*j.a.n*

Photos from SF

The ice cream at the only place with public wifi that I went to in SF.

The pool ;)

The Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cheesecake!

Heading Home

Well it looks like I'm finally heading home. I'm packed & online check in has been completed & the flights all look as if they're back to normal. 

It's been a great holiday. Very relaxing & I've definitely enjoyed the California lifestyle. Walnut Creek is perfect to ensure an active lifestyle. There are hiking trails all around Ian's house, so a walk before dinner most nights has been great. I did a fantastic guided ride across the Golden Gate Bridge and then further on to Tiburon before getting the ferry back. I can highly recommend www.blazingsaddles.com for this trip. During the second (unexpected!) week here I've been out on an 8 mile bike ride most mornings, followed by an afternoon by the pool or heading into downtown SF for a bit of retail therapy ;)

I finally managed to get round to ordering some cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory - but had to get it to go as there's no way I could eat it all in one go. As it is it took me all day yesterday to eat it & I still had a bit left for breakfast this morning ;)

There are only a couple of small things I won't miss about SF - one is the damn Mosquitos! I survived the first week with only a couple of bits which have practically gone then heading out on the bike rides have meant I've managed to pick up another 4 in the last few days :(

The second thing is the complete lack of public wifi in SF. This really surprised me. I guess I had assumed that in the land of Silicon Valley there would be hotspots all over the place. How wrong I was. The only place I managed to pick up wifi was a small ice cream shop in Sausalito. So please SF, sort it out :)

Tiny TV

Stuck in a hotel room in London for the night & just this very tiny TV to watch. I don't even have the luxury of lots of channels to offset the disappointment of finding this in the room. The viewing selection is as tiny as the TV - 5 terrestrial channels, a couple of news channels and more foreign language channels than English ones.

Thank goodness it's CSI night on five!

Sent from my iPhone

G&T

The best way to make the journey seem quicker & more comfortable ...

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View from the bus stop

Fingers crossed the bus turns up. To be honest don't care how long it takes anything is preferable to that walk to the station!

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Naughty snowman ;) on Twitpic

via twitpic.com

 

Some people have way too much time on their hands!

View from the train Birkenhead Park Station - 6th Jan 2010

Sent from my iPhone

View from the office - 5th Jan 2010

Sent from my iPhone

Snow!

Wow a bit of snow & most of the country grinds to a halt! Since about 1pm yesterday there have been no buses running between Liverpool and the Wirral. This means instead of being able to hop on ang off a bus at the end of my road I've had to make the 1 mile walk to the nearest train station. Normally that would take me about 15 mins, last night & this morning it took 30 and tonight it took me nearly 45!!

Please! Please! Please let the buses be back on tomorrow, I'm exhausted with this walking, or rather shuffling along slowly trying not to break my neck on the icy payments!! All the roads seem to be well gritted and passable, the pavements are like ice rinks in certain places. If only each person cleared the bit in front of their house (like I believe they do in countries that are able to cope with bad weather!!) it would make the walk much easier and probably quite pleasant ;)

RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE FOR XMAS No.1 #ratm4xmas See here for details http://bit.ly/inthename PLEASE RT