A few weekends back — before it became cold and wet — we had a wicked day playing frisbee in the park. Tessa had her camera and took some cool photos, here’s one I like of me :)
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14 December 2005
There have been a few of us with birthdays recently and Monday saw my first as a resident of the United States. My birthday began as Aaron’s ended and a bunch of us celebrated the switch with tequila and pints of Stella at a "dive bar" in the Mission District. Things went down hill rapidly and we all crawled into work on Monday nursing hangovers.
Apart from not celebrating birthdays on a week night here are some things I want to do/achieve next year:
- Travel to Hawaii
- Get a good first aid qualification
- Firmly find my feet at Google and find a super-cool project where I can really make an impact
- Learn to sky-dive when Laura visits
- Spend a weekend in Las Vegas
- Visit JJ et al. in Canada
- Drive down the Californian coast
- Climb in Yosemite
I’m just not sure when I’ll find time for it all. For now I will be busily working, and my family is coming to visit within a week for Christmas and New Year, so I will be spending time with them and exploring California a little more.
Like, totally
6 December 2005
I’m pretty certain my accent hasn’t changed, but even my internal monologues are featuring the words "like" and "totally" way more than they should! Dagnamit.
Six weeks in
4 December 2005
It is crazy to think I’ve been here 6 weeks already! Time is flying. It doesn’t seem long ago that it was summer and I was diving in the Caribbean.
Last Friday night was the Google Holiday Party. It was pretty nuts. Hosted in a huge warehouse on a pier in downtown SF, the theme was Google Air. When we arrived we passed through a pseudo-check-in system, guided by "stewardesses", then once inside we had access to a number of huge rooms. Each room represented a different location; there was Bombay’s Bazaar, Google McDougal’s Irish Pub, Tokyo’s Bento Box, Plaza do Brazil, and (my favourite of course) London’s Underground. Each room had its own food, music, activities and decorations pertaining to the theme. So Ireland had ham sandwiches and real chips (not fries), pool and darts. Japan had sushi and karaoke. London Underground was a dance club in "Baker Station", etc. etc. It was pretty damn cool. It finished at 12 then we went to an after party. I got back around 3 in morning, but then was woken at 7 by pneumatic drills outside my window — headache!
This is my first proper weekend in my apartment, it’s a hell of a relief to have found somewhere to live and to be settling in properly. The next month proves to be very busy in and out of work. I’m not going to mention the work reasons, but outside there are a whole host of parties (my roommate Amy and I are having "Cocktails at Sunset" on our roof) and my family are coming over for Christmas. We have a condo booked on the banks of Lake Tahoe, which should be amazing.
Right, I’m off to climb Twin Peaks and watch the sun set.
