Far away from most of my old buddies, receiving the visit of a close friend and especially one from my tiny home town (Langres) is simply a blessing!
I hadn’t seen Yves and his family since my last visit to his hotel and restaurant (a pilgrimage every time I go back to my parents) in December, during our “Good Bye Tour ‘06″, so seeing them here, now that things are half settled has been pretty good.
The program was simple but I hope efficient: Dinner at a diner on Hollywood Bld with Sarah and Thia and visit of the Disney Studios and lunch on the lot…Finally time for me to return one of the many favors I was given by these friends!
Well, many things have happened in the meantime and I will try to summarize as much as possible as well as doing my usual time machine effect and post several entries retroactively.Pictures will come as well but a little technical glitch currently prevents us to get them out of my old Powerbook…
Last night, using various excuses and the fact that several of our former European colleagues were in town for the annual NAB in Las Vegas, we had a little gathering in our new home, also known as housewarming…
After much debating and a late invite sent to most of the people (sorry, it seems I still managed to forget one or 2 persons on the list… I apologize profusely) most of our old and new friends made it to our new home and mainly to our patio.
Many made it and it was great to see some of the old friends on this side of the pond. 3 of the guests (Keith, John and J) were even at both our leaving do in London and our housewarming here in California. Amazing! It was good as well to meet with some new people (some parents from Sarah’s “Mummy and Me†group and some new Disney colleagues and their partners) and to finally have a drink out of the office with some not so new people.
Kudos to both Keith and Simon, who both have the commuting record to join us, coming respectively from London and Hong Kong.
Kudos as well to Arnaud who quickly replaced me at the BBQ position as Sarah and I were running like nutters, trying to see as many people as we could and delivering food, drinks, etc to our guests.
I must admit one thing: I never ever saw so many kids playing together in a garden at a given time. I think we might have reached 20 kids in our backyard, without having one explosion of tears or a crying youngster!
The party was great and did last, as you can expect, well into the night…
One slight issue though: I totally forgot to take any picture of the evening! So all you get is a shot of one of the table on the following morning, around 7:00AM…
Last week end, impulse buy, I decided to subscribe to the local newspaper and to get it delivered to our door, as the kids in the movies do, from Thursday to Sunday…
So this morning was the time we received it and I was up early (or earlier than the time I used to get up in London) and rushed to get my newspaper.
The day was gorgeous and I thought that I should share with you how a morning looks like in our new home and a little video attached here and a couple of pictures, views from our bedroom…
Hell froze over! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, 20 years after I first started to learn how to drive, aged 17, in France, I now am officially allowed to drive as I got my driver’s license today!
Next steps: buying my car and then trying to survive for a couple of weeks on the streets of California!
