Yes…I am alive. One wouldn’t know it with the amount of blogging going on around here. I have a big excuse…I’ve been busy. After we got back from San Francisco I had a crazy few weeks sorting out end of financial year stuff at work and at home and I also had a few weeks worth of bad news which made it a little difficult to pull together happy sounding blog posts. Anyway, I’ll do my best to blog a little more regularly because I know at least a few people miss the blog posts.From late July until mid August I spent three weeks in Dayton, Ohio. I had to undertake a compulsory US run, international logistics course. I’m really not the best student when it comes to doing something I haven’t chosen for myself, but in the end it wasn’t too painful. Yes, they somehow managed to make a four day course last nearly three weeks, but I got through it. The best things about it was that there were 30 odd students from 23 different countries so I met heaps of great people from around the world and we are already keeping in touch via email. Quite a few of them are living temporarily in the US (like us) so we will have some people to visit if we like. These little fellas made my stay. I was staying in accommodation on base which was really nice (a far cry from temporary accommodation in Australia). At the end of my block was a stormwater drain and every evening Mummy duck had worked out that she could bring her babies up for a free feed from the humans. There were about 9 ducklings who all look very healthy and were extremely friendly. I could pat them because they came so close.  A couple of excursions were organised as part of the course. On the first Saturday we visited the National Museum of the Air Force. Apparently it’s one of the best Aerospace museums in the country. Although there were plenty of aircraft on display from every era, the thing I liked best were the displays and history about the beginnings of flight. Dayton is where the Wright brothers were from so there is plenty of early aviation history here.On the first Sunday, the entire course was loaded onto a bus and driven up to Cincinatti for a river cruise on an old paddle steamer.The river serves as the border between Ohio and Kentucky and since we had now officially been to the state of Kentucky I found it amusing that there was fried chicken served on board (for brunch). Ok…so small things amuse me. The captain was a bit of fun also.  During the second weekend, a few of us spent the Saturday driving around Ohio Amish communities. The first town we went to was called Millersburg and it was in the middle of a farmers market. I managed to score myself a vintage chocolate tin with pictures of dogs on it (i.e. some junk) for $1. Luckily I couldn’t fit anything more in my luggage otherwise I could have come home with plenty more.  Gotta love fluffy dice on the dash of an Amish buggy. Kathy (another Aussie) is right into quilting, so of course we stopped into some good ole fabric barns. The Austrian and Chilean who had tagged along for the ride couldn’t help themselves when they found the Amish clothing racks and decided to have a bit of fun. Some things truly transcend the language barrier. :)I thought the Pennsylvania Amish areas that we visited in April were much nicer (and less touristy) that the Ohio towns, but it was still a nice outing.  On the second Sunday, Kate (another Aussie girl) and I headed off on a roadtrip to Indiana and Kentucky. It was mostly rural areas and small towns, and given that it was Sunday (in the bible belt) we were lucky to get any breakfast at all! Finally we arrived in Madison around midday and there were some signs of life. The whole day could have been very, very quiet otherwise. After a coffee (finally) we wandered around town for 20 minutes or so, only to discover the entire main street was decorated with painted pigs of every variety. I guess some sort of pork festival was coming up. Kate and I both found the Sherriff pig the most amusing.   The course finally ended on the Thursday and I collected Brendan from the airport before we headed out to dinner at my new favourite restaurant, Brio Tuscan Grille. I was a little upset to learn that it’s a chain restaurant, but I managed to get over it. I went four times while in Dayton. It was that good!

I know it’s been far too long since I wrote on this blog. I’m terribly behind with all my correspondence and I’ll try to rectify that over the coming month. In the meantime I thought I had better provide a quick update to let you know we are still here. Since our trip to Canada, I have been doing a lot of quality thinking. Thinking about what it is that I want in life. I guess it’s been just over a month since we got back and since then I have read a couple of great books which have really solidified some of my thoughts. Geography of Bliss - One Grumps search for the happiest places in the World. I picked this up for my bookclub and am thoroughly glad I did. There were so many gems in this book and it really made me think about what it is we really need to be happy. Funnily enough, a large quantity of money is not necessarily one of them. Creativity definitely is one of them. I’ve also just finished The Joy of Not Working. Wow…Fabulous. Everything in the book is reasonably obvious, but I had a major mind shift in the time it took me to finish it. I’ve always flirted with the idea that I would be retired by 35. At 23 I told this to my boss…He laughed. Now at the age of 31 I’m entering that final straight. With this overseas posting I’ve achieved everything I wanted in my career, and it will soon be time for a change. Brendan and I have been doing some serious dreaming and intend to be living in the mountains in Queensland around the time I turn 35. Of course, there is much work to do to ensure this happens but I strongly believe that if you put it out there, the Universe will deliver. It’s worked in every aspect of my life so far. So there you go. It’s out there. In the meantime, I am trying my best to live in the moment more and enjoy the simple things in life. As such, I am spending more time with new friends, Brendan and I regularly go to the park and sit under a tree and we enjoy taking Zoe to the beach. Such simple things that cost nothing and mean everything. Ok, that’s enough deep introspection for today. I’ll leave you with this great new blog I just found. Millionaire Mommy Next Door. She has some great thoughts on financial independence, happiness and gratitude.  

Hooray a sleep in! Much needed.Off to Alcatraz. It was really good in the end. I thought the shear amount of tourists would ruin the experience but the whole set up is quite well structured and it flowed well. Quite a surreal place, particularly when you go inside the cells. Not for me - I think I try to stay a good little boy. For the rest of the day we walked, lots. Hot travel tip: Lonely Planet self guided walking tours are the go. No mass tourists and you get into the back streets and see the true architecture and culture. Plus it is nice and active.We have tried different travel books but save your money and stick with the Lonely Planet Guides…. they have it sorted.From an Italian district for lunch to Nepalese food for dinner we had a great day. One other hot tip though: sitting in an open top bus to get home via the Golden Gate bridge is kind of breezy and freaking cold! This place changes it’s weather quicker than ever. The first couple of days we were in a heat wave! The 4th day thy nipples were on high beam and freezing! Come prepared.Great place and more great experiences and memories with my clever wife. She is a good trip planner.Put San Fran on your to do list.B.

First we dropped off the hire car and tested the local BART (train system) to get back into town. We had pre-booked a ‘Hop on Hop off’ type bus to get around the city. What we didn’t realise was that there were several companies that all looked the same! The first effort left me having words with the biggest bitch (ticket taker) I have ever dealt with! Damn she pi*&sed us off! I wont go into details as my blood is boiling already but we have never been so rudely spoken to from someone in a hospitality position. To defend the American’s, her accent was very European… Anyway; unbelievable. I am sure my good friend ‘karma’ will sort her out one day. From there we were kindly treated by another operator and directed to the correct company and off we went. We saw some great areas and covered a fair few miles for several hours and Mia took many a photo. It is a small world though. We were walking down a quiet street and I was checking out a nice Motorbike parked up ahead (yes I know; I should have been paying Mia attention) and I noticed what appeared to be the key hanging from the seat lock. It was. Obviously he had locked things up but then forgot to take the key with him! Two doors down I noticed an old IT Yamaha in a garage and a couple of blokes tinkering around. I thought I would ask if they owned or knew the owner of the bike. Turns out one of the guys was an Australian, spent time in Tamworth but mainly in Sydney! He knew of the bloke and was quite helpful and minded the key. At least we hope he did… I did my best. He also had a dog…. so Mia was happy taking photo’s and then we were treated to a tour of his garage and all of his restoration projects; An MG, lots of bikes and even furniture. Not a bad bloke and a pretty interesting encounter. Life has funny little coincidences hey? The street / city culture is amazing. You can so tell that the Hippy phenomenon started here, certainly some wacky - kooky people living there. Mind you, we went looking for those areas to see what it was all about. Although we did eventually feel like it was all a bit much in one local park. I think I am still high! ;-) Even Mia said it was a bit over whelming. I guess people choose the lifestyle to an extent but I wonder if the teenagers living the life are really living it because it is who they are or just to be ‘cool’….Day 3 down 1 to go. So far so good. Tomorrow we visit Alcatraz and wear out some more boot leather.

An early start again had us on our way in the VW Jetta down to Montery Bay. We stopped in the township for a quick brew and a look around town. Then we headed for the well renowned Montery aquarium. Lets just say it didn’t disappoint. Very well set up and well worth visiting.After looking at plenty of fishies swimming around I thought it only practically that I should go and eat some for lunch. Even Mia tried the famous Clam Chowder and wasn’t disappointed and neither was I with a nicely cooked fillet of Tialpia. The plan of attack was to head for Santa Cruz for the afternoon. That was soon turned into a blocked highway and 1 hr of crawling traffic to divert away from a major grass fire! No Santa Cruz for us… bugger. O well next time. Turns out the fire burned for a further couple of days and took out some homes so that is a little unfortunate. I guess it puts our little delay into perspective. They needed you there Lucky!We wanted to do the coast road on the way back up to San Fran, as it is a well renowned drive but the diversion stopped that. Instead we headed inland through the mountains (great driving in the Jetta) and back to San Fran.On the way though we ended up in a little city called Morgan Hill. Freaking hot and dry and plenty of Friday night hoons showing off their toys doing laps of the main street while we ate dinner. The place was pretty neat though and made up for our change in itinerary.A long day but a good one in the end.Tomorrow is the last day with the Jetta though and then back to boot rubber for the weekend in the city. Great little car by the way, the Passat is a little nicer though.Adios.