My First Post - Sojourn in California

My first posting after Warren got me to set this up! So lazy...

Tomorrow I fly to London. The big unknown...

I have spent the last 10 days in California.

My plane was delayed before we even left Melbourne. The pilot took us down the runway and then stopped and announced that they were aborting the take-off due to unusual responses on the nose controls. Some engineers drove out to have a look and after about half an hour, they decided that it was ok to fly. Very comforting. Reminds me of a flight I took in the US several years ago when they had the cover off one of the engines and a bunch of people standing around on the tarmac staring and pointing in full view of the passengers waiting at the gate. Inspires you with confidence.

Anyway, we arrived late into Auckland, then left late from Auckland and were told that they would try to make up time. Don't you love it when they say that? Well, their efforts to make up time had the reverse effect and we ended up getting into LA 20 minutes after their ETA at the start of that leg! All in all, we were an hour later than scheduled, which resulted in many unhappy people who had to reschedule connecting flights. I had lots of time in between my flights so I didn't have to worry but I still got a buzz when my luggage came out 1st and 3rd. Cool! This has only happened to me once before.

I got up to San Jose in the mid-afternoon and my brother came to pick me up. Gor took several days leave to spend time with me. : ) The first order of business on Saturday morning was to go wedding cake tasting. I slept in the car all the way and woke up just in time to get out of the car and stumble into the cake shop. We viewed different cake designs (I found one that I would like to have - not the reason we were there but who cares! : ) and then got to taste a bunch of cakes (tiny slivers of each flavour - enough for 3 of us to get an inkling of preferences but not much more).

Lunch on Sunday was a bbq at my aunt's place in Redwood City. Mmmm, bbq spare ribs and chicken drumsticks.

Went to visit Chaitanya in LA on Tuesday. He has almost finished his PhD and will be home in Melbourne in a few weeks. We did nothing - wandered around Fry's (the big electronics store), Barnes & Noble (book store) & Caltech. Ate lunch at a Thai/Italian place (yes, they decided that that would be a good combination of cuisines!) It wasn't too bad.

We also went to have a look at Kelly's wedding dress on Sunday. I have been wedding consultant extraordinaire this week, consulting on everything from wedding dress design & alteration possibilities to designing the wedding invitations and associated stationery to flower arrangements to cake and dinner tastings. The last was held at the location on Friday night. They gave us full size tastings of a selection of hors d'oeuvres, entrees, salads & mains. We were so full we could barely move. Slept all the way home. Seems to have been a theme of the week - napping.

We found out during the week that my grandma in Melbourne was hospitalised to do some tests. She had had a CT scan that found a huge mass in her lung. She had had a scan 2 years ago that was clean. There is the small possibility that it may be TB (she was in HK and China September/October last year) but more likely it is cancer. The mass is enveloping the aortic arch so surgery is probably out of the question. At the moment she is most worried that she won't be able to make Gor's wedding. : ) Good that her spirits are up.