Christmas Eve

I seem to have gotten a little behind with my blogging again!

I've had a great Christmas in Rocklin with the Hobsons. One of the highlights was the Christmas Eve service at Bayside. The YouTube video here was the online "advert" for the service!



Well the service more than lived up to the expectations raised by the preview! The service was more like a professional show (and was free!) than a traditional church service. We went to the 12'th of the 13 services that were offered (starting a week before Christmas). As it was Christmas Eve, we expected a crowd so we got there early. They had set up a huge tent in the courtyard in front of the church to provide some shelter for people waiting for the services to begin. They had gas heaters in the tent to (try to) keep the cold at bay, and a group of three women singing Christmas songs to provide some entertainment. Our timing was impeccable, because we arrived early enough to be close to the front of the queue, and the doors opened about five minutes after we arrived, so the wait-time in the tent was minimal. We ended up with better seats than we usually get on a normal Sunday morning!

The service itself started off with some communal singing of Christmas carols, and then got into the less traditional part. The usual (very accomplished) worship band had a small string section join them for the musical items. They performed the music that accompanies the YouTube video (Carol of the Bells — a beautiful piece of Christmas music that I had not encountered before this year). There was also a female soloist who did a lovely version of Oh Holy Night, which is probably my favourite Christmas carol. The pastor gave a very good, topical message, which was itself interspersed with some video clips (some funny, some very thought-provoking).

The Messiah

It's been a fairly quiet week, other than doing some Christmas shopping. I moved into a new office on Wednesday (it seems that one of the common features of all universities is a lack of space!). The new office is in a separate building, close to the main CS Department building, but I'm not sharing the office (for the moment anyway!), as I was before.

I spent the weekend in Davis again, mainly because I had booked to attend the performance of Handel's Messiah on Saturday night. That was performed in the university's very smart theatre complex (try to imagine the Grahamstown Monument theatre on steroids!), the Mondavi Center, by the American Bach Soloists. They are a very accomplished group of performers who were joined by some superb soloists (a little unusually, they had a countertenor for the alto solos). It was an outstanding performance, and a most enjoyable Christmas highlight.

The programme notes had the following, interesting observation on the custom of standing for the Hallelujah Chorus: "...Handel's Messiah is certainly the most well-known and universally enjoyed major work in the Baroque oratorio genre—if not among all “classical” music works—and that standing as a group, in the name of tradition, unites the audience with the performers for a few minutes in a most energizing way... you have only to look at the performers when you stand at that wondrous, thrilling moment: you will see their smiles and their spirits lifted even higher, knowing that millions upon millions of people have stood at that very same moment in music, and in virtually every corner of the world". We stood!

Today (Sunday) has been a fairly quiet day in Davis. I enjoyed the service at University Covenant Church this morning, and then stopped off at the little Austrian restaurant for brunch on my way home again (see the blog entry for 16 November). It's been grey and rainy all day, so the afternoon was spent curled up with a good book (the latest P.D. James novel).

Colin has business in the San Fransisco area tomorrow, so will pick me up on his way back to Rocklin in the evening, where I will be spending Christmas. I'm looking forward to the break and spending some time with the Hobsons, although Janet has to work between Christmas and New Year (Colin has the week off, but is forced to take it from his annual leave — labour practices here are somewhat harsher than in SA!).

Interestingly, the day after Christmas is not a holiday here (no one has heard of "Boxing Day"!). Also a little different: the churches all have Christmas Eve services, but no services on Christmas day itself. The Christmas Eve services are a very big deal. Bayside is holding 13 services this year (a few more than last year), starting from a week before Christmas. They've got a dedicated Christmas website, which is worth a look! We are booked in for the 8:30pm service on Christmas eve, which is likely to be one of the most popular, apparently, so we will need to get there really early. They've set up a huge tent in the courtyard area in front of the church to provide shelter for people waiting to get in. I say we are "booked in" because they've been issuing tickets as a way of trying to balance the numbers (9 of the 13 were "full" on Thursday already). It promises to be an eye-opening experience!

I may not get a chance to write an update before Christmas, so let me take this opportunity to wish you a very Happy and Blessed Christmas, and may 2009 be a happy, and joy-filled year for us all.

Tour Guide to African Visitors!

I've had a very good extended weekend with the extended Hobson family. Colin's brother Jonathan and his wife Ann, from Port Elizabeth have been visiting for a few days. The three of them picked me up from Davis early on Thursday morning on their way through to San Francisco where Colin had some business to attend to. We dropped him off just North of SF, and headed further North. Our first stop was the earth quake trail which I had visited several years ago with Janet. That is a fairly short walk along part of the San Andreas fault-line, and has some very interesting displays about the California fault-lines, past earthquakes, etc. One of the most impressive things is a section of a wooden fence where one part was displaced about 5m by the big 1906 San Fransisco earthquake. There is also a very peaceful looking field with some blue poles running through it. The poles mark the fault line!

Our second stop was the Muir Woods section of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. This is a lovely national park with some magnificent redwoods (the first "real" redwood forest I have visited). We had a good time on one of the walks through the forest. By the time we were finished there, Colin had finished his business, so we headed back towards San Fransisco and picked him up (which meant I could give up my responsibilities as tour guide!).

Colin took us down to the Golden Gate bridge where we stopped at some of the viewpoints. While I had seen the bridge before, I had never taken the time to stop off and enjoy the views, displays, etc. From the bridge we headed into San Fransisco proper and found the street with the "painted Ladies" — a row of beautiful old Victorian-era homes that feature on many of San Fransisco postcards, calendars, etc. We then browsed around the Chinatown area and some of the shops in the central shopping area, inlcuding Macy's which has some very impressive Christmas displays.


Alcatraz with the moon rising.


San Franscisco in the setting sun.

On Friday Colin took the day off and went fishing with Jonathan. They had a good time and Colin actually caught a couple of fish (he hasn't been having much luck recently). Ann and Janet went off shopping, while I caught up with some work. In the evening, we all went into Sacramento to see the local pantomime (Cinderella). That was very good fun, but not particularly well-polished or professional.

The rest of the weekend has been relatively quiet, with some shopping, some braaing, church (on Saturday afternoon!), etc.

It's turned grey and drizzly through the day today, but we've had stunning weather for Jonathan and Ann's visit. Our day in the San Franscisco area on Thursday was beautiful, with the sun shining brightly and no wind at all.

Winter in California

I seem to be doing a good job of catching up with my blogging tonight!

Just a quick comment on the weather: central California can get cold! The last few weeks have been settling into more wintery weather, which consists of a lot of very chilly fog, it seems. Minimum temperatures at the moment are in the low- to mid-single figures, with maxima in the low- to mid-teens (Celsius — I can't work in Fahrenheit, but fortunately the local weather website allows you to select Celsius as an option!). I nearly froze cycling into campus this morning in a light fog. When I got to the office the view was amazing as the Sun was shining faintly through the fog, looking just like the moon (white and one could look directly at it).

On my way home this afternoon, I stopped off at the local bike shop and bought a pair of thick, full-finger cycling gloves (my thin, fingerless, "normal" cycling gloves were close to useless this morning)!

Of Elephants that are White!

Last night, we had a very nice Christmas "pot luck" supper and "white elephant gift exchange" at the church "small group" that I attend in Davis. I made a green bean dish that Janet had made for our Thanksgiving dinner, which was very nice, and turned out to be very popular — I had to email the recipe to everyone this morning!

The white elephant gift exchange got a little tricky for me as one normally takes something from around the house that you don't want any longer that would be suitable as a gift. Having arrived only a few months ago with one suitcase of belongings, that didn't really work for me! I had found a nice, cheap wooden bowl in a charity shop in Rocklin a couple of weeks ago and put some Lindor chocolate truffle balls in it, which turned out to be very popular. The "rules" of the exchange are that, when it's your turn, you can take a wrapped present from the pile, or else you can "steal" a gift from someone who has already got one, forcing them to take a new gift from the pile. One complication is that a gift can only be stolen twice and then it belongs to whoever holds it. Rather to my surprise, my makeshift gift turned out to be highly sought after and was the only one that got "stolen" twice (and it wasn't just the Lindor chocolates — the person who ended up with really liked the bowl!).

I took a gift from the pile rather than "stealing" one, and got a CD audio book of one of Max Lucado's recent books (3:16, which I haven't read yet). I was rather pleased with that, and had to work at putting off someone who was eying it out for a possible steal!

Thanksgiving

I've been a little remiss on the blogging front. In my defense it has been fairly busy here, and I've been trying to fend off a cold (thanks to Jared who was sniffling through the Disney trip! Actually, he was a trooper on the trip as some of the rides and the hectic schedule couldn't have been fun when he wasn't feeling well.).

Thanksgiving was the Thursday after our Disney trip (27 November). In some ways, it was a little anti-climatic: we prepared some food at the Hobsons (Colin braaied, sorry, barbecued the turkey!) then went to a friend of Janet's for the meal (mid-afternoon lunch/dinner). There were three families there with a sea of kids and it was all rather chaotic. I was also struck at the lack of "ceremony", which seemed odd (I had expected some sort of discussion/reflection on what we were each grateful/thankful for, but it didn't happen). When I brought this up with Colin and Janet later, they said that it is usually customary to have some sharing along those lines, and they had felt that it was a rather "flat" Thanksgiving. Anyway, on the Saturday evening, we sat around the kitchen table in their home, rather than in front of the TV, for supper (which, appropriately, was Thanksgiving leftovers) and took the time to share together. That was a rather special event, which left me feeling a lot more positive about the idea of the Thanksgiving holiday.

Saturday and Sunday afternoons that weekend were spent putting up the Christmas decorations: various lights and a manger scene outside; and a Christmas tree and various other model scenes inside. It is all very American and rather over-the-top, and rather nice! The attached pictures don't really do justice to it all, and I still need to borrow a tripod from Colin and try to get some night-time pictures of the exterior lights.

More Disney

I scanned a couple more artifacts from our trip to Disneyland. These show the evidence of my vertigo-defeating roller-coaster ride (on California Screamin'), and my artistic flair (or lack thereof!).

The Wonderful Land of Disney

Just back from Disneyland after an amazing three days! It's hard to do justice to the experience (if you haven't been you have to go sometime!), but perhaps the word "magical" sums it up best. From the moment you arrive there is a great, fun, wholesome atmosphere about the place. A good friend in South Africa expressed the wish that I would "let [my] youthful excitement enable [me] to enjoy it", which was definitely the case. On the Saturday evening, after the incredible show we watched, a little kid (about three-years old, I would guess) near where we were sitting turned around to his parents with huge eyes and said "Mickey does magic!" at the top of his voice — some of the magic was in making this 40-something feel like he was three again! But I'm getting the story all out of order!

We left Rocklin in the middle of the afternoon on Friday, after the kids were finished school, and travelled down to LA through the evening, arriving rather late (about 10:45pm) and tired. Despite the late arrival we were up early on Saturday and off to Disneyland to make the most of the day (and to beat the crowds as much as possible). We had planned our weekend days there using the amazing RideMax software package (highly recommended for anyone planning a visit to the Disney resorts to avoid excessive waiting in line). There are actually two theme parks there: the Disneyland Park itself ("The Happiest Place on Earth"), and Disney's California Adventure Park.

We started off on the Saturday at Disneyland with a simulator space ride, which was great (I had been on a similar ride at the Star Trek exhibition in Las Vegas some years ago). From there we headed to an "interactive" ride based on the Buzz Lightyear character from Toy Story, shooting at targets with a laser gun from a moving car on a track, which was great fun. We then did some fun, gentle, kid-oriented rides: It's a Small World After All (Christmas-themed vignettes of various nationalities), a ride based on the Wind in the Willows story and a great one based on Peter Pan (in a suspended flying "boat" cable-car).

From there the experience got a little more hectic as we did three "roller coaster" type rides in quick succession: Thunder Mountain (a roller coaster with an old-time gold-mining theme), Splash Mountain (in a water channel in a canoe-like boat with a long water drop) and Space Mountain, a rather more nerve-wracking experience of a roller-coaster ride simulating a flight through space, so in almost-complete darkness with spots of star-light. A little later in the day we rode the Matterhorn bob-sleigh roller coaster. Anyone who knows me well, will know that I don't particularly like heights so these rides required some serious motivation! (Nothing close to what was still to come though!)

One of the highlights of the day was the Indiana Jones ride. This takes you through an incredible replica of an ancient ruin in cars made to look like jeeps, as it tells an Indiana Jones style treasure-hunting story, complete with rickety bridges, rolling boulders, poison-dart traps, cobwebs and other nasty surprises! The Pirates of the Caribbean ride (on which the movie was based in an odd reversal of the usual pattern of movie-inspired rides) was also excellent: an underground water ride through the pirates' world.

In the evening, we settled down to watch the "Fantasmic!" show: an amazing combination of light, sound, lasers, boats, flames, fountains, fireworks and Disney characters set in the middle of an artificial river. This was the event that had me feeling like a three-year old again. It was followed by an incredible fireworks display, marking the end of a long, wonderful day.

The next day we arrived early at the Disneyland Park and headed straight to the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage ride, which was a very fun ride in a semi-submerged boat (you sit below water level looking out through underwater portholes) with various characters from the move making an appearance as one went around an artificial lake. After a few more rides there (including another flight through Space Mountain), we headed over to the California Adventure Park (which opens a little later) for the rest of the day.

California Adventure has a little less of the pure "Disney" feel (an issue which they are addressing) and focuses on various aspects of California as Walt Disney knew it. One of the main areas there is the Paradise Pier section, which recreates a traditional sea-side amusement park (unfortunately, the artificial "sea" is drained at the moment, as you can see in the photo). And one of the main features of Paradise Pier is a genuine roller-coaster called California Screamin' (no cute, kiddy-friendly ride on a fake mountain: a real roller coaster with heights, scaffolding, heights, massive drops, heights, a LOOP, heights, oh and did I mention some heights!)! Despite my misgivings I was persuaded to give this a go and actually enjoyed it! One of the good features (for me anyway) was that it starts on the level with a massive acceleration that shoots you up the first climb, rather than the traditional slow ratchet up to some dizzy height before letting gravity do the rest. I have to confess that I closed my eyes for the duration of the loop! However, to prove it wasn't a complete fluke, we did it again immediately (give or take 15 minutes in line!) and the second time I kept my eyes open for the loop! (And I bought the (expensive) souvenir photo to prove I rode it!).

After that things got a little more calm for the rest of the day with an excellent fake-rapids river ride. That left one fairly soaked, but fortunately Colin and Janet had done it previously so had come equipped with rain ponchos for the experience. Despite the ponchos we still got quite soaked on our two rides there, but it was really good fun. We did also do a haunted hotel ride which involved some bouncing up and down in a "broken lift" ride.

Later in the afternoon we did a couple of other rides that pressed some of my "height buttons". The first was an amazing "Soarin' Over California" experience where one is suspended in a tilting, twisting chair in front of a huge IMAX-style screen. As the screen displays various scenes of California the chair tilts to simulate the effect of flying (with added smell effects and winds at appropriate points) — very impressive. We then did a smaller roller coaster (Mulholland Madness, with a California highway theme). In some ways that was almost more scary than California Screamin' as the high, sharp corners were not banked, giving the impression that you are about to hurtle sideways off the rails and plunge to your death!

To cap off a day of conquering height fears we went on the Maliboomer: a 180 foot vertical boost from ground level, followed by a series of more gentle "bounces" until you return to the ground (and I did it with my eyes open!). We had a great time in the Disney Animation Academy where we got to sit for half an hour as a Disney artist guided through the process of drawing Goofy (I'm not about to give up my day job, but under his expert guidance, even I could produce a vaguely convincing Goofy!).

The day ended off with what was probably my favourite ride in California Adventure: the new Toy Story Mania! ride. That is a very interesting "4-D" ride where the cars stop in front of 3-D projection screens for you to play various traditional "amusement park" style games (throwing hoops, darts, balls, etc. at targets using a "cannon" mounted on the car). The 3-D effects are excellent and the ride is great fun (even better fun was beating the teenager in the car with me!).

Monday was a "bonus" day as we had got three-day for the price of two tickets through the AAA (American Automobile Association). Colin had to do some business in the area, so headed off in a taxi while the rest of us packed the car and headed to the park. We hadn't used RideMax to plan the day, so had to "wing it", fortunately with some good insights into how RideMax optimises the experience. We rushed into Disneyland and got Fast Passes (allowing you to "jump" the line at a later time during the day) for the Indiana Jones ride before getting in line at California Adventures to try to beat the crowds to the Toy Story Mania! 4-D ride. That was successful (and wise, as it is hugely popular) and we had a great time there. That we followed by another dose of California Screamin' (eyes open) to really prove it wasn't a fluke the day before!

We then headed back to Disneyland and managed to fit in Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain and a cute Snow White and the Seven Dwarves kiddy ride before meeting up with Colin, grabbing some lunch and heading back to Rocklin. The weather, which had been really good to us with warm, sunny days started to turn a little overcast as we left LA — we had been really blessed with the best possible weather for this time of year.

All in all, it was an incredible, magical experience, and great to be able to do it with such good friends.

Sunday in Davis

Well, it's been another great day in Davis. I went to my first service at the University Covenant Church, which I really enjoyed — the pastor is a great communicator/preacher, and there was a really friendly, relaxed atmosphere, with a nice mixture of new and old songs.

After that I treated myself to brunch at an Austrian café/restaurant, Konditorei, nearby. I had the Spinach Quiche breakfast, followed by a slice of "Kaffee Kuchen" (coffee cake, in the sense of to-accompany-coffee, not as in coffee-flavoured). Delicious!

This afternoon, I went for a long ride around the outskirts of Davis (which eased the guilt of brunch a little!).

Seems a pity to have to go back to work/research tomorrow after a day like that!

Fall Fun

Well, it's been a great day here in little old Davis, CA! As mentioned in my last post, I am staying in Davis for the weekend (a first), and decided to do some geocaching. A particular cache had caught my eye (Erin's Roundabout, GCC00B) for a number of reasons (it appeared to be in a picturesque part of the UC Davis campus, it wasn't a tiny (micro) cache, which are all too prevalent around here, and Colin and Janet's daughter's name is Erin!). I decided to use that as the centre of a search for caches in that area (West of the main campus), and came up with several promising-looking caches in the vicinity.

After a rather late start to the day. I set off on my bike and soon arrived in the general area of the first cache. There was a bike rack there (at a "lodge" very reminiscent of the Continuing Education Centre at Rhodes, only without the accommodation), so I locked the bike up and set off caching on foot. The first cache for the day (Mallards Hideaway, GCDE36) was right there and a very easy find, with several eponymous budgies swimming around the area.

From there my quest led me along the South bank of Putah Creek, which I fear I may have badly maligned in an earlier post by comparing it to Rhodes' Cotch Creek! Well, this part of Putah Creek is beautiful, with wider, lake-like areas, and surrounded by the trees of the UC Davis arboretum (cf. Bots!). What was particularly striking was the beautiful red, yellow and orange fall (sic) colours of the trees. It really makes the drab browns of an African autumn look a bit pathetic!

At the end of the path, I reached Erin's Roundabout and, after quite a bit of hunting found the cache and dropped off some travel bugs, including Cabey's Shutterbug, which I thought was appropriate given the picturesque nature of the spot.

From there I returned on the North side of the creek, finding my third cache for the day (The Gaze, GCJQEE) along the way. That was another beautiful spot in the arboretum (more fall trees nearby!) and a fitting spot to drop off a geocoin of my own. That was significant because the coin was made by friends Correen and Renier who cache as eragonSaphira, and I am busy at the moment reading the third of the books in the Eragon (Inheritance) series — a very good series, by the way.

After returning to my bike, I set off in search of my fourth cache for the day (Solano House, GCHV72). That is a two-stage multi-cache. The first stage is a very interesting monument giving the history of the first pony express mail service that passed through the area, using a nearby (now ruined) building as a staging post. At the first stage I gathered the necessary clues to find the second stage (the actual cache itself), but was unsuccessful. I think I was in the right area, but there was a profusion of thick rosemary bushes and I could not find the cache (at least I smelled good after my hunting around in the undergrowth!).

After hunting there for sometime, I gave up and set off for the next cache (Yamar's Unusual #6: The ORB, GCQEBQ), which was a very easy find with a most unusual container! The cache was between a parking lot and the railway line, and there were some passing trains and a student learning to drive a bus in the parking lot to provide some additional entertainment.

By that time, it was getting on for mid-afternoon and I hadn't had any lunch so I set off home. En route, I realised that I was passing fairly close to the site of a cache (Solano Park, GCZXAZ) that I had not been able to find in August, partly due to some "muggles" (i.e. non-cachers!) hanging around the site. When I got there, I found some other geocachers hunting for the cache too — it's always fun to bump into other cachers on the hunt! They found the cache, in a spot I know I looked in when I visited in August! There was a log on the geocaching website to say that the previous cacher had found the cache lying around and had "replaced" it where they assumed it should be, but I'm not so sure!

All in all, it was a rather fun day out in Davis, enjoying the beautiful, sunny, warm autumn/fall weather.

Public (Non-)Holidays

Today is a public holiday in the USA, ostensibly! It is Veterans' Day.

However, most US businesses do not recognise most holidays, so almost everyone works just like any other day. Fortunately for me, it is one of the holidays that UC Davis observes. The schools also have the day off.

Since it was a holiday, and I intended to take it, I took a long weekend break from Davis (Friday to Tuesday), to spend in Rocklin. I did do some work on Monday (debugging the programs I am writing for my research programme), but am studiously avoiding anything like work today!

I will probably spend the coming weekend in Davis, as the following weekend we are going to Disneyland for three days, which should be great fun! We get back on the Monday evening, and the Thursday after that is the Thanksgiving holiday here (a big deal that everyone does observe), so I will probably stay on for the rest of that week and the following weekend.

Centenaries

I mentioned a while ago (see the blog entry for 24 September) that there was a "weird symmetry" between Rhodes and UC Davis, as both are around 100 years old (RU in 2004, UC Davis this year). Well, it get weirder! I happened to browse across to the University of Bristol website (i.e. where I took my last overseas sabbatical and got my PhD) this morning, and it turns out that they will be celebrating their centennial next year (2009). What is it with me and 100-year old universities?!

I guess, in view of the observation that about "70 of the 85 institutions that have survived continuously for the past half-millennium are universities" (see the blog entry for 22 October) that shouldn't be too surprising, but it seems like a really strange coincidence.

Of Weather and Time Zones, and Saving the Daylight!

As I mentioned a few posts ago (October 22), daylight-savings time was due to come to an end, which it did this last weekend (at 2:00am on Sunday morning to be precise, when the clocks went back to 1:00am — giving a one-off gift of an extra hour's sleep!). So far, it hasn't been as bad as I remember it from the UK in 1994 (perhaps I was better prepared for what to expect!). The evenings are getting dark around 5:30 (rather than 6:30), but it's still no worse than winter in Grahamstown. At the other end of the day, the sky was just starting to lighten up at 6:15 this morning when I got back to Davis from the weekend in Rocklin, which was a pleasant change from the pitch dark.

Of course, the time-change means we are now ten hours behind SA time — even more inconvenient a difference than before!

The weather took a turn for the worse over the weekend, with the halloween drizzle carrying on for most of Saturday (the newspaper reported a total of about 1.6" (roughly 35–40mm) of rain for Friday and Saturday. That made for a very good day to stay inside and read, which was pretty much what happened! Sunday brightened up a bit, but today (Monday) has been colder (about 15°C) and drizzly again. Oh well, I guess winter and the attendant rain had to come sometime.

Of Pumpkins and Candy!

Coming from Africa, halloween has never been a big deal. Of course, in the US of A it is!

I came through to Rocklin early for the weekend, as I had been requested to help with carving pumpkins on Thursday night. That is remarkably easy and was good fun. Erin did one of the pumpkins (on the right) and I did the other.

On Friday evening (after the long-suffering Freckles had been decked out in his Yankee Doodle costume!), a friend of Erin's came around and the two of them set off to scrounge candy off the neighbours, with Colin and I in attendance to keep an eye on the young ladies (and to ensure that the candy was of a suitable standard!). Before long, our group had swollen its numbers considerably and Colin and I were "guarding" a rather large group of rather loud pre-teenage girls trick-or-treating the neighbourhood. At one stage it started to rain quite hard and we offered shelter by a kindly neighbour.

Many of the people had gone to great lengths to decorate their homes — fake cobwebs, pumpkins by the truck-load, strobes lights, flashing illuminated bats, and various other ghoulish decor items were liberally on display!

The evening ended off with the group gathered around the Hobson kitchen table, sheltering from the rain and drinking hot chocolate while the adults sat in the lounge with glasses of red wine and dealt with one or two last visitors in search of candy (business was apparently quite slow chez Hobson, which has left us with the most unfortunate problem of a slight candy mountain that needs to be dealt with!).

I have to confess that it all seems like rather a lot of effort to extort candy from kindly neighbours, but the kids were all having fun, and there was a great neighbourhood vibe out on the streets.

An awesome thought

I have recently started reading the book The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership by Steven Sample, the President of the University of Southern California (USC). More about that when I've finished reading it, but for now, I was led to look him up on the USC website and found an interesting article that he wrote in 2003. What blew me away was the following paragraph:

[University leaders] must understand that the decisions they make today are made for the long term. In his book The Uses of the University, Clark Kerr observed that since the year 1520 only about 85 institutions have remained continuously in existence in recognizable forms. They include several Swiss cantons, the Roman Catholic Church, and the parliaments of the Isle of Man, Iceland, and Great Britain. But some 70 of the 85 institutions that have survived continuously for the past half-millennium are universities. So when [university leaders] consider their role, they should think in terms of centuries.

That's an interesting and challenging perspective to try to grasp for anyone who works in a university.

Still picnicking in the park!

("Picnicking" always looks misspelled to me!). Yup, it's Wednesday so I went along to the Farmer's Market Picnic-in-the-Park this evening (I seem to be settling into a routine of going there every other week). It was an absolutely beautiful autumn/fall evening: warm and sunny (I was wearing shorts and a tee-shirt). I enjoyed a burrito (a tortilla filled with all manner of good things: chicken, beans, salsa, cheese, sour cream and guacamole in this case) while listening to the band (a very good all-woman group playing some nice blues and folk music — their multi-part vocal harmonies on the folk songs were superb).

After that I picked up some fruit — it's always nice to be able to sample the produce before buying. There are still strawberries and grapes available, but I suspect the offerings are going to start to get a bit thin as we get into the colder part of the year. Daylight-savings time comes to an end soon, which will mean it gets darker an hour earlier in the evening (a very unpleasant phenomenon when you're not used to it, as I discovered in the year I spent in Bristol) and I guess the picnic-in-the-park will become a rather less enticing way of spending Wednesday evenings then.

Hope Walks

Well, it was another good weekend with the Hobsons in Rocklin. The highlight was the Hope Walks event on Saturday morning. That is an annual fund-raising walk held at various venues all over the USA to support a number of charities. The Sacramento venue was the William Jessup University (a small, private university), which is right on Colin and Janet's doorstep.

The walk itself was only 1.6 miles, on paved paths around the university grounds, but was very good fun. It was a little overcast which made for rather pleasant walking conditions. We met up with some friends, Larry and Lori, and walked with them for most of the way (the finish line photo shows Janet coming in with Larry and Lori). The charities supported are mainly Christian organisations working in Africa (with AIDS orphans) and Cambodia (with child sex slaves — a huge problem in that area). The Sacramento walk had over 1000 walkers and reportedly raised about $35000, which is pretty good going. After the walk there was a chance to see some exhibitions on the work that the various charities are doing, including mock-ups of a "typical" African home and school.

After that we all went off to watch Erin's soccer match (even her brothers came this week!). That ended in a 2-all draw after a fairly evenly matched game. Thereafter I treated us all to some do-it-yourself frozen yoghurt at Big Spoon Yogurt. That was a rather interesting experience: you decant your choice of flavoured frozen yoghurt into a cup and can then add various sauces and toppings (from 75 choices!). After all that your cup is weighed and you pay for the total weight. After some in depth research, I can thoroughly recommend a generous serving of strawberry yoghurt, topped off with cherry sauce, mini cheesecake chunks and flaked almonds! (Decadent, but we had done all that walking earlier in the morning!).

The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell

I just finished reading The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell (Oren Harari, McGraw-Hill, 2002). That's not my usual kind of reading matter — for some reason, I have never been attracted to biographies. However, this was recommended by Bill Hybels (of the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit) when he interviewed Powell in 2007 on his approach to leadership. The interview was really good, and the book kind of hovered on my radar until I bought it recently (together with another leadership book based on Winston Churchill — as you can see, I'm trying to deal with my biography-phobia!).

Well, it turns out that the Powell book is really good! To be more accurate, it is not so much a biography as a leadership book based on the life and experience of Powell, who has had a remarkably successful career as a leader by any standards. In Harari's words: "The lessons in this book constitute a clear strategic, philosophical, value-based, and ethical blueprint by which Powell leads". Some of the discussion is (understandably) somewhat militaristic, but Harari does a good job of bringing the principles out.

A great quote from Powell himself, which sums up his leadership philosophy rather well: "Leadership is not rank, privilege, titles, or money. It is responsibility".

I think I sense another StaffDev series coming on!

Link to the book on Kalahari.net.

Apples, Apples, and More Apples!

Well, I had another great weekend with the Hobsons. We went to church on Saturday afternoon and then had dinner with some friends of theirs — a very pleasant evening. Then on Sunday we headed out to Apple Hill® (see more below). On Monday, Colin was headed down to the Bay Area for business, so I was able to get a lift back to Davis with him at a slightly more reasonable time than my usual 5:15am start to the week!

Getting back to the apples: Apple Hill® is a group of farms out to the East of Sacramento who have formed a tourist trap of note! There are about 50 farms (mostly apple farms, unsurprisingly) in the area who have organised various activities, events, etc. The drive out was very scenic as one starts to climb up into the foothills of the Sierra Nevada range (it's on the way up to Tahoe). We started off at High Hill Farm, which is one of the main spots. They had some delicious apple donuts we had been recommended to try, and various craft stalls (somewhat reminiscent of the Village Green at the Grahamstown Festival, although on a smaller scale), lots of fruit and apple products (juice, pies, the afore-mentioned donuts, etc.) for sale, a trout pond, etc., etc. All of this was set among a forest of beautiful pine trees. Right next to High Hill is the Fudge Factory Farm. No prizes for guessing what was on sale there, or that it was a great hit with the younger generation and a certain African tourist somewhat known for his sweet tooth! There was also a group fund-raising for a wolf shelter who had a wolf on display — a magnificent creature.

After browsing around there we moved along to El Dorado Orchards where we spent a fair amount of money on the crafts between us. Erin and a friend of hers who was with us for the day made candles at a stall there. There was a lot of fruit on sale there, and in hindsight we should have bought some apples there (yes, we did go to Apple Hill and come back without any apples!).

From El Dorado we moved along to the Jack Russell Farm Brewery where we had a late lunch (but, again, did not sample the speciality of the farm!). At all the farms we were struck by the number of people who had brought their dogs, and we did see a JR here (not the one the farm is named after, who is apparently 17 now and does not make too many public appearances). Lunch consisted of some delicious burgers.

Our final stop for the day was at Honey Bear Ranch, where we enjoyed some fudge or baked goods for desert (I had an delicious apple-berry crunch — like an apple crumble, but with berries mixed in with the apples). That place had a water wheel spinning lazily in a small pond area and the obligatory craft stalls.

All in all it was a very pleasant day-out, enjoying the warm autumn/fall weather.

Bikes

My mention in the previous posting about needing a lighter bike prompted me to write about the second-hand bike market here.

There is a strong market for "classic" bikes, which would be written off as junk in SA. For example, there is a 1970's Fuji bike (the one in the picture) for sale now for $300 (approx. R2400) and an old Schwinn going for $499 (R4000). Back home there is almost no market at all for older second-hand bikes and they certainly wouldn't be commanding prices like that.

That's a little frustrating when you're looking out for a cheap, but reasonably good condition second-hand bike, but much better than the throw-away mentality that says old bikes are worthless.

Anyway, it was a rather surprising and interesting observation for me.

There is also an amazing range of different bikes available (not just "mountain or road" — there are hybrids, cruisers, commuters, tourers and fixed-gear bikes, and that's before you get into the really way-out things like recumbents and tricycles!). There is a notably strong contingent of believers in single- and fixed-gear bikes (a more palatable option in the flat terrain here, I guess!). If you're interested, take a look at the range offered by Ken's Bike and Ski Shop (a local bike store in Davis) — just browse the menus (and sub-menus!) down the left side.

Well, that was an adventure!

It seems that I need a social security number here (for a number of reasons). The usual application process involves going to the nearest Social Security Administration (SSA) office in West Sacramento. Except that they come through to Davis once a year at the start of the new academic year to deal with all the foreigners arriving on campus for the first time. Well that seemed like a bargain to me, so I trotted along on 16 September and signed up!

Then, last week, I got a letter from them in the mail: they needed to see my passport before they could process my application! This despite the fact that they had checked my passport when I saw them in Davis in September. So much for avoiding the trip to Sacramento!

After several attempts to phone them and make an appointment I finally gave up and decided just to go through (fingers crossed that they would be able to help me out there and then). That meant weighing up the options for getting there. Without a car there are three main options: (1) hire a car; (2) take a bus; or (3) cycle. (1) is a little expensive for a simple visit to an office. (2) is rather complicated, involving taking a regional bus through to West Sac then a second local bus service to get to the SSA office. (3) is a good way to get some exercise and get there for free (appealing to both the cyclist and the Scot in me!). So, I set off this morning on my bike and had a relatively pleasant ride there, although it was a bit windy. It took just over an hour to get there (about 13 miles, or 20kms), with almost all of it bar the last 500m or so being on either bike paths or bike lanes (I love this country's attitude to cycling!).

Once I arrived at the SSA office a computer disgorged a ticket with a number and I settled down to wait. That didn't take too long (about 40 minutes) and the official who saw me was very friendly and helpful and tut-tutted that they hadn't checked the passport details when they were here. Apparently my card should be in the mail shortly.

I managed to avoid the temptation of shopping at Ikea, which is very close to the SSA offices, but did spend some time in the HUGE Walmart superstore there before hitting the bike trail back to Davis. Well, the trip back was "interesting". The "bit windy" conditions had turned into REALLY WINDY conditions (the weather bureau is reporting "37 km/h gusting to 58 km/h" — I guess the numbers are less wierd in mph!), and the journey back took rather longer and was a lot less pleasant than the ride there.

Anyway, I survived the adventure and got my exercise for the week! I really do need a lighter bike though!

Phil Wickham

As mentioned a few weeks ago (see the "Thriving Musicians" entry below), I was blown away by Phil Wickham when I heard him in concert. Well his two CDs that I had ordered had arrived last week (delivered to the Hobsons), and I've been listening to them since the weekend and am still thoroughly enjoying them. As I said after hearing him in concert, he has "some beautifully poetic lyrics (without being cheesy), and ... an incredible vocal range and style".

There are some short samples from his CDs available on the internet, if you're interested: (1) the first, self-titled album; (2) Cannons, his second album. One of my favourites is the title track from Cannons, and Mystery from the first album is great too.

True North

One of the things I did accomplish last week was to finish reading the book True North by Bill George (Jossey-Bass, 2007, ISBN 978-0-7879-8751-0). He was one of the speakers at the Global Leadership Summit in August this year, and is on the teaching staff at the Harvard Business School, after several decades of leadership, most notably as the head of Medtronic, one of the world's leading companies in the area of medical technology (such as pace-makers).

In the book, he expands on the idea of "authentic leadership", which he introduced in his previous book (called Authentic Leadership, strangely enough!). Essentially, this means that one needs to be true to one's own unique combination of personality, gifts, passions, etc. as a leader (rather than trying to emulate someone else's style or methods of leadership). I really enjoyed the book, as it developed a number of themes around finding your own integrated leadership path. One of the strengths of the book is its heavy use of anecdotes by a large number of leaders from all kinds of backgrounds to illustrate the principles of authentic leadership.

It's well-worth reading if you're interested in some of the recent trends in leadership development (or staying tuned for a possible StaffDev series!).

Link to the book on kalahari.net.

An update...

(Why do I keep titling these posts with ellipses? Talk about overusing a grammatical feature of the English language!).

Anyway, enough of my grammatical choices. It's been a few days since I last posted an update here, so I figured it was overdue. The rest of last week was relatively uneventful. I didn't get to the Farmers' Market last week, but I did manage to get out and ride the Davis Bike Loop. That is great fun as it avoids roads as much as possible (the ones it does use all have bike lanes) and uses the excellent network of bike paths, taking you through a whole bunch of lovely little neighbourhood parks, through green belts, etc. The map below might be a bit flakey because it relies on a third-party site for my bike route, but should show "home" (the blue point), UC Davis CS dept (the yellow point) and the Davis Bike Loop route in blue:


View Larger Map

The weekend was spent with the Hobsons in Rocklin again. On Sunday afternoon Colin and I went for a ride around one of the bike trails in their area. Again, a stunning set of purpose-built trails led us through the area around Bayside church along a little creek. I could get seriously used to cycling in the USA under these conditions, compared with the near-death experiences one has along African Street in Grahamstown!

Monday...

... was a very good day!

The Department here has (finally!) managed to organise some space for me (as at most universities, in my experience, space is at a premium). It's a very nice office, overlooking the courtyard formed by the U-shaped building. I'm sharing it with another researcher from another research group.

On Monday night, I joined a church "small group" here in Davis. I had been missing going to some form of mid-week fellowship meeting and so I contacted the local "Covenant" church (Bayside Church, where I go on the weekends in Rocklin is a Covenant church) about their small groups. The group is a very nice bunch of people (from 20- to 80-something, with a mix of singles and married people). The group is studying the book of Galatians at the moment. The church itself is called University Covenant Church, and looks like a great church. Hopefully, I will get to visit one weekend!

Another good weekend...

Well, it was back off to Rocklin for the weekend again. I've been getting lifts on Fridays and Mondays with a friend of Colin and Janet's, Jon, who lives a block away from them and works at UC Davis, commuting daily. He was helping cater the breakfast for a fund-raising golfing tournament the next day so we stopped off at a bulk goods store on the way back to do some shopping. Three trolleys-full of breakfast ingredients later the back of the car (a large American SUV) was loaded!

Colin and Janet had a movie "date" on the Friday evening (part of the church's married-couples' ministry) so Erin and I went off to get a DVD. We ended up using "RedBox" - a very high-tech DVD vending machine (this one was situated at a nearby service/gas station). You simply select your movie using a touch panel, swipe your credit card and a slot spits out a DVD! Once you've watched the movie, you simply return to the machine and put it back in the slot. We rented The Bee Movie, which I had seen before, but the Hobsons hadn't. That is great fun and family-friendly - well worth watching if you haven't seen it already. While we were out, Erin mentioned this place called the Cheesecake Factory. We got a delicious Lemon Raspberry Cream cheesecake. They're a little expensive on a South African credit card, but it was pay-day and a rather nice treat!

The rest of the weekend was relatively uneventful. The weather was beautiful and we swam on Sunday afternoon. That may be the last swim of the year as the pool has been getting rather cooler as we move into Fall (sic!). There are rumours that there may even be some rain before the end of this week (there hasn't been one drop since I arrived in July - the rainfall is very seasonal).

Jon, my lift to and from Davis, works odd hours, as he manages a roofing maintenance team and they start work in the middle of the night to take advantage of the cooler conditions. That means getting up really early on Monday mornings to get back to Davis. However, this week I got to lie-in as we only left at 5:30am (normally 5:15am)!

Caching update

Well, my puzzle-solving skills are clearly not too bad, as I found the second geocache referred to below very easily. To be fair, the puzzle did involve some conversions from hexadecimal number notation, which is kind of trivial for a computer scientist!

That's the cemetery cleared of geocaches. I'll need to start wandering further afield!

Caching and photos

Well, I spent some time looking at the local geocaches today, and discovered that there are two in the cemetery behind the house. One was straightforward, so I walked around and did it at lunchtime, while also collecting the clues for the second (a puzzle cache). I've subsequently solved the puzzle (I hope!) so will need to go back to complete that one. However, I did take some more photos (see below).

The photos include the wild turkeys that roam around the area (along with guinea fowl), the view of our house from the cemetery, and what Californian grass looks like in its natural state (almost everywhere you go there are sprinkler systems automatically inundating every patch of grass with water - which strikes me as bizarre when the state is facing fairly severe water shortages if there are not good rains this winter!).

The Market Again

Or Picnic in the Park.

This time I remembered my camera, so there is some photographic evidence. You can see the market, the crowd enjoying themselves on the lawn and the band (not as good as last week's band, I must say) below.

I could get used to Wednesday evenings at the market (however, it closes for the winter in a few weeks time, so I am taking advantage while the sun is shining). I grabbed some supper again. I went American this week and had a delicious hot dog, followed by a magnificent sticky bun (kind of like a Chelsea bun, but topped with a toffee/nut mixture) while I listened to the band playing. After that I bought some more of the delicious strawberries that I had got last week and some very nice looking tomatoes (will see how they work in the ratatouille I have planned for supper tomorrow).

All in all, another great evening at the local farmers' market!

Fall Convocation

This morning I attended the "Fall Convocation" — a formal start to the new academic year here, addressed by the Chancellor (equivalent to a South African Vice Chancellor, as far as I can tell — i.e. the executive head of the university). The convocation was held in the main auditorium of the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts — a very grand 1800-seat theatre on campus. The proceedings were opened and closed by the university's orchestra. It was an interesting event as UC Davis is entering its centennial year, commemorating its origins as an agricultural college in 1908 (the students are still referred to as "Aggies" — c.f. Rhodents!). The Chancellor spoke very well, referring to the history of the university, and was clearly quite emotional as it is his last year before he retires. I really enjoyed his passion and his very evident care for the people who make up this (and any other) university. There were five other speakers who represented a good cross-section of the university and who reflected on their experiences and the past 100 years of institutional history under the theme of "A Century of Doing What Matters".

Of course, there is another wierd symmetry for me here too, after Rhodes celebrated its centenary just a few years ago (in 2004), as Dave Woods was nearing the end of his tenure as Vice Chancellor.

Where to find me

In the interests of keeping up the visual interest levels in the blog, I've hacked together a Google map of some of the main spots of interest. The blue marker is where I live and the yellow marker is the Comp Sci Department at UC Davis. The green marker is where Colin and Janet live in Rocklin, and the pink marker is Bayside church.

You can zoom in, pan around, etc. on the small map below, or click on the link below the map to open up Google maps and have a good look at it all.


View Larger Map

Dental care

Well, after a great weekend in Rocklin it was back to Davis this morning to face an appointment with the dentist :-(. I had chipped a tooth last week and made an appointment to see a dentist whose practice is not far from where I am staying here. He recommended a crown to repair the tooth, but at a cost of $1300 for the crown procedure, I settled for the cheaper option of a filling - a great bargain at only $331! He did a very thorough job and took almost an hour over the whole process, which was great (the only thing that really felt any pain was my wallet!). Needless to say, the SA Rand is apparently in a slump today following Thabo Mbeki's resignation on the weekend.

Thriving musicians...

Last night I attended an awesome concert at Colin and Janet's church Bayside (and my church for the next year too, I guess!). The concert was part of the Thriving Musician Summit conference being held at the church, and featured some of the speakers at the conference. The concert kicked off with two of the worship leaders/song writers from Hillsongs in Australia. As we sing a lot of the Hillsongs songs in church back home, it was great to hear them from "the source" as it were, and that was a great opening to the concert, getting everyone into a worshipful frame of mind (although the sound quality was not great for this part of the concert).

That segment was followed by someone I hadn't even heard of previously: Phil Wickham. Well he was amazing! He started off a little loud (some heavy rock), but then moved into some more mellow songs, but all of his songs were marked some beautifully poetic lyrics (without being cheesy), and he has an incredible vocal range and style. I'm going to be looking out for his CDs.

Last, but not least, was Lincoln Brewster, the worship leader at Bayside, who was launching his new CD, This is the Day. He was battling with a dry, scratchy throat, but put on a great, energetic performance, and sang some of his old favourites as well as some songs from the new CD.

All in all a great evening of amazing worship.

More photos on the web.

Of bikes, and ducks and cycling tracks...

This afternoon I set off for my first real ride around Davis (trips to campus and the shops don't really count!). I set off to do a loop around the town. There is an excellent layout of bike lanes on most roads, which makes it quite safe and easy, although there are more robots (or should I say traffic lights!) than I would like to see. I had a great ride and was starting to head back home, when I came across a road marking indicating part of the Davis Bicycle Loop. On the spur of the moment I decided to turn off and take that route, as I had a vague recollection that it would lead me in the right direction. Well, it did... eventually!

The Bike Loop takes one on a lovely scenic route through the town, avoiding the roads and sticking to the excellent network of cycle tracks. They have really gone to a lot of trouble with that, providing dedicated bridges, underpasses and overpasses and an incredible network of paths. Some of the bridges over the two main highways are really impressive (although my dislike for heights was severely tested over one of them!).

The path took me along the Putah Creek through the UC Davis Arboretum. Putah Creek is UCD's answer to Cotch Creek, only with more water, but even grungier (hard to believe, but it's true!). The water can't be too grungy, because the creek is heavily populated with ducks and geese, as the accompanying photo (taken a few weeks ago) shows. And yes, the water is that green!

Anyway, I had a great ride, thoroughly enjoying the ducks, geese and 30km of great bike trails.

Life in a small university town...

One of the reasons that I picked UC Davis for this sabbatical trip was the similarity between Davis and Grahamstown. While there are probably more differences than similarities in fact, there are enough of the latter to make me fell quite at home a lot of the time.

This evening I went along to the "picnic in the Park at the local farmers' market. It's worth clicking on the link, because it really was like it looks in the picture there: a live band playing some mellow music, good, cheap food on sale from various stalls, families picnicking, children playing (and dancing to the music), a few students chilling out, etc. I mooched around some of the stalls and bought some of the fresh produce on offer (some delicious grapes and strawberries - all of which could be sampled before purchasing), then treated myself to a very nice, filling Indian meal (chicken curry with rice and various other side dishes) while I listened to the band play. The band was from Sacramento and played a lovely selection of old 60s and early 70s music (they appeared to be big fans of the Credence Clearwater genre of music!). All in all it was a lovely evening out in mellow, relaxed surroundings.

The academic year here starts next week, so I expect to see a rather sudden increase in the general busyness levels in the town - reminiscent of Grahamstown in February. There has already been an upturn in the number of students around, but with a much larger population than Rhodes (30,000+ compared to 6,000) I guess it's going to get a whole lot busier next week!

Time for some photos...

I've been meaning to add some visual interest, by putting some photos on the blog, so here goes. The first is of my bedroom - note the laptop and, by inference, the hard work being conducted! Then there is the view of the graveyard, and lastly the view of the house from the street.

You can sort of make out the rather less-than-exciting view through the blinds (see the previous blog entry below)!

I've moved!

Well, this was the week. I finally took the plunge and moved into my new "digs" in Davis on Wednesday. I'd moved most of my stuff down on Monday (coincidentally, Colin and Janet were buying a car from someone there, so were going through that evening), so I just caught the train down on Wednesday with my last few bits and pieces. It's been a productive couple of days of finding the nearest grocery stores (a few options within reasonable walking distance) and getting some of the administrative formalities at the University completed. On Thursday I attended an "orientation" session for visiting academics, which was very informative and helpful. Then, on Friday, I managed to sort out some other admin issues like getting a UC Davis staff ID card and signing up for email and network access on campus. I should be meeting with the researcher I am working with for the year on Monday, so the "holiday" part of my leave is starting to draw to a close.

I came back to Rocklin for the weekend on Friday evening, and helped Colin and Janet with their garage sale this morning. The sale is actually a huge neighbourhood effort, sponsored by one of the local estate agents. There were over 250 households participating in the area, and "our" street won the prize for the best rate of participation (gift vouchers for some restaurant in the area). One of the neighbours was selling a small office/typist chair for $5, which is perfect for my room back in Davis (one of the few things I still needed to get), so it was a good day's buying and selling here.

I've attached a photo of the view from my "desk" at Colin and Janet's (I may have irritated my sister slightly by describing it to her on the phone the other day!). The view from my desk in Davis is a lot less interesting - mainly consisting of a pathway and the neighbour's house.

People are good...

Well, it's been a busy week. It started with the Labor (sic!) Day weekend. On the Saturday, Colin and Janet had some friends around from Petaluma (the town near San Francisco where they used to live). It turns out that their son is on a "gap year", campaigning for Barak Obama and other things before going to university next September, so they have his double bed and desk that they were going to put into storage. That "problem" was soon solved, and we borrowed a trailer from some other friends of C&J here and collected the bed and desk on Monday (the public holiday). We dropped the furniture off in Davis on the way back (Davis is on the highway between Sac and SF, so it was very convenient). Also on the way back, we stopped off at Ikea (an AMAZING scandinavian furniture chain - I fell in love with their stuff years ago in the UK - lovely quality and style, with very reasonable prices) in Sacramento where I bought some bedding.

We went to church on Saturday evening again, as the Petaluma friends wanted to hear the guest speaker: a young Australian man, Nick Vujicic, who was born with no arms and no legs. He had an amazing story to tell of his life, and how God had helped him to deal with the frustration of his disability.

On Monday evening we went out for supper to a very nice Italian restaurant to celebrate the boys' birthday on Tuesday (hard to believe that they're 17 now!).

Getting back to furniture, C&J have also lent me an old chest of drawers that they had been given years ago, and which Colin had in his closet here, but wasn't really using. That didn't have a top on it, so we bought a piece of wood, which Colin sliced, diced and routed with his impressive collection of power tools - the top is now the best part of the whole thing! I took that and the Ikea bedding through to Davis on Tuesday when I had to see the letting agent to put in my application form, so my room is almost ready for occupation. I'll probably move down to Davis sometime this coming week and start getting settled in down there.

It's been a good week for the Hobsons too. As well as Bryn and Jared's birthday on Tuesday, Janet had a job interview on Wednesday and was offered the job. It is perfect for her, part-time close to home and building on her skills in web design. She starts there in mid-September.