Turkey time - Thanksgiving 2007

In them old days, Thanksgiving was a celebration of the harvest. According to the history books, in 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast which is acknowledged today as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies. This harvest meal has become a symbol of cooperation and interaction between English colonists and Native Americans.

Although this feast is considered by many to the very first Thanksgiving celebration, it was actually in keeping with a long tradition of celebrating the harvest and giving thanks for a successful bounty of crops. Native American groups throughout the Americas, including the Pueblo, Cherokee, Creek and many others organized harvest festivals, ceremonial dances, and other celebrations of thanks for centuries before the arrival of Europeans in North America. The traditional menu consisted of bean soup, some form of protein (believed to be awild fowl or venison) and some basic starch (pumpkin)- there was no pecan pie or marshmallow tart or any of the new foods that have entered the thanksgiving menu..

My history of Thanksgiving:

As many of you know, we have celebrated Thanksgiving since we started business school due to the large number of American students and friends and now future husbands that we have.. Its often been a pretty international crew - the first 2003 event had Sarah and Zack, some of their friends and Andreja. I skipped that event as I was not feeling too great, but did get to eat the thanksgiving meal in the LBS dining room with Olivia Selbie and a few others. In 2004, it got a bit bigger, as we had Abby Phenix living with Flat 31, together with a german, an Indian, a Slovenian and myself, a South African. John was also at the home.. We also had another dinner with the Jarvis in Pimlico and Sarah's study group not to mention a few others...

2005 got even bigger: We had the Aussies (Sam and Aris), The Greek/Iranian/British: Alex, The Texan indian: Kaunteya (unmarried then), Jane, and a few others and in 2006, we had close to 20 people, all international with exception to Sarah, John and Zack or and yes, Jane..We ordered an organic turkey from the Ginger Pig and it came with some of its feathers.. in the UK organic also means hand plucked.. It cost us close to GBP35 but were fortunate to have been able to return it and then headed to Sainsbury's and got a "clean"turkey. Remember that amazing chocolate tart that Alex made - that has now become a tradition for our Thanksgiving.. together with corn bread, my tamarind roasted vegetables..

In 2006, we all stated what we were thankful for and what made the day special for us.. Who would have thought that this year, in 2007, so many of us would be in so many different places.. We still give thanks for having the wonderful friends and family around, even though we are so far apart..

This years, thanksgiving was shared with John's family, all of which came to SD to enjoy it with us. We still ordered an organic turkey, this one came with one less wing.. and cost us about USD50 - guess it would have been more if it had the wing, but all the feathers were plucked.. We ensured that some of the specials we had in 2006 were on the menu, but was really missing was all of you.. it was great having john's nephew and niece with us.. We missed you all and hope that we can all share Thanksgiving with each other sometime soon.

12 hours in Washington, DC

So the bright spark in me thought it would be efficient to spend the day at work and take an overnight flight from SD to DC for a meeting the next day.. This is a 5 hour flight, 35 minutes shorter than a flight from London to Kuwait, so one would assume that a first class seat would at least be partially flat… How wrong was I.. will the Open Skies Agreement allow British Airways to operate locally in the US?

I arrived into DC at around 6am, enough time for 3 hours of sleep before my meetings could start.. never again, I tell you.. and this comes from a person who would do this often heading to Kuwait and returning back to London on the overnight flight back..

One redeeming aspect was that I got to see a bit of the Autumn (Fall) leaves. What a pretty sight.. even if it was from my hotel window..

Queen Bea turns 1 (11th November 07)

Being in SF gave us the opportunity to catch up with the Jarvis’s / Jarvii, who were in town to celebrate their daughter's first birthday. We have not seen them since July so it was good to catch up. Beatrice has grown a ton and has blossomed into a wonderful child – very easy going..

As much as she may have more of Zack than Sarah in her at the moment, she is still very much a little girl, as my handbag was a star attraction with her (for 5 minutes).. So like her mom, there is a hangbag/pocketbook (as referred to by some Americans – they do have their language) interest, which I was very glad to see.

For those of you who frequented Flat 31, or hung out with us and the LBS crowd after B school, will know that getting Sarah and John in the same room is a "bad idea" - remember the Betty Crocker frost off.. well its seems that not much has changed.. they love to egg each other on.. (the first picture)

A week in San Francisco - 6 Nov - 13th Nov 07

I never used to pay heed when John used to tell me that Southern California and Northern California are like too different states. I would go one further and state that its like being in two different countries.. in the South, people are more focused on silicone investing than investing in Silicon Valley. The common outfit for going out is a Juicy Couture velvety looking tracksuit, worn by young and old, with the word “Juicy” embroidered on the back seat of the trousers.. a lovely sight..























(photo taken by strange man walking by)

It was really refreshing to fly up to San Francisco for work and then get to spend a weekend out there.. John arrived on the Friday and we did a bit of touring – more like a trip down memory lane.. Its such a beautiful city – gives Cape Town a run for its money.. and I got my own back, by reminding John that the two cities look just so similar.














Firstly, as you know when I first arrived in America (the land of the free), we had the landslide, then it was the fires, thereafter in early November, San Francisco was hit by an earthquake. On the day I arrived in SF, a major oil spill occurred in the Bay, where more than 56 000 gallons (approx. 125 000 litres) of crude oil spilled into the Bay… Talk about natural disasters.. and its merely coincidental that all of this started upon my arrival… maybe its time to head back to Europe.. you can see a bit of the oil slick on the last photo.

We spent a lot of the weekend catching up with some of John’s friends and most of it great restaurants with his dad.. The best Korean in SF is at "Brothers" in Richmond.. People queue for up to 30 minutes for a table. Its one of the few places that uses coals (very environmentally friendly – not) for its grill.. So worth the visit sooner than later, as with the emphasis on climate change, it may not be around in its current form for long.

The best Chinese – I would say Taiwanese food is at a restaurant aptly named “Taiwan”. We eat a ton here (3of us) all for a mere $35. Not bad at all.

On a Saturday evening, we caught up with Allan Ngwata (a friend of mine from London) who just happened to be in SF for work. So we picked up one night and joined up with some old friends of John to go to a restaurant called “Spork”, where food is served with a utensil (that combines a fork with a spoon = spork – only in America). Not the best food I have ever eaten but good American fare..

Time flies... so much to do, so little time to blog

Wow! I cannot believe that its been close to six weeks since I last wrote..

Its been truly hectic on my end.. work has become a bit of an overload, with my anallst taking off unpaid leave due to an accident, my scope of work expanding and the travel around the US.. Its like starting an entire new business, putting in place processes, setting criteria and developing some basic rules on how investments should be made....

anyway, enough of that, I turned 29 yesterday and it was my first birthday in souless San Diego!!! This place needs some action.. or just a revving of its motor.. 3 million people, yet so plain.. but John managed to get me a really nice birthday cake to celebrate.. It was from the only French Patisserie in SD, called Opera. It even had macaroons (the French type on it). Thanks to you all who sent me messages, texts and facebooked me.. It was really great to realise that so many of you remembered. Having a birthday in such a different time zone is wierd, as most of you are in time zones 8-9 hours away.. but thank you for thinking of me..

Now I have been up to a ton of things since Mike came to visit.. besides the worst outbreak of acne since I was 13..