Settling In
14 October 2001
It's been a while since I wrote an e-mail and since I've had news e-mails from a few people this week I thought I'd better write again.
We're a little more settled in the house but still waiting for a desk and some other furniture, so as you can see I still have the laptop set up on the kitchen table and it's still warm enough to have the doors open at 10pm. The weather was perfect for Folsom Street Fair a fortnight ago and we had almost as much fun as the previous year when we were here for the fair on holiday. The Castro Street Fair was the following weekend and it was interesting to see the same people who had been in harnesses and chaps the previous weekend wearing polo shirts and selling home-made jams and cakes to raise money for worthy causes. We will be interested to see our first Hallowe'en in a few weeks, which is supposed to be quite a big deal here.
Work at UCSF has been increasingly busy but at least I'm getting familiar with how things are done in the operating rooms there and no longer expect a delay of less than half an hour between cases. The research is coming along towards a contribution to a paper on inflammation, for which I've been anaesthetizing rats. (rat not shown in the picture, but it goes to sleep on the desk there)
I did my written driving licence test this week and will have to go back for a "drive test" soon, but even if we get a car I will still be walking to work through the "woods" behind the hospital:
The woods are mostly eucalypts and acacias so it's just like home except for the squirrels and raccoons. The mud on my shoes smells like gum trees by the time I get to work. This picture was taken last Friday when I was working in the lab. On the days when I work in the theatres I get there when it's still dark.
Friday afternoon I walked from the hospital to Golden Gate Park and sat on the grass for a while. I took this picture looking back towards Mt Sutro. The hospital includes the buildings in the background on the hill. On top of the hill is the television tower and the house is about 400 yards to the left of the tower in the picture.
Richard, whose house it is we're renting, was up for the weekend and Robert decided to have a dinner party for some of the people we've met since arriving here. Robert cooked lamb after some initial panic as he hadn't got home from work, nor me from shopping for ingredients, until about 4pm. Richard got some suitable wines out of his cellar since neither of us knew anything much about American wines. His selections included an Australian red which even I recognized:
Dinner went well and was something of a relief after a very stressful week. Digitas, the company Robert is working for, had a substantial downsizing, but he was okay after a couple of anxious days waiting. The client he's working for
The anthrax scare has not been a big deal here, and we haven't been stockpiling antibiotics yet. I have a cold, but I don't think it's anything serious as it's getting better.
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We're a little more settled in the house but still waiting for a desk and some other furniture, so as you can see I still have the laptop set up on the kitchen table and it's still warm enough to have the doors open at 10pm. The weather was perfect for Folsom Street Fair a fortnight ago and we had almost as much fun as the previous year when we were here for the fair on holiday. The Castro Street Fair was the following weekend and it was interesting to see the same people who had been in harnesses and chaps the previous weekend wearing polo shirts and selling home-made jams and cakes to raise money for worthy causes. We will be interested to see our first Hallowe'en in a few weeks, which is supposed to be quite a big deal here.
Work at UCSF has been increasingly busy but at least I'm getting familiar with how things are done in the operating rooms there and no longer expect a delay of less than half an hour between cases. The research is coming along towards a contribution to a paper on inflammation, for which I've been anaesthetizing rats. (rat not shown in the picture, but it goes to sleep on the desk there)
I did my written driving licence test this week and will have to go back for a "drive test" soon, but even if we get a car I will still be walking to work through the "woods" behind the hospital:
The woods are mostly eucalypts and acacias so it's just like home except for the squirrels and raccoons. The mud on my shoes smells like gum trees by the time I get to work. This picture was taken last Friday when I was working in the lab. On the days when I work in the theatres I get there when it's still dark.
Friday afternoon I walked from the hospital to Golden Gate Park and sat on the grass for a while. I took this picture looking back towards Mt Sutro. The hospital includes the buildings in the background on the hill. On top of the hill is the television tower and the house is about 400 yards to the left of the tower in the picture.
Richard, whose house it is we're renting, was up for the weekend and Robert decided to have a dinner party for some of the people we've met since arriving here. Robert cooked lamb after some initial panic as he hadn't got home from work, nor me from shopping for ingredients, until about 4pm. Richard got some suitable wines out of his cellar since neither of us knew anything much about American wines. His selections included an Australian red which even I recognized:
Dinner went well and was something of a relief after a very stressful week. Digitas, the company Robert is working for, had a substantial downsizing, but he was okay after a couple of anxious days waiting. The client he's working for
The anthrax scare has not been a big deal here, and we haven't been stockpiling antibiotics yet. I have a cold, but I don't think it's anything serious as it's getting better.
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