How the Gods test us

This week was a week full of tests of one form or another.  On Monday Alma and myself paid a trip to the local DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) to take our written exams as part of the long and winding road towards a Californian Driver's License.  After a bit of form filling, a quick and dirty eye test (which in fairness you could pass from almost any position in the office), $31 each and a happy go lucky photo, we headed off to our respective booths to answer the 36 multi-choice questions.  The questions themselves are a mixed bag.  Some are logical enough and then you've got a few like "How much will you be fined for abandoning an animal?".  I'm not Shaggy driving with my best pal Scooby Doo when suddenly we fall out with each other and I boot him out of the car - do I really need to know that in order to qualify for a license?  You're allowed to get 6 wrong - and yes people do actually fail this test, but the good news is that you can just turn around and take it again - literally !  Now those that know me really really really well will know that I'm not one to brag but we both somehow managed to get all of them right - a pretty good start !  Onward and upward to the 'Behind the Wheel' test I say ... but that would have to wait a couple more days.

In the meantime I had to (note the inference of zero element of choice) attend a new employee introduction training and a safety training for 2.5 days.  As you can imagine I learned loads, though in fairness I now know where to evacuate myself to in the event that there's an earthquake and we were also given some interesting information on so-called "Deemed Exports"; a very interesting topic that I knew nothing about.  I won't bore you to death with the details here so google it if you're interested.  After been given the answers to a few questions by the trainer we all graduated with a baseball cap, mousemat and glass plaque thingy.

Dramatization: Actual stud may have been smaller than those depicted.

Wednesday - D-day as far as "Behind the Wheel" tests go.  I was up first so I left work around 12pm to head home and get some lunch before making my way to the DMV office.  On the way home, I kept hearing this clicking sound whose frequency (excuse the nerd in me) changed in proportion to my speed.  When I got home I checked out the tyres and much to my delight I discovered a large metal stud embedded in the front left tyre.  Now here's the connundrum.  Do I (a) ignore it; head to the DMV and hope the guy that checks out your vehicle before the test doesn't notice the silver shining object in my tyre, (b) replace the tyre or (c) replace the car because AVIS had rang me the day before to let me know that the car was due a service.  Looking at the time I had I opted for friendly option (b) - but guess what - I couldn't find the spare (so as a result I felt like one).  There was this contraption thingy in the boot that looked like it had something to do with flat wheel problems, but it wasn't round and didn't have anywhere I could insert a couple of bolts so option (c) started looking even friendlier.  After a few phone calls and a trip to an AVIS office, I picked up the replacement car ... 1 hour before the test.

As part of the test they check how familiar you are with the vehicle by asking where the hazard light switch is, where the defroster is etc. so I had to become best friends with my new car rather rapidly. 

Anyway to keep what is turning into a ridiculously long story somewhat short the good news is that I passed.  Someone else was pulling in the car park just before me on the way back.  Now if he / she managed to pass then there is no justice in the world.  Dodgieeeee !

The ironic part about it all is that the lease car is ready to be picked up now as well, so I'll only get to keep my new best friend for another day or two.  More importantly it means that Alma gets to drive the beast (a Ford Explorer) for her "Behind the Wheel" test next Tuesday.  Good luck with that luv !!

Yee haw !

Yesterday evening we hit the local hoedown with Johan, Freke and the men - leaving Geoff at home so that Gijs could come (in house joke for those of you that are going "huh?").  The place was full of Billy Ray Cyrus types hankering for that adreneline rush you can only get from a good old fashioned rodeo.  For dessert, they had a bout of line dancing at the "for one weekend only" custom made barn (over 21s only - terms and conditions apply.  Never attempt line dancing without first consulting your physician).

So anyways - after the compulsory rendition of the National Anthem by Ms. Teen Poway (Poway being the district where the rodeo was being held) we got stuck into things.  It was just like what you'd see on TV.  We had a guy that reminded me of the Lone Ranger as the master of ceromonies.  If he ever loses his day job (God forbid) he could easily switch careers to say DJ-ing or as the voice over for pilots on long haul flights.

The first action of the night was Bareback Riding.  Not sure if the "Riding" in the title really does the event justice - but who am I to judge.  To give you a feel for how psycho these people are check out the movie below.  Do not try this at home !

Later on we had the "Steer Wrestling" event.  One poor guy looked like he was either just starting out or more likely rapidly approaching the end of his pro-career.  It just wasn't happening for him on the night.

There's something for the whole family at these events so the kids had to show their stuff at some stage and sure enough it was "Mutton Bustin" time shortly after the intermission (yet more advertisements - yep just like on TV).  Now you have to remember that if you visit a school playground area round these parts (notice the cowboy lingo) you'll see signs that read "No running or climbing on top of the play equipment" - all targeted at child safety.  Actually on those same signs you'll see "No guns or knives" for similar - somewhat more obvious child safety reasons.  Anyways, the whole child safety concern thingy doesn't really appear to be all that consistent with the "Mutton Bustin" event.  A child (usually 5 or 6 years old) is thrown on a sheep bareback and has to hold on for dear life as long as possible (ok - I exaggerate somewhat).

Everyone gets a prize - some are either still dazed from being thrown from the sheep; confused about what just happened because their overenthousiastic parent just threw them onto the sheep or are downright proud to have participated in true rodeo style.  Actually the little girl in the movie above won the event as she was the only one to stay on for more than 1.5 seconds (she's the one with the pink boots in the picture below who later admitted during the interview that her mother sometimes uses bad words).

The next event was my personal favourite - the "Barrel Racing".  The competitors had to start at one of the arena; race around three barrels (on a horse - just to be clear) and make it back to the same end of the arena in the shortest time possible - making sure not to knock any of the barrels over on the way.  You can't really appreciate it from the video, but those horses were really moving !!  It's probably like comparing the difference between being in a go cart doing 20-25mph versus watching one doing the same speed.

Last but not least we had the more than just a little lethal bull riding.  We've all had a go (I haven't by the way) at the local video arcade emporium on that beast that bucked up and down and spun round and round until you were eventually thrown off onto the soft padding.  Well this was similar - but then different .... here they also had clowns for the post-throwing fallout !

Homesick

Since we arrived, I've been to - let's just say - a handful of meetings.  Today was the first one I went to where one of our guys was chairing the meeting as PL (project leader) (I don't want to get him all embarassed by mentioning names), and I have to say it almost brought a tear to my eye (those of you gifted in the art of sarcasm will of course appreciate that I'm exaggerating somewhat at this point - right Thijs?).  Anyways - about half way through I started to get a little homesick.  "Oh yeah", I thought to myself, "that's how a meeting should be structured in order to actually achieve something at the end".  I salute you young man !

(OK - be honest; how many of you read this post cos you thought there was going to be some juicy gossip because of the misleading title ?!?)

You gotta love the guy !

Last week we went looking at cars together with Thijs.  The first place was advertised as "San Clemente SUPER Auto-Center" on the internet.  Using TomTom as our invaluable guide we pulled up outside this 'place' is all you could call it.  To say it was far from "Super" would be an understatement.  It wasn't even obvious it was a car dealership as far as I was concerned.  Eventually anyway we were approached by a warm, friendly, chatty dude called Moose (don't ask).  Man - was he the ultimate in salesmanship?.  We are talking 90 words a minute average.  He seemed to know what he was talking about until he went looking for the battery (it's where the large '+' and '-' are !).  We took a car for a test drive and blah dee blah.  I digress (as usual).  So anyways then we hit a Toyota dealership only to go through the same old story.  On the upside I made life long friends with Jim.  Jim would have absolutely loved to sell us a car but didn't want to push us (of course not !).  We took another car for a spin and then left on our merry way to check out some other perspective dealers.  Since then my best bud Jim has phoned to inform me that he's after getting another car in which might just suit us.  He first suggested SMS'ing (or perhaps more accurately MMS'ing) a picture of the car to me but after about 10 mins of nervous excitement on my part - desperately waiting for the picture to come through he phoned back.  Jim old son was after having a light bulb moment.  He had decided to make a quick film and post it on YouTube especially for me.  Check it out !  At the very start you'll hear him say my name and at the end repeating his phone number (even though he knows I already have his card).  I mean you gotta love the guy ! (and yes we are going to visit this weekend if for nothing else than to give the guy a hug).

A mixed bag

Previously on Blogger ...

We've been to the social security office and back with our application forms, passports (including that all important I-94 form) and marriage certificate; jumped through the hoops, did a couple of laps of the ring and answered under penalty of perjury that all information provided was both truthful and honest.

To celebrate (wild things that we are) we hit Edward's Cinema - packed with 18 screens, IMAX technology and other goodies.  Alma of course still hadn't learned from her past milkshake experience and decided that the so-called "small" sized folded down empty popcorn bag about 30 feet behind the counter looked just a little bit too small, so she opted for the medium.  Oh and guess what - we got a bag that could feed a small country for a week !  I had flashbacks to that Father Ted episode where Ted was trying to explain to Dougal that the toy cow in his hand was small, but the cow across the field was far away.  Dougal of course just didn't quite get it.  (Take a look at this YouTube video to reminisce with me).

Our air freight also made it this far - 2.5 weeks after we did !  It was also a bit disappointing to see just how little stuff we had in the air freight.  Dems da breaks I guess.

Oh and before I forget, the weather is still great.  You'd actually forget it's supposed to be autumn apart from the fact that it's get dark quite early.

Ants, Ants everywhere......

It would seem that American Ants are addicted to coke!!  My wonderful husband, with his new found strength after 3 training sessions, managed to drop a can of coke on the kitchen floor on Sunday.  Obviously it sprayed everywhere! (cans just aren't what they used to be). We gave it a quick going over and thought no more about it.  Monday morning, 6.15 am, William found the kitchen being invaded by ants and luckily had it cleaned up by the time I got up.  I clean the place from top to toe yesterday but OH NO, the little buggers could still sniff traces of coke somewhere and again this morning 6.30am, they were everywhere..... this time Will decided to wake me to share the news..... or was that just so I would go down and clean it up?????  It was disgusting!  Millions of the little feckers all over the place.  Now I have to call Pest Control and I have visions of men  running around in white suits with gas masks, like something out of "Outbreak".