That Went Well
Sep. 2nd, 2007 04:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tyellasA round-trip 14-hour international journey, in the company of my boss both ways, meeting with colleagues and another two bosses for three days solid for work...and it went pretty well. They listened to my Evil Plans regarding templates and online help. Questions were answered, policy stuff was resolved, presents were appreciated. I drove my New Zealand colleagues around, since I was the one who knew how to drive on the "other side" of the road. I even said intelligent things about web sites.
With its monolithic office blocks and endless ribbons of highway, Silicon Valley really is J.G. Ballard country, especially after little old NZ. I did see the charming side of San Jose on Monday night in the delightful company of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
harlequinaide, who seems to be on the cusp of having everything work out in the Bay Area.
Friday, with our meeting over but our flight out at 9 PM, some of us took independent day trips to San Francisco. For me, highlights includes:
* Discovering that if I eat a burger and fries followed by ice cream, if it's all organic, one doesn't get that "urgh, I shouldn't have done that" feeling.
* Going to the Bi-Rite Creamery and discovering that part of why New Zealand ice cream tastes the way it does - lighter, less "gooey" than most American ice cream - is because it's from the milk of grass-fed cows, not grain-fed cows.
* Valencia Street. This is my idea of retail indulgence; from the women's bathhouse, Osento, to Good Vibrations, one then proceeds to a natural-history themed store and the writing workshop/pirate store 826 Valencia. Further down the street are used bookstores, the sci-fi bookstore Borderlands, cafes, and an excellent beading store next to an excellent herb/pagan/health supply store. The lovely gals at Beadissimo gave me a quick lesson in pearl knotting using only tweezers.
* Petite shopping, yay! The petites area saleswoman at Macys told me that, with the US dollar tanking right now, petite German and English women are buying huge amounts of clothes there.
Tonight and tomorrow, I will see if my homeopathic "No Jet Lag" pills work. I feel surprisingly chipper, but how I sleep tonight will be the real test. In the meantime, I came back to a party invitation and a gallery opening invitation, which makes me feel loved. I have roasted a boneless leg of lamb to celebrate my return to Antipodean shores, and it is cooling before I carve it.
With its monolithic office blocks and endless ribbons of highway, Silicon Valley really is J.G. Ballard country, especially after little old NZ. I did see the charming side of San Jose on Monday night in the delightful company of
harlequinaide, who seems to be on the cusp of having everything work out in the Bay Area. Friday, with our meeting over but our flight out at 9 PM, some of us took independent day trips to San Francisco. For me, highlights includes:
* Discovering that if I eat a burger and fries followed by ice cream, if it's all organic, one doesn't get that "urgh, I shouldn't have done that" feeling.
* Going to the Bi-Rite Creamery and discovering that part of why New Zealand ice cream tastes the way it does - lighter, less "gooey" than most American ice cream - is because it's from the milk of grass-fed cows, not grain-fed cows.
* Valencia Street. This is my idea of retail indulgence; from the women's bathhouse, Osento, to Good Vibrations, one then proceeds to a natural-history themed store and the writing workshop/pirate store 826 Valencia. Further down the street are used bookstores, the sci-fi bookstore Borderlands, cafes, and an excellent beading store next to an excellent herb/pagan/health supply store. The lovely gals at Beadissimo gave me a quick lesson in pearl knotting using only tweezers.
* Petite shopping, yay! The petites area saleswoman at Macys told me that, with the US dollar tanking right now, petite German and English women are buying huge amounts of clothes there.
Tonight and tomorrow, I will see if my homeopathic "No Jet Lag" pills work. I feel surprisingly chipper, but how I sleep tonight will be the real test. In the meantime, I came back to a party invitation and a gallery opening invitation, which makes me feel loved. I have roasted a boneless leg of lamb to celebrate my return to Antipodean shores, and it is cooling before I carve it.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-09-02 11:32 am (UTC)glad to hear the trip went well. [*nods*]
no subject
Date: 2007-09-03 01:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-02 12:01 pm (UTC)But there is nothing like home is there?
no subject
Date: 2007-09-03 01:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-04 01:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-04 04:54 am (UTC)