On Friday we headed out on foot to the local Northgate Mall to get our bearings (about 7,000 steps return on my pedometer). There’s a Safeway there and it’s open 24 hours a day. We feel like locals already because we have our Safeway Club Member card, which has already provided us with savings on our first purchases which included half a dozen bottles of mixed Californian wine. I can attest to the quality of the Californian champagne already. Late Friday afternoon we drove Paul, Pam and Kevin to the airport bus and waved them goodbye as they headed for our home in Brisbane.
We were then alone in America. More particularly we were alone in their iPrius hybrid car, driving from what felt like the wrong seat, on the wrong side of the road. I admired Ray’s bravery for jumping into the driver’s seat on his first day in America. One of the tricks is to keep the double lines in the middle of the road on your left and remain vigilant of the direction of parked cars. Turning left is really tricky until you get used to it. The iPrius doesn’t need a key to start it. There’s an on-off switch and as soon as you put the car in reverse everything behind you is displayed on-screen on the dashboard. It’s very impressive and very economical to run.
Our first night “home alone” we enjoyed wine, cheese and antipasto and fell into bed very tired. Today (Saturday) we are doing what we “should” do at home every Saturday. I didn’t wake until 10:00 a.m. and after a late breakfast out on the deck, which overlooks the
We were then alone in America. More particularly we were alone in their iPrius hybrid car, driving from what felt like the wrong seat, on the wrong side of the road. I admired Ray’s bravery for jumping into the driver’s seat on his first day in America. One of the tricks is to keep the double lines in the middle of the road on your left and remain vigilant of the direction of parked cars. Turning left is really tricky until you get used to it. The iPrius doesn’t need a key to start it. There’s an on-off switch and as soon as you put the car in reverse everything behind you is displayed on-screen on the dashboard. It’s very impressive and very economical to run.
Our first night “home alone” we enjoyed wine, cheese and antipasto and fell into bed very tired. Today (Saturday) we are doing what we “should” do at home every Saturday. I didn’t wake until 10:00 a.m. and after a late breakfast out on the deck, which overlooks the
surrounding hills and the inviting pool, we’ve “pottered” in our North American home reading, writing, working out where we’ll go next week and watching Barack Obama live on TV, as he announces Joe Biden, the senator from Delaware, as his vice-presidential running mate. It’s a perfect day today, the equivalent of 26 degrees C with 51% humidity and time for our next bottle of Californian wine. ;-)
