Old friends

On Saturday morning, we all visited an Arts and Craft Market. There was some attractive stuff, although it was maybe a little overpriced. Left without buying anything.

I was then dropped off in Davis where I met up with Colin, a friend from El Dorado Hills who is now studying for a PhD at UCD. A few years ago, Colin visited England with his friend Victor, and I took them round Cambridge on a tour. So he owed me a tour of Davis! So we went for a walk around the campus (pretty and leafy) and then for a drive to Davis centre where we had a tea/hot chocolate and had a chat about what we'd been up to. It was very pleasant. Davis was an attractive place, with lots of trees and all low-rise buildings. Said bye to Colin and then went with Caroline and my Mum to have dinner with Claire and the girls. When we arrived, Lauren greeted us at the door with Claire's sunglasses on and saying she was a 'cool dude'. We couldn't help but laugh. Isabella kept breaking into air guitar, with moshing and and exclamations of 'rock on!'. Very amusing to see that from a five-year-old sweet-looking girl!

On Sunday, me and my Mum drove to San Jose to visit Julie and her father, Pierre, and Pierre's partner Linda. We hadn't seen Pierre for a long time, and it was good to see him again. We chatted about old times and what had happened since our last meeting, then went out for dinner in Los Gatos. The food in the 'California Cafe' where we ate was fantastic. Afterwards we went in Borders (the fourth one I've visited since arriving in the states) then back to their house for more chat. Julie remembered a funny story about one time when she had fallen out with my brother Simon (which happened often). Apparently Pierre came out into the yard (garden) to find Julie digging a hole in the ground. He asked what on earth she was doing. She replied, "I'm digging Simon's grave!"
After telling us this story, she then admitted to her Dad that she had dug the spade through the pipe to the pond, and that that was why it had never worked properly since. All the truth was coming out that evening!!!

We ended up driving back to Sacramento quite late, which meant that I had to take over the driving when my Mum pulled over because she was about to fall asleep! Luckily I was not quite so tired, otherwise we would have been in trouble!!!