Goodbye

Today is an odd day for me. It’s Monday which is always a disappointment when I wake up, but more than that I heard some bad news today. I fully intended to update the blog with some amusing opinions about childbirth or life here in California, but when I got in this morning I learnt that an ex-girlfriend of mine had passed away.

Vicky had been fighting cancer for the last few years, and on February 9th she lost the battle. It is a strange feeling knowing someone has died and you will never see them again. Now I am not going to pretend that Vicky and I saw each other constantly and were in touch on a regular basis, but we did keep up with each other’s news, despite the great physical distance between us. I guess we had remained on good terms because when we broke up there was no other reason that Vicky was moving to New Zealand to be a nurse out there, and I wasn’t (either New Zealand or a nurse). Vicky got married a few years later and had a daughter, which just makes the loss of her all the more tragic. And although we lived thousands of miles apart (she still lived in New Zealand and I of course reside here in California), there was still the small chance that we would meet again.

So no jokes, no witty comments (actually those never happen on here anyway), just a fond memory of someone I will not see again. I am glad to have known her and have some good memories of our time together.

Strange Bedfellows

It seems that everywhere you turn at the moment there are Brits on the TV. Now obviously for you back in the UK this is no strange phenomenon but here it is something that is close to my heart. Now I don’t know if it is because I have been away from the UK that I suddenly notice, or if it because I search them out but it seems like almost every show has its resident Brit. And due to patriotism I find myself rooting for some strange people.

Some current British actors who are making a living over here are Kevin McKidd (Trainspotting, Rome), Johnny Lee Miller, Eddie Izzard, Minnie Driver, Hugh Laurie, Michelle Ryan (she plays the new Bionic Woman). All of them perform with faultless American accents in fact Hugh Laurie’s is so good that the majority of Americans were shocked when he spoke in his normal accent at an awards show and found out he was English.

Then there are the reality TV shows, which again seem to be peppered with Brits, and it is here that I find myself with some strange bedfellows. Simon Cowell, whom I despised as an obnoxious twit in the UK, is here with American Idol and I can’t help but agree with everything he says. Piers Morgan is a judge on “America’s Got Talent” (which is yet to be proved) and is currently in the Celebrity Apprentice. Suddenly this man who lied for a living as Editor of the Mirror is someone I want to win. Sharon Osbourne is also a judge on a talent show called the X factor. Len Goodman from Strictly Come Dancing heads up the judging panel here in the US equivalent Dancing with the Stars. It seems each reality show needs to have its own Brit to bring it the necessary gravitas.

And reality shows are huge here, as are game shows as there is a writers strike. As I write this the strike is almost over but it has been going on for 12 long weeks. Shows have been affected and will continue to be effected. Some shows haven’t started again, while others have started with 3 or 4 episodes and when they are done they are back off the air. The studios have lost a lot of money from lost advertising revenues. Movies will also be affected so in around 18 months time there will be a dip in the number of movies coming out.

Ellie's 1st Birthday

Ellie had her 1st birthday just before Christmas (18th December to be exact). Here are some pictures from that wonderful day.

Round and Round we go

There is no way around it – California’s do not know how to use a roundabout. You all know the scene from National Lampoon’s European Vacation, when the Oswald’s are driving around the roundabout at Parliament Square saying “Hey kids there’s Big Ben, hey kids there’s the House of Parliament” over and over again? That is completely unrealistic. You see when a Californian is confronted by a roundabout their natural inclination is to stop. Even is they are in the roundabout and have the right of way.

On 2 separate occasions this week I have witnessed the following. Car in a roundabout who has the right of way stopping because another car is approaching the roundabout. They then continue to sit there until the car and any subsequent cars have gone before proceeding. Absolutely crazy. The main reason being that they do not have very many roundabouts here. In fact I can think of only 4 in the whole of Sacramento. They much prefer to have Stop signs, where even if you are on the main carriage way, and even if no one else is around you have to Stop, check in all directions and then proceed.

I am certainly not one to claim that I am an expert driver. I only drive an automatic, and have only passed my test around a 16 months ago, but some of the crazy driving that goes on here is unbelievable, the speed limit on some of the motorways is a mere 55MPH – I am sure snails go faster than that.

It’s not all bad though, the ability to turn right on red light is a wonderful experience and speeds up many a journey and I a, slowly getting over the feeling that I am doing something illegal.

Duty Free

As a Permanent Resident I have no rights to vote in the upcoming Presidential election. In fact as a legal alien I have just the basic rights, and have to carry my card with me at all times. But recently I did discover one perk. Well I say perk I was actually a bit put out by it all. You see as a Non US Citizen I cannot be called upon to do Jury duty.

When the paperwork came through I was quite excited by the prospect of going on to some gory murder trial or at least a case with some saucy details, but Jen pointed out that I’d probably end up with some boring accountancy trial. I then read the fine print and discovered that I was ineligible due to my nationality. I told my co-workers and they were all very excited for me, telling me I had the ultimate get out of jail free card. Well get out of jury duty free card.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No it's Super Tuesday

Election fever has hit an all time high here. It is a complicated system to follow, and the majority of Americans that I have spoken to don’t fully understand it either. Basically each state’s party asks their follows to vote on who should be the next nominee for President. Those votes are then used by a small select group of delegates who go to the party’s conventions and cast their votes. Where the confusing part comes in is that some states are winner takes all and others use a strange form of proportional representation.

So in Nevada, Hilary Clinton won 51% of the vote and Barrack Obama 45%, but instead of Hilary winning all 25 delegates from that state, she won just 12 and Obama won 13, as he won more votes in the large cities of Nevada. To win the nomination you need just over 2,000 delegates.

Yesterday was Super Tuesday. (It was also a pretty good Tuesday in the UK because it was Pancake Day) and some 24 states decided who they wanted to be their nominee. This election seems to have really caught people’s imagination here because for the 1st time in 200+ years history the US finally has a credible woman and a credible black candidate. Whoever goes on to win the nomination for the Democrats will be historic in one way or another.
As for predictions, well they don’t work out to well for pundits as very few people get the predictions anywhere near right. The professional pundits here predicted after the 1st primary that Clinton would fall by the wayside and John McCain would also fail for a 3rd time. However, after last night’s results these are the 2 front runners. I too have in my own way fallen foul of making predictions. For my 6th Form Politics A- Level I did a dissertation entitled “Is the Labour Party Unelectable?” in which I predicted that John Smith would lead the party back to the centre, only for Smith to die (selfish git). I didn’t learn, and in 1997 I submitted a dissertation for my degree called “Reform of the Labour Party and its consequences” which concluded that Labour would win a small majority and would have to rely on the Lib Dems to help pass any huge reforms, only for Blair to lead the party to a massive landslide victory (selfish git). So I now shy away from making predictions. But I will say this, whoever wins the election will become President. Or maybe not if 2000 was anything to go by.

Night at the Opera

Jen likes to watch a Soap Opera called “General Hospital”. Despite the title very little medical stuff goes on, it all centers around some gangsters. Anyway, without going into too much detail something strange happened this week. An actress who used to play the role of “Carly” returned to the show. However, there “Carly” is now played by someone else, so the person that used to be “Carly: is now a completely different character. Is it just me or is this confusing? It would be the equivalent of someone being brought in to take over Pauline Fowler from Wendy Richards on Eastenders only for Wendy to decide she wanted to come back so they keep the other actress on as Pauline and bring back Wendy as another character. Crazy.