Surprise Visit from my Parents
25 April 2002
It seems that everyone except me knew that Mum and Dad were coming to visit as a surprise for my birthday. Robert did a great job of keeping it a secret and I had only a slight suspicion that something like this was going on when suddenly they were in the house when I got home from work one Thursday.
An even bigger surprise was that almost everyone I told in San Francisco, including acquaintances at the gym, already knew they were coming. I guess Robert had to tell somebody if he couldn't tell me.
I had a good time showing them some of the sights of San Francisco, such as Costco, and giving directions to the others since I was working during the week while they were here. Robert had also planned a weekend in Yosemite while they were here. We drove there in a rental car and when we got to the South gate of the park we realized a 4-wheel-drive might have been more suitable than a sedan.
We survived the snowy roads and once we were down in the valley in the middle of the park the conditions were a little more hospitable. We walked to the giant sequoias and saw the waterfalls from a distance.
The following week Craig Sainsbury (my cousin for non-family) visited on his way from Melbourne to London via Mexico, the US, Portugal etc. Friday was my 32nd birthday and so I had much more family around for it than I had expected, which made for a very happy birthday.
The weekend after my birthday we had planned to go to Palm Springs. There we stayed with Bruce and Billy and went to the White Party. Jennifer Lopez performed at the White Party and Deborah Cox at the tea dance the following day. It was quite an event, but MardiGras has nothing to fear. Surprisingly we ran into several people we had previously met in London last June.
The conditions were quite a contrast from the previous weekend in Yosemite. This time we had rented a black Jeep Liberty which was again somewhat ill-suited to the conditions, but would have been better in the snow the previous weekend. I can see how Palm Springs would be unpleasant in the Summer as it was really hot in early Spring.
At work UCSF was very excited about being rated in the top 10 US medical schools for both clinical teaching and research. They would not be in the top 10 for up-to-date anaesthesia equipment; some of the monitoring equipment is from the 1980s such as the blood pressure monitor at my eye-level in this picture.
They also aren't in the top 10 for on-time visa renewal processing and so I might have to delay a few weeks in visiting Australia (planned for July) despite asking last August how I could make sure the visa would be ready in time.
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An even bigger surprise was that almost everyone I told in San Francisco, including acquaintances at the gym, already knew they were coming. I guess Robert had to tell somebody if he couldn't tell me.
I had a good time showing them some of the sights of San Francisco, such as Costco, and giving directions to the others since I was working during the week while they were here. Robert had also planned a weekend in Yosemite while they were here. We drove there in a rental car and when we got to the South gate of the park we realized a 4-wheel-drive might have been more suitable than a sedan.
We survived the snowy roads and once we were down in the valley in the middle of the park the conditions were a little more hospitable. We walked to the giant sequoias and saw the waterfalls from a distance.
The following week Craig Sainsbury (my cousin for non-family) visited on his way from Melbourne to London via Mexico, the US, Portugal etc. Friday was my 32nd birthday and so I had much more family around for it than I had expected, which made for a very happy birthday.
The weekend after my birthday we had planned to go to Palm Springs. There we stayed with Bruce and Billy and went to the White Party. Jennifer Lopez performed at the White Party and Deborah Cox at the tea dance the following day. It was quite an event, but MardiGras has nothing to fear. Surprisingly we ran into several people we had previously met in London last June.
The conditions were quite a contrast from the previous weekend in Yosemite. This time we had rented a black Jeep Liberty which was again somewhat ill-suited to the conditions, but would have been better in the snow the previous weekend. I can see how Palm Springs would be unpleasant in the Summer as it was really hot in early Spring.
At work UCSF was very excited about being rated in the top 10 US medical schools for both clinical teaching and research. They would not be in the top 10 for up-to-date anaesthesia equipment; some of the monitoring equipment is from the 1980s such as the blood pressure monitor at my eye-level in this picture.
They also aren't in the top 10 for on-time visa renewal processing and so I might have to delay a few weeks in visiting Australia (planned for July) despite asking last August how I could make sure the visa would be ready in time.
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