No! Thank YOU, Leonard R Flynn Elementary School!

I had an amazing evening last Thursday. It was a school PTA fundraiser which I had helped organize and the first of its kind for the school. A sophisticated evening in a classy bar, with a silent auction etc. And because it was the first of its kind, I was nervous. I really really wanted it to be a success or I was going to have to skip town under a cloud rather than leave on the crest of wave.

Well that part went very well I think. The party was buzzing, loads of fun and we seem to have made quite a bit of money. And then the speeches began. And I got a going away present and a wonderfully over the top thank you speech by my good friend Loretta. And I made a speech too! Which I think may even have been bordering on passionately political but hey, I'd had wine, a cocktail and I was up for it!

Anyway. My going away present - I have been given the most incredible treasure. A photobook filled with pictures of our time here at school and with friends, and with messages from parents, children, staff at school. Amazing messages of love and gratitude.

So here's my message of gratitude to the community of Leonard R Flynn Elementary School. 

Some of you know that just over 4 years ago, I lost my sister to cancer. She died shortly after I moved from London to our Welsh valley in the Brecon Beacons, and so I found myself trying to make a new life for myself in unfamiliar surroundings, and in a deep state of shock and anguish. Over the next two years, in that beautiful landscape and amongst friendly and kind people, I got back on my feet.

Wales allowed me to feel that life could be worth living. San Francisco and the community of Flynn Elementary have put the spring back in my step.

Thank you for being so welcoming. For allowing me to help in pretty much whatever way seemed to be needed. Thank you for providing me and my family with so many friends. Thank you for reigniting a passion for social justice and equality. Thank you for teaching my children about Cesar Chavez, and Martin Luther King, and Ruby Bridges, and Harriet Tubman, and fairness, and kindness, and understanding. The diversity of your community meant that we were able to be ourselves and feel at home. It has been an extraordinary experience for our family and one that will last all our lifetimes.

Public education in America and particularly in California is in crisis. It is underfunded, underloved. Middle class families routinely leave the city for safer environments in the suburbs or leave the system for private and parochial schools. There are ongoing budget cuts that result in shortages of basic materials, regular layoffs of staff, instability in the school system, fewer days in the school year.

But there are also dedicated staff trying to make things work for the children in their care. I have seen our Principal pick up a sobbing Kindergartner not yet settled in school and so gently comfort him. I have watched dedicated talented teachers instill a love of reading and learning in children from a huge range of cultures and backgrounds.  I have seen the school social worker help bereaved children manage crises in their lives. I have seen parents spending time helping teachers, working with children, raising money for important (frankly essential) programs and equipment. It has been a privilege to spend time in this school and see it transforming.

I think I may have gone a bit political again. But I think the main reason I spent so much time at this lovely warm welcoming school is because I couldn't do anything else. There wasn't anything else which seemed as worthwhile a use of my time.

So thank you, Flynn!

An email from our classic car loving (and sadly to be disappointed) friend

Dearest Eliane and Tom,

I am quite certain that by the time I have completed this e-mail both of you will have come to your senses. It is indeed important to have the proper ride for your family while completing a trans America tour (safety, efficiency, comfort should all be considered). Thus I will be expecting Tom to pick me up for a test drive in your new automobile. I am available any time after 6:00pm by appointment.

It feels great knowing that your American tour will be in one of the best damn American made cars ever, the Impala. I can now rest easy knowing your time will indeed be everything that it promises to be.

If by chance, Tom, you have not completed your purchase of the Impala, get to fucking work, man. As to safety, efficiency, and comfort all will fly out the top of the kick-ass rag top Impala. As to the temperature in Montana in May, you are English for god's sake (and if Montana in May is not warm enough then try Nevada, in an Impala it is just a couple of hours away) Just imagine … 40 years have passed and the girls are now regaling someone with stories of their trip in a Hyundai … just does not work. Now try the Impala, ah yes that is it.

Cheers,

Brian (made in America and proud of it)

Wheels!

This morning I was lying awake wondering if Tom was awake enough to talk to about the car. Poor Tom. He hates doing this kind of thing, but in this case, he really has to be the one to do it. So I rolled over and mumbled something about could he please start thinking about this as it's been worrying me.

And lo and behold, this afternoon our car is parked outside our house.

Big thanks to My Car Guy SF without whom this kind of quick decisive action would not have been possible. Also thanks to my long-suffering mother who took a call after supper and spent time looking for paperwork to photograph and email it to me.

What did we get? I wish I could say it was this car. I know at least one man who will think we should have got this car. There has been much (drink-fueled) discussion amongst the blokes of our acquaintance in San Francisco who think we should have a classic Cadillac or equivalent with lots of chrome and a seat you can slide across on, and no doubt the Beach Boys on the radio. But I want to know that we will  get across America, and that we will be warm inside our car in Montana in early May. So we got a whoppingly large SUV. Oh the guilt! Still, it seems very comfortable for our long trip and has a huge boot/trunk for all our stuff.

So that's one big task done. I do love my decisive husband.

Reflections on our San Franciscan adventure

What I should be doing is sorting through stuff. Again. OMG as Millie would say. This is the third time we've moved in 5 years. I don't seem to be any better at minimalism than I was back in 2007 in London.

Anyway. Displacement activity - reading posts I wrote in the early autumn of 2009 when the San Franciscan adventure was about to start and reflecting on what we actually did as opposed to what we thought we'd do.

And the main thing I have done since I got here is make friends. I didn't learn Spanish or brush up my French. I took lots of photos but no course. I did some gardening at school. I took one cookery course which served to teach me that I like to cook alone and actually already know quite a lot. And yes, I volunteered at school. But mostly I made friends. Lots and lots of friends.

Modern life - friends on three continents. Missing someone somewhere all the time.

Crazy Plan is booked - mostly

I'm still calling this the Crazy Plan although I think it is really the Awesome Plan. Very awesome. Properly awesome - not in the common "my sandwich at lunch was awesome" use of the word. Nope. This is going to be one helluva year.

[To my British friends, and Xander, my apologies for the overuse of Americanisms. It appears they are a slow contagion that starts to make itself evident c. 2 years after arrival. To Mike, Howdy!]

Anyway, because Tom needs broadband and because I am not as free-wheeling as I like to think I am, we have now got accommodation booked across the States. What? You thought we were going in an RV? Not so adventurous. That'll have to wait for retirement and no more daily Hadoop.

[Extra points to the (British) wag I met at a party who on being told we were taking 4.5 months, said "you know you can drive faster than 20 miles an hour?]

Now I could keep our itinerary a surprise but if you know me personally then you'll have heard it a yawningly enormous number of times and if you don't, you might have some useful travel tips. So here goes:

We drive up the coast to Portland then on to Seattle where we stop for a month (April). Then on to Yellowstone, the Black Hills of South Dakota and Ames, Iowa. That takes 3 weeks. We arrive in Chicago in late May and spend 3 weeks there. After that it is what seems from here like a hop and skip to New York for nearly 7 weeks in Brooklyn which will take in a long weekend in DC and some trips probably to Philadelphia, Boston. Our last stop on the continent is Nova Scotia. Yes, we are trying to get as far across as we can before we have to get on a plane.

The total mileage driven will be over 4100 miles. Which is equivalent to driving from London to Samarkand in Uzbekistan - much easier and with more hamburgers I 'm sure but the same distance. Mind is boggling.

Point Reyes - pictures not words

All things mammary

This post comes under TMI so if you want to look away, do.

But who knew that the best words you could hear all week were "it's a cyst!"

Last week I found a lump. So being a well-behaved patient I made an appointment pronto, and spent the next few days worrying, envisaging ghastly scenarios etc.

And today I presented myself at Kaiser to find out what it was. I am now home and relieved ("it's a cyst!) having been prodded, poked, squeezed and generally felt about a lot. I've had two breast exams, a  mammogram, and two ultrasounds.

Things I've learned:

• Kaiser rocks - really rocks. At least two of the gropings were without appointment and after just over 3 hours I was sent on my way having seen at least three doctors, two radiologists, the woman who did the mammogram - what is that job title? I call her the "reluctant torturer" because the mammogram hurts a lot and she apologizes a lot - and lots of other efficient and friendly people.

• Mammograms hurt - see above. Also if you're a boy, imagine putting your softest but most sensitive tissue between two cold smooth pieces of plastic and then squeezing really hard and then holding your breath for ten seconds. If you're a girl, just don't think about it. It will come to you, and it's not very pleasant. Also annoyingly the mammogram didn't show anything - hence the ultrasounds.

• Ultrasounds rock - it's that same fuzzy, can you see a heartbeat picture we've seen before except this time "it's a cyst" and there wasn't a heartbeat just what is apparently technically known as "crud" "junk" "gunk" and my favourite "schmutz". Fortunately said "schmutz" can do no harm, may go away, may not but can do now harm.

• Being undressed in front of lots of people is okay. Actually it has always been okay with me (hippyish parents...) but there is something vaguely absurd about the woman who has just ladled gel on your tit and rubbed a plastic scanner over it, then getting all proper and leaving the room so you can put your bra back on in peace. Really I don't care. Tits, schmitz, or is that schmutz?

The long way home

Our time in San Francisco is coming to a close. Well not quite, but the end is fast approaching.

Regular readers of the blog will know that we always planned this to be a temporary move and we are in the undoubtedly fortunate position of being able to choose where we want to make our home. And so next summer we will be heading back to the Brecon Beacons and the Black Mountains and Crickhowell. We do love San Francisco and we have had/are having a wonderful time but - well, we love our families, and we love Britain and it's home.

So that's next summer. The big news is that we will be leaving SF a little earlier than that. We have decided to take a slightly longer route home than the flight from SFO to LHR. We will be hitching up our wagon (okay, loading up a still to be bought car) with all our worldly goods (well the ones we need/want for the journey) and heading north and then east, across the United States. For four and a half months. We want to see much more of this wonderful country and try living in a few other places for short times to get a feel for other cities.  Tom will be working - a broadband connection is what he needs - and connecting up with other Hadoop people en route. The girls will be home schooled by me for a while. And I will be blogging and taking pictures.

Meanwhile, we still have Christmas, a trip to Point Reyes in January, a big PTA fundraiser to help organize and the flat to empty. Gulp.