San Diego Diary 2006 – Week 2 Review

San Diego CA, 27th January 2006.

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Happy Birthday Mozart.

The British Library have a really excellent resource called "Turning the Pages" and you can turn the pages of Mozart's Musical Diary. Well worth a look.

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Still no camera. I didn't get to see Paul when he was in Vegas. I must arrange to have my camera sent over to me. I only got the durn thing less than a year ago so I can't justify the purchase of anohter one…can I?

Last Sunday Andrea and I went to the Hillcrest Farmers Market. Fresh produce, Moroccan knickknacks, breads, fish etc. It runs from 9am – 1pm in the car park of the DMV, with live music, stalls selling fruit juice and breakfast / brunch its a really nice way to spend a Sunday morning.

On Tuesday Andrea introduced me to a fantastic eating experience called the SoupPlantation. This is a casual eatery with a good menu of wholesome, fresh food. Its a giant buffet salad bar basically with ice cream , soda and breads as the add on. You take a plate and build your salad, then you can go back and have Soup, bread, ice cream etc. Thoughts of Alan Partridge and the TravelLodge 12 inch plate scam came to mind. I was discussing the merits of opening a SoupPlantaiton in Dublin and the possibility of its success. I also had the same thought about iHop – looking back I agree with eveyone who said iHop wouldn't work. I think the chances of success with a heal thy option format like SP would have a much better chance of success. Comments anyone? mcdonald.alan@gmail.com

Things went really upmarket when I got Andrea to come to WalMart with me. I read Sam Waltons biography Made In America (another excellent book, suggested to me by Justin). I really like going to WalMart just to marvel at the size of the place and the prices. Andrea does not. She would prefer me not to mention that we went there and that I bought two cups and two bowls from t hem. I also shouldn't mention that when I got home one of the cups was cracked. Did this put a crack in my relationship with WalMart, hell no.

I've been in touch with some of the people from 'the old country', Gary (who sends very funny text messages), Valerie and I've been on the phone to Mum, Dad, Mary & Paul I had a c onversation with JK too.

I was sitting at the kitchen table on
Thursday morning gazing out to the street when the oddest thing I saw that day passed my window. A man riding a Penny Farthing passed by. He zoomed passed and off up the road. I wanted to run behind him shouting "You're living too far in the past man, come back to the present…" or "Where's the circus, you circus freak…". I think you'd need a fairly robust ego and strong legs to ride one of those things and then a gain you don't want to have to tell the story to your girlfriend about how you were beaten up by a man who cycles a Penny Farthing bike do you?

 

Andrea and I have been good this last week, we've been walking most mornings and we got a Freezbe and football and playing in Balboa park. My aim is to get fit this year. With the help of Balboa Park, the Soup Plantation (minus the ice cream) I think I might just do it. Although the Mexican food industry in California might have something to say about that. At least I'm winning my battle against Anorexia!!

What else has been going on, well not much, I was on campus at SDSU a couple of times and generally still in 'finding my feet' phase of this trip.

For now, all the best.

Alan

What I'm reading

The Rule Of Four

***: My good friend Noel suggested this book. Noel gave me a copy of The Power of the Dog by Don Winslow**** (I have finished it but not given it back – sorry!), a really excellent book I'd recommend to anyone. See below for a summary.

With The Rule of Four I had to work harder, for me that is not good. I couldn't identify with the characters (not that I can identify with drug runners, CIA officials or prostitutes, you'll find them all in The Power Of The Dog). The Rule Of Four is worth reading. The Power of the Dog is a must. Here's some blurb from the cover leaf…"A mysterious coded manuscript, a violent Ivy League murder, and the secrets of a Renaissance prince collide in a labyrinth of betrayal, madness and genius in The Rule Of Four."

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down:**** This book explores the clash between a small county hospital in California and a refugee family from Laos over the care of Lia Lee, a Hmong child diagnosed with severe epilepsy. Lia's parents and her doctors both wanted what was best for Lia, but the lack of understanding between them led to tragedy.

The Power of the Dog****:

From Don Winslow (“A writer so good you almost want to keep him to yourself”—Ian Rankin), an electrifying new novel of love and revenge, politics and influence, corruption and honor. Moving at breakneck speed, it tells a riveting, sometimes harrowing story set in the shifting nexus of power among the Latin American drug cartels, the American mob, and the U.S. government.

Spanning the years from the rise of the Mexican drug Federación in the 1970s to the Iran-Contra affair in the 1980s to the vicious drug wars of the 1990s, the action ranges from Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen and the halls of Washington to the streets of Tijuana and the deserts of the American Southwest.

The players: a DEA agent, a drug lord, a call girl, a hit man, a priest. Caught up in the war on drugs, willingly or not, each is trying to escape the sins of the past while negotiating the treacherous currents of the present. Their seemingly disparate lives—taking shape on one side of the law or the other, or straddling both—slowly converge as they struggle to overcome, in any way possible, the “power of the dog.”

From the jungles of Latin America to the vicious netherworld of the California–Mexico border, this is the war on drugs you haven’t seen—its devastations and deliriums, its alliances and betrayals, its pawns and kings.

What else…?

Hooked on Sudoku – www.websudoku.com – a really excellent, clean site (no ads, no registration, easy to navigate) to play Sukoku online.

What's on my iPod Nano:

Audioslave

Dalai Lama

The Killers

The Onion Podcasts

Queens of the Stoneage

Van Morrison

The Stone Roses

San Diego Diary 2006 – Week 1 Review

San Diego Diary – Review of Week One – January 13th – January 20th

I've been in San Diego now for one week. As I mentioned in a previous post I was surprised how easy it was settling in. This continues to be true. The weather is a real help. January and it is is 17 / 18 degrees outside. The evenings are a little cold but nothing like Dublin in January, which is generally dull, overcast and cold. I know that the weather is only going to get warmer as the year moves on and I'm happy to be hear now so that I can acclimatise easily. I remember last year in NICE, France how hot it was and boy was I cranky. Paul Cronin, Pia, Andrea and I had taken the Volvo XC90 from Dublin and driven across France to the San Remo in Italy. One day we decided to drive back to NICE for the day. It was hot, it was hard to find parking for the Volvo and I remember driving into a multistory car park that I decided was built in the 60s or 70s because the car spaces were so small. I was driving up to the second level and the turn was so tight that I had to stop the car on the bend of the ramp and roll back so that I could get a proper turning angle. This was frustrating because it was a new 4X4 Jeep and it didn't belong to me. My main concern was not scrapping the bumper or rolling back into another car. Looking back I can see the humor in it but I was not laughing at the time I can tell you.

Most days I've been going for walks in Balboa Park. The motivation to walk is so high because everything is so new. Again the whether being so nice helps also. **Note I don't mention the weather all the time to rub it in to my friends back home** Honest . I've decided that I'm going to start jogging and I've suggested to Andrea that we get a football or baseball bat and tennis ball and spend more time in the park. I was out walking this morning (Saturday) and its great to see people playing volleyball, football, American Football and one group were playing Freesbee football – two teams, two goals and firing the freesbee to each other with the aim of getting it into the goal. Just imaging a game of park football and replace the football with a freesbee and the kicking of the football with the throwing of the freesbee!

I also saw on my way down to the Lawn Bowls area a group of people doing “Tai Chi” a moving from of Yoga and Meditation combined. Again something else that is great to watch. All of these things I try to imagine in the Phoenix Park or some local green area in a Dublin or County in Ireland but the image is quickly swamped with some scumbag or local nut throwing something at you because you are encroaching on their “Outdoor Inn” drinking session. Enough of my Bias!

There is a farmers market on Sunday Mornings in Hillcrest so Andrea and I are going to go over early in the morning. We went to a farmers market in Marley Park Dublin and in San Remo Italy. I really like the atmosphere of the markets, the fresh goods the smells, and the banter that you can have with people.

I've been over to San Diego State University a couple of times this week. There is free wi-fi on the campus so I can log on while Andrea is in class. I went to Dundalk Institute of Technology in the late nineties. Dundalk is an impressive campus today, quite large with a huge number of students and courses. I think that in comparison to SDSU it is small. SDSU is a large campus, impressive if only for the number coffee houses, juice bars, bookstores and heaters. There are more than one Starbucks coffee houses on site too. In fact I can't be sure but I think a Starbucks has opened up in the toilet of another Starbucks!! I really enjoy going there because of the number of people who are walking around – jocks, skateboarders, girls in sunglasses in doors, Goths, Rockers and so much more.

I've noticed that the majority of the people that I've seen here have tattoos and usually more than one. I suppose if you get one why stop at that why not keep going. I thought before that I'd like a tattoo but the more I see of them here I've decided that I won't. Its not that I don't like what I see, I do – a lot. I can tell now that a tattoo just would look wrong on me. Please not comments or emails trying to persuade me to try.

So Saturday evening, I'm going to get changed go across the road for a drink and then walk down the street to the Italian restaurant where Andrea works and pick her up.

I look forward to talking with you all soon.

Alan.

Saturday January 21^st

San Diego, CA.