mccullochblog

What do you do when you've nothing to do (and you're home alone)

Emma's in the UK for a few days to meet our new nephew, George, and to celebrate Lauren's 5th birthday too. I would have loved to be there with her, but that didn't work out, so I'm on my own and, coincidentally, without any plans. Wait a minute...when did THAT last happen?

We live a pretty busy life. No, we live a REALLY busy life, and so a whole free weekend alone is something of a rarity...a luxury, almost.

So there I was last night wondering what to do with my weekend; what to do with my FREE time?! Well ,what better, I thought, than golf! So Kevin and I went out for 18 holes. (I shot a 91 at Lincoln Park). What next? Movie watching! A Hannibal Lector marathon on TMC! And then a curry for dinner (yum), and tomorrow, I think a fantastic, massive, tiring, satisfying bike ride to the Marin Headlands....brilliant...it's shaping up nicely!

So what about you? What would you do to indulge yourself on the ultimate, all-about-you weekend alone?

Now, where's that bottle opener...

Limpets and Blisters

It must be twenty years since I last used a pebble to smash a limpet off a rock to dig the unsuspecting molusc out of its shell to use as bait for a fishing expedition.

And it must also be a good ten years since I had some serious blisters on my palms and a collection of bloody scratches on my hands and feet as a result of a day of manual labor.

Who knew a brief visit to my brother and his wife's new seaside home could deliver such surprises?!

Actually, it's been a great weekend, and an unusual pleasure (thanks to a work trip) to be able to 'drop in' on family 5,400 miles from where I usually live my life. And what better way to mark the occasion than to catch a dozen shrimp, six crabs and a blennie and to build a fence using only cut-offs from fallen trees and a few supporting stakes!

Admittedly, I haven't worked so hard in years, but I don't think I've ever quite appreciated the beauty and simple pleasures of the countryside as much either! Enjoy the pictures...

Food Snobs!

Some blog posts are very much spur-of-the-moment for me, but this one's been brewing for a while. I'm not sure when it happened precisely, but at some point in the last six years, I realised that I had become a food snob.

San Franciscans will tell you this happens because we have such a fantastic array of restaurants in the city. Certainly the fact that you can eat in those fantastic restaurants for around $35 per head (if you go easy on the wine) is indeed a factor in inducing one's tastebuds to get a little bit hoity-toity. I suspect this is especially the case for me, having lived for ten years in a city that is the world's costliest for dining out)

However, my point is not that my tastebuds are demanding caviar and Cristal champagne, but that I've come to believe that certain parts of the world simply can't be beat for certain food stuffs. I would say, for example, that Seared Ahi Tuni and San Francisco (okay, and Hawaii) simply belong together. And while I'm on the subject, take the following oft-heard (at least by me) claims:

• "You can't get decent Mexican food in America outside of California."
• "If you want a good curry in the Bay Area, you have to go to Oakland."
• "You can't get a decent pint of Guinness outside of Ireland."
• "The only place you'll find edible bagels in the USA is New York."

None of that really makes sense does it? And yet it's true! You really can't get a decent cup of tea with scones and jam outside of jolly old England!

Anyway, I'm curious to hear what you uniquely can and can't get where you live!

p.s. This post provides all the explanation ever needed for why I link to this blog.

Fun!

As someone who spent his 32nd birthday at Disneyland being photographed with Winnie the Pooh, I have long believed that adults derive much more pleasure from Theme Parks than kids do.

I'm actually pretty convinced that it takes the wizening and hardening effect of the school of hard knocks, the classroom of mortgage enslavement and the personal tutor of salary dependency to allow you to fully enjoy, say, hundreds of people being utterly soaked by a killer whale frolicking in a giant-sized swimming pool.

As you can probably guess, Emma and I had a fantastic time at Seaworld in San Diego last weekend. Yes, it was a nice bit of escapism, but it was also much more than that. I was genuinely in awe of the legendary Shamu (or one of his/her eight stunt doubles) leaping into the air. I would liken it to the sight of say, a Boeing 747, looping-the-loop: very surprising, quite awe-inspiring, and really good fun to watch!

Even my most carefully-chosen words won't do the spectacle justice, so I've captured a little of the experience here for you. And if that isn't enough...imagine seeing Shamu AND being able to stroke a bat-ray, feed a dolphin, pet a shark (okay, a really small shark) and choose from literally dozens of junk-food outlets (oh, and one healthy option).

Anyway, it's fabulous...get yourself to San Diego for the weekend.