We hope this email finds you all well? We are OK here but the poor young Sazberry had a bit of a bad start to the week (11/02/2009) - her 12 month injections. This week she has been six teeth & four jabs berry! Both Sarah and Faith took the injections well with only a minor amount of whimpering (from both of them) during the injections. Unfortunately for the rest of the week the Sazberry was feeling a little under the weather, clearly it didn't affect her appetite though! (See photo). By the weekend though, she was back to her usual smiling self and we were able to have some shopping fun!
Last weekend (10/31/2009) we hired a car and went off to Half Moon Bay and Pigeon Point Lighthouse. It was very interesting to drive down Highway 1 looking out of the Pacific, I would like to tell you of the spectacular views we had and the long vista's that stretched to the horizon but, unfortunately it was foggy so we only caught snatches of the view in the breaks in the clouds - these glimpses were amazing though and we have something to look forward to when we go back. As it was foggy on the coast when we stopped in Half Moon Bay we headed inland to see one of the many pumpkin patches. As we drove down the road each farm had fields of pumpkins set out in neat rows with children running excitedly them. It was one of those great autumn days (away from the coast) with a warm wind and blue skies. We unloaded the Sazberry and wandered round one of the bigger pumpkin patches. The farms in the valley are getting quite competitive and the place we stopped had a petting zoo, a bouncy castle, slides, tractor ride, ghost train, haunted barn as well as hundreds of pumpkins in all shapes and sizes - from small enough to put in your pocket to bigger than the Sazberry!
On Tuesday night it was Nick (the new Geo Director) & Christine's house warming. It was great fun and loads of people turned up with their partners. It was quite interesting to meet outside of work and see how people behave (quite well generally!). It was a very relaxed evening and it was a great way to consolidate existing friendships and make new friends, plus the food was lovely! Despite the constant chatter the Sazberry fell asleep in Faith's arms and at that point we knew it was time to head home.
Thursday night (11/05/2009) was the second Arup quiz night, Geo were defending their title (and their undefeated recorded (1 for 1 as they say here)). We fielded a strong team and Allie's revision of all things Guy Fawkes-ian really paid off as there was one round specifically on 5th November. It was an odd round as the answer to each question was some sort of "guy" from Guy Richie to Guyana via the Geiger counter. Anyway after seven rounds of intensive competition the scores were added up and there was tie for first place between Geo and A.N. Other team, so it all came down to the tie-breaker. We each selected a team member to go head-to-head on the 'stage' (- we selected Terrence), the final question was a guessing question about the length of the California High Speed Rail route, team members took it in turn to guess the length and then the quizmaster would tell them if their guess was too high or low until eventually we arrived at the answer and the winner, conferring was allowed. After a couple of rounds Nick suggested 281 miles and the compare suddenly announced he had changed his mind about conferring and we would forfeit our go! The other team having heard our suggestion chirped up "281" and won! I don't want to judge but.... the quizmaster is a Wednesday fan - as they say over here, I'll let you do the math!?!
OK have a splendid week and hopefully I will hear from you soon, regards Tom Faith & Sarah