A Musical Journey

Well, as with every week at the moment, this week was a learning experience. We're learning about how to get parcels delivered in the US, and how to join in with exciting local community activities. Oh, it's a whirlwind, faithful reader!

On Monday, Helen went to her audition with the Bay Choral Guild. This is a smaller choir than she's used to, and the standard is also higher ("Everyone can sight read!", she said); but of course, she was approved to join, and very much enjoyed staying for their rehearsal. This is walking distance from where we're living in Palo Alto. Also walking distance away was her Wednesday evening entertainment, the Mid Peninsula Recorder Orchestra. Clearly, recorder orchestras are so common around here that they have to differentiate this one as the mid peninsula group!

Now, about the parcels. There are many great things about Palo Alto, California and the US; we love the sunshine, Helen's found some great musical groups and volunteering things, people here are surprisingly friendly, nature is in full bloom. But there are some things here which are bad enough as to make the UK look like a paragon of efficiency. In that bucket, I'd put the standard of the roads and the banking system. Parcel delivery, and the US postal service in particular, is something that I can now add to that list.

We've ordered 4 things from Amazon since arriving in the US, and our hit rate for those parcels arriving successfully is currently a mighty 50%. We also had something delivered by FedEx this week (more on that below), which involved them dumping the parcel in our driveway and running off. UPS seems marginally more reliable, but even they just chuck things on our veranda and scarper. Perhaps they just don't want to disturb us, but my theory is that these people are so poorly paid that they're either in a constant hurry to deliver things and move on, or they're pinching parcels and flogging them later. As I used to say in GCSE Geography, that's capitalism, folks!!

The only upside here is that Walmart and Target both seem to be reasonably competitive with Amazon in terms of price, and both offer click-and-collect with lots of big stores here on the peninsula. We're also within walking distance of a Macy's, a Bloomingdales, and the Apple store, so it seems likely we're not going to be buying much from Amazon unless we absolutely have to.

In better news, our shipping container arrived in the port of Oakland (roughly 30 miles away, over the other side of the Bay) yesterday. It now needs to clear US customs, which is expected to take 10 days or so, and we'll then get our delivery. We're currently very light on furniture here in Palo Alto, so that will be very welcome indeed.

Helen let me fulfil an ambition this week, and order an egg chair, as designed by the great Danish architect Arne Jacobsen:

This is actually a cheap reproduction of an egg chair; the authentic ones are made by famous German furniture manufacturer Fritz Hansen, and go for about $10000, so instead we got this one, which Fedex shipped from Memphis, Tennessee. And then they chucked it on our driveway and legged it. Well, I suppose you can't have everything.

So, will our furniture clear US customs quicker than planned and make it to us by next week? If it does, will it follow local delivery customs (i.e. lucky if it turns up at all, and if it does, just chuck it and scarper), or get here in one piece? (Fear not, reader, I'm only joking; Google's paying for a "full service" delivery from a company called Home Sweet Home, who unpack everything, professionally line all the shelves, put everything away, and reassemble the furniture, as well as getting us meals from our favourite local restaurant while they're doing it!)