Ramblings of the Wingnut

So another weekend, another exciting time. What did the Wingnut get up to, I hear you say in anticipation?

Well… Strap in your seatbelt, here we go –

My weekend started early (Thursday) , but don’t tell my boss, I told them I was working “remotely” like from afar. Not like by control. That sounded funnier in my head. I headed up to near Lake Tahoe with a mate of mine again and went to a very kool lodge. Only 12 family members (not like 12 people, like 12 families). Great place – huge land and lots to….um…walk…and we walked…well the next day we did (Friday). And got burned. Fun. Stupid ball of orange stuff in the sky. We did a 3 mile hike or so and went to a couple of diving pools.

Now for those of you that don’t know. I have a fear of heights. Like Danny Di Vito. Same kinda fear. And we were diving off rocks that got progressively higher. First maybe 3 metres, then right up to 15. Ugh. Stupid brain; trying to convince me that height is bad. Anyways, I am proud to say I jumped from the 15 metres….twice…and only wept….once…manly, I know.

Saturday was chilled. Just drove to Tahoe. Another kool place. Big property with a train. Yes. I train. One you can sit in, well barely. It was awesome… I suddenly understand why some people like trains. But I don’t like them that much – I prefer fire. Cant wait till I have employees….muhaha…And a ride on the lake, and swimming in the lake. A cold lake. Colder than Tahoe (oh, did I mention Lake Tahoe was cold? It is. Cold like Patricia De Lille. Or rather (for Americans) Hillary Clinton), yes. Cold. Did I day it was cold?

Sunday. We had it in our head to see if we could apparently kill ourselves. 7 mile (that’s about 13 km’s) hike UPHILL on a MOUNTAIN. In 2hours 45. Don’t judge me. It wasn’t that easy. And it was worse with the damn mosquito’s playing tag with my head. At least the part when my mate tried to kill me made me forget about the mosquito’s – when we scaled down a 90 degree side of the mountain. OK, not 90 – 83 degrees , or at least that’s what my brain told me (remember: heights are bad in my hamster driven brain). I think he thought it was funny. Me weeping and sliding on my ass like a dog with an itchy crack. But I made it. Alive and emotionally scarred, the best combination. Then a 6 hour drive back to Palo Alto.

Monday (I was “working” remotely” J ) but in San Francisco. I met up with Zorba the greek. No, his name isn’t Zorba, but he is greek. Anyways, a buddy from SA flew to the US and was in San Francisco, so I met up with him and his wife – Mrs Zorba, rather Zorbarette. We walked. Again. Ugh. Stupid legs are not as young as they used to be – especially the knees. Anyways, we walked toward the Golden Gate, but good thing we never made it the whole way – we’d still be walking! Instead we found our way to a museum shaped in Roman architecture style. You know – pizza. No, no. Roman columns, Domes, that kinda stuff. Pretty kool.

After that we just kinda ambled round the city – China town, financial district, and the highest point in the city. Now if you have never been to San Francisco, walking the city entails climbing hills. Steep ones. Ugh. So again. Legs take a beating. Craig weeps. But it was worth it – seeing the city, particularly the Golden gate Bridge and Alcatraz. Feels like home…

For dinner, we moseyed over to Pier 39 for Italian food then on the way home found an awesome street artist. He was painting with Lacquer, not liquor. That’s not art, that’s a lifestyle some of you may say. Anyway, using spray cans. Very very talented, better then the crappy 2 squares on a wall depicting the artists pains or some rubbish like that. These guys are really talented. Using only spray paint, cardboard and offcuts they made unbelievable pictures of the San Fran skyline. Amazing.

By that stage I had missed the bus/train/bicycle ride home – yes, in that order. An so stayed over in SF. Sleeping on the floor is supposed to be good for you. Like Broccoli good. Anyway, straight from the city to work this morning and I have been here all day typing this so you know what I did this weekend – at 7:28pm, now that’s dedication.

What a weekend: the best to date as of yet. Beside the fact that I finally succumbed to the power of gravity and went sprawling over BOB (Bike of Beelzebub). Before you judge me, I’ll have you know I was swerving to save a rare Mongolian, stripped,  3 foot,  golden-back Panda from getting knocked over by an open back cement carrier – I don’t know, I was just there and saved the Panda. I’m actually a hero – did you know there are less than 18 breeding pairs of the Mongolian, stripped,  3 foot,  golden-back Panda’s in the world? You may have read about me…

So hows this for a lineup? Friday: Lunch at Google, Sat-Sun: Boating on Lake Tahoe, Mon: Coldplay concert? Now, that’s the American dream. So here we go, with a fuller overview.

Google. Awesome. Larry and Sergei – legends (that’s the guys that started Google, you oaf). Why. One word – Food. Unbelievably, freshly prepared food! Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Steak, Burgers, Salad, Vegetables, Health food, Natural, Pizza, Desert, Frozen Yogurt, etc, etc. And then there was the gym and outdoor sand volleyball court so all the “large” people can be less “large” and  the dinosaur. I’m not kidding – and not Clint Eastwood, a real dinosaur. Made of metal, but there nonetheless. Larry and Sergei also give updates every Friday to all 13,000 employees on the latest developments at Google. If my plans to be supreme, almighty, intergalactic dark lord of the universe fail, I may apply for a job at Google.

Lake Tahoe: So is this gi-normous lake surrounded by mountains, and cosits at like 2,800 metres the run off from the ice ensures the water is clear, i.e. blue. Super blue. The color you get when you strangle a smurf. Anyway I stayed at a friends place and we went out on his family’s boat on Saturday. Strange thing though – first storm in Tahoe in July for like 5 years, maybe it’s me? But that was after we had cruised around for about 4 hours. Good thing we got back though, my mates brother and friend managed to capsize the dingy they were in that you use when you anchor the boat. Funny thing about those friends of my friend brother (that makes sense, just complicated) – they were like characters from a movie. The one when there’s a boys weekend and there’s that crazy one and just plain weird one – that was them.

Sunday, I lay in the sun for 1.5 hours and in an attempt to get rid of my farmers tan, I put sun lotion on the usually exposed parts of my anatomy and let the rest tan (except that part, it’s a public beach). As a result of which, those parts are no longer omo white (to American readers: that’s a washing brand in SA- their moto is: whiter than white), but rather a nice shade of pink, just the other side of “holy crap, that hurts, why did I not put on sunscreen” red. I expect I will now have reverse farmers tan when the pink goes to red to brown to dark brown.

Coldplay: Also amazing. Completely. Arguably the best concert I have ever attended, even topping the primary school play I was in, when I played the lead part of a mushroom. The concert itself was an hour, forty and the cinematography and set design was insane. They had yellow beach balloons people were throwing up when they played “yellow”, changing backdrop, a TV where they could see themselves and us watching themselves (again, makes sense if you were there), lazers (not evil, to my dismay) and just in general unbelievable. The music itself was great! Seriously talented musicians and a load of great hits! Especially when they played tribute to MJ by setting their hair on fire. No just kidding, playing Billie Jean. Awesome. They also had 2 platforms, near to the crowds that they went to and played, so they were basically, in the crowd – a complete crowd pleaser for the 22,000 that were there. And then the free CD with their new songs. Good times.

Well…that was my weekend. Back to work (actually I have been for 4 days – its Thursday tomorrow and I have a presentation – ugh), so next weekend , I’m going to Napa Valley. Kinda like Stellenbosch, but with less Afrikaans spoken. I think.