1.4.00

Bike Buying in Salinas I'd been searching for a bike for a while now and wanted to check out a shop down in Salinas. It's a fair drive (60 miles or so) but is a real town rather than the cash rich towns of the valley. Hence bikes are priced within the reach of mere mortals and the shop claimed on the phone they had a ton to choose from. Which, in fairness, they did. I'd originally planned to buy a dual purpose trials/ street bike or enduro look-alike such as TransAlp. However, having checked out a few I actually ended up falling for a Kawasaki ZX600. 

It was three years old with a ton of miles on it (i.e. 30K) but it had clearly been looked after and the engine sounded in good shape (actually it sounded like a load of old nuts and bolts but I suspected a service would do the trick). After much haggling we arrived on a price, sorted out the insurance and I was ready to ride away. Well, almost. They had to fix a broken throttle and to the mechanic's credit (and my relief) the guy stayed behind long after the shop had closed stripping down the throttle housing from a new ZX6 for parts to repair mine ! Finally we were on our way and I had the pleasant task of riding 60 miles of freeway in the dark with Jayne following. Still, it was fun !

Overall verdict is I got a really nice bike for less that 2000 pounds. I've since had it serviced (Salinas have the cheek to have a non-negotiable service cost in their bike price when they appear to not really service it, just get it running) and now it runs like a dream. I'll write some more details, a review perhaps :-), when I get a chance. 

10.4.00

Motorcycle Test Today was the day I had my motorcycle skill test and I was kinda worried. I can ride of course but I hadn't really been able to find out any details of what the test would really involve. Still, I'd decided to just take the test asap and then if I failed, retake it based on the experience I'd gained. I really needn't have worried !

I arrived at the test center and after registering went outside to be greeted by the examiner. He directed me to a small conned off area of the car park and asked me to stop. He then asked me to point out the major controls on the bike (brakes, gears etc.). He then asked me to ride around in a circle a couple of times, weave between some cones and then asked me to turn off the engine. "That's it" he said. I was confused. "Do we go out on the road now I asked ?" innocently. "Nope, that's it, you've passed" came the reply. Oh my god. No observation tests. No braking tests. No road test. Nothing. Now I'm really worried. I've passed, but I have to share the road with lots of people who have only taken this test. Scary man. 

13.4.00

Touchdown! Today Jayne's mum and dad arrived from England. They'd never flown before so this was a real learning experience but when we saw them through the glass of SF airport they looked great. However, they then disappeared !! Well, actually what happened is they joined the endless queue in immigration but this meant they disappeared from view for a long time and Jayne became convinced that they'd been turned back! I've never seen anyone so relieved as when two familiar faces appeared in the terminal. Both had survived and over the next two weeks we had lots of great trips. Some of them are described below but time and space stops me going into lots of details. Probably the best ones in my opinion were the view from Coit tower after a slap up lunch in North Beach, picnicking in Napa with a bottle of wine and flying my kite on one of the beaches near Half Moon Bay.

15.4.00

Alcatraz Today we headed off into SF for a visit to Alcatraz Island, most famous for its prison but also home to various army bases and small villages during the years. After a short boat trip across the bay you get to tour the island and the jail, listening to descriptions of the conditions from former residents (both wardens and prisoners).  Did anyone ever escape from "The Rock" ? Well, five people did escape whose bodies were never discovered. The authorities claim these people drowned, but if they didn't I'm sure they won't be coming forward anytime soon (they'd be about 70 and still wanted criminals!).

21.4.00

Baseball Tonight we went to see Oakland Athletics play baseball. The food aside, this was great fun. Even Jayne seemed to enjoy the game once we'd done a quick refresher on the rules.

25.4.00

Cirque Du Soleil This evening we went to see one the Cirque Du Soleil shows, Dralion, in San Jose. After all the hype I was convinced that they couldn't be as good as everyone said (or as the ticket prices suggested). How wrong I was. The show was amazing, featuring all manner of clowns, jugglers, acrobats etc. There's absolutely no point in me trying to describe it in words - but if you get the chance to see one of these shows grab it - you won't regret it. If you want to see some pictures from the show visit the Cirque Du Soleil site describing the acts. 

27.4.00

Departure! After a great two weeks we bid goodbye to Jayne's mum and dad today. After a slow start with the weather we had lots of sunshine and managed to pack in loads of sightseeing, beach visiting, swimming and generally hanging out. Last night Jayne went to the writing class at Stanford so the three of us got to go out for a meal in Palo Alto at the Gordon Biersch brew pup. Great food and even better beer. Don't forget to visit the photo page for lots of pictures of our exploits.

29.4.00

Mobicom in Santa Cruz Ok, so its official. I've finally found the world's most amazing setting for a campus. High in the hills overlooking Santa Cruz and the bay lies Santa Cruz University. The campus is out of this world, with the buildings nestled in amongst redwoods. OK, maybe the buildings aren't sooo great but the setting makes up for it. If you get to Santa Cruz it's definitely worth a look.

Oh yeah, and it was work this weekend. The Mobicom PC meeting took place at the university, hence the reason I was there. The meeting went very smoothly (well done Ramon and JJ) but took place in a room with no windows. Aaargh.