American Adventures

67th birthday party

2010-07-25T15:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had a belated joint birthday party where we celebrated being 67 with some of our friends that we have met out here. We wanted to share it with you.
http://picasaweb.google.com/gawley/10767thBirthdayParty?authkey=Gv1sRgCL3R8aL-2qa74QE#

I spent the morning preparing food - cupcakes, salads, marinades. Alex took Ruth to the Discovery Museum where they really enjoyed the water area.

The party started at 4pm, we had about 25 people and 10 kids enjoying themselves in the sunshine.

The kids liked the paddling pool.

The food went down well, especially the tri tip steak (from Costco! We are so American now...). Alex's friend Jerry needed to choose some wine for a family party, so he organised a blind wine tasting.

Most people with kids left by about 7.30pm, but luckily a few couples were able to stay around for a more relaxed after-party. We sat out in the garden finishing off the wine tasting until late.

The morning-after clear-up was livened up by Ruth who managed to make my hang-over more bearable with her new "Dingle Dangle Scarecrow" obsession:

6 month-a-versary

2010-05-24T19:56:00.000-07:00

We recently celebrated our 6 month-aversary of when we moved out here, which prompted me to think about the things that we like about life in California compared to the UK. Please join the debate....

Things California has got right

The weather - although this has been the coldest and wettest winter practically on record, the weather is still so much better out here. It's rare to get a day without sunshine, and California does sunshine so well. Massive blue sky and bright bright sun. My tomatoes are shaping up to be some kind of record size, and for the first time in my life I have managed to keep a basil plant alive for more than a month.

Friendliness - everyone here is very positive and friendly. You go into a shop, they ask you how you are and they smile and they mean it. They seem to actually take pride in being nice. When I go out with Ruth, I am routinely stopped by people wanting to tell me how beautiful she is, and than chat for half an hour about babies. I actually haven't met anyone grumpy and negative at all (apart from Alex). Initially this can seem a bit fake, but you soon realise that people are genuinely cheerful a lot of the time. And that is nice.

Pride - people seem very proud of being American, and of themselves. It is normal and expected to celebrate success in a most un-British way. It is normal to see bumper stickers telling you that the occupant is an honor student at their school, or to have a building/facility/trail named after a local benefactor.

Community involvement - I have been struck by the levels to which normal people are involved in the community here. There seem to be so many volunteer opportunities and so many chances to get involved with the running of things, and everywhere we go we seem to be invited to contribute, much more so than the UK. This ranges from volunteering to lead tours at museums, to rangering at the kiddy farm, to parent-run schools. It is also much more common to go to church and to be involved with it. People also wear their allegiances on their sleeve more openly - we see lots of political banners outside houses supporting a particular candidate or suggesting that you vote a particular way on a referendum, and we have been invited to a coffee morning to support a candidate for assembly - I can't imagine anyone we know bothering to do this in the UK.

Playgrounds - there are 28 parks in Palo Alto, and they all have absolutely lovely playgrounds. Ruth asked me to put this one in.

Things the UK has got right

Pubs - we really miss pubs. There is no equivalent in the US. And weird commercial zoning laws mean that all shops & cafes are in particular groups, and you don't get corner shops or pubs sprinkled through residential areas like you do in the UK. Our walks seem oddly goalless now.

Roundabouts - I can handle the four-way stop signs, they even seem quite sensible after a while, but trying to get onto the motorway via a short slip road that has cars both accelerating to get on, and decelerating to get off, while all frantically trying to change lane to avoid being pushed off at the next junction - just crazy.

Electricity - 110V is wimpy. It takes a good 10 minutes to boil a kettle. By the time the toaster pops, Ruth has had a hunger melt-down. Safety shmafety - give me 240V anyday.

TV - thank goodness we can get the BBC over the internet. I always thought it was good, but American TV brings a whole new meaning to the appreciation I have for the Ten O'clock news. And there are so many adverts! You can flick through 50 channels and well over half will be showing ads at any given point.

Supermarkets - yes, Wholefoods is nice, but I would swap it anyday for a nice big Tesco down the road. Overall, groceries are more expensive than the UK, and there is no one place you can go to to get reasonable quality for reasonable price on the whole range of things you might want to buy. In any given week, I go to four different supermarkets to get different groups of things. And only Safeways does internet delivery.

#15 - California Avenue Farmer's Market

2010-03-28T14:57:00.000-07:00

Not technically our first visit to the Farmer's market, but the first time I have remembered to take any photos.

This is the California Ave Farmer's market. So yes, it is on our road, but it is about a mile away. To get there we walk from the grotty end of California (where we live) through the posh bit to the commercial end, where there are lots of nice cafes and organic-y shops. Today we cycled, hence the photo of Ruth looking grumpy in her chariot.

The market is every Sunday from 9am to 1pm. There are lots of lovely happy vegetables and food stands, and good live music. Ruth had a felafel for lunch, then she cheered up a lot and danced to the music.

I saw a homeless man with a sign begging for - I kid you not - organic vegetables. Palo Alto - a more discerning class of homeless person.

#14 - Geocaching in the US

2010-03-28T14:48:00.000-07:00

As I am spending so much time in parks and nature reserves with Ruth, I have started geocaching again and have just placed my firt US geocache in a nearby park. Here is a picture of Ruth enjoying the swings in the park.

Note: if you don't know what geocaching is, it's basically like a mini treasure hunt using GPS. Anyway, don't worry, just pass on to the next blog post.

#13 - eating oranges from our front garden in the sunshine

2010-03-14T17:40:00.000-07:00

So sweet and lovely. Ruth ate four in a row. The weather has really turned a corner this week, and we have finally bought some patio furniture. This added up to our first outdoor brunch this morning where we had 2 other couples with kids round. We ate baked stuffed mushrooms and sat in the sunshine watching the kids running about in the garden. Just lovely.

You say zucchini...

2010-03-07T08:06:00.000-08:00

Food in America is more different than I thought it would be. You expect the oven temperatures in F and measuring things in cups not by weight, but there is a whole world of strangeness beyond this.

First of all, the regular supermarkets are nowhere near as good as in the UK - at first glance they are enormous and bursting with choice, but upon a closer look, so many of the aisles are filled with pre-prepared food and snacks. For example, it is actually quite hard to buy raw ingredients like bread flour and herbs and if you do find them, there won't be much choice. The fruit and veg are not great quality, and although meat is cheap (suspiciously so), it is rare to see a meat counter so you can't look it in the eye. Given that we are striking distance to the Pacific, the choice of fish is very limited and poor quality, mostly pre-frozen. And the prices are higher than the UK for most basics. A few happy exceptions are asparagus (much cheaper than the UK and very good), and steaks (ditto), so these are our staples! One weird phenomenon is that you simply can't get everything you need from one shop, in the same way that you could in say Waitrose or Tesco, and everyone seems to accept this. So we do a big online shop from Safeway for commodities like cereal, wine and diet coke, then get fresh produce from a smaller market-style supermarket called Trader Joes, and then go to speciality butchers (which are bizarrely hard to find) for decent cuts of meat or fish.

Then there is the matter of different foods being available - often I have had a complete blank look when asking for something which I had always taken for granted in the UK, like fruit squash or tartare sauce . On the other hand, there are aisles full of ingredients where I have no idea what to do with them - perhaps time for an American cookbook.... Also, sneakily, sometimes they have something called the same thing but it turns out to be different, like stuffing (US version all horrible and bready so I have smuggled in a few kilos of Paxo), and sausages which - would you believe it - are sold pre-cooked! And don't get me started on "biscuit".

And then, there is the matter of translation. It seems to me that it is in the food arena where the language differences are most apparent. I have frequently felt like I was playing charades with the attendants in Safeway trying to communicate what vegetable stock is (turns out it is called bouillon, ad is usually sold in cans). There are the well-known ones like zuchini (courgette) and eggplant (aubergine), and cilantro (corriander). But it took me a while to work out that rocket is called arugula (what a pretty name), and broad beans are called fava beans, and many more. The cuts of meat are all called different names, as are flour and sugar.

And finally, the American habit of mixing savoury and sweet things with great abandon. Nowhere is this more apparent than when eating breakfast out. You might order scrambled eggs and bacon, and to go with it you are offered a hash brown (sensible), home fries (just about acceptable) or a fruit salad (fruit and eggs? On the same plate??). And on the side, toast (fine), English muffin (fine), sweet fruit muffin (weird).

#12 - Palo Alto duck pond

2010-02-07T11:08:00.000-08:00

Ruth was a bit scared of the ducks and geese to start with, but she was soon waving and saying "birdie". The duck pond is part of the Palo Alto Baylands nature reserve with an "interpretive center" (Alex refused to go to this). It is close to our house, and very close to the airport where Pippa flies from, so we could see little planes coming in and out. The weather was beautiful. Pippa is planning to plant a geocache there.

#11 - Cooking with gas

2010-02-07T10:31:00.000-08:00

We achieved another major milestone in the American Lifestyle Experience yesterday with the purchase of a large gas barbeque. Obviously we have a long and colourful history of barbequeing, with the Emsworth influence, but we have never cooked with gas before. However, we thought that this would be the way ahead out here so we can have bbqs after work easily. We visited "Barbeques Galore" in Palo Alto, where the salesman soon spotted an easy upsell opportunity and talked us into a larger model than we had planned. It took us* two hours to put the beast together, but finally we were able to christen it last night with a pair of big steaks. We think February 6th is a new record for the first Smith barbeque of the year**.

* i.e. Pippa
** although we did cheat by moving to a warmer continent.

The blog of new things

2010-02-06T14:09:00.001-08:00

Hello all

Sorry we have been a bit rubbish at updating this blog. I was struggling to work out what were interesting things to write about. I've now decided to structure it around new experiences and adventures we are having out here. So here are the latest few:

New Experience #10 (we must be up to about that): Trip to Sonoma

Photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/gawley/1RichardSVisit?authkey=Gv1sRgCNb7gYTb75GQ9wE#

We visited the Sonoma wine region with our friend Richard. Although the weather was not great we found this quite conducive to indoor wine-tasting. We enjoyed Sauvignons at the Dry Creek Vinyard, and Pinots at J Winery (really good).

And just enjoyed the nouveau-riche italian-themed villa and grounds at Ferrari-Carano. The pig statue was quite special.

We stayed in lovely Healdsburg, in the Inn on the Plaza which was a small period-style ("quaint") B&B. They had a great feature of a spacial "carpe diem" rate if you book on the day which worked out well for us. We really liked Healdsburg - Ruth went to sleep in her stroller two nights in a row as we sampled their excellent restaurants. We especially recommend Zin.

Stanford & Museum of Computer History

2010-01-10T21:35:00.000-08:00

We also went to Stanford University a few times while Alex's mum was here. In fact we got quite into it, with tours of the Rodin sculptures at the Art centre, a student-led tour of the university highlights and lunches at the campus coffee house. It's a really beautiful campus, with lots of sandstone buildings with terracotta roofs (I've since been lucky enough to fly over the university and it looks like a lovely old mediterranean village from above). It has a very sad history - the wealthy Stanford family founded the university over a hundred years ago (making it a pretty historic place by American standards) to honour their son who died aged fifteen on a european tour. Stanford University is very wealthy and influential in the area, it owns over 8,000 acres adjacent to Palo Alto including a shopping mall.

We also went to the Museum of Computer History which was absolutely awesome. Lots of old computers and alpha geeks.

http://picasaweb.google.com/gawley/12StanfordTrips#

Trip to Carmel and Monteray

2010-01-10T20:40:00.000-08:00

Finally catching up on posts from the end of last year...

We took a trip to Carmel in December with Alex's mum Carol. We had a wonderful time, we stayed in a place that looked like somewhere Snow White would honeymoon, and to boot it had a free wine and cheese reception, so Alex was happy too. We stumbled across the most amazing Italian restaurant, and Ruth was a very good baby who slept in her pram despite the raucous surroundings. The highlight was a visit to the Monteray aquarium, which was just the most lovely place. We loved the jellyfish room, which had huge backlit tanks and ambient music.

More photos here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/viewAlbum?uname=gawley&aid=5413817583678096593&pli=1

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T12:03:00.000-08:00

More Christmas photos - http://picasaweb.google.com/gawley/Christmas2009?authkey=Gv1sRgCLnyqYyqubvgwgE#

Hello all

We've now moved into our new place and have mostly unpacked. We really love the house and the area, we've been enjoying walking around finding nice little cafes and parks.

Our first Christmas out here has been great - our first Christmas together just the three of us, starting our own traditions. We started off with a big breakfast and marathon Skyping, followed by a long walk around the Baylands park near our house. This is a big marshy flatland at the south end of San Francisco bay, which looks a lot like Chichester Harbour in places and even has Brent geese. The weather was incredible, very bright sunshine, there were people (braver than us) walking along in shorts and t-shirts. Then Ruth had her nap while we got started on the champagne and grown-up presents, so we could focus on her presents when she woke up. She has got a little play room in our new place, which is now filled with all her new toys - thank you everyone. We had our big meal in the evening - chicken with lots of pigs-in-blankets, Paxo stuffing (from the British shop) followed by Pippa's yule log.

On Boxing day we set off to Tahoe, the nearest big mountains and ski resort about four hours away. We stayed with some friends in a little chalet, where we ate lots and played silly games, and had a hot tub under the stars (not so good for the carbon footprint really).

We've just celebrated New Year's Eve at home, and we are looking forward to all that 2010 has to offer (first flying lesson tomorrow! :D ). Here's wishing you all a very happy and healthy new year - looking forward to seeing you all soon.

Love

Pippa, Alex and Ruth xxx

In case you wondered what Alex did all day...

2009-11-23T15:11:00.001-08:00

Today Alex had a product launch which made it onto the official Google blog, which is a big deal:
http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2009/11/get-mobile-coupons-through-local-search.html

Tomorrow, the world....

Our new home

2009-11-22T15:15:00.000-08:00

After two weekends of traipsing around the Valley getting more and more disillusioned about property prices (makes London seem quite reasonable!), we have finally found a lovely home in Palo Alto.

It is a late example an Eichler, a type of modernist-style 60s building with lots of plate glass and wood, which we swore we would avoid last weekend having decided they were "just weird". However, although this one looks like something the Thunderbirds would use a base from the outside:

View Larger Map

... on the inside it is big and filled with light.

There are two main living spaces which open out onto a central paved area a.k.a. the "barbeque zone", which leads to the garden which has plenty of room for climbing frames.

The kitchen is really big, with a gas stove (yipee - this is unusual in rentals, which have often featured the original 60s electric bakelite stove and oven), and room for the dining table.

Our bedroom also opens out onto the central courtyard. There are three more bedrooms, which are all rather tiny, but fine for little Ruth and visitors. The bathrooms and fittings are all a bit dated, but perfectly functional.

The house is on a quiet tree-lined street in Palo Alto, half-an-hour's walk from both the downtown and midtown areas with nice cafes and shops, and it is close to all the classes and playgroups I have found this last week with Ruth. It is just under four miles cycle to Google along quiet back streets for Alex's commute.

So. We are looking forward welcoming you all there over the next two years!

Pippa, Alex & Ruth xxx

Moving day

2009-11-22T10:18:00.000-08:00

Finally worked out how to get the photos off the camera without the card reader - so here are the promised photos of moving day.

The packers were incredibly efficient, and had our entire house packed up and onto various vehicles for the air & sea shipments, and UK storage as well, all by 2pm.

It think the highlight was the 20' container being reversed down Grove Avenue, with centimetres spare on either side to the parked cars, particularly when is squeaked past Jof's BMW.

We have now been safely reunited with the air shipment in the US - Ruth is incredibly happy to see all her toys again and spent an entire morning singing "ee-i-ee-i-ooo" non-stop whilst walking up and down with Mr Doggy. The sea shipment is crossing the atlantic somewhere and we should see it towards the end of December.

Settling in

2009-11-09T16:23:00.001-08:00

We thought we had this moving lark licked yesterday when we all slept through til 7.30am, but Ruth got us up at 5.30am again today... guess it will be a while longer! Today is Alex's first day at work, apparently he has been busy but everyone is being nice to him so far. Ruth and I drove him in and tried not to embarrass him at the school gate.

Ruth is having long day time naps at the moment - I actually found time to iron Alex's shirts this morning! I know, I couldn't believe it myself. We went to Gymboree (like the Little Gym) this afternoon, which Ruth really loved. She managed to get a play date booked with a little boy she pursued shamelessly.

More cultural differences:
- can't work out what bread to buy. Bewildering range.
- Managed to buy a tiny travel kettle, which was the ONLY one on sale at Walmart. A whole aisle of coffee makers though.
- They didn't sell clothes horses. 4 different laundry baskets, no racks at all.
- You can turn right on at a red light!

First day in California

2009-11-07T10:36:00.000-08:00

Well, we've made it out here in one piece (or three pieces and a lot of bags). Ruth was reasonably good on the plane, luckily business class was half empty and they had noise cancelling headphones, so everyone seemed to think she was a little angel. We kept her up last night until normal bedtime, and we managed to stay up until 9.30pm, and we all slept through until 5.30 which isn't too bad.

Our flat is really nice, a good size and well-equipped, feels a bit like a hotel. We've been for a walk this morning and discovered a lovely park right next door with a little playground, and a "natural area" across the road with wetlands and a river. We also discovered the three swimming pools and two spas in our complex - all outdoors but heated - California may be the most green of the states but there are still lots of things that are glaringly un-eco to us! I think I will manage to overlook my principles enough to enjoy the spa pool anyway.

We are going out to the supermarket later on today, and going on an "area tour" with the estate agent tomorrow. Afraid there are no photos yet or for a while, as we don't seem to have packed the card reader :)

Cultural differences so far:
- There is NO KETTLE in the flat!! An oven big enough to cook three English turkeys in, a coffee-maker, a waste-disposal unit but no kettle. Can you believe.
- The bed is enormous. Seriously, it comes up above my waist. I have to do a jump to get into it.
- There is a tumble drier but no clothes horse.
- Eggs are white not brown.
- Grass looks like grass drawn by a child, all uniform and green, not mangey and straw-like.
- It is sunny, and the sky is blue (although it was grey and drizzly yesterday when we landed - I did panic).

Love
P, A & R xxx

First Post

2009-11-04T09:37:00.001-08:00

Just to get us started.