Once again, I was in Southern California.

This post was written a couple of weeks ago, in an airport. And never posted, until now. I apologize for the out-of-dateness, but, as I've noted before, this is a blog, not some real-time, Twitter-like social networking thingamabob.



I like airports.

There's a curious sense of being static - outside of "normal" life. Here, in the departure concourse at Pearson's Terminal 1, it's almost quiet - at around 9:45 in the morning on a Thursday, there are flights departing continuously, but there's no sense of bustle, no crowds pushing, no nerve-wracking "run run run". Compared with, say, Heathrow on a Friday night, this is peace and calm.

And there's more to this sense of being "outside" the usual run of things. With no reasonable internet access (although plenty of paid options), and no need to be on the phone, a certain quiet sets in. I've no reason to frantically call anyone, no need to sign up for the only-slightly-extortionate per-day internet access, and thus no immediate ability to check email. I'm not on Twitter, I don't have an iPhone or Blackberry (yet - although that will doubtless spawn its own blog post in due course), and so I feel, strangely, a bit cut off.

In a nice way.

I'm using an honest-to-goodness text editor to write this post, rather than Blogger's online interface, or something more fancy. I've a few photographs from a recent car show, and a trip to the zoo, to edit - that will take up some time, since I've once again overestimated the amount of time I'd need to get to the airport, check in, pass customs and security, and find myself sitting in the departure lounge. I'm completely off-line, which is an unusual situation in this day and age. And one that could easily be rectified - but I've blogged about being cheap before.

So - how do I follow Eva's peregrinations? I can't check in on the quiet that has recently encompassed the Science Advisory Board, nor post at my other nearly-morbid blog. I can't even see if my recent Faculty of 1000 article review is being voraciously devoured by other scientists around the world.

Ah well. I suppose I'll wander the halls, hoping for interesting airport architecture to photograph. But in the meantime, I'm strangely content - a quiet airport, a chance to sit and think, and of course, write it all down for you to read.

Next stop - Southern California. Again.

Sounds like Whoop

Helpful sign on the inside of my hotel room door.

I'm in California, (not) whoopin' it up.

Status quo

Sometimes, a lack of change is good.

While others muse on Autumn after moving to a far, fair city, or wax eloquently about their new home after wandering to the Antipodes and back, I find myself, in many ways, where I was last year, and the year before, and the year before that. Which, I confess, suits me well.

I've an upcoming trip to Southern California, to the same general area as I visited before. That fits my comfort level nicely - I've been to LAX before, and rented a car from the same agency as I will this time. The trip down the Interstate I know well, and the final destination won't be hard to find. Even better, I know the hosts of the conference I'll be attending - it'll be a social visit, as well as business.

On the home front, despite frightening weather recently, things are calm - and pretty similar this year to last, too. The notable exception being that Mrs. Ricardipus is now a fully graduated, and (temporarily, we hope) unemployed school teacher.


A graduation rose.

And other things haven't changed much - still employed, still dealing with early-fall grant-writing season, and once again relaxing following the Mobil 1 Grand Prix of Mosport, which I and my brother also attended last year. We had the annual cottage weekend earlier in August, and it was pretty much as it always is, too. Which is a good thing.


The red Ferrari was around last year, too.

I really find that I'm content, in a Jane Austen, settled-in-the-neighbourhood, kind of manner. Yes, it's a quiet life, but I know my limits. I'm well in my comfort zone, and happy about it.

Automobilis Repari!

Following on from the last post, the Ricardipus-mobile is now fixed. It's like magic: throw a wad of cash at it, and hey presto! it becomes repaired even while you're not there to see it happen.

And there I was, thinking I might have to buy a replacement:



Despite what I said about it before, this would have done nicely.

San Francisco, earlier

Hi all. I'm back safely from San Francisco, where the weather was pleasant, the hills were steep, and the Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill were raucous.

My first day, I had a couple of extra hours to spare, and hiked from my hotel (which, although very swishy, didn't have a room ready for me just then) over to Telegraph Hill, a distance of a couple of kilometres or so, to peer at the attractive Coit Tower. A note to potential tourists: the hills are absolutely brutal to walk. Take the tram instead.



The view from the hill is rather nice, with the bay, Alcatraz, the Golden Gate bridge and various other landmarks in plain sight.



But - and here's the highlight - being a big fan of both the book and the film about said parrots, I was resolved to find the famous Greenwich Steps, hike down them looking for the house where Mark Bittner lived, met and cared for the parrot flock, and see if the birds themselves were in evidence.

Finding the Greenwich Steps turned out to be remarkably easy:



This, I'm pretty sure, is the house in question, hidden among the leaves, about halfway down the steps to the base of the hill.



And this, my friends, is a big green tree that was squawking a lot more than trees usually do. A great big flock of what are predominantly Cherry-Headed Conures was in there, and I caught a few glimpses of them wheeling around between trees. As one might expect of parrots, they're very noisy, very fast fliers, and darned near impossible to see once they alight in the foliage.



All in all, a thorough success, I'd say.

More photos in the San Francisco set.

Some notes on my trip

1. I fully intended to blog at you all from the same hotel room as before, but, um, never got around to it. Ah well.

2. My hopes of a rental car upgrade were answered! Instead of the Ford Focus, I wound up with a spiffy silver Chrysler PT Cruiser, which although I was initially sceptical, turned out to be quite fun to drive. As usual, the central locking and alarm systems baffled me a bit.

3. San Francisco was full of people complaining about how cold it was.

4. People will surf in Southern California even when the Pacific Ocean is clearly bloody freezing cold.

5. The drive up the Pacific Coast Highway from Newport Beach to Long Beach is about 50,000 times less picturesque than you might think, unless you like shabby liquor stores, dull-looking inland lagoons and signposts to military installations.

6. I drove through what I believe may be the only roundabout on the continental United States. And even took the right exit.

7. Oh yes, complaining about the second flight... actually, it wasn't that bad at all, just a little hour-plus hop from San Francisco to John Wayne airport in Orange County. They almost had to abort the landing though, as OC was socked in with fog. Southern California looked like the arctic from the sky, all covered in white courtesy of some strange weather phenomenon they call the "Marine Layer".

8. The third flight, home from LA, was tedious as a) we left over an hour late for some vaguely-specified reason involving cabin baggage; b) as usual, my headset didn't work and I couldn't hear the movie soundtrack; and c) the captain kept insisting that we were in imminent danger of turbulence, so that nobody was allowed to have laptop computers out and in operation. The turbulence, of course, never materialized.

9. There is excellent Japanese food to be had in a very boring part of a tech-park/industrial estate on Irvine Center Drive. Contact me for details if you're interested.

10. After a couple of days in California, I was despairing of seeing any interesting vehicles, but also relieved at not seeing the horrendous Scion xB like last time. Until two of them passed me, on the last day, on the way to the Los Angeles airport. But that was offset by a couple of nicely tricked-out Dodge Chargers, a handful of well-dressed Mustangs, and a fast-moving BMW M5. None of which is among the most beautiful vehicles ever, but fun nonetheless.

EDIT: I forgot to mention the Bentley Continental GT, another ugly but doubtless fun-to-drive car that whipped past me on Interstate 405.

11. Also as usual - I'm glad to be home.

Not so very much the world traveller

Hello. I have just spent, oh, five hours on a plane. It started like this:



and progressed rapidly to this:


after the batteries on the laptop ran out. I didn't bother watching the James Bond-y thing that was showing on the plane, although in retrospect perhaps I should have done, since my alternative plan of sleeping didn't work out so well.

But... the hotel has high-speed, for free, and I was greeted with a Big Bag O' Swag™ donated by the kind folks at a certain Big Biotech Instrumentation Company that's hosting me. Tasty, tasty treats and bottled water imported all the way from Tuscany (allegedly). Just right after a long and tedious day, started off by my usual trick of showing up at the airport several hours too early.

A day there, then off to Orange County again for a day, then home. With no time for sight-seeing, alas, although truth be told I'm a bit of a homebody anyway and would rather be there than here. But no matter - off to bed and I'll doubtless wake up at 4:00 AM, since dealing with the three-hour time difference isn't really something I'm terribly good at.

Good night, all.