June 2005 update

Hello dear readers,

It's that time of the month again....it's time to regale everyone with tales from the land of mullets, chevy trucks and crap reality shows.
Speaking of reality shows, there's a new one out called "Fix my hubby" - no it doesn't involve two bricks being smashed together.... it involves total strangers lighting a proverbial firecracker under your husband - what a concept !!

Our month started with absolutely nothing happening, we had lots of rain (an anomaly for this time of year apparently), so we stayed at home and caught up on housework, something that's become a regular duty now that we are both working again - how boring !

Our first bit of excitement for the month came on the 20th of May when we went to a San Francisco Giants vs Oakland A's baseball game at SBC Park. A friend from Manu's work arranged the tickets and a group of 10 or so people went along. The game resulted in a loss for San Francisco unfortunately, but we had fun as the crowd was quite vocal and happy (up until SF started losing). We sang 'take me out to the ball game' during the 7th inning and learnt alot about the rules of the game. For instance, did you know that games can continue past the 9th inning if it has resulted in a draw? Games generally take about 2 hours, but they can last several more hours if the two teams can't break a tie... well there you go.

Our next outing was the Kaboom festival in downtown SF hosted by a local radio station called KFOG. It started at 4pm and featured The John Butler Trio and The Wallflowers. We turned up at 6:30pm in time to hear the last song from the John Butler Trio then put down a blanket and settled into some beers. It was pretty much standing room only by the time we got there, so we were lucky to find a spot to sit. We were told that 300,000 people turned up to the event the year before and it sure seemed busy this year. The highlight of the night was some amazing fireworks which lasted a good 20-30 minutes. One thing that was really impressive was the cups they served the beer in. They were made of cornstarch and looked exactly like a normal plastic cup, except they were 100% biodegradable - very sensible and very SF - peace love and mungbeans baby! http://www.kfog.com/Events/kaboom/2005/default.asp

Anita's work sent her to Hattiesburg, Mississippi on the 24th of May. Hattiesburg itself wasn't too exciting as it is quite a small town in the middle of Louisiana, but a 2 hour drive away was New Orleans, so Anita and a work mate went down there to do half a days sightseeing at the end of the business trip. Anita walked through Bourbon Street (an amazingly vibrant street in the party area of the city), saw Jackson Square in the French Quarter and took a steamboat ride on the Mississippi River. She fell in love with the southern accents and would love to go back sometime next year (during Mardi Gras season) to do an airboat swamp ride and check out some of the plantations in that region - definitely worth a revisit.

Meanwhile back in SF Manu was working hard on another proposal and awaiting word on yet another project. Just before Anita returned from her trip away he got word that he had been assigned to a Project Managers role with a company called Agilent in Santa Clara (about 1 hours drive out of SF). The role is for 6 months managing approx 100 outsourced staff members in India and Canada. He is now commuting to Santa Clara by bus, train and shuttle which takes him about 2 hours (one way) every day, so we are discussing whether we should move or buy a car to make the trip a bit more manageable.

Just as Manu started his job our good friends Vanessa and Nic arrived from Santorini. They had been in Greece for a friends wedding and decided to make the trip over to our neck of the woods on their way home. They stayed with us for a week and saw the sights of San Francisco, then on the weekend we all went to Monterey (near Santa Cruz) to check out the area and see the Aquarium which was meant to be world class. The aquarium certainly lived up to it's reputation, it was fantastic and we spent a good 4 hours on Sunday seeing most of the exhibits.
http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/

American lessons learnt:
- New Orleans is smelly !! Anita equates it to the day after a party - a sun baked mixture of beer, urine and dirt
- You don't need public loos in New Orleans - you just go on the street ! while walking through the streets of New Orleans Anita was surprised to come across a woman had dropped her knickers and was urinating beside a mail box (in broad daylight)
- Even when it looks like a gorgeous sunny day in San Francisco you always take a warm jersey or coat as the weather can turn on you

That's all from us for now, till next time dear readers....

Love and big Manu hugs
Manu & Anita