Safe in San Francisco

Posted in: What am I up to

It's 4am and I'm wide awake; not sure if that's jet lag or the advantage of polyphasic sleep...

So, arrived earlier yesterday, after a mostly painless 11hr flight. After being in London for four years and basically happy to have left the States (hi, Bush!) I'm struck how much I'm glad to be back - I've such a catalog of great memories and experiences even just driving up 101 into town felt good. Although I'd've preferred to have been on a motorbike... That said, I'm driving such a nice car, a Honda Elantra, I tried to start it when it was already on, and even when I paid attention in what was quite a quiet underground car park I still couldn't hear the engine ticking over.

Anyway, the other aspect of being back is the panoply of smells is so familiar from the background of damp grass on Fell nr Golden Gate park to the woody aroma of being in a restaurant to the "fingerprint" of Karen's house. It's quite bizarre, in four years it's all exactly the same and all entirely uniquely identifiable. Very reassuring.

So tomorrow is first day training at Googleplex. I have to be out of SF by 8am as my car's parked in a street cleaning zone and besides I don't feel like inadvertently terrifying other drivers in rush hour traffic with my unpracticed right-hand-side-of-the-road skills :-)

Posted by Paul Makepeace at April 10, 2006 12:17 | TrackBack