Santa Barbara - a weekend with the Jarvis

(Sarah and John trading junk food secrets)

Finally, we got our act together and headed out to Santa Barbara to see Zack, Sarah and Queen Bea.. It was truly wonderful to hang out with good old friends for the weekend.. We left on a Friday evening around 8pm and arrived in Santa Barbara around 11.30pm -which included an hour stop to buy some wine and flowers and eat some good Indian at a decent Indian restaurant in West Hollywood, next to the WholeFoods, where said flowers and wine were purchased.. As you can see we try to eat Indian food outside San Diego whenever we get the opportunity.

The Jarvis live in a beautiful part of California..It reminded me of Spain, as you head from Malaga to Grenada and from Bilbao to San Sebastian.. Santa Barbara has excellent olive oils - more impressive than the wines that come from the region. We toured a few wine areas, but my highlight was hanging out with Queen Bea, who is getting more interactive by the day. It was the weekend of Cinco de Mayo, which is a Mexican celebration of the Mexican victory over French forces. The date is now observed as a celebration of Mexican heritage and pride.. The above photo of the Jarvis family was taken at the Longoria wine store in Los Olivos - one of the small towns we visited on our wine routing expedition.

As you can see John has a new fan.. all blond little girls like John.. dont ask me why, but even Lara of the Lara/Nina Gush twin duo likes to hang with the John.. They must be attracted to the Latvian heritage that John has..

You have to love this photo of Beatrice.. so determined on carrying this big rock... soon Queen Bea, pretty soon. We hope that they do come visit us in San Diego pretty soon..

My first Baseball Game

A few weeks ago some friends of John where in San Diego for a conference - this town is the conference capital of California.. The big plus is that we get to see more friends this way and it actually got us to finally head to a baseball game..

In South Africa non-white schools during apartheid (which is when I grew up), we had 4 sports that we could play in our weekly 90 minutes of physical education per week - netball which was compulsory (and where I broke the fingers on my left hand when Margie tackled me); athletics; softball (as girls were not allowed to play cricket) and volleyball (you played if you wanted to meet tall Indian men!!). So for me going to a baseball game reminded me of those days when we would spend 45 minutes out of class (usually around midday) under the hot, boiling South African sun...bliss!

Baseball is similar to cricket only less complicated. More innings and much easier to get out - strikes and you are out.. The games was between the Padres (local SD team) and the Dodgers (LA Team). It was a 3 day match weekend (think if it as 3 one-day matches taking place consecutively over a weekend).

By the 6th innings (an innings ends when someone is out), I was bored.. but amazed at the same time by how much people spend (and eat!!!) on an outing to a game.. This is serious business with drinks costing north of $7 each and a hotdog close to $10. Not to mention the baseball caps, shirts, banners and calendars that are all up for sale.. Top tier entry tickets at $65 each.

The US is definitely a consumption driven nation, more so than any other country I have lived and worked in - well maybe not as bad as Kuwait as there is nothing else to do there than to shop and eat.

Will I go to a game again? Probably not.. Have I ever been to a cricket game? yes, but the last one was the world cup in South Africa in 2003, when India played against South Africa... which is always an exciting game to watch..

I did enjoy the mascot though and the impressive stadium that we were in.. If only the city of San Diego would invest the same amount of capital (estimated to be $500mn) on its roads..