Things have been great. Last Monday I met Jesse's grandma. It was her 80th birthday so his mum held this lovely dinner party at the family house in Marin. We went over in the afternoon to meet and greet her but she was out walking so Cathy shouted us to the Sausalito Art Festival - wow it was amazing, there are some really cool artists in San Francisco, very inspiring.
I've been on a few hikes recently to name a few: Mt Shasta National Park. Morgan Territory National Reserve (here we saw hundreds of funky looking squirrels and a Bobcat!!!= very cool). Um, I can't remember the name of the most recent but I can tell you that it was to a small beach cove and that there were a tonne of playful seals, huge pelicans and on the walk back to the car I spotted a wild coyote making his way up the hill.
I saw "World's Greatest Dad" with Robin Williams the other day at the Bridge theater down the road. A really good movie, but the kid actor in it is super annoying in the film. Jesse's mum shouted us a trip to the "Contemporary Jewish Museum" where we saw the "Chagall and the artists of the Russian Jewish Theater 1919-1949" exhibition. It was stunning. I had only ever heard of Chagall in art history class- never thought I would ever get the chance to view his work!!! Jesse and I were invited to a welcome home dinner for Nate at this awesome restaurant in Marin. It was so pretty we got to watch the sunset over the hills from our table and the food was spectacular! I had Gnocchi, which was a new experience but one that made an impression- it was sooooooo good! After dinner we drove back to San Francisco, played monopoly and watched the All Blacks get their butts whipped! (Whats going on with them? They really need to buck their game up!).
Anyway the day after the All Blacks defeat was San Frans famous 'Power to the Peaceful' music festival. I got to see Alanis Morassey, Sly and Robbie and Spearhead!!! Plus it was all free and full of thousands of hippies, protesters against animal cruelty, the death penalty and a big one was the call for an investigation into 9/11- apparently there was a government conspiracy and all that jazz :) - ahhhhh America is funny.
Oh oh oh I forgot the coolest news of all!! Last night Nate invited the boy and I to a Giants baseball game at AT&T stadium downtown. We think that Dan had been gifted the extra tickets from clients because oh my gosh what seats!!!! We were like a metre from the Giants dugout, three seats from the pitch! It was incredible, we were right next to the Giants players and close enough to talk to the batters as they prepared to take the base. So it was the San Francisco Giants vs the Colorado Rockies and we won 9-1. Tim Lincecum's pitching was on fire, he had 11 strike outs before being replaced around 1 and a half hours in. I got to see Pablo Sandoval, aka kung fu panda, bat and even though he didn't go as well as I have come to learn he can, it was still a real treat. Thank goodness I have had Jesse to gradually explain the rules to me over the weeks, it really paid off last night. Wow things just got intense around here...we have a mouse! Haha it is soooosmall, just a baby field mouse (hence it is impossible to catch). Jesse's solution was to pour his tea on it- just to stun it=bad idea. I tried to catchit with cheese and a plastic sieve when we cornered it in the bathroom but when it escaped and found refuge under the dishwasher Rich was finally given the go ahead to utilize the mouse trap.
I'm going to go hand out my C.V to a few places and visit the library...hopefully by the time I get back the dirty deed will be done and disposed of. How are you doing anyway...I liked the blog this week, very spiritual. I found the same 'Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance' book downstairs in the garage when I first moved in here but Peter (my room mate nicked it off me and is now fully engaged...so maybe after I will get a turn).
Thanks Samantha. More to come in the months to come I'm sure.
Speaking of Zen - the bit I just read about in Robert Pirsig's book was interesting and reminded me of something I saw in London. Pirsig is travelling with his son, Chris, and two friends - John and Sylvia. They travel over some vast prairie land and Sylvia says, "This is the hardest stuff in the world to photograph. You need a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree lens or something. You see it, and then you look down in the ground glass and it's just nothing. As soon as you put a border on it, it's gone." She goes on..."Once when I was about 10 we stopped like this by the side of the road and I used half a roll of film taking pictures. And when the pictures came back I cried. There wasn't anything there."Jacky and I were sitting in EAT by The Tower of London one day, looking out at the road (the view looked up towards the road and away from the Tower). I noticed a tour group on a double decker bus (the ones with the open top) and every single person was looking at the Tower through their camera. No one was actually looking at the Tower at all. I wondered at the time about their missed opportunity and the point of travelling to places just to look through a viewfinder. I wonder if they cried when their pictures came back and there wasn't anything there (as soon as you put a border around it - it's gone).
Peace and love - Wozza
We had fathers' day in NZ last Sunday. It was nice - I wished my dad a happy day and my children all wished me one too. I like connections like this and it only needs to be a thought doesn't it? It's really why this weblog exists - to make connections. I still love the fact that these little posts wing their way out into the big wide world.
