Most of the frenetic paperwork and logistical exercise of buying a house is now complete. We are now in a lull; a two-week break while the details are settled out, and we have time to collect our wits before the madness of moving our home. Luckily we are only moving about a mile and a [...]

It’s now one year (plus some time difference) since I struck out from the drizzly February green and pleasant land of Britain and went to find my fortunes in California. I didn’t find streets paved with gold, although most peoples’ wheels do appear to be paved with silver.
There’s nothing revelatory, or pictorially titillating, to add [...]

We have just (in the last half an hour) received news that the purchase offer we made on a house here has been accepted. It’s in Pasadena, about a mile and a half from here, two-bedroom, with a large garden, and just perfect for us. It’s incredibly good news; we will finally have a place [...]

My friend Ben Hughes from Woking was in Scottsdale in Arizona all last week, training at his company’s headquarters. This was too good an opportunity to miss for a catch-up and a few beers, so after work on Friday I motored down to Burbank airport, jumped on a plane to Phoenix, took a taxi to [...]

On Saturday we ventured south to San Juan Capistrano, initially for a friend’s son’s first birthday (always an event more for adults than for the one-year old), and then while we were down there we popped in to visit the old Franciscan mission around which the town was built.
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It’s half ruined, now, with [...]