Beautiful Lake Tahoe
Posted by Anya in Activities on January 18, 2009
I spent the week between Christmas and New Year in Lake Tahoe with the chap’s family. I have been before but was still taken aback by how stunning the place is. I want skiing – but switched to snowboarding after a few days (loved it – but struggled with being a beginner again. Falling off the top of lifts, watching closely what slope I’m about to go down, faceplanting in the snow etc). Actually as almost everyone else was a beginner it worked out pretty well being a beginner too. Some of the biggest belly laughs all week were had trying to teach a 3 year old to ski (or at least to proceed down the slope on skis). No pics of me snowboarding just yet – so in the meantime, some beautiful pics of the lake.
Sign of the times
Posted by Anya in Stuff that's different and weird, Two nations divided by a common language on January 18, 2009
Every time I go to the gym I’m confronted with this:
Frankly it has me totally perplexed. I always thought the British were the most prudish nation on the planet. I should know – convent school taught me the art of getting dressed under a towel. I’m not that bad anymore – when I get changed, I take clothes off, I put clothes on. No big deal. My continental European friends make me feel very prudish though – they are quite comfortable wandering around naked. Not in a weird way – but kind of between the bathroom and bedroom sort of thing and not all the time. *urgh that still sounds weird but it isn’t if you know what I mean*.
Anyway – the Americans make the Brits look like the most uninhibited sauna-bound Germans. I mean none of the women on TV are allowed to have boobs – they just have this localised fuzziness a bit like what they do to T shirts with brand names on the BBC. And that’s late at night. That’s strange. And actually rather distracting during the love scenes – how can you get passionate when your whole torso is out of focus?
So considering this, how much modesty and discretion is appropriate? I mean there’s a lot of room for manoeuvre between arriving in the pool in bloomers with a Victorian bathing carriage and striding around butt naked, towel whipping anyone within range.
What does everyone else do? Isn’t that a clue? Sadly not. No one apart from the rather old and gravity challenged seems to actually take off their clothes in the changing room. Maybe you exercise appropriate modesty by making your body go out of focus whilst changing. I think I’ll continue to arrive in my kit, just to be on the safe side.
Plastic fantastic
I just had the opportunity to try a really intriguing car – the Tesla. I was passing through California staying in a hotel in Menlo Park. The Tesla showroom was right next door so it would have been rude not to have a closer look.
From driving past – the cars looked quite sexy – somewhere between the Lotus Elise and the VX220 and a little wider.Plenty of carbon fibre and great bottom hugging seats. They have some pretty impressive stats too – 0-60 in 3.9 seconds. Woof woof.
So here’s the weird thing – they are electric cars – under what looks like the petrol cap is where you plug the extension cable and the back end is pretty much all battery. They are great to drive – the road hold and handling are excellent (turns out that whilst the Tesla folk are keen to emphasise that the Tesla chassis is not a Lotus chassis – the cars are build in Hethel at the Lotus factory – so go figure). They aren’t automatic as such but they only have one gear – you put your foot down and it keeps on going and going. That’s really peculiar – it seems wrong that there isn’t a gearbox and it is so strange not hearing a throaty exhaust. It really does sound like a milk float which is slightly disconcerting given the whiplash acceleration.
There was quite a lot of traffic when I drove it – but actually I really liked it. THe range is not bad unless you drive it like a total nutter so it could be workable. But here’s the rub – it costs $100K. That puts it in with the real supercars – you can buy a nice Masa, a 911 Turbo and even quite a lot of Ferrari for that. So why would you buy this? It doesn’t feel like a supercar (in fact the inside is pretty sparsely finished using cheap plastics) and you’d have to be really bought into the whole green thing to even consider. They are still shipping to people who preordered as long as 18 months ago but I think 100k is just too much. For $50Kyou’d place it as an alternative to an Elise, an S2000 or similar. For twice that there isn’t a chance it can compete with the big boys.
Skymall – the best thing about US airlines
Posted by Anya in Stuff that's different and weird on January 8, 2009
The best thing about flying US dometic airlines is the Skymall magazine that you’ll always find tucked in between the sick bag and the safety card of the seat pocket in front of you. This is the most hilarious reading you’ll ever encounter. Clearly the producers have decided that their captive, food, drink and cigarette deprived audience will be queuing up to buy a right load of random rubbish from them.
The selection of products to buy is astonishing – each designed to solve a problem you didn’t know you had…stairs to help old dogs get onto your bed, pretend stones to cover up unsightly taps or metalwork in your garden, breathtakingly tacky ornaments, blankets with sleeves, chocolate fireguards. Ok I made the last one up but see for yourself here.
My favourites are these – an in-home traction device and excercise equipment that turns any sized pool into a training pool. Who knew you needed one?
Christmas US stylee
Posted by Anya in Uncategorized on January 5, 2009
Christmas 08 was great for three main reasons:
- My Christmas, my rules. So no bloody turkey (it isn’t that I don’t like turkey – just I prefer all other meats). Had beef fillet wrapped in parma ham and porcini instead if you are interested – Jamie Oliver inspired deliciousness.
- Because of Thanksgiving the shops don’t start with all the Christmas paraphernalia in October like they do in the UK. I don’t think I heard a single carol before the beginning of December and I haven’t heard Slade once. As a result you aren’t completely fed up with the whole event long before it has started.
- Christmas a deux. If you don’t have children to enable you to vicariously enjoy the whole santa thing – then keep it simple. Champagne for breakfast then TWO Bond films. Bliss.
Something that the whole season of goodwill did highlight is how we really are two very different nations when it comes to food. The chap requested a trifle instead of Christmas pud. No problem I thought. Well it wouldn’t have been if you could buy custard. Or trifle sponges in the culinary cul-de-sac that is Pennsylvania. I managed to make them so trifle-less disaster avoided – thank goodness you can get sherry here.
Getting Parma ham was hard enough. “I’ll have some Parma ham please” I said at the deli counter. “What’s that?” asked the fantastically corpulent chap behind the counter. “Ham from Parma” I helpfully explained. “huh?”. Turns out they call it Prosciutto here – or more accurately prosciut (pronounced like some bad extra in a Goddfellows movie.) Urgh. That just means ham in Italian. Not sure I’ll ever learn the language. Come to think of it, I’m not sure I want to.
Frosted trees
Posted by Anya in Uncategorized on December 21, 2008
I just love the fact that you get four very distinct seasons here. Spring was lush and bright green, full of exciting sprouting things, summer was warm with day after day of sunshine, and that bright light you never get in the UK, and Autumn with its explosion of colour was spectacular. It is definitely winter now and it is properly cold here. Some of the weather has been pretty miserable but today was beautiful.
We had ice rain. Or at least it rained and froze on contact with everything. The effect was completely magical. Everything was frosted like those sugared grapes you see on top of cakes. Then when the sun came out it was breathtaking, everything shone and sparkled. I ran around like a little kid seeing snow for the first time. I was slightly less impressed when I had to dig my car out from a thick layer of ice but anyway…
PNC – Probably Not in this Century Bank
Posted by Anya in Stuff that's different and weird on December 9, 2008
Banks here are hopeless. I hadn’t realised how lucky I was being able to do all my banking online before because I really miss it now. Mercifully it is mostly possible, assuming all electronic planets are aligned, to pay bills from large organisations online. Hurrah. It isn’t quite the same when you want to pay a person though. Even if you set up all the details online, what actually happens is the bank sends them a cheque (or check as they are irritatingly called here) in the post. Crazy huh?
I actually phoned up the online banking helpdesk as I thought I’d done something wrong the first time. The conversation was along the lines of:
Me”Hello can you help me? I’m trying to set up an automatic payment, I can find the person in the system but I can’t find where to add their account details.”
Bank minion “You want to pay an individual?”
Me “Yes”
BM “Well you can’t to that, you can only set up direct transfers to organisations.”
Me “That’s crazy. I’ve been doing that for years in Europe, why can’t I here?”
BM ” Because of fraud prevention”
Me “I don’t mind if someone fraudulently makes deposits into my bank account. I’m just trying to pay my rent..”
BM “Well you just can’t…..”
at that point I think my mind boggled right out of its capsule.
This isn’t a new issue. (I can’t believe I’m still writing cheques and worse still is having to pay the buggers in). So what’s caused the renewed aggravation of this very sore nerve? I just noticed the strapline the bank uses.
Leading the way? Leading the way? This bunch of clowns couldn’t FIND the way with both hands and a map! Grrrrrrrr
Just. So. Wrong.
Posted by Anya in Crimes against food, Stuff that's different and weird, Two nations divided by a common language on December 7, 2008
I’ve seen this almost every day I’ve been here as it is just around the corner from the house. It still sets my teeth on edge every time.
Yes that is “La Maison du Cheese”. Just. So. Wrong.
The really funny thing is, apparently the cheese isn’t that great – although the croissants apparently are excellent. I haven’t actually tried for myself – that would be tantamount to supporting the name.
Mega-ride around the Florida keys
Posted by Anya in Activities on November 29, 2008
Yesterday I went on my longest ride to date – from Naples all the way along the Florida keys and back. That’s a whopping 540 miles.
One of the best parts was the journey east through the Everglades – the road cuts straight through alligator infested swamps – I was also fairly alarmed to see the “Puma crossing” signs! The trip home later was more nerve wracking – firstly it was dark so COLD, but also because riding past Miami meant navigating the insanely bad Miami drivers (was quite aware that if I did survive being knocked off, something from the swamps would probably finish me off. No harm done though we all survived unscathed).
This was my first trip to the keys – and I wasn’t sure what to expect. The keys area series of small islands off the south of Florida linked by road bridges. They are right in between the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico so as you travel along the road you have a different ocean on either side. The only thing is, from the road you can pretty much only see the road, the front doors of the resort hotels and the Tshirt and flipflop shops.
In between the islands you get tantalising views of the sea on each side – that turquoise colour with swirling lighter and darker colours. The most impressive view was from the 7 mile bridge.
There are two things you need to know about the 7 mile bridge. 1) it’s a bridge…
Florida Thanksgiving
Posted by Anya in Activities, Stuff that's different and weird on November 27, 2008
I’m in Florida for Thanksgiving (my first one – so far from what I can gather it is like Christmas only with no presents and rather a lot of American Football…). This is also the first time I’ve been to Florida. I’ll head south to check out the Keys tomorrow but at the moment I’m near Naples (SW FL). So far it has been pretty similar to what I was expecting – ie God’s waiting room with a rather pleasant climate. Everywhere looks like a Saga outing and there are monster pharmacies on every corner, presumably to dispense the vast quantities of drugs required to keep the ancient population alive. You can’t come to somewhere calledNaples and not have great Italian food so the experience has been very positive so far.
It isn’t all grannies in purple velour tracksuits however, the Everglades are beautiful. We took an air boat ride that took us beasting around through beautiful mangroves teaming with wildlife – lots of birds and many, many aligators. Here’s a taster;
