Life + Times of Fenton et al.

Unfortunately, Gaynor was unable to make the big shindig of her mother’s 60th birthday. In lieu of her personal appearance we made a video to be shown at the party. Since it features us prominently, I thought it might be nice to make it available to all. So congratulations again Margaret and all our love.

After failing to take the previous hint, our household goods have finally tracked us down all the way from Germany. In our initial plans they were to have joined us only a few weeks after we ourselves had arrived. However, famed German customer service, a missed boat and US Customs and importing procedures conspired to delay our reuniting. In total, 5 months and 11 days, beating their previous record by over a month.

It’s good to have many more familiar items around us — it’s really been a second Christmas full of box openings and forgotten surprises. Now we just have to find somewhere to put them all.

Having decided to rent a house a bit further away from my place of work than we’d ideally like, a second vehicle was on the cards. Given the high price of petrol (*snigger*) — actually I mostly just believe in having sufficient for my needs — I thought a scooter would be the ticket. Since the freeways I take have a tendency to clog quickly and often, having a smaller vehicle than can go slip through is a great boon. Though one must ride very defensively, lane sharing, as it’s known here, is considered acceptable behaviour. In addition to lane sharing, motorcycles are also permitted to use the car pool lane and this helps reduce the danger to me and the time to ride.

I picked up the new bike for what I think was a very good price. The guy threw in a jacket, two helmets (one of them a child’s), a bag for the seat, a pair of gloves and a service manual, confirming to me that he was in fact going ‘cold turkey’ on bike riding. The bike is a 1988 model and had only 9300 miles on it. Basically, it was owned consecutively by two older guys who rode it a couple of times a month and then brought it home to polish it. I’ve already let the bike know that she won’t be getting that sort of treatment from me.

As one bike-course instructor told me, “A commute doesn’t get much sweeter than a southern Californian highway on a motorcycle.” I think I’m tending to agree.

Oh, and if you don’t think this is a scooter, you should see the ones that ride past me!

Thanks to all those who have called or emailed in the past few days to check on our family’s welfare amid the recent southern Californian fires.

For those who didn’t know (or care), we are all fine. There is no real imminent
threat to our home but we stay informed, just in case. However, my work was closed on Monday and Tuesday (22nd and 23rd Oct). It took me two hours on Monday to get there and then 45 minutes later they said we should go home! Only an hour to get home, riding into the fierce Santa Ana wind. By Tuesday afternoon the fire closest to work had made it to the car park of the building across the street. Fortunately, it was contained there with our car park now somewhat ash covered.

It is extremely dry around here so bush(brush/wild)fires are always a constant concern — well, except immediately after the fire I guess. Being Australian, fires are nothing new to us. You learn to respect them and how to take precautions. On the other, we have little experience with earthquakes …

We now have a car we bought it a couple of days ago it’s not an American car no not even from Europe no it’s from Japan we got a Honda. Yes you heard me right a honda. Why we didn’t get a German car I don’t know. I would have liked one. Well we got a Honda “Odisey” Well i think that’s how you spell it. It was fairly well priced and it was big enough although it isn’t that big but it will do!!! =) It’s a nice car and in great condition. So the weather is great here. And there is a house in “Mission Viejo” that would suite us great. CYA
I’ll write again soon at lest someone will
Elijah

After all the preparations for the shift, matters have progressed relatively smoothly. Our visas came with plenty of time to spare, all our friends were as helpful as ever — we spent some lovely times over the last few days with those whom we have grown close to — and we even made the flight on time. The luggage allowance on flights to the US is very generous and we took full opportunity of it to bring our tent, blankets, sheets, extra clothing and a few special things we always inevitably forget to send with the shipped belongings. However unloading, carting all the luggage through the airports and reloading was a bit of a challenge.

The flight itself went quite well and my brother Donovan was there to meet us at the car rental agency. We had a whole airport-agency shuttle bus to ourselves due to the amount of luggage we were toting. Eventually we made it to the furnished apartment being provided by my company for a few weeks and clocked off for the (very long) day. Donovan was also great the next day, looking after the children, including a movie, while Gaynor and I did a bit of running around.

The next days included house hunting, a bit of shopping and some orientation. The weather has been wonderful and warm (actually, quite hot but still great!) and the apartment complex includes a pool. For the Labor Day holiday last Monday we enjoyed a few hours at the beach and playing in the sand and surf. The children are now coming to the end of their extended summer holidays and as soon as we can find a house we will enrol them in the relevant schools.

As for work, the new job is shaping to be very interesting and the company seems to be a great place to work. I’m looking forward to getting into it further.

So for now, we are looking hard for a house to rent and a car to buy. The rest will come in time. Many new things to learn and experiences to enjoy.