The McLeans have certainly brought the summer with them. Obviously not from Britain - they must have picked it up somewhere over the mid-Atlantic. Wherever it's come from, temperatures have been soaring, the sun has been beating down, and it has been the perfect day for swimming in Lake Anza up at Tilden Park followed by a barbecue in university village.
Californian beach bunny.
Lake Anza - Berkeley's Cote d'Azur.
Back in the village and ready to burn meat.
Grillmasters Ian and me.
Left: vegetarian, right: carnivore.
Elliot prepares his amazing charred fig and endive salad.
It's been a day full of hints of blackcurrent, leather, butter, farmyards, etc.
The McLeans and Hannah hit wine country hard, and luckily had a very friendly person to drive them and provide high quality childcare. We began (as always) with Champagne at Korbel, popped by Moschin, found a new (free!) winery in Simi, and polished it off with La Crema.
The only dangerous part of the day was the sale that Korbel was having. Thankfully Ian and Ellen's hire car has a big boot. There's a bottle in the freezer slowly acquiring the correct temperature to pop the cork...
With falling university attendance in the UK, Hannah and I did our duty as Godparents by introducing and inspiring Megan with a trip to Berkeley. After Benenden and Swiss finishing school we feel it's the natural next step.
Our young charge seemed impressed with the bells in the campanile, and the library (despite the lack of a children's section), but only really perked up when she discovered how close Yogurtland is to campus...
Proud father.
New recruit.
A taste for frozen yogurt.
Getting the maximum from her investment. Definitely a future Haas student.
We have visitors! Ian, Ellen, and Megan have flown all the way from sunny Woking to see us for a few weeks. They're taking in Yosemite and Big Sur while they're here, but today we kicked things off with a trip into San Francisco.
This weekend it's San Francisco's Outside Lands festival, a smorgasbord of music and culture (but mostly music) in Golden Gate Park. Dan and Fiona had a spare ticket and very kindly passed it on to me.
For some reason most people thought that the Pearl Jam show was the main event of Friday. They were badly mistaken. For a start, the legend that is Tom Jones was playing (on a smaller stage! What?!), and also there was an entire tent dedicated to The Beatles: Rock Band. I found myself arriving, with my usual British punctuality, about two hours before any friends. What else was I going to do with my time?
There is one tragic note. I had taken along my old, long-forgotten, super-cheap Rock Band rip-off guitar that I had purchased from a charity shop in the distant past. My aim was to recreate a live Rock Band session while Pearl Jam was on. Actually writing that down makes it sound a lot more stupid than it did in my head...
At the gate the security lady looked at the fake instrument in my bag, called over her supervisor, who called his supervisor over the radio...and I was told that as I could swing it and hit someone I wasn't allowed to take it in! "But it's a plastic guitar!" I protested, a devastatingly argument if ever there was one! And unsuccessful. I nestled it between two recycling bins, wiped a tear from my eye, and decided there were few better places to inter it than a rock festival.
Everything present and correct in the festival bag.
The party bus! Actually it was hot, smelly, and I had to stand for an hour...
Goodbye, thou good and faithful friend :(
Heading into the outlands.
When at a festival you have to get your free (Toyota branded) tattoo.
The crowd gathers.
Now this is more like it.
Me and Dan rock out.
So impressed (I'm sure!) was a photographer from the San Francisco Chronicle that she took lots of pictures of me. It was like being a real Beatle! (Fiona directs).
A friendly helper in the Intel tent. Dana used to work for them, I wonder if she had to dress like this...
Oh, and apparently there was some music playing somewhere.
But there were plenty of other distractions.
Fiona and me (trying to look the part with my free bandanna).
With Dan, and much more sensible head wear.
It's not every day that you find yourself in the presence of divinity.
Here he is! And yes, there are the knickers that were thrown at him.
Tom, Amanda, David.
Pearl Jam. It's tough when you have to follow Tom Jones.
Pretty lights.
And that was it! You find me in the post-festival comedown, filthy, tired out, dehydrated...and with an unquenchable craving to sing in close harmony with a Liverpudlian accent. Not long now.
Free food. Two little words that say so much. The marketing geniuses at Target realised this when they advertised their exclusive after-hours Berkeley-students-only event last night.
At 10.45pm Hannah and I strode from uni village, over the bridge and across the store car park towards the buses that had been laid on for students coming from campus. After having complimentary Cokes handed to us we walked through the door and into wonderland. Hip-hop music blared (it's what the kids are listening to these days), we were showered with vouchers from every side, and goody-bags were thrust upon us with abandon.
I wandered about this strange twilight scene, listening to the chatter of excited undergrads, checking my coupons against regular product prices, absently munching on a packet of free Parmesan and garlic crisps (no surprise that they were being given away). Then it was back home, pausing only to pick up a couple more free Cokes on the way out.
