Moving to San Francisco

For those in Finland, it is pretty easy to remember when I re-located to San Francisco i.e. the same day as digital TV became a must in Finland.
I was happy that I had the 8am flight on Saturday, because if I could have had the 7:45am flight... I was pretty tired, though.
Next stop was Munich, where everything went smoothly, the gate for the flight to SanFran was in the same terminal, and so on. A long flight, but ok leg-room, I watched some movies (miss the last part of Hot Stuff, though), and slept a little.
And the it was San Francisco, where everything didn't go too well. I waited for my (btw very heavy...) luggage for quite a while, and then I queued to the BA complaints desk for quite a while. Yes, my bag was at Heathrow, and I was in San Fran. Sigh.
And then the rental car. There was a booking for a medium size car, and National works so that you just go and pick something from the "medium" area. Unfortuntaly they only had SUVs left, and they told me that I could come back tomorrow to change the car. Well, I was not in the mood for that and did let them know that, so soon I had a Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS, instead. Strange bi-fuel car, sloppy to drive as all american cars - but at least not a SUV.
Anyway, the GPS (Garmin 330) directed me to my temporary apartment on King Street, on my 1st day in SanFran, where everything was ok.

Stuff moved from the apartment

The guys from Victor Ek came in at 9am and worked for 2-3 hours, packed stuff into 5 boxes for air,- and 16 for sea freight. And that was just a small part of what we have in the apartment. Professional guys, sofa and a couple chairs were the biggest pieces, as well as the great present from Patti - american toaster, steam-iron, and a vacuum cleaner!
Lots of space there, afterwards. So off they went, to San Francisco. 10 days for air, 6-8 weeks for sea. Let's hope they actually will arrive there one day!

Farewell with friends

We had dinner with Ana, Uupa, Vesa, Kaius and Riikka at Tapiontori, which was good, as always. I've posted pictures of the food there earlier, so I won't do that now. We got some greta wine glasses from Zwiesel from Ana and Uupa, thank you so much!
Ana and Uupa seem to know all the cool places, so next was a new place called Trenta, on Albertinkatu (Sokos). We sat on the "library" part, were they have sofas, lots of books about wine and dining - and lots of Italian wines, all by the glass.
They have a good restaurant there, too, but all the food can be ordered to the other side of the place. So we ordered some delicious appetizers with the wine. We really had quite a lot to eat that day (and night), but on the otherhand, we had quite a lot to drink, too.
To be honest, I haven't learned to appreciate Italian wines, usually just going for old Valpolicellas that I recognize, but this one was good. Anyway, Trenta is highly recommended!
But things just got better. Ana knew about a place called Foxy Wine House on Iso-Roobertinkatu 3-5, hidden in the yard behind a fence. And this really was something. They sell all drinkables by 1cl, wine, shampagne, you name it. And it's good stuff they have on their list, there!
We ordered some appetizers here, too, and the brandy-pecan cheese was really something! The place is extremely small and plain (and well hidden), but is a must-visit for all you gourmets out there!

Farewell party with my colleagues

I had a great farewell party arranged for me by my colleagues. We went to Kellarikrouvi and had a great dinner, with appetizer, entree, and dessert. They had also placed me in the middle of all the (too few) ladies in the team, and I of course did my best to charm them all :-)
We continued to Mecca for more drinks, where Stephen joined us, great! The picture of Stephen reminded my wife of Robbie Williams, which generated an "uh oh" from Stephen, when I told him that.
Thank you so much Henrietta (to the right) for all the arrangements, Tuomo for the great present(s), and Pasi for the add'l photos!

Bye, bye, car

This is the last photo of my car - taken at the summer cottage - which I had to return on August 31st. The Golf GTI MkV DSG was a very fun and quick car to drive, the exhaust had a great sound, and after driving with a DSG I can never go mack to manual. As a matter of fact, it's tough to go for any other automatic, too. I will miss you!

A day at the summer cottage

I might've spent my last day at our summer cottage in Kimito, since we are planning to sell it. Lots of memories there, since we've had it since 1970. Found some old pictures from when I was a kid (i.e., very old :-), a Thunderbird 2 replica (for those who know what this is, yes, it was a wow!), and just took a lot of photos as memories. Good timing, BTW, this was the only time during these years that I saw the flip bridge in action.

25 years since Commodore 64 was born

The local newspaper (HS) had a story about the annoversary, but the picture actually shows a VIC-20, doesn't it? Anyway, the had gathered stories from their readers about what the C64 had meant to them, and what memories they had.
There were quite a few stories, but this one was so hilarious that I thought I'd copy it here. It's in Finnish, and I can try to translate it, if somebody begs me to.

Food at Tapiontori

Sirpa spent a week in Crete on Agios Nicolaus, and we went for a dinner to Tapiontori when she came back to Finland. I like the Creme Brulee, but Sirpa does not like this version too much. The veal was very good, too.

Friends visiting

We had Vesa, Riikka and Kaius visiting and congratulating us. We received a beautiful present from them, too - thank you so much!



We had a few quite warm days and the water temperature rose quite nicely. Otherwise, when looking back at this summer, the weather was a little weird i.e., a normal Finnish summer :-)

Preparations in SanFran on Aug 4-9

I spent my last week in San Francisco before actually moving there, in the beginning of August. It was becoming quite hectic with learning my new job and getting right into the action, preparing for re-locating to SanFran, as well as migrating my old work duties. That's when I saw this dog on Union Square, and I'll try remember this picture every time when I feel stressed. No worries! I had some time to walk around and enjoyed the Sir Francis hotel, as well as had a look at the fire brigade driving around.

Rob had arranged a farewell party at the Grand Pubah, where quite a good bunch of people had showed up. We were actually supposed to go for dinner with Riku, which we finally did around 10pm. We were in for some pasta, but the food at Calzone on Columbus St was unfortunately quite terrible. I had much better food at another Italian place nearby, called Trattoria Pinocchio. Fortunately it was not only about farewell parties, but also about a birthday - happy birthday Miikka!

Fortunately I did get some fantastic food during the week, too, thanks to Gregory, who took me to Lulu on 4th and Folsom. The roasted oysters you see here was a great started, the Tuna was delicious, and the dessert was just lovely. Citizen Thai at Columbus was good, too. I just happen to like the Thai coconut soup a lot, and this entree was not only good but also looked great. And the Tuesday morning fruit at work is definitely something I will enjoy!

I flew (back) via Munich, which I will remember from the great cars on display, like this Audi S5, the porn shops (no, I did not check them out :-) and the free coffee. The United terminal in SanFran was quite the opposite...