Week 3 - Quichegate Resolved!

Well, this week has been hectic, with me finally doing 5 full days in the office, but a couple of work-related dinners as well. But I realise we left you with a cliffhanger last week, so let's just straighten out that one for real.

Is it really possible to buy a quiche in the US?

It turns out that your fearless correspondent did in fact track one down. We went back to Draeger's Market, the posh independent supermarket which is somewhere between Waitrose and Selfridge's Food Hall. In amongst their incredible deli counter were two amazing quiches - probably 15" in diameter and about an inch deep. I don't really want to tell you how much they cost, and I'm guessing a quiche of this quality and size would be costing you £12-£13 in the UK, but to give you some idea of the cost of living out here... well, this was a $22 quiche. But very nice it was too.

Draeger's also has a 'best of British' rack...

This morning we went out to experience the delights of the California Department of Motor Vehicles, so I could start the process of getting a driving licence. This involved a lot of queuing and a frankly ridiculous theory test - it's 36 questions long and you need to get 30 right to pass, but can also skip 3 questions if you don't like them. Even if you don't pass, the staff just send you to the back of the queue to have another go.

California driving theory is fascinating. For example, over here it apparently takes a car 400 feet to stop from 55mph (you may remember from your own test that the UK stopping distance from 70mph is 300 feet, so I'm not sure why cars are so much worse over here - wait a minute, yes I do, there is no equivalent of the MOT over here, so anything goes in terms of roadworthiness). It's also apparently OK to let 15 year-olds learn to drive, despite the fact that the Highway Code equivalent proudly lets you know that 50% of drivers aged 15-19 get some sort of traffic indictment in their first year (well maybe you wait until they're a bit older then...). It's also the law here that you should use headlights whenever your wipers are on continuously (although given that it pretty much never rains here from May to November, and it is complete chaos on the roads on the rare occasions that it does rain, you might just want to walk to work if it's raining).

Anyway, you'll be pleased to know I passed first time and so now all I need to do is do an on-the-road driving test and I'll get a California license.

This afternoon we paid a visit to what is locally called a nature preserve. I did a quick video about this, but it turns out the file is huge, so let's have a quick picture instead:

At the preserve we saw a bunch of wildlife - deer, cattle, kestrels, hawks, lots of dragonflies and a little gecko thingy. It wasn't far from the sea, so we took the opportunity to nip down and see the Pacific Ocean for the first time. It was surprisingly choppy - really not that Pacific - but very beautiful.

Those of you tracking our furniture will have noticed that the ship has docked in Savannah, Georgia, about a day late. It'll now go through the Panama Canal and come up the West Coast, and hopefully we'll be seeing our stuff again in a bit less than a month. Until then, we'll have the keys of our new place next week, which should be exciting!