For the best part of a year we have shared our house with the odd ant family. A line of them plodding through our dining room on the hunt for food. Hey! No worries, this is the Californian hills so it is pretty cool to have ants. Not any more people!! This week we have been infested with them. I will spare you the details but they are in our plumbing and walls, using our plug sockets like cat flaps. They have descended on us like squatters, creating little villages throughout the house, and motorways in between their towns! It's due to the cold weather according to the chap who will be exterminating them next week. It is 14 degrees after all. We should expect snow at this rate.
Happy New Year.
Sometimes this Christmas it felt like we were pretending it was Christmas. Perhaps those of you who have spent Christmas abroad know what I mean. It was sunny, and quite warm. We couldn't access the BBC and there was no sign of a single M&S advert. Not a turkey in sight. The time difference allowed us to Skype our family as both children were waking up, and everyone enjoyed some online time opening presents together. We watched the Queens Speech via You Tube and talked more than we should have done about missing our family. But instead of mourning Christmas crackers and cranberry sauce we spent a wonderful afternoon at the Ritz Hotel in Half Moon Bay enjoying lunch and some bubbles - Click Here to tour the hotel and see the breathtaking views!
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| Sitting outside the dining room at the Ritz, pacific ocean in background |
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| "Cheers Loul!" |
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| "Cheers Dan!" Chopsticks for Christmas lunch!
We spent our anniversary on December 29th enjoying a walk along Sawyer Camp Trail with friends, and then a celebration over lunch back at our house. Everyone was especially impressed with my personal copy of Downton Abbey Series Three, sent over from my parents, which at the time had yet to air on US TV. Our friend Chris commented that he knows only one other person in America to own the whole series, and that's Michelle Obama. Ah, me and my buddy Michelle, both in the Downton Club!
The day ended with someone suggesting they could smell gas after we realised our heating wasn't working, and our gas supplier ordering an evacuation of the house. Not quite the romantic night we might have had, but it was fun sitting with our neighbours while gas testing was carried out, and the green light given to return home to an empty, cold house with empty, cold bottles everywhere! We welcomed in the New Year on January 1st by walking across the Golden Gate Bridge. It was built in 1933, completed in 1937, is 8,981 feet long and 746 above the water. If you're going to walk it dont try it with a toddler who likes to run in circles and a tired four year old who wants to be carried.   Last Friday eight girlfriends organised a night out to celebrate my birthday. We went to a really swanky restaurant - Kincaid's in Burlingame where we ate some fantastic steak, missed chief organiser Dana who was too sick to come but enjoyed the company of her husband who hand delivered a box of chocolates to our table in a very sleek James Bond manner! Some of us, those who were brave or drunk enough, later ventured onto San Mateo's only nightclub. I'm not sure any of us will return there but suffice to say that what happens at Cafe Bistro really needs to stay in Cafe Bistro! |
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| Jen Holman, me and a Mojito cocktail that didnt hang around for long. |
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| One candle in a creme brulee - now that I can do! |
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| A dog that a lady had in her handbag at the nightclub. Yes. A dog in her handbag. The doormen came up to me seconds after this photo was taken and asked me to put it back in the bag. Yes. Put it back in the bag. |
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| Bibbed up and ready! |
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| A kitchen tour - the ovens. Dont touch without oven gloves! |
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| Leftovers... |
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| Our table... |
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| Dan getting stuck in - delicious! |
And in the mean time, a question for you. What do you call an ant from overseas? The answer? Import-ant of course!
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