traveling there on my own so I am so glad I was able to take this opportunity to have an amazingly different experience. At the end of it I was glad to get home as a week away for me does get really exhausting. When I returned to London I was missing home a bit and needed a recharge of Americana so I headed straight out the next morning to my local (and only) Whole Foods. This was my first time in the Whole Foods London and what a spectacular store it was. The Brits didn't know what hit them. I ended up doing my typical goofy homesick thing, every time one of the staffers with an American accent helped me my reaction was, "Oh my gosh! You're American? Where are you from? Canadian huh, same difference. Can we be best friends?" There you have it, I guess you can take the girl out of the safari but you can't take the safari back in hand carry, or however that saying goes ;-)

The First 90 Days (yes I’m stealing the title)

For the non-Alterans, when you start a new job at Altera you are given a focal review after your first 90-days on the job to ensure that you and Altera are meeting each other’s expectations so here is my 90-day review. I’m absolutely amazed that I’ve already spent 3 months living abroad. I say living abroad because I feel as though I’ve spent more time traveling across the continent than actually spending time in the UK (and especially London). Over the last 90 days I’ve traveled to 17 different cities (19 if you include London and High Wycombe), been to 3 continents, logged 26.956 air miles, been on an African safari, seen 4 celebrities, called home 12,562 times, spent more money at Selfridges than I will ever make, lost some friends, and gained some new friends. In between all that I did do some work as well ;-)

Ro asked me about a week ago where my happiness factor was on a scale of 1 to 10 and he was nervous to hear that after nearly 3 months my answer was 5. He’s been having a great time during his ex-pat tour of duty so he was a bit taken aback to hear that my rating was so low. With everything that I’ve been through over the last 3 months I felt that my rating was realistic and fair but his reaction got me thinking. We’ve had very different experiences in moving to the UK. Ro has packed up and moved countries and states before in his life and he came to the UK with his family and a pre-established network of friends. I moved on my own with my closest relatives (whom I haven’t seen in about 5 years) living in Germany and no previous friendships to speak of. The friends that I do have here now I’ve had to beg, borrow, and steal from my friends back home. Also the MO for most ex-pats is that we work very hard and travel most of the time so trying to spend time together with all of our crazy schedules is a major challenge. We are also very different personalities where Ro admittedly does not become too attached and takes a very easy-going approach to life. I have a strong need for stability, consistency, and direction and am very attached to my friends, family, and lifestyle back home. I also still have lingering ties to people and places back home that probably keep me from fully integrating into life in London. Therefore I still think that a rating of 5 is decent for my current mindset and state of affairs. I also feel that from here I can only go up.

Although it hasn’t been that long yet, I definitely feel that my mindset has started to shift. I always understood that there were different cultures and lifestyles but I don’t think that I could fully appreciate it until now. I don’t just mean the culture and lifestyle in the UK or London either. I’ve gone from seeing the most extreme displays of wealth and privilege to the most poverty stricken and desolate of people and places. Although I still spend a good deal of my time in stressful contemplation and frustration, I do think that I’ve learned to have some patience and understanding and am starting to try and live one day at a time. With all of the dramatic and sweeping changes that have passed all I can say is what a difference a day or 90 days makes. We’ll just have to wait and see what’s in store for me next.

Call of the Wild

This week I’m traveling as far as I will probably go while based in the UK. I am spending the week in South Africa split between Johannesburg and Cape Town. After traveling for nearly 24 hours I arrived at the first part of my adventure in South Africa which was spending a couple days on safari in the Madikwe Game Reserve at the Motswiri Lodge (about 4 hours outside of Johannesburg). If you ever get a chance to go on safari, I’d definitely suggest doing it as there is no other experience like it. Being this up close and personal with the wild animals is a very humbling experience. Immediately when we arrived at the Motswari Lodge we dropped off our bags and went for our first safari drive as the time was getting late and it was beginning to get dark. As we drove out we saw our first herd of elephants walking along side the rode. Later we saw some impalas and wildebeests. Due to the lateness of the hour we were only able to stay out for a couple hours before heading back to the lodge. When we returned we were greeted with fresh towels and glasses of sherry and were led out to the veranda to have the first of several delectable meals. All the food for the lodge is made from scratch on-premises and can easily rival many of the hotels in Europe.

The next day we had an early morning with our first safari drive starting at 5:30am. Although I was very reluctant to get out of bed it was worth it to see the sunrise and the wilderness wake up. We spent most of the morning on the hunt for lions but ended up seeing mostly impalas, wildebeests, and zebras. After about 4 hours we headed back to the lodge for breakfast and some rest. Since the evening safari drive didn’t start until 4:30pm I was able to take a nap, take a bubble bath, shower, and read. It’s amazing how calm and serene the setting is. The lodges are just amazing and very reasonably priced due to the exchange rate. I had my own separate free-standing villa complete with four-poster bed, jacuzzi tub, and enclosed outdoor shower. The surroundings of the lodge are so quiet and natural. There was even a watering hole where elephants and monkeys came up next to the lodge for a drink. I actually had one of the monkeys peering over from a tree while I was taking my morning shower, a bit of an eerie experience.

Since we didn’t see any lions on the morning drive, our ranger, Ranger Kevin (Kati I have a picture of him just for you), was on a mission to find us some action. He’d heard that there was a pride of lions feeding on a wildebeest kill at the northern end of the reserve so we made our way there as quickly as possible. On the way there we ran into a herd of elephants that included a baby about 1 month old. This was really the only time I felt as though I was in any danger. The mother was very protective of her young and watched us for some time before she decided to charge the vehicle twice. We had to quickly make our way out of there by driving through some brush. On the other side of the brush we ended up finding ourselves right in the middle of the herd which is where Ranger Kevin informed us was the last place you want to be. We then had to find another route around the herd and was able to safely continue our journey to find the lions. After some more driving and a few false alarms we finally reached the area where 2 lions were feeding on a wildebeest . We followed them for a bit and they led us to a large open area with a watering hole where we found the rest of the pride. There were about 7 lions at the watering hole resting and playing and I just couldn’t believe that we were just sitting there less than 10 yards away. Our presence didn’t seem to bother them at all so we stayed and took photographs until the clouds rolled in and it seemed that thunder and lightening would soon be upon us. We managed to make it back to the lodge before any rainfall but we had a bonus lightening show on our way back. When we returned we were treated to a BBQ over an open fire which seemed appropriate as November 4 is bonfire night (Guy Fawkes night) in the UK.

Since I’d had enough of an adventure the day before I decided to forgo the morning drive the next day for some extra sleep. We’d also seen 4 of the big 5 (elephants, lions, leopards, giraffes, and rhinos) so it wouldn’t kill me if I never came in close contact with a leopard. After breakfast we packed up and headed back into Johannesburg. In the evening we went to a restaurant called Carnivore where we were able to eat quite a few of the things we’d seen the day before and then some. The menu included antelope, wildebeest , crocodile, ostrich, venison and warthog in addition to the standard pork, chicken, and beef. The meat was served in a similar fashion to a Brazilian churrascaria where the waiters come to your table with humongous chunks of meat on a sword and slice it onto your plate. I’d have to say that warthog was my favorite.

Hopefully I'll be able to get the pictures up soon so keep an eye out on the side bar. I'm signing off for now and will hopefully be able to write again in Cape Town.

British Customer Service Soapbox

Let me start out by saying that in general I'm not a complainer and think of myself on the whole as a pretty tough chick. However, there have been two institutions in the UK that have both brought to my knees, banking and telecom. I'm just at the point where I can't hold my tongue any longer and dealings with both of these institutions have made me seriously consider going back home. Whenever I mention the concept of customer service in the UK I am promptly corrected that it is the lack of customer service. Since most of my woes with the banking industry are over now, I won't harp on them too much. Due to a high level on money laundering in London the banks do not want your money and will refuse to open a bank account for you unless you provide proof of residency, proof of employment, blood sample, urine sample, DNA testing, hair follicle, retina scan, letter of reference from HRH Queen Elizabeth...you get the point.

My real gripe is with the unruly, unconscionable, fat, dumb, and happy monopoly known as British Telecom (BT). You may think that not having a landline isn't a big deal, however, British Telecom has got everyone by the you know what because you CANNOT GET BROADBAND or EVEN DIAL-UP without first renting a BT phone line. Doesn't matter how you try to get the broadband (cable, satellite, terrestrial) no one can give you an internet connection without going through those greedy b*st*rds first. The following list of events will give you some insight into what I've been dealing with for nearly a month now. None of this is fabricated or exaggerated.

• Sept 29 - Move into new flat.
• Oct 3 - Call British Telecom (BT) to setup a phone line, on hold for 30 minutes. Must hand over all of my personal details so that someone will ring me back in 48 hours.
• Oct 5 - Follow-up call to BT, on hold for 54 minutes. BT apologizes that I have not been called back and promises I will get called within the next 24 hours. They cannot do anything at this point because I have not gotten the call back which assigns me an order number which is my only identity at BT.
  
• Oct 6 - BT rings back with my order number. Am told my new phone line will be initiated within 6 working days because it takes them that long to flip a switch at the central office.
• Oct 10 - BT rings me while in Holland to say that they've called the phone number currently assigned to my flat and someone is living there who is not moving out. I tell them that that is my correct flat # from what the estate agent has assured me. She suggests I look at (but not open) the mail from the previous tenant to see if I can match a name. I tell her I'm in Holland so it's not possible so she'll ring me back if she needs anything else.
• Oct 18 - Return from my traveling and ring BT since my phone line is still not working. On hold for 36 minutes. BT picks up, the line drops. Call BT again, on hold for 42 minutes. We can't get consensus on my flat since BT says is flat #3 while my mail all says first floor flat. Due to the confusion they must establish a new order for a brand new phone line assigned to the first floor flat. She makes an appointment for an engineer to come on October 26.
• Oct 25 - BT sends me a text message that there is no line to take over at my premises and to call BT for further instructions. Call BT, on hold for 1 hour 2 minutes. I am told that a new line must be setup since one does not exist now (What the heck? Isn't that why I had an appointment?). Line drops. Thankfully she calls me back but they've made an appointment for me for November 7 when I'll be out of the country. She must transfer me to another department to change the appointment. "All lines are busy we cannot proceed with your call." URGH!!! Call back, on hold for 53 minutes. They can change my appointment but nothing is available until November 13.

This does not include the countless times where they have not picked up, dropped the line, or transfered me all over the company. Come November 13, we'll see how they choose to screw with me next. Sorry for all the ranting but this is seriously ridiculous.

Hope and Glory

This weekend I went to Paris to watch the South African Springbox team defeat the English Rose in the World Cup Rugby. I've never been much of a rugby fan, or any other spectator sport for that matter, but my friend Brit came across from New York so I had to come see her. She's Australian so she was basically born watching rugby and cricket. It was just a nice time to catch up with a good friend and I wanted to experience what it was like in a World Cup city during the finals. As much as Americans may love their football and baseball, I think that Europeans are much more die hard fans. They have to wait four years to see a World Cup final and they wait with great anticipation and reverie.

I took the Eurostar from London-Waterloo to Paris-Gare du Nord which is what I must say the only way travel from London to Paris. No 2 hour check-in, no baggage restrictions, no long security lines, and best of all, not restrictions on liquids. When Eurostar moves next month, it will be 30 minutes shorter travel time putting the journey at a little over 2 hours. But I digress. London-Waterloo was a nightmare especially since I arrived 20 minutes before my train was scheduled to leave. I had to push through the tens of thousands of England fans to be one of the last people on the train. On the way to Paris I soon discovered that the two official England Rugby songs are The Gambler by Kenny Rogers and Swing Low, Sweet Chariot. Why the English chose an American country song and a Negro slave song as their rugby anthems I have no idea but I still can't get know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em out of my head. When I arrived in Paris-Gare du Nord I had to wait nearly an hour in the taxi queue and then sat in traffic for another 30 minutes. It all worked out though because taxis were impossible to come by and arrived at the hotel just in time for Brit, Mike, and Tonya to hop in my taxi and head to the pub. We headed to the area called St. Germain to watch the game with the thousands of other fans who didn't want to shell out a minimum of 800 GBP to attend the game. Being in a World Cup city during the finals is just amazing. To be right in the thick of the madness and the energy is intoxicating, and I'm not just talking about the beers.

Sadly though the English lost to South Africa 6-to-15 but everyone agreed that South Africa was the better team. There was some controversy to the game though as one of the English players scored a try (similar to a touch down in football) but was called out because his foot touched the line first (depending on which camera angle you saw). The English swear that this was a pivotal turning point in the game even though it still would have put them 1 point behind at the time. Brit was ecstatic though since it was the English team that dashed her Auzzie team's hope of a rugby win. All in all it was a tough week for the English in the world of sports. The football team will most likely not qualify for Euro 2008 (some convoluted scheme of how Russia needs to lose to Israel and England needs to beat Croatia), they were unable to defend their World Cup Rugby championship title from 2003 and finally the rookie Lewis Hamilton and the McLaren team walked away with nothing but a 50 million GBP fine after the final Formula 1 Grand Prix race in Brazil yesterday. British Airways did rename the club plane to "Hope and Glory" for the English rugby team.

Needless to say that my train ride home was a bit more somber and did not include any singing or chanting. I did get to ride in first class this time so I had quite a nice ride home. Geez I love Eurostar. Here are the pictures.

Rat Race

What a crazy time it's been. Directly after moving into my new flat I had Hyung and his wife, Grace, over for a visit and then I had to leave them for a business trip on the continent. Although I've been traveling quite a bit for work already, I had some anxiety over this journey because it involved driving myself across several countries back on the right side of the road. I was also hoping to get my TomTom all setup for this trip (since it currently only has the UK and Ireland maps) so that I wouldn't have to be at the mercy of the car rental company for a sat nav system. Unfortunately though my TomTom barfed at the new SD card that I purchased so I had to rush to print out all the Google map directions before I left. Once printed I realized that this wasn't as useful as I'd hoped since I really couldn't read or decipher any of the street names.

Monday afternoon I started my journey by flying from London Heathrow to Brussels Airport. The flight was fine and I arrived on time. I made my way to the Avis counter and asked for a car with a sat nav. Since I would be returning the car in Germany, they only had one car that they could provide me, a Skoda station wagon. I decided first things first, test out the sat nav to ensure it could get me from Belgium to Holland to Germany. I put in my destination in Germany and it looked liked I was golden. I was about to pull out of the garage when I decided I should try the address that I had in Belgium as well. Lucky for me it turned out that I had a car registered in Germany that had a sat nav CD that only covered Germany. Since no other cars with a sat nav were available I had to make due with my Google map directions and head to Ghent. According to Google, my travel time should take about 1 hour and with a little bit of traffic I figured 1.5 to 2 hours. The directions looked simple enough but after driving around in circles for 3 hours I figured that I must be lost. Once I finally reached the hotel, 4 hours later, I realized that the detour signs leading me to the hotel stopped right before the exit that I was supposed to take.

Over the next few days my route consisted of driving from Ghent, Belgium to Maarssen, Netherlands to Duisburg, Germany to Eindhoven, Netherlands and back to Duisburg, Germany. Every night after I packed up the Altera booth, I had to ensure that I had someone else from the caravan to follow to the next city. This was no easy feat in my massive Skoda station wagon. (Skodas are not sold in the US because these cars are rubbish. They are poor imitations that contain the lowest end cheapest VW engines.) Thursday night I finally made my way to Dusseldorf Airport where I had a delayed flight back to London Heathrow due to the poor weather in Germany. Can you guess what was the first thing I did when I got into my car a bit past midnight? I merrily starting driving on the wrong side of the road into oncoming traffic. I narrowly escaped an accident. Lovely.

Familiar Faces and Familiar Places

My apologies for the lack of blogging lately, so much has passed in the last few weeks that I just haven’t had a chance to sit down and write. I also moved again last week and thanks to the superb UK customer service, still do not have broadband (let a phone line) at home yet. After a couple weeks with the Kiwi boys I decided that, between the stress of constant traveling and integrating into my country, I need my own quiet sanctuary and unrestricted access to the TV. They were lovely boys who tried to make me feel as welcome as possible but we just have very different lifestyles. We parted on friendly terms and I hope we’ll be able to hang out again in the future. The good news is that I now have a lovely 2-bedroom flat in the Maida Vale area of London for anyone who would like to come and visit. I’ve actually already had my first visitors from home come stay.

Speaking of home, a couple weeks ago this arrived in the post for me:


The wonderful ladies of Altera were kind enough to put together an amazing “San Francisco” care package for me. It was a perfect reminder of home and contained things like cookies from Miette, honeycomb from a farm in Woodland, a couple bottles of Acacia wine, rag mags, and even a hardcopy of The Onion. I could see exactly how much care and attention they put into deciding what to include and how carefully it was all wrapped and packaged. Big hugs to Maria, Kira, and Kelly.

Last week was another special delivery, Hyung (my coworker from San Jose) and his wife came for a visit. They flew into London for a few hours and then took the Eurostar to Paris for a couple days. When they returned Saturday night we headed out to the Salt House Pub near Maida Vale for dinner with the old Altera crew (Ro, his wife Sheetal, Grant, and me). On Sunday we went sightseeing and started in Windsor to see the Windsor Castle and Eton College. Windsor Castle is one of the three remaing royal residences (beside Buckingham Palace and the Palace of Holyroodhouse). From the view you can tell that this castle was built originally as a fortress. It sits high on a hill overlooking the towns of Windsor and Eton and seems impenetrable from every angle. We then walked across the Thames to Eton to see Eton College. Eton College is a secondary school for boys and is refered to as the world's most famous public school and probably one of the most expensive. (Point of clarification - yes it's strange but the English refer to fee-charging schools as "public" as opposed to "private" which used to refer to private tutors at home.) It was founded in 1440 by King Henry IV and still upholds every tradition, the boys' daily uniform still consists of a black tailcoat and pinstripe trousers. Mark Darcy refers to it in the Bridget Jones' Diary - Edge of Reason movie (yes I am obsessed with chick flicks). I'm starting to find more and more sights in England that I really enjoy. Windsor Castle was spectacular and Oxford made me want to be a student again. Unfortunately I had to fly out on another business trip Monday afternoon and didn't get to join them on their final day in London.

Here are the pictures from Windsor and Oxford. Sorry I didn't have time to do all the links but I've been neglecting my blog for too long.

I Have an Announcement

My little Audi A3 went over 400 miles on a single tank of gas (tank capacity: 55 litres/12 gallons). With gas just shy of 1 GBP a LITRE, I consider this an amazing feat. I'm astonished at what this little diesel turbo engine can do considering I was barely getting 250 miles a tank (tank capacity 15.4 gallons) out of my Audi S4 Avant. I feel so environmental right now :-)

Where's Waldo?

That’s correct! I’m standing in front of the Ponte 25 de Abril, Lisbon’s version of the Golden Gate Bridge built in 1966. Last week I spent 5 days in Lisbon, Portugal mainly for business but decided to stay on for the weekend. Every 6 months one of our distributors goes all out and sends their 200+ field application engineers to an “exotic” locale in Europe for training. Moving forward they’ve decided to pick a seaside or Mediterranean spot for their spring training (Malaga is coming up I believe) and hold their fall training in Munich during Oktoberfest. Yeah, these guys have it rough. The first couple of days were pretty hectic since I was there to train some of the field application engineers on our products and where/how to sell them. (Side bar…Whoever thinks I’m capable of training engineers is sadly mistaken). The part that is really exhausting is that they get to meet face-to-face with someone directly employed by the supplier so it’s a field day in terms of airing their complaints. Some of them are actually valid but they mostly just want to be heard and then they’re done so I don’t mind too much.

I did get rewarded for my work as the final night of the training culminated in what I have to admit was a pretty glamorous and creative party. This distributor launched a major platform called Snakbytes about a year ago so this set the theme for the entire evening. They bussed us to the Botanical Garden which was built as a playground for the children of the royal family. This was to be the stage for our night in the “Garden of Eden”. They hired actors to play Michael the Archangel, Adam, and Eve and the centerpiece of the garden was the “Tree of Knowledge” dotted with apples. They even had a snake charmer for entertainment. Food and drink were plenty so I have to say it was a good evening. Just when I think I’m done with all the corporate parties, they suck me back in. (Extra points if you can name the movie I’m loosely quoting from.)

Thursday night I was joined by my new American ex-pat friend Tonya. Tonya has just finished her masters thesis so it was a nice break for her I hope. It was also good to have a travel companion again since I’ve mostly been traveling on my own these days. Friday was a pretty low-key day for us with a bit of sightseeing but we mostly spent the day shopping. With the dollar at ~$0.50 to the GBP, shopping in Euros is very tantalizing for us, although the dollar isn’t doing all that well against the Euro either these days. After a bit of a rest at the hotel we hailed a cab and headed to Kais restaurant for dinner. This was to be the first of our two cab adventures. We got in the cab and showed the driver the address. He nodded in acknowledgement and we were off. A couple miles later, he stopped on a street that was lined with cab drivers waiting for fares. He systematically went cab by cab trying to figure out where our restaurant was and mind you he did NOT stop the meter. He finally found someone who had a general idea of where the restaurant was located but he still had not figured out exactly where it was. He then drove us about another mile and got out again at a restaurant to ask for directions, also not stopping the meter. At this point we were parked in front of a large wooden building so Tonya and I looked at each other and said, “I bet that’s our restaurant right there.” When he returned he drove us about 10 meters because, yes ladies and gentlemen, we were stopped right in front of Kais. I, of course, refused to pay him the full fare feeling that I’d been taken advantage of and as we walked away I believe some expletives were shouted in my direction. Kais turned out to be a beautiful restaurant that was in an old converted power plant right on the waterfront. With its architecture, décor, and location, it could easily have been a restaurant in San Francisco and it was the first of several reminders of home. We capped off the night with a visit to the Port Wine Institute where I discovered that I'm not the biggest fan of port.

The next day was to be a full day of sightseeing split between the area of Lisbon known as Belem and a nearby city called Sintra. In Belem we went to the Monastery of Jeronimos, Monument to the Discoveries, and the Tower of Belem. After a late lunch we got into a cab and set out for one of the palaces in Sintra which we were told was an easy 20 kilometers away. Our cab driver turned out to be the same variety as the one from the evening before. He drove around the block and stopped to ask 3 other cabbies where the palace was. I had a really uneasy feeling at this point and wanted to go with another cab but Tonya is much more trusting than I am. We got on the motorway towards Sintra and about 30 Euros later we finally saw a palace on top of a mountain that looked to be at least another 10 miles away (note that all of our other taxi rides had been less than 5 Euros up to this point). We decided at this point to just bite the bullet and head back because the palace looked so remote we had no idea how we would make our way back to the hotel. We did indeed make it back and decided to play it safe and go to the Barrio Alto area for a quiet and relaxing dinner.

Overall my impressions of Lisbon were very mixed. I’ll definitely take the climate in Lisbon over London as it was nearly 30C everyday while it’s pouring rain in London right now. Lisbon isn’t the prettiest of European cities and perhaps it was where we stayed, but it seemed very commercial to me. We enjoyed the Barrio Alto area the most and found it to be the area with the most “soul” but unfortunately we didn’t discover it until our final evening. In many ways I did identify with Lisbon though, probably because it reminded me so much of San Francisco. It’s the western most part of Europe, was once a great port of Portugal, and has its own Golden Gate Bridge. On the “Oakland” side of the bay there is a massive monument of Christ that made me think of the massive Mormon Temple. Lisbon has also been devastated by fire and a great earthquake so it is commonly referred to as the San Francisco of Europe. Well take a look at my pictures and I’ll let you be the judge.

Chicken Soup for the Soul

Between seeing old and new friends this weekend I got a really good dose of "comfort food". Thanks to my great friends back home I was already setup with a decent network of people here in the UK before I even came over. The trouble has just been finding the time between business trips and moving house to meet up with them. Friday night I was finally able to get together with Arianne and Bill, introduced to me by Anne who went to Oxford with Arianne. They are both transplants from the US but Arianne has lived in the UK for 20 years and Bill for 10. Arianne is an editor and has worked on everything from cookbooks to sporting books. Bill is the dean of industrial and mechanical design at the university in High Wycombe. Firstly though I do have to share the story of how Arianne and Bill met because it's just so darn cute. Bill had known Arianne's family for quite some time but never met her since she was living in London. He finally met her at a New Year's Eve party thrown by Arianne's sister, but at midnight she turned into a pumpkin and returned back home to London. They emailed and visited for awhile until that summer he turned up and proposed. Less than a year later they were married after only seeing each other in person 6 or 7 times and living in London together.

It turns out, coincidentally, that Bill also works in High Wycombe so they live near my office now. Arianne invited me over for dinner and then to stay with them since it's a bit of a drive back down to London. She made a wonderful chicken risotto with peas and asparagus which was my first home cooked meal in over a month. In the morning I got to meet their two gorgeous kids, Karas and Liam. Liam just smiled and drooled a bit (he's teething) but Karas was able to read a couple story books to me and perform her repertoire of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and ABCs. They've got such a comfortable home and I'll definitely be back over for another dinner or pub night.

On Saturday I met up with Eela and Brendan, two American ex-pats from San Francisco (by way of Chicago). Eela works at the same company as my friend Kelly but is located in the London office. Eela and I have met up a few times since I've moved here and she's been fantastic. We're close in age and mindset so we sit together and whinge about how much we miss San Francisco and all the things we don't understand about the UK. Her husband, Brendan, is a shining example of my inability to get away from the 6-degrees of separation from the Silicon Valley. Eela mentioned to me previously that her husband worked at a security software start-up which I figured was different enough from my industry that I would be safe. On my first meeting with Brendan we swapped stories about being ex-pats and how our relative companies were helping us manage through the transition. During the conversation Brendan said something along the lines of, "Well company X doesn't even offer such and such for me." Which I responded with, "You work at company X? Do you know Jane Doe?". Brendan replied, "I just saw her on my last visit to the US a few months ago." Over 5,000 miles away and it's still such a small world.

Anyhow, we had a great afternoon in a place called Borough Market. It's an amazing open-air market near the London Tower Bridge and is similar to the farmers market at the Ferry Building in San Francisco, only about 5 times bigger though. They've got everything from fresh organic produce to prepared food stands. Eela and Brendan go there every Saturday when they're in town and I may have to consider joining them, although I wish it wasn't all the way on the other side of town (~30 minute tube ride).

Sunday morning I got a brief but very welcome visit from my friends Lu and Mike. They were traveling through Heathrow on business and were kind enough to extend their layover to hang out with me. I did feel bad that they were both pretty beat up from the flight over and looked as though they could use a hot shower and long night's rest. I met them at the airport since it seemed to be the easiest thing to do so I turned up with a few treats from the local pastry shop to help ease their pain. Good food always makes me feel better so I hope it worked for them too. It was just like old times (I know I've only been away for less than 2 months) so before we knew it 3 hours had passed and it was time for them to get on the next flight. Thanks for the wine Mike! In case any of you were wondering, I do accept belated birthday gifts ;-)

Now I'm off to dinner with my new friend Tonya to discuss our trip to Lisbon (Lisboa) next week. I'll be there for business but am staying over for the weekend when Tonya will be joining me. I don't know anything about Lisbon (Lisboa) but I hope to taste some good port.

Bon Anniversaire to Me!

First of all I want to thank all my dear friends and family for the texts, emails, IMs, cards, flowers, and gifts. It was a wonderful birthday knowing that you were all thinking of me.

As of last Friday I've moved into my new place with my two new flatmates and took off the next day to Aix-en-Provence to celebrate my birthday. Provence is a major region in the southeast of France that includes the principle cities of Marseilles, Avignon, and Aix-en-Provence. Provence has a warm dry Mediterranean climate and gets ~300 days of sunshine a year so it's a very popular place to go on holiday. It's also the setting for Peter Mayle's book, A Year in Provence (which later became the movie with Russell Crowe).

I chose to spend my birthday in France again this year because I had such a spectacular birthday celebration last year in Paris (with Maggs of course) and France in general has always just been magical to me. Every time I come to France I can't seem to help but fall in love. My first trip to France I fell in love with the language. On my last trip I fell in love with a boy who had eyes so deep and so blue that I thought I would drown in them but alas he left me in Paris for the shores of Normandy. On this trip I fell in love with a pretty yellow house and a village.

Have you ever said to yourself, "One day I'd like to retire and open a bed and breakfast in the south of France"? Well I got a taste of that this weekend at the Pavillon de la Torse. Some of the Alterans may recall that prior to Mojy, the VP of Technology was Francois. In 2005, Francois and his wife, Marie, retired to Aix-en-Provence and completely remodeled an 18th-century chateau that includes about 1-acre of land bordered by a park. The house is a ~15-minute walk into the heart of Aix-en-Provence but is worlds away from any kind of city life which is exactly what I needed. The main goal of this trip was to get some much needed downtime away from any kind of obligation or concern. I wanted to walk, read, nap, and most importantly, EAT. Also, in all my trips to France I'd never quite made it down to the south before and have been dying to see it. Francois and Marie have definitely created a haven in this little corner of the world and you can tell that they've put the utmost care and love into every detail of the Pavillon de la Torse. They've actually already won an award on TripAdvior as the 2006 Traveller's Choice for Best Inns and B&Bs in Europe. It's also wonderful just to be with the two of them as you can easily see the love and care that they have for each other. It's not easy to get up everyday and work from 6am to 10pm taking care of other people if you're not dedicated and happy with what you're doing. I very much got the sense that they're living their dream in the south of France and loving every moment of being together there.

Being the goal-oriented person that I am (not that anyone would say I'm very "type A"), I got right to work on my objectives as soon as I arrived in Aix-en-Provence. From the airport I went straight to a restaurant in the city center and had a lovely 2-hour lunch that included a sublimely creamy risotto with pancetta and marinated artichokes, a glass of dry crisp white wine, finishing with a strong coffee and tart raspberry clafoutis. I then proceeded to the Pavillon de la Torse. When I checked-in, Francois mentioned that they served aperitif everyday at 6:30pm and that I should come down for a drink and meet the other guests. (By the way, it is a very strange feeling to have an ex-VP carry your bags up 4 flights of stairs.) After a quick nap and a shower, I figured I'd come down for a quick drink and then head off for a delicious birthday dinner. The other guests included 2 older couples traveling together from Tallahassee and another couple from New York celebrating their first anniversary. It turned out that I had dinner reservations at the same restaurant as the foursome from Tallahassee so from that point they basically adopted me. They took me out to a wonderful birthday dinner (not even knowing it was my birthday) where I had the freshest whole sea bass accompanied by simple vegetables and figs with caramel sauce for dessert. I couldn't have asked for better company to celebrate with me. Thanks so much to the fab foursome!

On Sunday I spent most of the day wandering around town as France is a very Catholic country so 99% of the shops are closed on the Sabbath. I first took a tram to get a brief overview of the sites in Aix-en-Provence such as the house of Paul Cezanne, the Musee Granet (fine art museum), and the Eglise de la Madeleine and then walked back to the areas that really looked interesting. As much as I wanted to see all the beautiful fountains, architecture, and paintings I only got a short survey of it all because my nose won out. After seeing a few buildings and landmarks, I ended up following the sights and more so the smells that surrounded me. How can you help it when you're in a place where EVERYONE walks around with a baguette in his/her hand? At one point I followed some guy for 5 blocks because he had this sandwich that looked so delicious I had to know where he got it from. I did finally find my way to le grand marche (farmers market) and went wild. I bought the freshest chevre, brie, tomatoes, saucisson (I LOVE SAUCISSON and this was saucisson heaven!), figs, flowers, etc. to have a grand picnic for my dinner. After all my shopping and sightseeing I stopped by Les Deux Garcon, where Cezanne, Churchill, and Picasso have been known to frequent (I'm not name-dropping or anything) for some sustenance. Here I was keenly reminded that there is nothing better than the simplest food served at the height of its flavor and freshness. All I had was a plate of oysters on the half shell followed by raw vegetables with an anchovies and olive oil paste but they were exquisite. I then headed back to the Pavillon de la Torse to sit by the pool and read my book. That night at aperitif, it turned out that my fab foursome had the same idea as me to picnic at the house so we pooled our spoils together and had a lovely dinner in the warmth of the Provencal summer. They taught me how to eat tomato sandwiches with mayonnaise, salt, and bread like a good southern girl would.

Monday, it turns out, was the 42nd anniversary of a pair from the fab foursome. During breakfast Francois and Marie surprised us with a wonderful bottle of champagne to celebrate their wedding anniversary (mostly) and my birthday. Isn't it nice to have champagne at 9am? I basically spent the rest of my time in town making up for all the things I hadn't eaten the rest of the weekend including croissants, pain au chocolat, glaces (ice cream), macaroons, biscuits and so on. After my glutinous spree I wanted to head back to the Pavillon de la Torse to spend one more afternoon of basking in the sun and reading/napping.

When my taxi arrived, I was truly sad to leave this place of splendor, relaxation, and pleasure but I had to return to reality at some point. I do comprehend better now what people mean when they say that part of the joy of living in London is that Europe is at your doorstep. When else could I have gone to Provence for the weekend?

I'll leave you with two final closing thoughts. My favorite word in French is now (and probably has always been) patisserie. Favorite moment/memory of the entire trip...Sunday morning I walked into a boulangerie and secured 2 fresh baguettes still warm from the oven. Why 2 baguettes, why not 2? I walked into the street with my treasure, opened the bag, and inhaled deeply for as long as I could. Mmmmm...I can still taste them now.

Pictures are on the left-hand navigation.