Christmas 2014

We just barely got into our house before my family arrived and the holidays began. We went all out with a rather massive christmas tree and lights on the house and trees outside. We wanted our first year hosting the holidays to be extra special and it was. Austen's latest word is "AMAZING" which really sums up how he feels about his holidays. 

Flight 8501

It's been a horrific year for air travel in SE Asia. Each of these accidents has moved me deeply. I find it particularly chilling looking at the flight path for flight 8501 and thinking about how many times I was in a small plane flying over that very patch of water. It could have been me --my family--scattered like leaves in the water.

Our friends here in the US see the CNN images and regard it as just one of the many tragic events of the week. But not for our family. We're sifting through the articles and discussing the details as if part of us is still back in Singapore. We do this every time something happens in a place where we've lived. Our circle of caring is wider, our potential to be devastated is greater. I never thought of it this way before but it's true.

Expats collect experiences and friendships and lay down tiny roots that we never fully pull away when we leave again. I don't think I'll ever stop leaping to my feet when I see "Singapore" run across the screen on the evening news. Our thoughts are very much with the grieving families of the people lost on flight 8501.

HOME | A long search has a happy ending

We just closed the sale on a house in Fairfax... It's really happening. I have to pinch myself. We've talked about buying our first home for about a decade but were weren't sure where we wanted to put down roots. Since we lived here between 2007 and 2010 we've talked about it often and wondered if we'd ever have work in this area again. Well work happened and here we are.

Fairfax is a tiny town in Marin County. And where is Marin? If you drive over the Golden Gate Bridge you end up in the rolling hills and redwood forests of Marin.

Our little town is known as the hippi enclave where deadheads and the inventors of mountain biking created a community that reminds us a lot of one of the Gulf Islands back in BC. Funky handmade homes blend into the hillsides, everyone bikes everywhere and the local grocery store is all organic.

Joel took the picture below from the top of our property. You can see a bit of the roof of our house below and our neighbours look-out platform to the right. I want to build my office up here. The GG bridge photo above is looking North and this photo from our place is looking South at the other side of those hills.

We're about an hour and a quarter by bike from Joel's work downtown San Francisco. (It's about a 45 min drive w/o traffic). He has a beautiful ride over the bridge every day. He also has the option of getting on a ferry. My work is about 15-20 minutes away when I need to be at the office in Corte Madera otherwise I work from home. So we're feeling like this place gives us a refuge from the city and some work-life balance.














My family is coming for Christmas and we're just thrilled as we've never had the space before to host. I'm looking forward to kicking back in front of the fireplace and catching up with our loved ones.

Giant pumpkins and hot summer days

I'd nearly forgotten how spectacular the weather is in Marin, especially in the Autumn. Downtown San Francisco is pretty clear this time of year too making for some beautiful ferry rides and brilliant sightseeing days though it's a little colder down there. Our days here are averaging in the high 70s to high 80s (or high 20s and low 30s celsius).

Life is sort-of settling in. We've been here for five weeks and Joel has been on business trips every single week. He's seen more airports than open houses. I've got our new nanny working with Austen and I'm juggling all the household stuff, house hunting and working on my contracts. The house hunt is going very slowly. In the areas we are looking there are only a couple of houses for sale at any given time and the stampede of offers on each one is amazing. Houses are going for 25% or more above the list price and sellers are preferring all cash offers (which are plentiful). We've got this furnished rental covered till new years so the pressure is on to close on a home before then. 

Austen is doing great. He's continuing to astound us with his physical feats (insert some minor heart attacks here too) new words and phrases. He's potty training already (yay!) so we're just thrilled about that. Having half days with his nanny and afternoons with me suits him fine. He's thriving and everyone is happy.

That's all for now! I'll update when there's something to report like... maybe a home. Fingers crossed everyone. 

Ferry boat to the city!

Arrival in Marin [again]

Well here we are! Waking up back in Marin after a four year hiatus. Joel walked down to the ferry this morning to go into work and Austen and I are about to go fill up the fridge at Good Earth. 

How to pack & move in three days

So we flew home Sunday night and then we packed up and moved three days later. People keep asking us how we managed to pull it off. This is our fourth relocation and this is generally how it goes.

Day one: pre-pack anything that we need to have with us for immediate use. Pre-pack anything we need to have shipped directly to our temporary place for the first month or two. We can do this in one day. This time it took 7 hours.

Day two: packers arrive. This time we just had three guys and they packed up all our furniture, clothes, books etc in about four hours. We spent a few additional hours checking their labels and ensuring errors weren't made

Day three: they filled the truck. This has always been a half day activity for us because we always live in fairly small places though it was a bit longer this time because they had to also stop at our storage locker. Our cleaners arrived at noon and we'd done the walk-through by 2:30. 

And that's how we roll! We had phenomenal support from our neighbours and friends who brought us food so we could just power through and git 'er done. 

As we drove away we decided to take the PCH out of town. A nice way to say good-bye to this chapter and usher in the next. 

Cottage time in the Okanagan

We flew to Kelowna for our final week where we stayed in a cottage with Joel's whole familly. We attended Marcel & April's wedding where Austen made his debut as a ring bearer and Joel was the best man. The boys balanced their wedding duties with dips in the lake and fun times with the family. Austen performed his dance moves in the evenings which now include the moonwalk, the twist and downward facing dog.

Victoria and Galiano

Our week in Victoria and Galiano was quite possibly the most difficult in recent memory. Joel and I were both working and with a toddler thrown in it was impossible to finish anything. I worked at lot at night trying to get my files to upload over slow island ADSL. My usual 5 minute uploads took upwards of 7 hours. Who knew? 

It was also a busy time for our family and the week went by faster than we could have anticipated. Apologies to everyone we couldn't connect with. Next time!

We ended the week at a wedding on Galiano Island. Congratulations to Emma & Matt! It was a beautiful celebration and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We stayed in a rustic log house, attended the local market and soaked in the laid back gulf island life for a few days. Joel's family actually used to have a 250 acre farm on Galiano in the 1950s and 60s. His mother grew up there and used to ride to school on a pony. 

A tourist in Vancouver

It's been seven years since our departure from Vancouver and here I am, standing in a hotel lobby with the concierge asking where the nearest playground is. I honestly have no idea and frankly, neither does she. We google, and try to recall from memory... there must be something. I'm vaguely aware of a park near the Roundhouse community centre down in Yaletown and she's sure there's a small waterpark in Coal Harbour. Neither are right near the hotel which is in the very heart of downtown but we're up for the walk. As I meandered through the streets I realized the downtown is very adult oriented. I saw many tourists with toddlers in strollers but no locals. We did finally find a park with slides where I'd remembered it. Austen played with kids from all over the world. Kids who, like us, were trying to find something to do in the downtown.

Later I searched for kid-friendly restaurants for lunch and Yelp was pretty vague. A big hole in the map version of the search was right over the downtown area. Hmmm, I crammed myself and the stroller into a lunch place while other patrons eyed us with some distain. To get to a truly kid-friendly place we needed to walk back downtown and take a few buses to get out to Kits or Mt Pleasant.

I searched online for indoor play gyms because I was sure that the maze of downtown malls must have them in every food court. THIS IS RAINCITY -- COME ON!!! But no. Not a single one.

The verdict: if you travel with wee ones it's a much better idea to just stay in the West End so Stanley Park is right outside the door or get a BnB in Kitsilano or near Main south of 25th.  Last night we went back to our old Mt Pleasant hood for fabulous family dining at Rocky Mountain Flatbreads which has a play area and a great menu AND serves beer and wine!

The awesome play kitchen at Rocky Mountain Flatbreads