The good ol' US of A

Only a few days to go

2007-12-15T18:35:00.000-06:00

After 9 months in the US it is nearly time to finally go home. The last few weeks in Connecticut have gone so quickly and I’ve had a really great time. Last time I was here it wasn’t much fun as I was stuck in a hotel room most of the time with not much to do. This time has involved lots of lunches and dinners and obviously nights out drinking.

Christmas time seems to be well celebrated here. There are so many houses covered in lights which reminded me of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, although I think these house put Chevy Chase’s to shame.

It’s quite bizarre that when I arrived here in March it was thick snow and really cold; now on my return I’ve been treated to exactly the same weather. We have seen 3 lots of snow in as many weeks, and tomorrow we are expecting a Nor’easter which doesn’t sound like much fun. Last Thursday the weather was so bad that most of the office left early. It was quite dangerous driving home as even the main motorways were covered in thick snow and ice as about 10 centimetres fell in a few hours. There is a huge slope up to my hotel which I only just managed to drive up. Some poor bugger in front of me attempted it about 3 times before finally giving up! It was very pretty in the daytime, but the evening rush hour was not very nice. I just hope that the planes are flying out on Tuesday evening when I take my flight back to the Netherlands.

I'm so cold!!!

2007-12-02T20:25:00.000-06:00

After 7 glorious months in the Californian desert I have finally returned to Connecticut. I had such a lovely time there and will miss everyone I met. On my last weekend we managed a night out drinking, and then a party at a colleagues house with the highlight being the beer pong and drinking games. I am very sad to leave :-(

It is such a culture shock to be back in Connecticut. Just over a week ago I was sitting by the pool with the temperature at around 30 degrees centigrade. Today in Connecticut it is -3 degrees and has been snowing. The snow that fell earlier has had now turned into ice and it is a nightmare walking around as it’s like a skating rink. It’s quite funny as when I first got the US there was really thick snow, and now just before I leave it is snowing again. Thank goodness for California in between.

Last weekend I did manage to get in a bit more travelling and went to Washington DC for a few days. It was the Thanksgiving holiday so it was a great way to spend time off. The only problem was that the queues were so long for all the museums that I didn’t get to go to any. I did manage to do a lot of sightseeing though and saw The White House, Capitol House, The Smithsonian Castle, The Lincoln Memorial and The Washington Monument. After all the sightseeing I also got to go shopping :-)

Meet Monty

2007-11-12T21:29:00.000-06:00

For those of you who don’t recognise him, Monty is the Praying Mantis who now lives in my garden. At first I thought he was a large stick insect (about 3” long or about 8cm) but then someone told me it was a Praying Mantis. He is a welcome addition to the frogs and humming birds. I just hope he eats cockroaches!!!

I realised that I hadn’t included any pictures of the sky recently, in fact I haven’t written anything lately, so I have added some lovely pictures for you to view. Also for those of you who are brave, I have added a couple of pictures of me on Halloween in my Vampiress costume.

So I have just over a week left here in the beautiful desert and then it’s back to Connecticut for 4 weeks before finally returning to the Netherlands. I am really going to miss the sunshine as it is still around 30 degrees here. This weekend I am giving up to sitting by the pool in the daytime and partying in the evening :-)

I return to Connecticut just before Thanksgiving and will fly to Washington DC for the Thanksgiving holiday. There should be more for you to read over the next few weeks as I plan to visit a lot of places when I get back to the East coast. I promise no more pictures of the Statue of Liberty though (unless they are really good)!!!

Congratulations to Deirdre & Co!!!

2007-10-09T18:43:00.000-06:00

Before I went over to Ireland for the wedding I managed to spend a few days in Rotterdam. It was so lovely to catch up with all my friends and colleagues, and finally see Phoebe (daughter of Marianne & Daniel). My few days in Rotterdam consisted of lots of partying and very little sleep. It was all worth it though!

After Rotterdam we headed off to Blarney which is a few miles from Cork. Again the first couple of days consisted of drinking and catching up with my friends, and then finally we got to the wedding day.

The wedding ceremony was held in a beautiful chapel called Gougane Barra. The chapel is on the side of a lake surrounded beautiful hills. Such a tranquil setting for a wedding. After the wedding we went back to the Blarney Castle hotel for the reception. By the time we had eaten all four courses we hardly had any energy to dance. The food was just so scrummy.

On the final day we went to Blarney Castle which was stunning with amazing views. I didn’t kiss the Blarney stone though as to do so you needed to lie on the floor and hold on to some hand bars whist leaning backwards with a view down to the ground. I am not afraid of heights, but more worried about all the disgusting germs from the people who had kissed it before. Apparently if you kiss it you are supposed to get the gift of the gab. I figured I didn’t need this so gave the kissing of the stone a miss.

There are more photos of the wedding and Ireland on my Bebo account. http://www.bebo.com/Debbie-Thomas

San Francisco

2007-10-09T18:01:00.000-06:00

Having spent the weekend in San Francisco, I think I’ve finally found my favourite US city.

I got there early on Saturday morning and checked into the hotel right in the centre of the city. I then went on a cable car ride that went through the streets on a guided tour. The highlight of this was the Golden Gate Bridge. After that I spent some time on Pier 39 which is a pier with loads of shops, restaurants, an aquarium and various street acts. Just at the edge of the pier is a wild sea lion sanctuary with hundreds of noisy, crazy sea lions. I could have stayed and watched them all day! In the evening I went to a comedy club which was really funny.

On the Sunday I tried to take a trip to Alcatraz but the tours were all sold out. I settled for going on a boat trip around the island and under the Golden Gate Bridge. I also went to the aquarium which was really amazing. Far better than Boston aquarium.

Catalina Island

2007-09-12T19:20:00.001-06:00

Last Saturday we had a team outing to Catalina Island. We met at the office at 7.15am(!) and were picked up by a 20 seater limousine. It was surprisingly comfortable for our 2½ hour journey to Long Beach where we got the ferry. The ferry ride was only an hour, but was very windy.

When we got there we had a BBQ and then went off to do activities. We had $40 each and we could decide what activity we did out of snorkeling, canoeing, glass bottom boat and various other activities. A few colleagues and I walked passed all the beaches and Casino (which was unfortunately only a museum) and found a nice beach at the end of the strip. We then decided to take part in an activity called sitting on your arse and drinking cocktails. As I hadn’t drunk for 3 weeks, they still seemed to go down very well! It was a most pleasurable experience and an activity I would definitely take part in in the future.

At the end of the day we took the ferry and the limo back. It was quite an exhausting day but one I completely enjoyed :-) Next weekend I’m off to San Francisco so look out for more photos.

The holiday period is over :-(

2007-09-05T20:01:00.000-06:00

Finally, here is the last part of my holiday, although it seems strange writing about it now as it is 2 months ago!

So after Vegas, LA and San Diego it was off to Cabo San Lucas on the Baja Californian peninsula. The resort I stayed in was only 10 months old and it was definitely 5* quality. My room was amazing and big enough to sleep 4 people. There was a fully fitted kitchen with a shower room and laundry room off of the living room. It had a huge balcony which served both the living room and the bedroom. Then came the bedroom which was so luxurious. It had a King size bed with a Jacuzzi bath, and shower room and toilet and double sinks. The resort was also really relaxing and the terrace lead onto the beach. There was a swimming pool and several spa pools. The weather was lovely but it was quite strange though as it was actually cooler than where I live.

The 2nd day I went down to the beach and then to the pool. Unfortunately my suntan lotion didn’t have the desired effect and I ended up getting burnt. This meant that on the 3rd day I couldn’t go in the sun but I did manage to explore the small town and harbour. The 4th day was back to the pool again, but this time I sat under the umbrella all day reading a book. I would definitely recommend the resort if anyone would like a relaxing holiday, although I don’t think you want to go there at the moment as yesterday it was hit by hurricane Henriette. Maybe you should leave it a few months!!! I did include this link before, but you may be interested in it again :-)

http://www.cabovillas.com/properties.asp?PID=199

Yes I am still here!!!

2007-08-21T21:39:00.000-06:00

After over a month I have finally got round to updating by blog. My sister has been hassling me to do it, although I don’t feel too bad as she has been promising for months to send photos of my nieces!!!

So picking up from my last blog entry……

I met my Mum at LAX and we then headed into LA for the night. The hotel we were staying in was right next to the Walk of Fame and the theatre where they hold the Oscars. This was the nearest I have ever been to Keanu and Brad. We had a lovely view of the hills and the ‘Hollywood’ sign. We were very disappointed with Hollywood. We tried to find a bar but we could only find crappy ones so returned to the hotel equipped with bottles of wine. The next day we headed into the hills armed with the map of celebrity homes we had purchased the day before. Luckily I had hired a Sat Nav system otherwise we would have got very lost. This was my Mum’s favourite part. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see any stars, but we did see the gates of Leonardo di Caprio’s house! We then drove down Rodeo Drive which was also not as swanky as I expected.

On leaving LA we headed off to San Diego. The drive should only have been a couple of hours, but it ended up as 6 hours as the traffic was so bad. I also had my first run in with CHiPs. For any of you who didn’t see the TV series back in the early 80’s, it stands for the Californian Highway Patrol. Yes, I got pulled over by the police. It wasn’t for anything glamorous like speeding, but for crossing the yellow line into the Car Pool lane. So there I was driving away and they pulled up behind my with the lights flashing. At first I was hoping that they wanted me to get out the way, but as I pulled over lane by lane they followed me. I really didn’t know why had got pulled over, but once he heard my English accent he let me off. I was so happy as the fine for this is usually $341. She didn't say it, but I think my Mum was quite proud of me as this was the first time I had ever been pulled over by the police. Only a few more times to go before I catch up with you Mum :-)

We arrived in San Diego and headed to Coronado to the hotel. The room was very nice and over looked the gardens, and we also managed to make our own mini bar. We had dinner in the town of Coronado that evening and it was very scrummy. The 2nd day I was really exhausted after my trip to Vegas and 7.5 hours total driving the day before, so we just went for a walk in La Jolla. The third day was fun as we took a coach trip into Mexico. We went to Tijuana, Rosarito and Ensenada. Mexico were playing some football match that day and had just won so the streets were full of cars of people waving flags and beeping. It was very noisy but very cool. We also saw a man with a donkey painted as a zebra. If it hadn't been so funny then I'm sure it would have been cruel.

The following day we headed back to the desert to my house and on the final day of my Mum’s vacation we went up the Aerial Tramway in Palm Springs. We only had about half an hour up there, but it was nice to be out of the heat :-) I took my Mum back to the airport on the Tuesday and went back home to pack for my next vacation in Mexico. I will write about that next time, and hopefully it won’t take me a month to do it!!!

The traveller returns

2007-07-16T21:01:00.000-06:00

After 2 weeks of holidaying I finally have time to update my blog. As I went to few places, I will write about each one separately. Here is the first installment:

LAS VEGAS

The first part of my holiday was 4 nights in Vegas. I had been here previously in 2001, but I thought it was time to go back. I stayed in the Planet Hollywood hotel which was previously the Aladdin and right in the middle of the strip opposite The Bellagio. The hotel was really nice, and had good views of the strip. The room was also really nice with a deep bath tub which was needed after the endless hours of walking around Casino’s. My whole time was spent going from Casino to Casino playing the slot machines. I did watch a bit of Poker, but it wasn’t as fun watching it live as you don’t know what cards people have. My favourite machine was a 1 cent slot machine called ‘The frog prince’. Even though it was only 1 cent a go, you could spend up to $1.80 per spin. This wasn’t much fun though as it went too quickly, so I settled for 30 cents per spin. After 3 days of playing it the theme tune was fixed in my head and started to drive me crazy in the end!!!

The only disappointment of the trip is that there were no celebrations for the 4th July. I was hoping that there would be some parties or fireworks, but there was nothing.

On leaving Vegas I flew back to LAX to meet my Mum. Details will be in my next installment :-)

San Diego

2007-06-27T20:39:00.000-06:00

Last weekend my colleagues deserted me, so I decided to head to San Diego. When I got there is felt really cold as it was only about 25 degrees which is around 15 degrees cooler than here. Thankfully it warmed up a bit in the afternoon.

I went to the zoo which was really amazing. Probably one of the best ones I’ve been to. I was a bit disappointed though as I never got to see the giant panda’s as the queues were so long. I will be going there with my Mum next week so it is a good excuse to go back.

I wrote in my last entry the places I will be going on my holiday. I have now added Mexico to the list. I have 5 days after my Mum goes back before I need to go back to work, and just didn’t want to sit around in the desert all day, so then booked the Mexico trip. It is a bit expensive, so all my vacation money has now gone. Oh well, I might not get the opportunity again. For those of you who are interested, here is the link to the resort where I will be staying http://www.cabovillas.com/properties.asp?PID=199. Unfortunately I won’t be taking the all inclusive option as my vacation money just doesn’t stretch that far.

At the top you’ll see some pictures from San Diego, and below the hotel my Mum and I will be staying in, and the beach next to it :-)

Wave goodbye to straight hair!

2007-06-19T20:05:00.000-06:00

Last weekend was very relaxing. We went out for a colleague’s birthday on Thursday and sampled some very tasty Margarita’s. I’m not a big fan of tequila but they seemed to go down very well.

Saturday I decided to finally go to the hairdressers and went a bit more extreme than planned. It’s getting hot here now and I am fed up with having to dry and straighten my hair each day so decided to go for a wave!!! I have included a picture below which I took of myself. Please excuse the fact that I have no make-up on. For the faint hearted among you, you may want to look away now :-) It looks very 80’s but if I get fed-up with it I can always go back to the straighteners and it will drop out soon.

Sunday was a day of sport. I went for a swim in the morning and then watched the Formula 1 (hooray 2nd race running I’ve managed to see). The English guy won again which was an added bonus. I went round to a colleagues in the afternoon where we had delicious shrimps on the BBQ and then watched the end of the US open golf, and the Yankees baseball game. A perfect relaxing weekend.

In 2 weeks time I have a holiday. I will be going to Las Vegas for 3 nights and will spend the 4th July there which should be fun. I then meet my Mum back in LA on the 5th and we spend a night in Hollywood and then head off to San Diego for a few days before heading back to La Quinta for the night. I will then have another 5 days before I have to go back to work so will hopefully use those days to go somewhere else. I am really looking forward to the holiday as I have haven’t really had any time off since Christmas.

I am not sure if I will really do anything interesting before then, but I will make sure I update my blog if I do.

So remember, NO LAUGHING!!!

HOORAY HOORAY HOORAY

2007-06-10T21:11:00.000-06:00

Formula 1 at last!!!

For the first time in 6 races I have finally managed to get to watch a Formula 1 race, and what a race it was to watch. Lewis Hamilton (English) managed to win his first race which was very exciting. There were lots of safety car incidences and a very nasty high speed crash which left the poor Polish driver with a broken leg. They will also show the next 3 races which, as you can imagine, I am very happy about :-)

The rest of the weekend was pretty relaxing. On Saturday we went to the Beer Hunter to try and watch the Yankees game but unfortunately it wasn’t on. At least we managed to add a few more beers to our total. We then helped my colleague to buy a big HD TV. I can’t wait to play golf on it when it arrives!!!

After the race on Sunday I went to the ‘Living Desert’ which is a wildlife zoo about 20 minutes from my house. It is a large area of the desert where they have birds, plants and animal. It is quite strange wandering around and having the lizards, rabbits and roadrunners scurrying around in front of you. You keep hearing noises in the bushes and you are not sure what is going to crawl by next, but nothing quite prepares you for when a snake goes by. I am not an expert on snakes so haven’t got a clue what is poisonous and what is not. Luckily it then just curled up by a tree trunk so the panic was over.

The sky at night

2007-06-07T12:31:00.001-06:00

As I have absolutely nothing to write about at the moment, I have decided to just include some photos I took the other day from my back garden and the roadside outside my complex.

Enjoy :-)

Home cooked dinner :-)

2007-06-01T12:46:00.000-06:00

After being here for 2 months and 12 days, I have finally got round to cooking dinner. I tend to eat cereal in the evenings as we always have a big lunch, but I decided it was finally time to cook. You can see from the picture that I am quite a natural at this ‘cooking’ thing, and might even enter Master Chef when I get back.

For any of you who are not so talented, here is the recipe:

1. Get a large pan of slightly salted water and bring to the boil
2. Get one sweet corn cob freshly picked out of the field that day
3. Remove the husk and any disgusting stringy stuff from the cob
4. Place the cob very carefully into the boiling water
5. After approx 12-15 minutes carefully remove the cob from the water
6. *Brush with butter and salt and pepper if desired
7. Allow to cool slightly before eating

* Optional

Look out for future recipes on this site.

Back to normality

2007-05-30T20:46:00.000-06:00

I must apologise to my avid readers for the lack of updates recently. As mentioned before, it was Memorial Day weekend which consisted of lots of beer and drinking games. My colleague Craig managed to find a keg of beer for the kegerator, but unfortunately the ‘tower’ did not arrive in time. He did a very good compromise and made a temporary tower out of a cardboard box. This meant that we could enjoy cold draft beer all weekend. The beer pong table also didn’t arrive, so he had to make one out of a pasting table. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the game of beer pong, you have teams of 2 people. They stand at opposite ends of a table and have to try and throw a ping pong ball into one of the cups of the opposing team. The cups are half full of beer, except for the front cup which is full. If the ball ends up in the opposing teams cup, then one member of the team have to drink the beer. If any of you are still unsure of the rules then I will show you when I get back. Thankfully I managed to survive the weekend in one piece. We also managed a trip to the Beer Hunter where I am now up to 15 of the 75 beers needed to get my name up on the wall of foam. Only another 60 to go!!!

Just for my younger sister I have included a photo of a roadrunner which I finally managed to capture on Tuesday lunchtime. Before you get worried Nicky, it’s the picture I manager to capture and not the roadrunner :-)

I will try and do something other than drinking this weekend so I have more to write about.

Wun beer, pleez

2007-05-22T22:38:00.000-06:00

My colleague is trying to find out where to buy a keg of beer from in time for the weekend, so I thought I would try and help. Whist searching on google I found this great website on how to order beer in 47 languages. I think I might try and find a Chinese restaurant to practise. I thought the Chinese was funny until I read some of the others. I am definitely not going to order one in Belaruis!!!

http://esperanto-usa.org/node/82?gclid=COXooJa5o4wCFRDaYgodgCOv6w

I also found a great fancy dress costume:

http://www.buycostumes.com/productdetail.aspx?productid=18974&KNC-yahoocpc

Mum, you know what you can but me for Christmas now :-)

6 down, many more to go!

2007-05-21T22:52:00.000-06:00

This weekend my colleague and I decided to embark on the journey to get our names in the ‘Hall of Foam’. 6 different beers in 1 evening should not have been a problem, but we had been drinking until nearly 4am that morning, so the first couple were a real struggle. I am not the most sensible person when it comes to drinking, but I should have known to steer clear of a beer called ‘Flying Dog’! When I ordered it I thought it was a lager, but it turned out to be a dark beer. The problem is that here they call English beer lager, and English lager they call beer. I really struggled with this one, and will definitely avoid it in future. So now I only have another 69 to drink! Next weekend is Memorial day and we have the day off on Monday, so I should be able to get a few more in :-) After that we went on the 2 different Karaoke’s bars. Neither of them were very good though, so we headed home around 2am.

The rest of the weekend was pretty quiet. I watched the final qualifying for the Indy 500. It doesn’t make up for missing Formula 1, but it does help a bit. Next weekend is the actual race which I am really looking forward to. I also went swimming a couple of times. They have a pool with a spa on the complex, and it is only a few minutes drive from my house. You get the pool, spa and gym for $35 a month. Certainly a lot cheaper than in England or the Netherlands! On the request of my friend Jen, I have included a picture of some ducks. Maybe next time they will join me in the pool!

So I am guessing that the big news of the week is the gorilla escaping from it's cage in Blijdorp zoo. I thought Werner was joking when he told me. Marijn said that it was even on the news in Australia. For those of you who were asleep last week, you can catch up with the story on the BBC website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6670723.stm. When I lived in Blijdorp, the most excitement we got was the man getting arrested for sucking women's toes whist they were sunbathing in Vroesenpark, although I think the Gorilla escaping may be a less scary prospect!

Not for the faint hearted

2007-05-17T22:28:00.000-06:00

Since my Mum’s comment that whatever the frog/toad was eating in my garden was probably a cockroach, I decided to do a bit more investigation. This has unfortunately become the topic of my lunchtime discussions for the last couple of days, which is really gross. We got onto the subject of if they could fly or not, which then let me to this weird website. Even though I am disgusted by the whole subject, I couldn’t help but reading most of the questions and some of the answers. For the curious people amongst you, here is the site I found: http://www.bio.umass.edu/biology/kunkel/cockroach_faq.html

Whilst browsing through the page, I came across the ‘ridiculous’ (30 & 41), the ‘I don’t want to even look’ (16 & 17), the ‘who cares’ (43 & 49) and the ‘let’s try it and see’ (29) topics. I think I have provoked enough curiosity that this site is going to get more hits than it has before!!!

Happy reading :-)

Wildlife watch

2007-05-14T21:33:00.000-06:00

Well today on wildlife watch I saw a roadrunner on the drive home from work. It lived up to it's name as it ran across the road in front of me. Don't worry, I'll get him next time!!! Sorry, no photos on this one.

This evening I was sitting in the garden and I heard these very strange noises. On closer inspection I saw that it was a frog. I rushed into the house to get the camera and managed to get a few photos. You can imagine my shock when I looked back at the pictures and saw a huge beetle in front of it. Anyone who knows me will know that they are my biggest hate (apart from Michael Schumacher!). Luckily on the 2nd photo the beetle had disappeared, so I am guessing that my friend Kermit ate it. If you double click on the picture you will see what I mean. I did try and look on Google to see what type of beetle it was, but after looking at a couple of pictures I wanted to be sick, so didn't investigate any further.

P.S It may also have been a toad, but I am not sure. Either way, he is more than welcome in my garden if he keeps eating the beetles. All I need to do now is to teach it to climb walls in order to get the ones that congregate around my outside light.

More sunsets and palm trees

2007-05-13T21:34:00.000-06:00

I am really enjoying it here in California. On Wednesday it was my colleagues' birthday so we started off in the Beer Hunter again. They have a menu of over 200 bottles of beer. For those of you that are interested, if you enlarge the picture you will be able to see all of them. Apparently if you drink 75 different types then you get your name on the 'Wall of Foam'. I was thinking of trying this, but you can only get a maximum of 6 per visit, so I would have to go there quite a lot to be able to achieve this before I leave.

After the Beer Hunter we headed off to a different Karaoke bar. You have to be over 25, and I was so proud when they asked me for ID! It was so funny and I have not laughed so much in such a long time. They take it really seriously. When a person is up singing, you often get people who just get up on the dance for and dance round them. My colleague got up and sang, and then all of a sudden a man got up and joined in. Very bizarre! The funniest part was when about 10 Mexican women got up and sang the Pussy Cat Dolls. I just couldn't hold my laughter in at all the grinding!!!

So along with the ducks, I have now seen rabbits, bats, and also have hummingbirds in my garden. Unfortunately the bat proved to be a bit camera shy, so you only have a picture of the hummingbird.

As I have found that some of you don't bother with the text and just look at the pictures, there are also a few more of the sunsets and palm trees.

If you want to see some more stunning pictures, then you must go to Marijn's blog. He has just been to the Whitsundays and the Great Barrier Reef. For those of you who don't read Dutch, then you might want to scroll straight down to the photos. He has also asked me to mention him as he made me realise that hummingbird is one word. You are very clever Marijn :-)

Finally an update :-)

2007-05-07T18:28:00.000-06:00

Sorry I haven’t updated this page recently, but I don’t have internet access at home yet.

This last week has been so busy. Last Monday I met up with my colleague Diana and her friend in New York. We had dinner, went up to the observation tower at the Rockefeller Centre, and then managed a few beers afterwards. The view from the observation tower was amazing as we got there just in time for sunset. In case you haven’t seen enough pictures of the New York skyline, I have added a few more at the bottom.

Tuesday morning I left the East coast and headed for La Quinta. After stopping briefly in Phoenix, I landed in Palm Springs around 2.30pm. Whilst waiting for my luggage I went outside, and the heat was amazing. It was 38C!!! I then picked up a car and drove about 30 minutes to La Quinta. My first couple of nights were in the hotel at a country club, and then thanks to a colleague, I managed to find a small house to rent for 3 months. It is now the off season as soon it will get really hot, so I managed to get the house very cheaply. The house is also on the country club, but don’t be shocked, as La Quinta doesn’t consist of much else. The house I found has a patio at the back which is right on the fairway for the 2nd hole of the Royal golf course. There are 2 ducks which always seem to be waddling around, and come up to the gate to see me :-) There are three 9 hole courses on the complex, and it is so beautiful and green. La Quinta is also stunning as it is in the valley and is surrounded by mountains. Here is the link to the country club, and I have also added a few pictures above www.indianpalms.com

My colleagues seem very nice, and I have been out drinking a couple of times with them. There is great bar called the Beer Hunter which has about 50 TV screens which just have sport on all the time. On Saturday we went there for the Mayweather v De La Hoya fight. The place was packed, but as soon as the fight was over, everyone disappeared. After that we went to a Karaoke bar. It was so nice to finally go out drinking without having to drive home.

That’s it for now, and I will try and update the blog soon.

On the move!

2007-04-26T19:29:00.000-06:00

After nearly 6 weeks in Fairfield, I will be heading off to California on Tuesday. I thought that being English that I would be used to the rain, but I have never experienced so much as here. The plan is that I go to California for around 3 months, and then come back to Fairfield, by which time it will hopefully be warmer.

This weekend will be very busy as I need to pack and I also want to go shopping for some summer clothes. On Monday I am heading into New York again to meet my colleague Diana who will be over for her birthday.

I know you all like pictures, so here is a couple of La Quinta which my colleague took. It’s going to be tough!!!

OFFICE CAR PARK

Can you tell where I went yet?

2007-04-22T19:26:00.000-06:00

This is now the 2nd day of brilliant sunshine. We’ve had so much bad weather recently that I thought the sun was never going to shine.

On Saturday I went to New York again. It was very nice as I didn’t do anything I had done a couple of weeks ago. We started by walking up 5th Avenue and went into Saks and Tiffany’s and saw the Trump Tower. After that we walked through Central Park. There was a live concert going on, but I’m not sure who was playing. We carried on through to Strawberry Fields and the ‘Imagine’ plaque and then on to the Dakota, where John Lennon used to live and was murdered in 1980. After that we walked past the Rockefeller Plaza then down to the Empire State Building. The queue was unbelievable and it took about 1½ hours to get to the top. When we got there it was well worth the wait as you could see for miles.

After the Empire State Building we went over to Staten Island on the ferry. From here you get the best views of the Statue of Liberty. We were so lucky and the sun was just setting. I have some great pictures of the sunset! When we got to the other side we had about an hour wait before the ferry back, so we just set on the island looking back to the lights of downtown Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge. The view was absolutely amazing. After that was a walk through Times Square and then back home on the train. Today has been a day of rest, and a chance for my muscles to recover.

I have given you more pictures to view this time as there were so many to choose from, and I just couldn’t decide which ones to display. Don't forget to double click on them to enlarge them :-)

Month 2!!!

2007-04-19T20:13:00.000-06:00

Yes, you read that heading correctly. I have now been here for 1 month and it has gone so quickly. To celebrate, after work I went shopping :-)

The weather has started to get a bit better. It is the first day for about a week where we’ve had no rain. Apparently it is going to be around 20c this weekend. One of my colleagues is coming over tomorrow and will be here all next week working. We plan to go to New York on Saturday. She is really looking forward to it, so it looks like I will have to do all the touristy things as it is her first time over here. I will try and get some nice pictures for you all as I know that makes you happy.

Will write more over the weekend, sobriety pending!!!

Rain, rain, oh and more rain!!!

2007-04-15T17:12:00.000-06:00

There’s not really much to report from this weekend. Today I managed to miss another Formula 1 race due to no TV coverage. Instead I had to settle for watching a live lap time screen with a one line report per lap. Not very entertaining!

Today has just been constant torrential rain, high winds, and 4c temperature. One of my colleagues has gone to La Quinta to try and find somewhere to live, and told me that it was really really hot there. My Mum also informed me that she had been sunbathing in the back garden.

So I hope you are all making the most of the sunny weather in Europe. All I can say is roll on California :-)

Oh I also want to say congratulations to my old colleague Ula who got married today. Marijn, please send me some pictures soon.

Greetings to Zeeland!

2007-04-11T18:59:00.000-06:00

I have just been chatting with my friend Frank, and he thought I should mention him on my website.

It is 2.30am and he has just got in from a night out drinking. I am very jealous of this. As he pointed out to me, I should be thankful as it meant I had someone to chat to at this hour of the evening. Frank also requested I put a photo up of him. For any of you who are unsure, Frank is the one in the middle in the pink t-shirt. If any of you ladies are interested then please let me know and I will pass on his email address.

Luckily Frank doesn't have to get up in the morning for work as he is currently 'between jobs'. If any of you think you can employ Frank in anyway then again, I can pass on his email address.

Frank is also available for weddings, funerals and bar mitzvahs!

Am I too late for the tea party?

2007-04-09T20:30:00.000-06:00

First of all I have to start off with a bit of sad news. I got up at 1.30am on Saturday in the hope of watching the Formula 1 qualifying, and to my dismay it was not on. The same was true of the race on Sunday morning. You can imagine how unhappy this made me. Thankfully the rest of the weekend was much better.

Sunday I went off to Boston. It is 175 miles from where I am, which equates to about a 2.5 to 3 hour drive each way. You cover 3 states which are Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. One of my colleagues came with me which meant the journey went really quickly. Boston is one of the oldest cities in the US and is steeped with history, especially with the English. It is named after Boston in England from which several prominent colonists emigrated. Here is some interesting reading for the Historians among you http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Boston. You may also want to read about the famous tea party of 1773 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Tea_Party. Nowadays there is a very large Irish community there, which of course means lots of Irish bars J It is a beautiful city and far nicer than any other US city I have been to so far.

We started off in the Aquarium. This was really nice, although I would like to have seen more marine fish. They have a huge 150,000 gallon (567.811 litre) fish tank which stands in the middle of the aquarium. A spiral walkway goes right to the top so you can see all the fish, sharks and turtles. This is very impressive. If you double click on the pictures then you can see them in better detail.

After the aquarium we headed of to ‘Cheers’ for a beer. The bar is a lot smaller than I imagined, but I think this is because they have a souvenir shop in the middle. I sat at the end of the bar in Norm’s seat. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind though! For those of you who are a bit confused with what I am referring to, then ‘Cheers’ bar was the inspiration for a TV series which centred around a bar in Boston called ‘Cheers’. http://www.celebrateboston.com/attracts/cheersboston.htm

Finally we went on a Duck tour around the city. The ‘Duck’ is a guided tour in an amphibious vehicle which goes though the streets and then into the river. It was really good, but so cold. The temperature was about 2c, so it certainly wasn’t the time to be going in the water. Despite this is was still fun, and I would like to do it again when it is a bit warmer. http://www.bostonducktours.com/

A new addition to the female population :-)

2007-04-06T19:33:00.000-06:00

HOORAY. This week Marianne finally had her baby. Phoebe Anna was born on Wednesday 4th. That’s all the information I know for the moment, but will post a picture when I get one. I am sad that I am not there to see her, but I will have plenty of opportunity when I get back. Daniel, please send me some pictures soon. Big kisses to all of you. I am also very pleased as I won my bet with Damian :-)

This week has been quite quiet. My colleague Edwin moved into his apartment, so I got to go shopping for TV’s with him. I was very happy helping someone else spend their money.

As I haven’t got much to say for myself today, I thought I would share a couple of strange American things with you.

- They have drive though cash point (ATM) machine’s
- You can turn right on a red light (unless sign says otherwise)
- If a school bus stops and puts it’s sign out, you must stop regardless of what side of the street you are on

I’m sure there are plenty more, but that’s all I can think of at the moment.

I’m going to finish now as I want to be up at 1.30am to watch the F1 qualifying. I’m not even sure I can watch it on the internet, but I found some forum where they said you can watch it on Chinese TV. Unfortunately I cannot read the TV guide, but I will try my luck and hope that they are showing it. If not then I will just have to watch the live timing screen and pretend I am watching. This is totally different than when I was in the Netherlands when I could see what was happening but not understand what they were saying (ha ha).

So good they named it twice!

2007-04-02T17:33:00.000-06:00

So Saturday I headed off into the 'Big Apple'. This was my 2nd time there, but there are always new things to see and do. So for 5 hours I wandered around the city, and ended up going to exactly the same places as I had before. I went to Madison Square Gardens to see if there were any basketball matches going on, but unfortunately there was only a circus. The prospect of sitting with thousands of kids who had obviously over-dosed on Haribo's and fizzy drinks really didn't appeal to me, so I headed down to Battery Park. There were some street dancers there who were absolutely amazing. I'm just sorry I didn't get any pictures.

Later I headed back to 42nd street (Broadway) for dinner. I was hoping to see a show but the tickets are around $125. I did however manage to get tickets to the 'Laugh Factory' on the corner of 42nd and 8th, and saw some really great comedians. The tickets are usually $20 but there was a man on the street corner selling them for $10. If any of you are in New York at any time, then I would highly recommend it.

The rest of the weekend was very quiet.

I just want to say hello to my colleagues in the European offices. It looks like you had a great time and the company 'Blender'. I am really looking forward to hearing all the gossip!

Lazing on a sunny afternoon!!!

2007-03-28T17:15:00.000-06:00

We had another beautiful sunny day today, which wouldn't have been complete without a trip to the beach at lunchtime. We are so lucky as it is only a 5 minute drive from the office. Unfortunately I couldn't share my lunch with all of you, so I hope these couple of pictures will go some way towards making you feel part of the experience :-)

My sister has raised a few questions that up until now, I don't think I have answered, so here you go Nicky:

There was snow to start with and it was 18c yesterday. Nearly all the snow has cleared now, although there are a few snow mounds by the roadside where the snowploughs swept the snow after it first fell. Today I went to the supermarket and in the carpark the snow mound was taller than me. Hopefully by the weekend it will all be gone.

The people I work with are really nice. I hope to get some photos for you soon. They are planning a bowling evening tomorrow evening, which would have been an ideal photo opportunity, but I must start work at 7am on Friday so I think I will have to give it a miss.

The TV is pretty bad, although there is a bit on English news. I do miss the London news in the morning as I liked to see all the traffic jams! I get the entertainment channel which is always good viewing, and dancing with the stars has just started (same as strictly come dancing). The only problem with this is that it lasts about 3 hours because of all the commercial breaks. They also do a whole programme for the elimination which is a bit tiresome. Heather Mills (McCartney) is on it, and she is awful. The American public are really warming to her though. The only other people I think you will know are Ian Ziering who was in Beverly Hills 90210. He was the annoying one with the blond hair. There is also Billy Ray Cyrus (of Achy breaky heart fame), and Laila Ali who is the boxer and Mohammed Ali's daughter.

The place I am staying in is a long stay hotel. You have a mini kitchen which means that you can cook if you want to (apparently :-) Here is the link http://www.homesteadhotels.com/minisite/?hotelID=109, although it doesn't provide much information. It is about 12 miles from the office, but only takes about 20 minutes.

I am actually working, although I thought that no-one would be interested in the details!

Ok that's it now. I think that is enough for one entry. Will write more soon :-)

Week 2

2007-03-27T17:41:00.000-06:00

So today, we finally experienced our first real day of spring. We had a beautiful sunrise, as you can see the picture taken from my room this morning, and then the day became lovely and warm (around 18c). Lunchtime was really nice as we grabbed a sandwich and then went down to the coast at Southport. It is a beautiful area with a golf course (links) and very expensive houses. As it is still early in the year you are allowed to park at the beaches, after that it is only possible for permit holders. I think this is definitely the way to spend your lunch breaks!

Day 6

2007-03-25T13:42:00.000-06:00

I have now been moved out of the disabled room and into a more luxurious room. They didn't have any normal rooms so they gave me a free upgrade :-)

Today I went for a drive down to the coastline on Long Island Sound. It was quite cloudy, cold and deserted, but I'm sure it's nice down there in the summer. Whilst stopping to take pictures some turkeys starting walking through the carpark infront of me. They were just strutting along so carefree as if they were on their way home after a session sunbathing on the beach! It was quite scary for a moment, although I am still trying to work out whether me or the turkeys were more scared.

I've included a few more pictures as I know people prefer pictures to text, especially the less intelligent ones of you (ha ha)!!! If there are any requests for pictures then please let me know as I am getting very snapper happy at the moment :-)

Day 4

2007-03-23T21:08:00.000-06:00

They say that no news is good news. So the good news is that I have no news :-)

Edwin arranged Friday drinks this week and we went to a very nice bar near the office. I managed until about 9.30pm and then the tiredness set in. Unfortunately you have to drive everywhere in the US, so it is harder to stay awake without alcohol!!!

I am really looking forward to a lie in tomorrow. It will be the first weekend in a long time where I don't have to think about packing, moving or cleaning. After that a big shopping trip is planned to a huge outlet centre about 30 minutes away with around 150 stores. I am spending so much money that I will be poor very soon. Oh well, I may as well make the most of the opportunity.

I've now amended my blog so that you don't have to log in to add comments. I hope to see a lot more there soon ;-)

Day 2

2007-03-21T18:06:00.000-06:00

So today was my first journey into work on my own. Equiped only with my brain for navigation, and sheer bravery as my shield, I managed to tackle to US highways without incident. I was very relieved that without a map, I had managed to find the office. Unfortunately Gurtie Guzzler has now been traded in for a smaller, less greedy model. I only drove her for a day, but I had got kind of attached. My new car is a Hyundai Sonata and you will see it above. I will save my car review for a later posting :-)

Today was my colleague Warner's last day in the office. We celebrated this at lunchtime by going into Bridgeport to the BBQ restaurant. It was so nice and filling, that I think I will just stuck to the wine for dinner tonight! It wouldn't have been so bad but we also had cake in the afternoon.

I am beginning to miss my bike a bit, although I am walking far more than I used to. I went to the supermarket this evening and the length of the supermarket seems longer than my old journey to work. After 30 minutes walking backwards and forwards I left the shop with only a roll and some coleslaw. There is just so much to choose from that it becomes quite daunting.

I also found a TJ Max (same as TK Max) next to my hotel where I managed to pick up some pretty snazzy 'Guess' sunglasses for $15. So after 2 days I've come to the conclusion that wine, beer and sunglasses are cheap; food and gas guzzlers are expensive. I'm not sure if you're keeping up with my train of thought here, but I think it's steering me towards a bar and a beach somewhere :-)

I just want to say a big hello to my sisters. If your kids are so jealous of me being here then I think the only nice thing to do is to bring them out here. Angela, I'm sure you could do without the dog, and Nicky, your bathroom will last another year. Maybe you can by some cheap sunglasses in TJ Max and it will hide the colour you are so fed up with xxx

So that's it for today. I will try and have some interesting news next time I write.

My Arrival in the US

2007-03-20T20:41:00.000-06:00

Well I have finally arrived in the good ol' US of A. It is nice to finally be here after all the months of waiting. I hadn't planned to start a blog site, but after less than 24 hour here, and 36 channels of rubbish on the TV, it sort of pushes you in that direction!

So I picked up my hire car today, although I think gas guzzling SUV would be more relevant. At the liquor store today I managed to buy a 5 litre box of Californian Chablis for only $10. That is about the same price as the petrol for my return journey to work, so I think that the SUV gas got to go!!! Tomorrow I am changing it for something a bit less thirsty :-)

There was very heavy snowfall here over the weekend, and there is still snow piled up by the roadsides. I pass a couple of lakes on my way to work which look so pretty, altough I have not managed to take any pictures of these whilst driving. Instead I have taken a picture from my window which shows the carpark (I know it's not the same, but you get the idea of how much snow there was). Unfortunately despite the size of the satelite dish, I don't think they have managed to pick up the decent TV channels.

So that is it for my pitiful effort at writing today. Here you will find the pictures of the SUV (I'm standing on the wheel plate) and the carpark.

Will write more soon when I have something more interesting to say, or better pictures.