Finally...

It's now 06:09 in the morning, and I'm catching up on yesterday's blog. Had lunch at a Cambodian restaurant during the day with the department, and had chicken curry and a little bit of catfish.

Went to the Great Mall after work with Prasad and Manjula. Suprised that "the biggest mall in bla bla bla whatever" was only on one floor - just a big bungalow really. Wandered round never-ending clothes shops with them, and bought some replacement sunglasses for £1.50 for the ones I've lost on this trip. Had lamb curry. It couldn't be chicken curry again - I like to have a balanced diet.

Just had my final night in the hotel. I couldn't check in online last night as the system was down for maintenance, but I've finally managed to do it now - though I still haven't fathomed out how to print the boarding pass, because the Print Boarding Pass button doesn't work.

See you all soon!

Review time

Didn't do very well with my lift-sharing today. Prasad was not out of bed when I went to pick him and his manager up at 8.30am - he said would take a taxi later, so I just took his manager to work. And I didn't see/hear from them on the way back this evening (I wasn't online at the usual going home time, but they know where I am) so I assume they caught a taxi!

My colleagues seemed generally happy with my weekend's work, but have come up with a variety of changes. I have to do a detailed video and a summary video - and I thought I was doing the summary video, but it seems they think it has enough detail to be the detailed video. So overall I think that makes less work than I anticipated, which is good.

Last full day in the office tomorrow... hooray - nearly time to go home! (Though I might miss the weather, which has been warm and sunny and mostly not too hot, every day).

A morning off

Well, I didn't notice the disco whilst dropping off to sleep last night. The morning started early with a call from Sarah at 4:15am to wish me a good morning, thinking it was 8:15. It then started again when the hotel alarm clock had been set (not by me) for 5:30am. It started for real when my own alarm went off at 6am. Trying to get up early and go to bed early so I'm not so far out of the UK timezone for when I return.

I took the morning off today, and decided to see what the churches in the area were like. I went to the Family Community Church (FCC) - which was very big. The "pastor" mentioned it was half a mile if you walked all the way round. The church had about 40 seats across and 17 seats from front to back, and there were two huge TVs at the front, with a video operator down each side, as well as a stage which was lit in many different colors. The place was about two thirds full for their 9am service, and there was another service at 11am. The style reminded me of CBC Church in Chelmsford - not least because the sermon was on giving! The service was in two halves - loud worship music first, and a talk in the second half. (You might be able to listen to it here though it didn't work for me). It was a lot more happy-clappy than CBC - but not as much as I had been expecting. I'd go again but would look for an alternative first!

This afternoon, I went into work (where they have microwave ovens for dinner) and finished off the first half of the video I've been creating. I think it's not too bad - but I will see what the rest of them think about it tomorrow!

Out for a drive

There is a wedding going on in the hotel tonight - and as my room is directly above the disco, the floor and all the furniture is currently vibrating about once a second.

Had a fairly productive day today. The room I've been working in all week has been very cold, as the air conditioning is over-excitable. But today, the air conditioning was off, so it was very hot instead. So I spent the morning in the room, early afternoon outside on the bench under an umbrella until my battery went flat (well, the laptop's battery) and then I found that the air conditioning was on in the reception area, so I worked in there for the rest of the afternoon. The canteen was shut at lunch, but I was Lucky-ly prepared with food.

When I left work, I went for a short drive. The landscape of the area is quite interesting - there are quite a few hills around - but there are either quite steep hills, or no hills. It's how I'd imagine the landscape to be if I was very small and driving around a baking tray full of funny shaped meringues. I was a bit surprised to find fairly small roads (though still easily wide enough for two cars) and lots of steep hair-pin bends. (Click here and "drive" along the road using the arrow keys on your keyboard - only the last bit of the hill has been mapped, most of the bends were further up). I stopped by a lake in Metcalf Park on the way back briefly and went for a short walk in the sun.

Well, that's it for now, I think I'll go to sleep on all 4 pillows to absorb the vibrations.

Pillow Fright anyone?

I returned to my hotel room, after a day in which I finished collecting the raw materials for the video that I will start putting together tomorrow, I saw that a card had been placed on my bed. It said "Welcome", which was nice - if just a few days late. I also noticed that instead of the usual 5 pillows, they had just left 4, which I think should be enough for even the hardest-headed sleeper. But if I had felt deprived, I could take comfort from my Welcome card:

It read "I've taken special care to prepare your room..." etc. "We now offer a Pillow Menu (tm) program (see reverse side) designed just for you." For me? I see now why it took a few days to produce this card. "If one of these other pillow types will help you enjoy a more restful sleep, just call Guest Services. We'll be happy to bring your choice right up." On the back, there is a choice of Firm Synthetic pillow for people who sleep on their side; Medium Down pillow for back or stomach sleepers; Firm Down for sleepers desiring support and luxury; and U-Shaped Neck pillow for those with a u-shaped neck.

Come to think about it, after a long day at the laptop, I do have a u-shaped neck. I do sleep on my side, and on my stomach, and support and luxury is good too. Ah, perhaps that's why they've given me 4 pillows? I must remember to wake up and switch pillow whenever I turnover, so that "I can enjoy a more restful sleep".

Happy Go Lucky

After work this evening I took one of my colleagues, Prasad, back to his hotel and discovered the local supermarket called Lucky, which I visited in the hope of finding potential food supplies for the weekend when the work canteen is not open. The supermarket did indeed contain food, and lots of it. I also scouted out some takeaways - if the worst comes to the worst, there is a Macdonalds just round the corner. So if I go there instead of the supermarket, I will definitely be unLucky.

I went back to the hotel, to do a bit more work, and instead put the television on. I have noticed that every other advert appears to be for one medicine or other, and all end with warnings of various length, in a voice going as fast as Sarah eating chocolate. One warning tonight seemed to go on forever "Do not use if you have diabetes, high blood level, heart disease, high sugar levels, or if you are feeling faint, claustrophobic, have sneezed, coughed or are feeling in any other way ill.... Please insult your doctor before use".

So I've just gone back to Lucky, bought some asprin, and called my doctor a fish. As all good newspapers do - if you're lacking in proper news, make some of it up. Night night.

Sunny Gym

Last time I came to this area, it was January, and there was plenty of rain. This time, you can notice the absence of rain for a while, by the fact that the sky is always blue, the hills are covered in yellow grass, and by the fact that everywhere else the grass is green and about 2 inches deep. This is courtesy of sprinklers - everywhere. Tons of sprinklers, and tons of water being sprinkled - over the too-thick-to-walk-through-so-why-bother grass, over "sidewalks" and "parking lots" and down drains.

When I got back to the hotel tonight I fancied a quick walk, so I went downstairs and first had a quick walk round the hotel ground floor- and noticed there was a gym. I had a go at the hill walking machine, and I climbed "40 floors" in 5 minutes, using 31 calories -before deciding that getting hot in a small room with no daylight did not compete with going for a real walk and seeing something for real. So I left the gym - and went for a walk from the hotel, passed lots of business units, with lots of nice grass, and lots of sprinklers.

Work

It was a very sunny and fairly warm day again. However, having got into work at 7.30am, and left at 8.30pm, there's not a lot else to say, except that dinner was cooked while-I-waited in the canteen, and while-I-waited I made a sandwich for later. We progressed some more with the story board for the video, though it took a while because the demo itself is not fully working. Tomorrow afternoon we should start recording some of the raw video - hopefully.

Stopped at the "gas" station on the way back to pick up some food.

Why am I here?

Today's mission at work was to find out what I was here to do. I wasn't brought half-way across the world for my programming skills - there are a team of people conveniently located on exactly the opposite side of the world to do that, in India, where the time zone is 12 hours different.

In fact, my job here is to create a video of the demonstration that the developers are creating - which in usual video style will be a combination of screenshots, sound track, and this time video of real people using various devices too. Initially the team asked at Hollywood, just down the road in Los Angeles, to see if there were any producers going - but unfortunately they were too expensive. So the next best thing was an IT Architect from five and a half thousand miles away. Tomorrow I will be working with Meena again, and attempting to produce the first draft of a sequence for the demonstration.

On the way to work today I managed to fill up with petrol. I decided to put in $50 (£25) worth to keep me going for the week - and ended up vitually filling the tank because the fuel is much cheaper than the UK at four hundred and something dollars a gallon.

San Fransisco Part 2

Well, I have arrived again to San Jose after a smooth flight in which the seat-belt signs only came on for a couple of bits of minor turbulance, and the food was edible, and the flight some-how managed to pass without me picking up the magazine I brought to read. I think I spent half the flight trying to send a text message from the exciting aeroplane SMS service, which failed to get through (after a message saying "message aborted" and another one saying "message successfully sent") - and the other half of the time was waiting for the system to reboot after it kept freezing.

I've picked up a car from the airport and it's an elantra. It drives ok, and so far, on the correct side of the road. As it's 8pm now here (so 4am at home) I think it's nearly time for some sleep. Night night.

Chock-a-block checking out....

Having checked out of the hotel, and wondered why Graham's room charge was $5 more expensive than mine for 3 of the nights, and the same for all the others, we left for the airport.

As we had a long wait before the plane left, we settled down in the lounge next to the gate, and started working, until we suddenly heard the last call for our plane... we avoided all the queues, as they had already entered the plane, and we were last-but-four on.

The flight was quite quick and smooth, and as the plane was very empty, I ended up with a row of 4 seats all to myself right at the back of the plane, and went to sleep.

The flight was half an hour late starting, and got to London half an hour earlier than it was due, but then had half an hour circling, so we ended up getting in on time.

Adventure over, so last blog entry till the next adventure. Thanks for reading, and "have a good day!".

Weigh too much

The excitement of the day was the fact that the lift was broken in the hotel, and we found the stairs. As you can tell, it wasn't a very exciting day, though the work we have been doing (well, mostly Graham really) is starting to look better.

In my mini-campaign against the polystyrene waste mountain caused by the canteen, I asked for a ceramic plate on which to put my sandwich at lunchtime, rather than using one from the pile of polystyrene ones. Not really a good idea, as they weigh your sandwich (bread, plate and all) at the till, rather than charge per filling. We got round the extra-heavy plate in the end using a serviette for the sandwich weigh-in.

This evening we met with Nick and his American girlfriend Marie and went to Los Gatos, which is a town with a row of shops European style - rather than just having a massive mall. We had some food in a restaurant there, and Nick entertained us with a couple of magic tricks using a coin. If I practice hard on the plane I might be able to demonstrate it by the time I reach the UK, or alternatively knock out the person next to me on the plane, which is infact Graham - as we've just checked in online - and I have got an aisle seat again which is good.

Night night.

1 work day "to go"...

American butter is white (in case you were wondering).

When Graham and I entered the restaurant today, the waiter asked for my name (as there was a few minutes wait for a table and they'd call us when ready) so I said "Brown". As often happens, they didn't understand and asked "Did you say Graham?" which co-incidentally was good enough.

However, I had my own problems understanding the lady in the canteen at work today as well. In Hursley, when you ask for your meal, they say "carrots?" "beans?" etc. and put them on your plate if you want them. Today, I asked for my sweet and sour pork, and she said "faheer?". Wondering what sort of vegetable it was that she was potentially offering me, and looking helplessly at the cabbage and potatos she had in front of her, I asked her to repeat it about 3 times. I had never heard of a faheer before. When she showed me a ceramic plate and a plastic box, I realised the Americans don't say "Eat in or take away?", but usually "For here or to go?".

At breakfast, they assume everything is not "faheer", but "to go" - so they provide polystyrene containers for everything. Graham and I put a complaint in the box a week ago that we had no choice other than to be environmentally unfriendly - but we can see the cards still if we peer into the slot in the top, so they haven't looked at them yet.

Lastly, I watered the pot plant today with half a cup of water I didn't want, and then realised it was a plastic one. oops. By the way, the day was 7/10 in the morning and 8/10 in the afternoon.

Spits and bobs

Here are the pictures from Sunday (and the others).

I reckon the morning rated about 7/10, the afternoon was 6/10. Neither of the managers were in work today, and our colleague Meena was out of the office until the afternoon, so Graham and I worked on our own in the office for a while, doing lots of bits and bobs that needed doing to our demo. We had a fairly quick walk at lunch time, but long enough to take this photo and get a few spits and spots of rain. It chucked it down the whole evening.

Also discovered a games room, so at 6.30 when we had finished working, Graham beat me at table football, air hockey and pool. We had an Italian at the Olive Garden, quite a big American chain of Italian restaurants, then came back to the hotel. Only 2 work days left...

Calling the AAA

Got up bright and reasonably early to pick up Alex who was in a hotel in San Jose - and were all set for a day of walking. Visited Fry's (an electronics shop) on the way where money was spent - but not by me.

We went to Coyote Lake and after asking the ranger how to operate the car park ticket machine, had a walk of approximately 4 miles through woodland by a lake with (apparently) mountain lions, rattle snakes, and ticks. Unfortunately or luckily, I'm not sure which, we didn't see any. We did however see the big item of the day - huge pine cones about a foot long. We also saw some eucalyptus trees, the leaves of which had got a very strong smell indeed, and some wild pigs. The scenery was very Lake Districty.

We had sandwiches on a bench (which made a nice change from going out to a restaurant) overlooking the lake. We left Coyote Lake, and visited an area a little further down the road - the entrance of the Henry Coe State Park (like a National Park) - it was closed to traffic, so we left Alex's rental car and did a half hour walk, before returning to the car - which wouldn't start.

Unfortunately the mobiles wouldn't work as we were out in the sticks, so after a bit of a walk, a phone call and a lift from a Park Ranger, Hertz sent out the AAA to come and rescue us. The battery was flat (no idea why), but he gave it a jump start, and followed us back for a few miles, then checked we could start again - which we could! So we hope Alex, who is returning to the UK on Monday, is able to start the car to get to the airport!

We got back late-ish and had food at Alex's hotel, before Graham and I drove back (in our own, working car). I will add the photos after work tomorrow. Only 3 more work days to go....

Stop, camera, action.

We met up with Alex today and took roughly this journey today. At many points, we stopped to go for a walk and / or take photos. Some of my photos are here but I think Graham or Alex will have taken better ones.

At the first stop in Skyline Ridge, we walked around a lake, going down the creek, and up the creek - then round the bend and over the hill. The views from the top of the hill were quite good - though we got even better views later.

The wiggly road we travelled on took us along the coast, and into San Francisco where we went over the Golden Gate bridge. It got a bit dark before we reached the redwood forest we had been aiming for, but as we had stopped and photographed some on the way, it wasn't a problem.

The two big items today were
- the cake portion at lunch time. It was huge. 3 of us shared a piece and there was still some left over.
- the Redwood trees. The most enormous trees ever - see photos.

Night night.

Eyes on the road

Today we achieved not-very-much. However, for the first full week, we've achieved quite a bit and are slightly ahead of schedule.

We had dinner with our American colleagues, and found the answer to two questions we had about American roads. Firstly, what the "meter on" signs meant, which we saw flashing for the first time by the side of a slip road onto the motorway, on our journey into work this morning. Apparently it's a warning that the traffic lights that "meter" cars onto the "freeway" like this (not my photo - it's in Colorado, but looks similar) are switched on. Secondly, at night, on all sorts of roads, but not every road, we had noticed a blue cat's eye every so often - slightly offset to the right of the other white ones between lanes. This is apparently a signal to the emergency services that there is a fire hydrant on the edge of the road.

Alex is meeting us at 9am tomorrow for a bit of a walk.

No iced tea

Another long day at the office.... but we did manage to find time at lunch time for a walk around the perimeter fence of the site. Apparently there was a path going into the hills - which, by the time we found it, didn't have time to take - maybe another time. The weather was sunny and warmish (unlike yesterday when we had to clear the ice off the windscreen in the morning) and the grass around the site was being cut, giving a freshly-cut grass smell.

During our stay, the Americans often seem to have had a problem understanding us - either because of the English accent, or because of the phrases we use. In the evening we went to the "Fish Market" - a restaurant which sold all sorts of fish:

Kevin: "Could I have a lemonade please?"
Waiter: "OK, one lemonade"
Graham: "And the same for me please."
Waiter: "OK, one iced tea"
Graham: "No, sorry, I said 'I'd like a lemonade too please'"
Waiter: "You want a lemonade AND an iced tea???"
Graham: "No iced tea, just a lemonade"
Waiter: "So you don't want an iced tea at all?"
....

After some time the correct order was plaiced (well salmoned and tuna'd)... and for once it was an ok size.

PS> This is a "late" blog entry as the wireless connection was down in the hotel last night- but seems to be up again this morning!

Today's combination of work and food

Having got into work at 8am, and left work at 9pm, there's not a great deal to say today - other than we went to get food at midday with Nick from a nearby Mexican, and I had one of these.

The sine curve flattened out today... I'll give it a 5/10 in the morning and 6/10 in the afternoon. Hopefully we've done lots of things which will make life easier tomorrow and through the rest of the project. We've almost stopped planning it, and nearly started doing it now!

There's another person at work from our building in the UK. He (Alex) has a book of walks for the area, so we might be tempted to try these out at the weekend.

A BIG Chuff Chart

When Adrian from Wales assesses a Duke of Edinburgh's Award expedition group, he goes through their expedition hour-by-hour asking them for their morale rating out of 10, and joins all the morale ratings together to make a graph called a Chuff Chart. If we did that for our work so far, we'd get a sine wave:

- Friday would be increasing (yup, seems like the work is possible)
- Monday would reach the high point at lunch (seem to have done quite a bit in a short time) ...
- ... and drop again towards end of day (lots of distractions in afternoon).
- Today (Tuesday) kept going down, with the low point at lunch time (reviewing what we achieved yesterday with Richard and realising a chunk needed changing) ...
- ... and finished much higher again (having achieved the changes and moved forwards again).

Went for a fairly basic "Pasta n Sauce" option at the italian restaurant this evening. Of course - much bigger than we could eat, with a salad swimming in dressing, and practically a whole loaf of free bread supplied for free, plus free refils of the lemonade. We could not even contemplate the thought of the biggest pudding you've ever seen, which we saw going across to some other tables (I can hear you asking already "Was she the one holding the tray?". How rude of you). It's an obscene waste of food, and dispite best efforts, we're having trouble finding British sized portions. Graham even mistook Meena's pear yesterday for a mango it was so big.

Radio Solent had a phone-in recently where people called in to list "items beginning with F that you could buy in a supermarket", with things like "Fine sugar" being accepted. So I've decided to list "things that are usually big in America beginning with F":
- Food portions
- Fruit
- Free bread and lemonade
- Fathers, mothers and children, their houses, and workplaces.
- Freeways, and most other roads and vehicles we've seen.
- Fish (especially when served in a restaurant).

If you think of any others, Feel Free to add them.

Work, Gas and Ketchup

We were in work before 8am munching breakfast in the canteen, ready to start a conference call at "8 thirty". It was cancelled. The rest of the day was fairly productive and concluded with a nearby steak. I may even be over 9 stone when I reach home.

I had my first experience with a "gas station" today, as we filled up the hire car. We confessed ignorance, and the lady confirmed what our colleague Nick had said - that you pay first, for the amount of "gas" you think you want - then fill up the car. I paid for (or authorised) $50 - but as the cost of petrol is about half the price of the UK, the whole tank on the Ford Focus was filled up with $36 (£18). The charge of $36 is then made to my card. This seemed very strange, but I've just realise I sort of do this in the Shell garage in Chandler's Ford when I "pay at pump".

Thanks for the comments on the blog - in response to Graham, I suppose I should mention the "hitting the 57" phrase - a technique for getting ketchup out of the bottle. I've been wondering for years about how best to get ketchup from the bottle. There is a small "57" printed in glass just below the neck of the ketchup bottle. "Hitting the 57" helps the ketchup escape. (See YouTube) It's amazing Graham. I'll rest easy now. Night.

Fishy

Heading south on Route 101, we arrived at the apparently world-famous Monteray Aquarium - just in time to see the diver feed the fish in the Kelp tank. The Aquarium has lots of jelly fish, a few otters and lots of other sea-life found in Monteray Bay. It has an enormous tank at one end which is made with the largest single glass panel in America. The fish were very well displayed - lots of nice lighting and tanks.... I'm not sure what the fish thought about it.

We stayed in the Aquarium for around 5 hours. then went for a walk along Monteray beach. It was sunny and warm, but there were still quite a few fair-sized waves heading in. We then drove a short way down to Carmel town, still on the coast, at the southern end of the bay. This had a good view of the sun as it set. Lots of photographs later, we found an italian restaurant with table cloths made of plain white paper, and some wax crayons provided for drawing - which proved too temping for me - and eventually Graham - so we left the restaurant with the table-cloth more colourful than when we arrived.

Early start for work tomorrow - so time for some sleep. There are photos of the day on:
http://flickr.com/photos/87378172@N00/sets/72157603711990435/

San Francisco

A ham, pepper and onion omlette with little cube shaped chip things at 8.30am got us ready for San Francisco. Today was my first experience of driving in the US, and Graham's turn to remind me which side of the road to drive, and direct us into the city. The map we were using ( http://www.baycityguide.com/images/maps_pdf/San_Francisco_Map.pdf ) looked like a spreadsheet, as all the roads are in a grid. We survived the journey and parked next to Pier 39 (top right on the map).

We wandered to Telegraph Hill up some very steep steps beside which houses were clinging to the hillside on one side, tropic-like trees on the other - not my pre-conceived image of a big American town. At the top, we visited Coit Tower - apparently a "designated historic monument" - built in 1933! As the sun shone all day, there were some good but slightly hazy views over the city and the sea.

In the afternoon a boat took us past the Alcatrez prison - used for the "worst" offenders as it was on an island - and up to the Golden Gate Bridge. Slightly disappointing as there were no golden gates anywhere to be seen - it was just the name of the area before the bridge was built. The Severn Bridge or the Forth Road Bridge would have done just as well.

Back on land, we walked through North Beach (the "European" part of the city) which was supposed to remind you of Europe - and on to China town. None of these areas matched my pre-conceived image of a big American town. So we went through the Financial District - full of tower blocks and wide straight streets - and my curiosity was satistied - for ever. We arrived at Union Square, at which point we could not resist The Cheesecake Factory - but after some obscenely American-sized portions of cheesecake, we wadled back down to the car and came "home" to our hotel.

There were two people who should also get a mention as they provided some entertainment:
- the man who came out of a camera shop when we looked through the window and tried very very hard to sell us a camera.
- the man who sprayed, before our very eyes, an amazing picture of the earth spinning in the night sky, with the Golden Gate bridge in the foreground - just using spray paint, some scrap paper and a scraper. It was fascinating to watch.

Some photos are here: http://flickr.com/photos/87378172@N00/sets/72157603703323067/

The day at work

Last night saw bed time at 9pm, sleep until midnight, a bit of a doze till 2am, some emails and work till 4am, and a bit of a doze till 7am, listening to Radio 4 via the free internet access in the room - definitely the best feature of the hotel! None of the 20 supplied TV channels are from any country other than USA.

After cornflakes, orange juice and coffee at the hotel, we arrived at work at 8.30, and met our project manager, sorted out lots of things like security passes and rooms, and met the 3rd member of our team. Graham, Meena and I then set to work, drawing pictures on the white board, and coming up with a plan. We also discussed how "Half 2" means "Half past 2" unless you are German, in which case it means "Half to 2 = Half past 1", and how it means nothing to Californians who say "2.30". I also discovered that American for courgette is zucchini, and the Ground Floor is called the First Floor. And you can turn right at a red traffic light if it is safe to do so.

Had lunch outside on the roof of the first floor in the sun. Had dinner this evening in Morgan Hill - a little town just south of San Jose. All salad seems to be drowned in some kind of dressing... I think it must grow like it. Now feeling a bit sleepy. Night night.

Journey to California

The plane journey from Heathrow was very good. The pilot said at the start of the flight that it was usual for turbulence during the flight, and the seat-belt signs would appear. They never did as it was all very smooth. We went up over Inverness, then Iceland, Greenland and down through Canada to arrive in San Francisco at the right time. There were some very good views of icy mountains over Greenland, and the plane had a nice area at the back that I could stand in and look at the view, which made a change from sitting endlessly. I tried to take a photo or two, but because I didn't charge the camera battery I missed it all. I can try again on the way back in 2 weeks time. I did manage to get some work done on the flight too.

Customs confiscated my banana at the airport, so I went hungrily on without it to the car rental pickup place (on a little airport train thing) . Graham drove and I reminded him which side of the road to drive.

We got to the hotel, 1am Friday morning - it's now 17:45 local hime, and looking up from the computer I notice it has just got dark outside. The weather is overcast and the hotel has pink wallpaper. That's it for now. To be updated soon...