Some photos of the Duo - Vancouver New Year's Eve

We decided that rather than hanging out in SD for new years eve, we needed a break and off we went for a white new year's eve to Vancouver. Call it a mini-moon, it was great to see something else and experience something new. We flew into Seattle and drove north - my first US border crossing which was not at all troublesome.. actually easier than the airports.

If you want an interesting wine, cheese and charcuterie experience, you should head to Salt in the Gas Town situated in a street called Blood Alley - yes it does take some work trying to find it.. but nevertheless worth the effort. Great wines and excellent parings.. It reminded us of the restaurant we visited in Slovenia, with Andreja, the Jarvis (pre-child) and Josef P.. the same one when I got the "flu" and headed to sleep early..

We also caught up with Tim and his girlfriend Timberley. Kind of cute actually. and it was good to catch up with him and hear all about his antics - He is the Chevron coverboy and we learnt a lot about how gas is priced..

We also went to Stanley Park in the freezing cold to walk around and get some exercise and got to see all these cool totem poles. As John loves to drive, we also headed up to Whistler for a day - really pretty up there and a great setting for the Olympics in 2010..

Hope you all dig my London pimp style winter coat..

New homes in Southern California

We now have two homes and visitors are more than welcome in either abode.. one is in playa vista, 5 minutes from LAX airport but also 5 minutes away from the beach.. its a tough life... but weekends in SD were way too boring and we need a bit more city life.. jokes aside.. john is now working in LA and I work in airport lounges on most days, so having a home in LA makes tons of sense. so the very first thing I need to tell you about in LA is surfas.. (www.surfasonline.com) which started as a kitchen/restaurant supply store but now is the place for foodies.. a great cheese counter, an impressive boulangerie, and an excellent selection of spices including the great south African spice mixes that turns my cooking from average to something special.. I could spend hours in this place, but John gives me at most 30 minutes or else I may just come out with the entire store. Most importantly, I don't need to do my Waitrose shop everytime I am in the UK as this place has all the "special things" I like.. more to follow from the retro city..

Crazy People - Cutting it tight...

This refers to wedding prep-- if you have had enough of my biggest project ever, our wedding.

I know most of you will not agree with me, but when it comes to air travel, you cannot really get better than British Airways – ease of routes, frequency of flights, good airline music (note to self) and most importantly the flat bed.. Since 2005, I have flown over 60 long haul flights with this airline, to the point that some of the airline attendants recognize me on flights.. especially the London Kuwait Dubai London routes and more recently the London LAX routes. Now British Airways is truly British, you still get the cold yet polite service, weird Shepherd’s pie meal or often the “yes madam, right away madam” response, but it is the flat bed and the loyalty program that attracts me to them.

I relied on the miles I have accumulated time and time again. Holidays to India, Turkey and London (from the US) for John and I – thanks to the loyalty program and it was no different when I needed to make that short trip to South Africa for wedding preparations once in September and then again in October of 2008.

In September 2008, I needed to be in South Africa most importantly for Phares’ wedding. Phares is like a brother to me and often reminds me of the eldest brother that I had.. and there was no way I was going to miss his wedding. So I planned to spend 2 days in Cape Town prior to his wedding in Johannesburg which took place on a Saturday.

If I had planned a wedding from afar about 5 years ago, I don’t think it would have been possible without on the ground continuous help from a wedding organizer. I had some great and focused friends helping me out, and together with their help and that of the internet, I managed to finalize most of the service providers for the wedding.

Hairdressers, make-up, flowers, dresses, décor, priests, entertainment – it is amazing how many South African service providers are flaunting their services on the internet.. From what I could gather weddings is as big business in South Africa as it is in the US and more and more foreigners are getting married in the beautiful venues of South Africa, in order to make their weddings a very affordable yet unique event.. So I was not unique when I interviewed the many service providers for our wedding and many more were very willing to offer their services when they saw that I had a US phone number. The most important things to accomplish on this trip was the dress, the food tasting (John will pair wines a week before the wedding), the priests and the décor. VNL (Vrede en Lust, the venue) sent us menu lists months before the wedding as we needed to make sure that they could accommodate certain requests that we had. Firstly, its not the place of choice for multi-cultural people like John and I. We knew that this would be a challenge irrespective of region.. I am sure many a wine farm in the US would have been sceptical about us. Its not common for a South African of Indian descent to be marrying a half Latvian, half North Korean, American Boy. The wedding organizer at Vrede en Lust was skeptical of our cross culturalism and was even more surprised when she learnt that I was South African born and had only formally left the country 5 years ago – so trying to convince me to purchase Norwegian bottled water for our guests was not going to work, yet she tried anyway.

The Chef, JP (Jean Pierre) on the other hand was great. He had worked in Seoul for 2 years and was intrigued by John’s background and enjoyed the fact that this American Boy loved Karoo Lamb and biltong. He even spoke Korean, which is more than we can say for John :)

When it came to food, I wanted to ensure that we took into consideration most importantly, John’s favorites – caprese salad, carpaccio and a South African favorite karoo lamb. To ensure that the farm could accommodate the Karoo Lamb option, they needed to make sure their organic farmers could rear enough lamb by early November to have it on the table by our wedding.. so as you can see a lot of planning went into this. However there were limitations.. the chefs could not handle serving 3 options for either a main/entrée or a starter/appetizer and we had to remove a few things of the menu. We also had to convince them to flexible on the dessert menu – we wanted the Indian heritage to flow through in the food, and it took numerous tries before we could get the Indian vegetarian option right. We knew that getting them to do Indian desserts was going to be difficult so JP agreed we will get this from outside the farm.

The experience of menu sampling and food tasting was well worth it.. I wish I could do this as a job.. And after watching too many episodes of Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares (Ironic that in the US we subscribe to the BBC channels!), I think I will get good at this job.

It was at this point I decided that holding the Thanksgiving Dinner at the wedding venue would be too difficult, as all we got was the venue.. We needed to arrange for everything else to be brought from outside other than food and drink. Chairs, Tables, lighting, heaters etc had to secured from 3rd party providers. Having thanksgiving dinner would be like organizing a mini wedding, so I looked for a restaurant that this could be outsourced to.

I then met with the potential wedding cake maker – Charly’s Bakery, whom I phoned from the US – bad idea… I should also got the signal that this was not going to work out when she told me that she had a special feeling about me and because of that was willing to fit me into her schedule… at a price of course.. Charly’s Bakery is well regarded, consider them the Dior of wedding cakes in South Africa – very expensive and you often have to ask yourself what did you actually buy – superglam but not functional… More expensive when you are calling from a US mobile, and when our numbers (guest attending) started to drop (which was in mid-October), we asked for a smaller cake (from a 120 serving to 80 serving) and Charly’s said no – its not the done thing.. Now if you attended at our wedding you would have noticed that the wedding cake was nothing but small so much so, that we had an entire tier which travelled back with us to Johannesburg.

Motivated by a 2 year old.. why the AWOL?

Dear Friends and Family, Well, I had all those great expectations that given that the wedding was over, I would blog more often, but I am sad to say I failed in keeping my promise. The recession truly kicked in and with it, we have had so many things to resolve that trying to keep up, just became difficult. First and foremost, I started working really hard, not too sure if this was motivated by job insecurity (you never know these days) even though I got promoted at the start of the year.. but all in all, there is a ton lot more to do.. It also has to do with the 9 investments I know work with. I guess investments are like children, once you have them, they need nurturing and it never stops.. there's always something, and as a good friend says, its relentless.. :) Well, I am back after having completed two moves within a fortnight.. We know have home bases in LA and San Diego and I have to say that the former is a whole lot more fun.. and I will letting you know more about our experiences in the retro city. And please do come visit. The other important thing on my list of things to do, was to send our wedding thank you notes.. they have been written just not posted.. so if you dont receive one, John and I would like to thank you sincerely for making all the effort to head to South Africa for our wedding -we hope you had as amazing time as us and thank you for all your wonderful gifts.. now we just need to have you all over to enjoy the great stuff you bought us. My return has been motivated by our favorite two year old.. whose mom mentioned that Jas should update her blog and the two year old replied "Update mine!"Thanks Bea.. all we need for you to do is start reading and then you will be able to keep up with Don Don and Jas. And I am sure that reading is in your not to distant future. More to come....

Crazy People: Quick weight loss methods

We thought we were sorted when we sent out the save the date. A nice montage of photos from our backgrounds - a little bit of India, South Africa, South Korea, Latvia and the US and London, of course.. It then dawned upon us that we needed to get thin fast for this wedding and since I was getting close to no exercise with my long work hours and exhaustive travel schedule, John decided that we should go on a slow long death March. So it was off to a National Park in California - en route to Sequioa to burn off some well entrenched cellulite. John is no softie when it comes to heavy back packs and long hours in the sun. On our first day we hiked about 12 km to our overnight camp only to find a group of noisy Afrikaners (yip Saffies) as neighbours.. It was freezing cold and we did not carry sufficiently warm clothing - part of the quick calorie burning strategy that we decided to pursue.

Along the way, we came across a herd of llamas as where being used a pack-mules for a group who had been hiking for an entire month - an entire month without our creature comforts.. i dont even think that john kim would manage that.. We set up camp around 4pm and started to make dinner.. not fun.. rice-a-roni ( a new experience and unlikely to be a recurring experience in my life) does not boil well at high altitudes least of all in a tiny pot.. but we shared and enjoyed something that was warm.

Good thing i decided to at least bring along a few coffee filter and long life organic milk in small packages to make some good coffee.. and then it was off to bed.. in some super warm sleeping bags and neighbours who decided to play some type of board game that just got louder and louder.. The next morning, we got up early and since it was not the most enjoyable sleep, we decided that neither one of us was keen to spend a second night in the wild and thus began our long walk death march.. 24 km back to the car through some very very cold and windy areas (in shorts..)

All I can say is good thing we started early and even better that we brought some energy bars along and a great purification pump.. We walked fast and stopped for short food breaks.. and finally at 7pm we got to our car... the next day I could hardly walk, a few blood blisters but once we got home the next day (a comfort inn never felt that comfortable before!), my clothes felt looser and my legs felt toned..

The problem was this kind of regimen was too early in the wedding preparation process because whatever weight we lost, we slowly put it pack on by the time of the wedding.

Lunch at the Gherkin in London

The Swiss Re Building in London is a well known landmark in the City. On one of my many trips in 2008, I got to visit the Gherkin as Sarah (university friend in picture below) now works for Swiss Re and invited me to the very top for lunch.. It is 180-metres (591-foot) in height, with 40 floors. Its construction symbolised the start of a new high-rise construction boom in London.

Sarah is an actuary and works in the health dept for Swiss Re as a health consultant. She and I go back a very long way.. all the way back to our first year of university when we were both studying together. We lived together or in the same residence for three years and got up to a lot of stuff, best not divulged in any public forum. She is the mother of twins and shares the same birthday of Eva, also an old friend who has twins.. I was also her bridesmaid (as well as Eva's) and they finally met each other for the first time at our wedding this year!.

The views from the very top are pretty amazing and below is one of my favourite photos taken that day.. london bridge and the tower of London. not bad for yet another rainy day in London..

The food was good, lots of foamy reductions and the tiniest carrots I have ever seen. The cheese plate was excellent... so good that Sarah participated even though she was about 10 weeks pregnant! This time, no twins.

Crazy People: Planning a wedding from 20,000 km away

This blog posting is one of a series of ten that will describe our wedding planning and the event itself. It has been written specifically for those dear friends and family of friends who could not share the day with us... this series will be interjected by other curious and odd happenings in our lives and will always be written significantly long after the event.. enjoy!

Today is about 3 days to the year when John and I decided that we should have our wedding in South Africa. We were actually in Chicago, at a friends wedding when we decided this, not fully realising the impact on our lives (my life) for the next 11 months, such a project would create.

Well if it were not for the internet, great friends and the world's most organised bridesmaids (Nothando, Thevendrie and Eva), I don't think we could have done it. Between the decision on wedding location and actual week of wedding, I spent all of 7 days in Cape Town. The first weekend was in late January when Nothando (Notty for short) and I went to look at wedding venues. I had shortlisted 8 farms and we started early on Saturday and decided that after number 4, we settled on Vrede en Lust, a wine farm near Franschoek in the Western Cape.

After making our decision, Notty and I decided to have lunch at the restaurant in order to evaluate food. I ordered a salad and cheese plate and a bottle of wine.. the food was good, the wine crisp so we felt satisfied with our choice. Given the number of other couples who were at the farm that day, I knew I had to lock in our date as soon as possible - the weekend of Thanksgiving, which we hoped would suit all of our American friends and family.

The wedding industry, the world over (and I speak from experience), like the baby industry is not a hard sell... it is amazing how the price of a cake for a wedding is often 3x that of any other event.. its still the same cake.. so if I ever decide that I am tired of the male world of investing, it is in these two industries that I will start a business, perhaps something project management related, given how my skills have improved as a result of planning this wedding. Layer on that you are flying in from the US to plan the event and all you get to hear is the upsell.. "Madam, you should go with the Norwegian water for your guests as local bottled water is not very good! " You would be amazed to hear some of the lines I heard..

Not to mention when Sarah Jarvis and I decided to head to Nordstrom on a Saturday morning to look at wedding dresses. Dressed in our jeans and not looking at all as if we were big spenders or on a big budget, we were first told that we had to make a booking. Then through Sarah's smooth talking, the salesperson decided to let us try on a few dresses - starting price $4,000 - for a dress.. The salesperson then began contacting me on a fortnightly basis, sending me little notes and invites to events as I guess selling one wedding dress is as good as probably two months on the floor in any other department.. Sarah, she is still calling me..

Back in the US, 3 days after my first time in SA, John and I put down the first deposit on the farm. We felt that we were done for now.. All we needed to do was send out a "Save the date" and we could put our legs up and relax a bit... yeah but not for too long..

Welcoming change in the US

Finally after 21 months of hard work, Barack Obama has won the US president election. I have been folllowing the election with earnest, got John to buy me a few Obama shirts and in the last fortnight started wearing them in the rather republican suburb that we live in.. I dont think I won any friends doing this but frankly I did not care.

I am really proud to be in the USA on this very historic day. Obama deserved to win- it was one of the best run campaigns in a long time.. no infighting and definitely no issues on the cost of Michelle's clothing and definitely no questions about corruption charges etc.. (Take note JZ in South Africa and Sarah P).

I signed up on Obama's website in January of this year and even though I could not donate, I followed his ground up campaign with great interest. America needs a person like Obama, just like how South Africa needed Mandela in power in the 1990's. This man is capable of effecting change.. and at this point in time the US truly needs help...

Well done Obama.. here's to the next four years. And I am finally proud to be living in America.

Jane & Paolo's Wedding in Pantelleria

Wedding season arrived upon us in 2008 and kick off the season of weddings, we heading to the tiny island of Pantelleria for the wedding of jane and paolo. Let me tell you it took us a very very long time to get there, all as a result of a delay at Heathrow Terminal 3 - we ended up spending 2 hours on the runway, which then resulted in us missing our connection to palermo.

As a result we landed in munich, only to take a train to stuttgart to get another flight to palermo the following day. so unintentionally we saw a bit of Germany along the way and in one day flew from stuttgart to palermo to pantelleria and where we so glad when we finally arrived and to be greeted by paolo's dad..



















The night before the wedding we had dinner at Casa Roncaglia, Paolo's family home on the island. what a beautiful place and the view from the house even better.



















Jane looked stunning in her grecian dress and the speeches by the parents and by each other were very moving. Paolo's mom's speech was truly heart warming and there was many a person in the crowd that needed a Kleenex. The wedding celebrations took place at Hotel Mursia (more of this in my next blog.. need to go cook dinner).

Old Friends in London

So finally, I took 4 days off and heading on vacation. 4 days is 27% of my total annual leave days - can you believe that.. give me higher taxes, more holidays, free healthcare (even if its the NHS) anyday!!!!

We kicked off our vacation over the July 4th - Independence Day weekend here in the USA en route to Jane and Paolo's wedding (next blog posting) and flew to London first for a night over to catch up with old friends. We managed to spend the evening with Alex, Kaunteya, Taira and Mike. Mike arranged tickets (actually our own box) to watch George Benson. The golden oldie was excellent and brought back many childhood memories. sadly Mike had to work and could only join us for dinner.. Indian food of course as this is London's speciality. It was really good to be back in London and chill out with some friends.

I enjoy the oddities and anonymity of London - the ability to be a "bag person" or trolley person in the case and hang out where ever you want for the day and not be bothered.. Well in London, you have to be a relatively rich bag person!!! (with a good umbrella).

We also made it Laduree to sample some Parisian macaroons and proper cappacino and criossants for breakfast... all in all our 18 hour stop over was well spent and thoroughly enjoyed..

The Red Hat Ladies....companionship in America...

During our trip round San Diego with the Jarvis, we came across a group of women who are part of the Red Hat society.. Thy had decided to head down to San Diego for a day trip and we picked them up in Old Town (the so called Spanish old town when the Spanish first set up shop in San Diego).

It started in 2001 when a woman called Sue Ellen Cooper decided to buy herself a red fedora hat. She then read a poem called Warning and related to the poem so much that she decided to buy a deep purple dress as outlined in the poem. She then bought a few friends red hats and over time women in the fifties wearing red hats grew in number. This is what the founder has to say:

"The Red Hat Society began as a result of a few women deciding to greet middle age with verve, humor and elan. We believe silliness is the comedy relief of life, and since we are all in it together, we might as well join red-gloved hands and go for the gusto together. Underneath the frivolity, we share a bond of affection, forged by common life experiences and a genuine enthusiasm for wherever life takes us next."

- Sue Ellen Cooper, Queen Mother

Given that life is constrained by rules, the Red Hat Society does not have any rules.. in fact it forbids them.. The rule it does have however is that if you are under 50 and want to join in, you have to wear a pink hat until you read your birthday (50) at which point you can don the red hats and purple outfits... Versace take a tip or two, there is a whole new market you can target..

Nothing like some unknown tidbits for you to start your day....

Queen Bea arrives in San Deigo

We have a new fan or should I say that Don Don (John) has a new fan and an ever growing ego. Queen Bea came to visit and it
wonderful to have her company (and that of her parents) for the weekend..

We ate lots, went to places (old favorites - Tartine and new discoveries -missions) and got to hang out with Queen Bea. She is getting so cute and turning from a baby that still clutches onto my breast to one that has developed an excellent method of ordering Don Don around to the point that he does whatever she says - I wish I could do that.. Now Bea all you need to learn by the next visit is "Don Don, clean up please" and "Don Don, computer games are a time suck"

Thanks to the Jarvis we headed out to visit our first mission and this mission is the first mission built north of the Border. Known as San Diego De Alcala, it was founded on July 16th, 1769 and is located in area that is now aptly referred to as Mission Valley - to fellow San Diegans, note that this not just the place where the shopping mall is!!


As you can see Beatrice and John hung out alot. He taught her how to play computer games, stick her fingers in her nose, wear his shoes, and she taught him her game of "Don, sit"


These two had a lot of fun together. I have no idea what makes John so interesting... it must be all the toys that he has... We both still mimic BiBi's (as she refers to herself) facial expressions when she says no... and hot... What is also great to see is the heathly appetite that Beatrice has. She loves fruit and vegetables and olives and blueberries... she is so easy to cook for..

Sarah and I did manage to sneak out for a bit on the Saturday to head to Nordstroms to check our wedding dresses. Sarah is great at convincing old saleswomen to allow us to try on dresses without an appointment.. We did try on a few and I realised that I need to lose all the weight I have put on (6kg as of today) since arriving in the US in order to look remotely decent in one of these dresses... liposuction and spanx here we come!

Brett & Amira come to Visit

At least a month ago (my blogging is abysmal), we had Brett & Amira Clarence visit us. Brett and I know each other from UCT - from the days of Smuts Hall and Fuller Hall - student residences on Upper Campus. Brett married Amira about 2 years ago - they live in Atlanta and Amira is from Khazakstan... see I am not the only South African who ventured out to super sized America.

I missed Brett's wedding and I was super glad to hear that he was heading over to California to travel on vacation and enjoy Yosemite and the beautiful coastline that California has to offer. The last time I saw Brett was in London when he was over for business and this was my first meeting of his wife, so I was super excited. We took them around and our first stop was Torrey Pines Nature Reserve.. Below is the view from Highway 101 as we approach Torrey Pines. I use this as a good advertisement to get all our friends to come visit us.. The nature beuaty on this end of the world is enticing.. andwe have summer all year round - really we do...

Torrey Pines at this point in time was a busy spot as the US Open (Golf) was starting within a week and there were many tourists who had already arrived. Trying to spot Mr Woods however was more difficult than trying to sight a tiger in the Indian Jungle. (very corny, I know)

We did however manage to get a photo of the four of us, thanks to modern technology. Brett, I will be sending you and Amira some photos in the mail shortly. It was good to spend the weekend catching up with old friends, discussing the election (note only one of us has the right to vote in this crowd) and getting updates about old friends. As part of parcel of our tourist routine, I did take them to La Jolla on the Sunday..

Now we all know that Brett (especially the UCT crowd) that Brett tends to be the crazy one amongst us. so he dons a pair of swimming trunks and heads down to swim from La Jolla Cove to La Jolla Shores, in freezing water, after having swum for an hour in the PAC pool... Thankfully Amira is the sane one and hung out with me reading the newspaper and catching up on our past lifes.

We hope you guys come again... soon!!!

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..