On America

Happy new year. I've been putting off trying to write about my holiday until I had time to be thoughful, but time and thoughtfulness are in short supply and unwilling to cooperate, so I'll do the best I can now.

It was a wonderful trip. Full of sunshine, friends and family in equal and much appreciated doses. It was, in turns, busy and lazy with lots to do and plenty of time to do nothing at all. So here it is, best of my collection

15th - arrive. Dinner with Andy and Kelly. 'Big beers for a big Friday' said the waiter at that fantastic Chinatown restaurant. What was it, Andy?
16th - Crab eggs benedict at the Beach Chalet with K and Robert. Shopping. A stunning Pinot noir with John at the Redwood Room. Party at Robert's.
17th - Breakfast the hotel. Drinks at the Lone Star alone. Yes, for shame, alone.
18th - Squat and Gobble (yes, seriously) with John and Jason. Grace Cathedral, shopping, gorgeous dinner at Range with Andy, Anthony and Robert.
19th - Los Gatos with mum (and from here it gets blurry. Shopping, lazing, eating.)

Interlude: There are very few people I could spend two weeks doing very little, but my mum, mom, mother is one of them. I enjoy her company and hospitality. The conversations over a bottle of wine, the cooking and home/garden shows, the peanut brittle challenge, the coffee, the theatre, everything. I teach her how to be lazy and she teaches me how to live a life healthy in mind and body.

24th - My Aunt comes to stay. She's in her 80s, but somehow exactly as I always remember her. My poor mum has to work from 7am until well after midnight.
25th - cooking for my mum and dad, aunt and brother. I make a feast: prime rib, potatoes dauphinoise, crepes with pumpkin mousse. My brother brings a salad. I drink a bottle of champage on my own wondering how I came to be descended from non-champagne drinkers.
26th - I get the great idea that we can just swap the dead tv in the beautiful cabinet with the new one. My dad and brother spend the afternoon carefully demolishing it was every tool known to man (I would've used a hammer, but that's me.) I stay out of the way.
27th - To San Francisco for a matinee at the theatre and sushi dinner with mum and Robert.