It's all about NINE

This weekend marked my 9 month living in the USA. how quickly time has flown.. Well, in the past nine months, I have put on 18 pounds (8.1kgs)(9*2), devalued my earnings by close to 9% (dollar depreciation against the GBP combined with increasing inflation). I have been declined 9 times for some form of bank or credit card due to no credit history and taken 27 (9*3)flights out of San Diego airport to some other part of the US, Europe or Brazil. On the bright side of things, I have made nine investments in the renewable energy space, ranging from solar to ethanol (the non-food type), had nine visitors come to San Diego including Michael B, Brett, Markus and Sarah, discovered 18 new places to take visitors too and spent close to 27 days not in America.. Within the USA, I have been nine new places - Death Valley, Mammoth Mountain, Santa Barbara - CA, Spokane - WA, Seattle - WA, Daly City - CA, Broomfield- CO, Miami - FL and Dallas, -TX. I spend on average 90 minutes a day surfing the internet for international news (things are very localised in the US) - thank God for the BBC and following the elections.. its like reality TV on steriods.. I have not enjoyed living here. I still miss London terribly but more importantly, I have realised how good we have it outside the US - from access to the international world, friends & family, affordable healthcare, liberal views of women in the workplace and good cuisine.. America is not the land of opportunity anymore, it is now a land in full recession.. However, I believe in the promise of hope and "change we can believe in".. and as a result, I look forward to what the next few months will bring (including a reduction in body size....:) ).

Happy Birthday Madiba!

To turn 90 is a feat in itself but to have lived the life of Nelson Mandela and turn 90, is definitely worth paying tribute too. for those of you not in the know, the person responsible for changing South Africa will turn 90 on July 18th. To kick of this event, a celebration with other dignatories was held in his honor in London. This was followed by a concert in Hyde Park to raise funds for his charity "46664" - his AIDS charity. 46664 is the number that Mandela wore on his shirt while in prison on Robben Island.

Nelson Manadela should always be honored - what he has done for my country, has not been matched by any other African or third world developing nation. Its just a pity that those that have tried to continue his legacy have done such a poor job.

In 1994, Mandela was freed from prison after 27 years. He was elected president in South Africa's first multiracial elections in 1994, ushering in an era of optimism and reconciliation after years of international isolation and internal brutality. I clearly remember the mood in South Africa at the time of of the elections. There were those that bought 100's of cans of canned food, candles and batteries, thinking that civil war would take place at the end of aparthied and there were those that partied in the street.

On the night of the 26th of April 1994, friends of mine at the University of Cape Town ushered in the new South Africa with a party with an old/new south africa theme.. After a good dinner at one of our friedns homes, we all drove to the Parlimentary Buildings in Cape Town and waited to count down the minutes to enter the new South Africa. Some of us were interviewed by CNN - we were one of few multi-racial groups - we were all filled with a deep sense of optimism.. for a country that was isolated from the rest of the world for close to 30 years.

I am glad that Mandela was honored in London. The outdoor show in London's Hyde Park, hosted by actor Will Smith comes 20 years after a 70th birthday concert at London's Wembley Stadium helped press South Africa's apartheid authorities for his freedom.

Happy birthday Madiba, I wish we could still have you as President of South Africa - if only we could have someone like you lead our country into the first world, help alleviate the deepening racial tension and narrow the gap between the haves and have nots.

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..

Views of San Diego from Coronado Island

Spring is in the air (not that San Diego actually experienced winter),so it was time to go out and experience a different past of San Diego - much needed given that we live in North County which is very agrestic (like the community in the comedy called Weeds, where all the homes look the same and everything is very cookie cutter.)














The view from Coronado Island of San Diego downtown is rather impressive and definitely gives one the feeling that we do live in a large city. It is a large city, with 3 million people, however the city is very spread out, especially compared to London.
















I guess that over time we will get used to this sprawling town and its many little enclaves that make it unique and attracts a ton of tourists over the summer, which seems to have started about now..

Last night we decided to head downtown and experience the city life for a change. It was good outing, new york style pizza, old cinemas and lots of 20-somethings waiting for hours to get into the trendy Ivy bar where drinks start at $20.

I had a good laugh when I saw some girls out on a hen's night (kitchen tea, bridal shower, bachelorette party) dressed up very similar to the ladettes in Blackpool, out for a night on the town.. jean's sprayed on with muffin tops and all.. I may be very far from the UK but some things seem to be just the same the world over..

Death Valley...

So a fortnight ago, John adamant to get out of SD for the weekend, decided that we should head out to Death Valley, a national park about 5 hours away from San Deigo.



















Death Valley is a rather descriptive name for this place. There is not much to see other than super dry, barren land, large expanses of it.. The highlight is the fact that this place is considered to be the driest place in America. It also has the lowest elevationm 86m below sea level.
It also has salt pans. According to all the reports on this place, a few million years ago there was an inland sea in this place but as the are turned to desert, it evaorated into salt.



















These views above are probably the most dramatic in the park. Other than that there is not much else to see. Even the rumours about wild flowers coming into bloom was not as amazing a sight as we though it would be.

But we came, we saw and left..

Airports!!!!!

Its midnight, and I am stuck in an airport again.. Give me Heathrow (yes Heathrow with those nice BA or Virgin business lounges) any day over the not so great comforts of the airports of America.. where even first class domestic does not guarantee club lounge access. Can you believe that??? My flight is 4 hours delayed..and will only leave at 1.40am this morning to San Diego from San Francisco. I am en route from a red eye (overnight flight to the east coast sans my flat bed) to Jersey where I had a series of investment meetings and then returned back 12 hours later via SFO. never again... but it will happen again.. because San Diego is what Manchestor is to London (thankfully prettier) but one of those cities that is not just large enough to generate demand for direct flights.. Virgin has finally launched VirginAmerica (thank you Richard!!) and as soon as they start their direct flights from San Diego to the east coast, it will become my next best travel friend.. for a service oriented country, its hard to believe that Americans sacrifice the comforts of travel.. its time to take a leaf out of virgin's or british airways book and realise that service does matter and people are willing to pay that little extra to be treated like humans rather than cattle.