Without going into any kind of detail things have been a bit manic this week at work. We have a big deadline coming up soon and there was something this week that we NEEDED to finish - in fact the word going around was that if we did not get this particular bit of work done by Sunday then a few heads would roll.

No pressure there then.

So rather than going in to work over this weekend Ed and I were at the office until 10pm last night. Job done.

The tricky bit was actually getting out of the office. Being “foreign nationals” we are not supposed to be in the building after 8pm or at weekends without special written permission - and even with that we need to be supervised by a US member of staff.

It seems foreign nationals are a bit like Gremlins - perfectly fine during the day and we are fine to be left alone to get on with our work, but come 8 o’clock we turn into terrorists and are more likely to blow things up or disclose industry secrets.

I wonder how much the manager who came up with that policy must have been paid.

Anyway, after we persuaded the security guards not to shoot us and that we were not terrorists it was too late to get to anywhere decent for something to eat so we just went straight to the local bar and had beer for dinner.

Someone even bought me a drink - half a pint of Guinness on top of half a pint of pear cider - they call it snake bite over here. It was quite sweet.

So I called that dessert.

Been a bit quiet here for the last week or so - thats because I`ve had my parents here who have taken a week out of their trip to Vegas to come visit me in the OC. Its been good.

Another reason why I`ve not updated much is because I`ve at last got myself a new telescope:

Which is something I`ve wanted for years. Not only that, but now I live in the OC every night will be a star gazing night….right?

Turns out not - since I`ve been in California it has not rained once - that is until I got this telescope. Now look what has happened:

No kidding - the weather channel here said there was a “60 percent chance of precipitation” - I think that means rain. And it did - serious thunderstorms last night and all this morning meant no star gazing for me.

Oh well - at least the rest of the week here looks better:

How is it where you are?

When I moved to California I was told that I would come across a fair few folk who are … shall we say ….. a bit on the slower side.

To be fair most people I`ve met here are well informed and well educated people.

Not everyone though.

A few days ago in the gym, yes where else would I be, some dude walks up to me in the locker room and says:

“wow, is your natural hair colour red?”

What?

My hair colour is SO not red.

“Er — no, this is my natural hair colour”

“Oh right” – he carried on – looking very confused. “Where are you from?”

“Just by Liverpool originally”

Looking more confused now.

“Australia?”

Gggggggrrrrrrrrrrrr.

“No England!!!!”

“Wow, does everyone in England have red hair?”

To be fair I`d had a good day so instead of beating him to a pulp I just walked off remarking that not everyone in England has red hair, some people have blue or green.

Although red hair man was practically a genius compared to the barman who asked to see my credit card as proof of ID because he did not trust my UK passport – with full US visa.

Makes the people of Fife look like Oxbridge graduates.

Well, I arrived back in the OC yesterday evening after spending most of the day flying. It nearly all went wrong though as my flight from Edinburgh to London took off an hour and a half late because the baggage handlers had never loaded bags onto a 767 before. This did not go down too well with anyone - including the captain who even got off the plane at one stage to go and “kick some backsides". When we eventually did have all the bags on board the captain suggested that we all give the handlers the “appropriate gesture” through the windows.

Anyhow I caught my connecting flight to LA and arrived yesterday evening.

I am jet lagged though - very jet lagged so dont flame me too much if this post is a bit dis-jointed.

I`ll use this post to give you all a round up on what I`ve been up to while back in Blighty.

Firstly I arrived back in Edinburgh for the last 2 days of the dreaded Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Some of you will know how much I hate the festival, but this year I managed to cope as a tourist and even went to watch a few shows including Rich Hall and Stuart Lee who was performing in the Udderbelly tent.

The next big event (aside from going home to visit my parents, obviously) was a road trip with Fi to Bamburgh. We stayed in the Crewe Suite in Lord Crewe Hotel. The hotel was excellent - and we had an amazing view from our room:

Which is, of course, Bamburgh castle.

We went on a tour through the castle too which - if you are ever in the area is well worth the 6 pound entrance fee.

Continuing the adventure we carried on to a place just down the road from Bamburgh called “The Holy Island” - which is only accessible at certain times of the day being on the other side of a causeway - hence being an island

Some people seemed not the get the idea though:

The island was pretty cool - they make their own wine - and give free samples

They also have a castle of their own:

and some pretty cool scenery too.

So after a couple of days we headed on back up to Edinburgh - but on the journey back I spotted a place to have a quick beer:

Well - It would have been rude not to stop and test the beer - lots of it - and buy some to take home and carry on the testing. They even have a free bar there where you can try out all the latest ales. Sweet.

And that was it - my time back home was over - nothing else happened - I certainly didn’t go bowling - no matter what anyone says - that was just a dream

I normally donate blood at least 3 times a year, sometimes I manage 4.

It does not always work out as planned, there was that time that I went straight to the gym after one donation and dropped a 60 pound weight on my head.

There was another time when after a donation I went shopping and tried to pay for the goods using my credit card - which was declined. I went bananas at the shop keepers telling them that there was literally thousands of pence in that account and there is absolutely no way I was getting my PIN number wrong after all I have used the same one for over 10 years.

Donating blood does strange things to your head, apparently.

But it seems my blood giving days are over for foreseeable future at least. Filling out the forms today in the Edinburgh donation centre and one of the questions is “have you been outside the county in the last 6 months?”

Dam right - the OC - I thought everyone read my blog.

“Sorry sir, we cannot take your blood today”

Why?

Why are they turning down my sweet sweet grade A quality precious blood?

“You have to have been back in the UK for 28 days before you can give blood”

Dam! So there you are - no more donations from me for a while.

Shopkeepers can sleep easy again - for now.

I normally moan when my friends dont update their blogs for a couple of weeks and suggest that they are just lazy layabouts with nothing going on in their lives.

Have I become like them?

No.

I have been very busy the last couple of weeks. I`ve been back home and just yesterday I came back from a long weekend in Bamburgh.

But you`ll all have to hold on to your hats before you hear all about that. I`ve left my digital camera PC interface cable back in the OC so cant get the pictures off to show you.

This week will be pretty busy too. I`m having dinner every night with a different group of people each time, meeting up with friends and going bowling with my old work colleagues of Friday night.

Bound to be some stories to tell after all that.