The plan for this weekend had been to go up to Yuba City to see Kevin’s family. However, with Kevin’s eyes still playing up, he’s not fit to drive. So I had to drive instead. This is not good. I do actually quite enjoy driving, though I’d prefer two wheels to four. However, I don’t drive very much, and I know that my reactions are not good. Also Kevin’s minivan handles like an arthritic elephant who is the worse for wear on rum. I wasn’t looking forward to driving it on busy Bay Area freeways, and if I had pranged it we’d be in serious financial difficulty.

So the compromise plan we came up with was as follows: we would get the train from Fremont to Sacramento (it helps that we live pretty much next door to the railway station) and rent a car from there onwards. The roads north of Sacramento are pretty empty, so there wasn’t much risk of my getting into trouble. And Hertz gave me a rather nice Hyundai Elantra that was surprisingly nippy and had way too much poke for the silly California speed limits.

Thus far the trip has gone very well. We’ve seen Kevin’s mom and grandfather, and a gang of feral kittens that had us ODing on cute. We got to use the hotel’s hot tub in peace. And now, I think, it is time for some serious sleep.

As you have have guessed when the previous post went online, I’m here. The flight went fine. Many thanks to David for sharing a cab. The room looks fine, though it may not have quite enough girly space for both Gigi and me. Internet access is free. I’m now going to take a quick look around before getting back to work.

I’m composing this post at Oakland airport. I’m here ridiculously early because the bus to BART only runs once an hour and doesn’t always turn up so a certain amount of risk avoidance has to be done. This has, however, given me an opportunity to check out the facilities (and get some exercise wandering around the terminals).

Oakland is doing a lot of rebuilding, and the end result will, I think, be rather nice. Right now, however, there are an awful lot of “under construction” signs. I’m flying Southwest, which means Terminal 2. When you first get into the gate space it looks like everything is under construction. I ended up walking all the way through to Terminal 1, where I finally found an open Starbucks that had a queue rather longer than that for Terrorisation Security. However, I later found found that if you walked right to the end of Terminal 2 there were actually a lot of shops and food outlets. There are also some nice views out over the Bay, which is a smart touch.

On the other hand, the choice of food is pretty much carbs and dairy or carbs and dairy. Farah, if you are reading this, I do not recommend using Oakland.

The airport is a lesson in unforeseen design choices. There are a bunch of seating areas that are designed for the use of people who need to work while they wait. They come in two types. The first are armchairs with power sockets in the arms. The second are tables with bar stool seating, with power sockets in the tables. Neither are usable by people trying to work unless you are very lucky, because both types of seating are preferable to the normal gate seats. The armchairs are big and comfortable – much better than the terraced seats you normally get. And the table space quickly gets filled up by people with food. To actually be able to make use of the power sockets you need to get to the gate very early.

I, of course, do not need a power socket, and I’m composing this on the Asus, which continues to attract “aw, isn’t it cute!” comments from passers by.

Talking of the Asus, I did have a look to see what WiFi options were available. A search turns up two options: something called Boingo, which is a paid service, and something called Free Public WiFi, which might be free but every time I try to connect I get an error message telling me that there are no free connections. Definitely a case of getting what you pay for.

This post will go online when I am safely home in California, but it is being composed on the Asus in flight. For once I have plenty of room to work, which of course means that I have been very lucky.
Continue reading →

California here I come!