One for the carnivores...

Despite the fact I love cooking, there's not much fun cooking for yourself, not to mention the fact it's not particularly economical. However, I've decided that I need to start cooking again.

I was in Vons (a supermarket) this morning and noticed they had some meat reduced for quick sale. The shelf included some Tri-Tip steaks. Normal price was about $9 per lb, but with a saving for using a loyalty card - then 50% off for quick sale. So 2 and a bit lbs of steaks for $8 total. Bargain.

Tri-Tip isn't particularly well known back in Europe, but, cooked well properly, that is slowly until medium rare then left to rest for a few minutes before serving, it's fabulously tender and full of flavour.

I had about half a pound for dinner with some oven roasted potato, onion and pepper mix and just a little dollop of really good smokey barbecue sauce.

I can only imagine how good it would have been if cooked on a barbecue with some hickory or mesquite.

There's just a little meat left over for sandwiches tomorrow - that'll certainly make it a bit more economical!

Newspapers and Movies

I can't remember how many years ago it was, since I last grabbed a Saturday Guardian enabling me to spend an hour or so leafing through it and it's various supplements whilst eating a bacon sarnie the next morning.

Yesterday I was food shopping and spotted the weekend edition of the LA Times, a two inch thick bundle of semi-broadsheet newspaper with supplements and inclusions.

So a couple of bacon sarnies and a reading-fest was the order of this morning. Whilst the bacon over here isn't good, buying the leanest thick cut stuff one can find makes a reasonable substitute. The paper too, whilst not being the Guardian, is a reasonably good read, with plenty of interesting supplements.


If nothing else, it enabled me to realise how much of the movie world I have been missing out on. From todays Arts and Film section alone, I have enough "want to see" films to justify making a list (in no particular order):

1) Eastern Promises


2) In the Valley of Elah


3) Trade


4) The Kingdom


5) Into the Wild


6) The Assasination of Jesse James....


7) The Brave One


8) 3:10 to Yuma

Water from the sky, SSN, BA, DL

Rain, I believe it is called. Last night it did, the first time since early April, if I remember correctly. I really had forgotten how nice the smell of a proper storm can be. The downside, is that after so long without rain, the roads become somewhat slippery as all the spilled fuel immediately rises to the surface.

On other notes, I finally got my social security number, which is the be all, end all enabler in the US. Without one, you can't do anything at all.

I immediately went to the most local (to the office) bank, to set up an account. WaMu happens to be the closest and had me an account open inside 15 minutes, cashing my first $ salary cheque instantly. Go WaMu.

Finally, I went to the DMV to see what I had to do about my driving licence. They gave me some forms to fill in, might as well do it now, they said. So I did. Then they gave me an eye test, there and then. Both eyes were fine, left eye was fine, right eye was, well, I could read the sign, but I need to see an optician soon. Then they took my photo. Then they said "now you need to do this written exam, take this, go over 'there' come back when you're done".

Eeek. This I wasn't expecting, but it was too late, so what the heck. 36 multiple choice questions on the law and methods of safe driving. 6 wrong answers is a fail. Using the method of "read the question carefully and figure out which answers sound most ridiculous" I selected the most appropriate answer. I passed, with, I believe 35 out of 36.

GREAT! Thinks I, now to get a shiny licence. or license as they say here.

"When would you like to book your physical test?"

Whaaa?

Yes, it would appear that I have to take an actual driving test. Oh Joy. Apparently it's easy. 20 minutes of basic driving and simple maneuvers. Hmm, we'll see about that.

Paddington joins the dark side!

This really cheered me up when I saw it earlier.

Cars in the States

I realised today that so far this year, I've been in a position to drive several types of car - mostly very new (just a few thousand miles) courtesy of Avis.

Here's the roundup, in approximate chronological order:

1) Jeep Liberty



Uncomfortable, slow, basic and handled like a boat.

2) Chevy Impala



This handled like a proper car. Well, not a *proper* car, but it was reasonable for a cheap family car. It was sufficient to get us to San Francisco and back and was easy to push to it's limits on the canyon roads. Inside was horrible, low spec, cheap and nasty.

3) Mercury Montego



There was nothing good about this. Plastic seats trying to be leather, disasterous interior and handling to rival a tank.

4) Ford Mustang



Now, I have to admit, these do look kinda cool. They're much smaller than you might imagine, with seriously restricted visibility at the front, thanks to a low seat and high bonnet. The rear and sideways visibility isn't much better thanks to badly shaped and sized windows. Rear Wheel Drive was about the only redeeming feature.

5) Dodge Magnum



This one wasn't mine, but I did get a chance to drive it. Fortunately I was able to give it back very, very quickly. I can't think of a single redeeming feature.

6) Nissan Altima



I actually had two of these - a normal petrol engined one to start with, then a Hybrid version with electric and petrol engine. Nicely designed and reasonably quick with great handling. The two I had were reasonably low spec - assuming a higher spec has decent leather seats and a few toys, I could contemplate actually buying one. I was really unhappy to give the Hybrid version back yesterday, thanks to some blind woman reversing her Hummer into it.

7) Chrysler Town and Country



Aaargh. Thrifty in Chicago took a booking for a car, but didn't have any. So they "upgraded" me to a mini-van. I felt like some sort of school-run-mum. 87 cup holders were the only nice feature.


8) Dodge Charger



This is my current steed. Much bigger than it's other muscle car buddy the Ford Mustang and it looks cooler too. Otherwise, it's not quite as bad as the Dodge magnum, but, it's pretty bad. Slower than the Titanic and I have a feeling it's going to drink fuel like the Titanic too.

So, overall, the Japanese car get's my vote - I wish I could swap the charger over for another Altima, but I'd have to drive all the way to LAX and back to do that.

Travel Essentials

Two things I am recently reminded to be grateful for; ipods and noise cancelling headphones. I only have the very tiny 2nd generation ipod shuffle, so just about as simple as it gets, but what bliss to have plenty of music with no weight or bulk.

For anyone who has never tried noise cancelling headphones, good ones really are incredible. I have a pair of Sony in the ear style, again to keep the bulk down. Put them in, flick the switch and the noise of the plane becomes little more than a whisper. Start playing music and realise that you can listen at normal volumes, as opposed to excessively inflated-trying to drown everything out volumes. That has to be better for the ears, let alone the sanity.

Having landed from Europe on Sunday, I've had plenty of use, but to be unexpectedly on a plane to Chicago on Tuesday, it's blissful to not hear the two kids across the aisle who are clearly over tired and exciteable. It's blissful not only because I'm not very tolerant of the parents of such screaming infants, but because sunset at 37,000 is very transfixing. Vivid blue and fading yellowness turning into deep dark black.

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Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld

Three Quarters...

...of the way through my week back home. Although time flies too fast, it has however been fairly productive.

• All stuff to go to the US was packed and should be on the water by now.
• All stuff to go to storage was packed and is now in storage.
• The house is 99.9% empty, just a few things to collect and some stuff to throw away.
• Drinks were drunk with friends.
• Dinner was eaten with colleagues.

A reasonably large "to do" list has emerged, which needs to be converted into "next actions" ready to be actioned.

Being back in NL is great, if a little strange. I'd started to get used to how big everything in the US is. The roads, vehicles, food, drinks, buildings, everything really. It was nice to see old things again. Mother nature even sent some rain for posterity.

It's been really good to be away from work - okay, sure, I have the blackberry, but, I'm quite disciplined about my inbox these days;

• I check it when /I want to/ not every minute when a new mail arrives
• When I do look at my inbox, I action the emails - no reading and leaving for later.

The same goes for my Blackberry - I've been skimming through looking for anything that looks critical only and whilst the place did not fall down without me, yet, I see there has been some issues that I will have to attend to next week with stern consequences [sigh], but, that's /next week/ so right now, Party On.

What time is it?

So, I left at 12.15 on Saturday. 10 and a bit hours flying time later, it was 08.00 Sunday. Some napping on Sunday afternoon, then bed in the evening, and it's now 06.30 in Netherlands and 21.30 in California.

Strangely, despite all that confusion, I've been up for an hour and I feel good. Let's see how that goes over the next few days.

Flight was uneventful. KLM neither rock nor suck, but as a direct flight, they're kind of handy. It was a little cold on exiting the airport - but it was early morning. The evening saw rain - I'd forgotten about rain!

It's nice to be back in NL, nice to get hugs and associated niceness :o)