FIN DE SIECLE Dear Family and Friends
Autumn (Oct-Dec) Highlights
10:10
2010 is over.
We feel that we have made a conscious shift in our thinking, and will continue to reduce, reuse and recycle - to look at our actions with way more consideration of their consequences – and to step up our game.
I have told Esme that aeroplanes hurt the sky and cars hurt the air, she knows all about recycling vs rubbish vs the green bin, and I encourage her not to waste water/plastic/food/precious resources. We took her to an art show at the recycling centre, which had a film showing the operation, size and scale of the garbage dump.
This really struck a chord with her, I’m pleased to say – she understands what the end result of throwing something away is all about.
Check out the Story of Stuff for a cogent description of our throwaway economy:
For a more humourous take on consumerism, get your New Improved Nothing here.
And for inspiration, read this story of a couple who reduced their possessions down to 100 personal items, and are now debt free, stress free and time rich.We have significantly reduced our zipcar usage and are taking buses, trams and BART more – more fun for Esme anyway!
Energy Usage
As the year drew to a close, we did pretty well on our targets for energy usage.
Here is the breakdown for the year:
In summary for 2010, electricity usage was down 8% (missed target) and gas usage down 20% (hit target). So the little adjustments made, such as being vigilant in turning lights off, turning off appliances at the socket, washing up in cold water and turning off a pilot light on our stove so we only used one oven not two, did actually make a difference.
Day of Action
On 10:10:10 itself there were events arranged all over the world by the grass roots organisations in every country to mark the Global Environmental Work Party Day of Action. In San Francisco events were arranged by the excellent 350.org. 
I opted for (and dragged Morgan with me) the free bike tour of sustainable LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) certified architecture, designed to educate on sustainable architecture and best building practice. The tour started at Adobe…
and took in the newly-upgraded AT&T Park, home of the SF Giants…innovative social housing, and ended at the Ferry Building.
Cycling can save the planet!
That afternoon we had a family outing to the Hayes Valley Farm with Armani, Marcus, Phu, Tara and Stella. While the only animals in evidence were some bees, the kids got suitably messy in the vegetable patches and had fun painting Tibetan style flags to add to the display.
Humanity is at its best when working together to solve problems.“Climate change is an issue of human rights”, Mary Robinson 2008
And we must remember that human rights, ie civilisation, is built on life’s diversity - 2010 was the International Year of Biodiversity – and a reminder Planet Earth is a complex and inter-dependent system, one that can be so beautiful and successful.Tony Juniper of 10:10 had these wise words:
Sure, there are practical things you can do to cut your carbon, but to me, all those bulbs, boilers and bicycles stand for something bigger.
By uniting to tackle climate change, we're saying loud and clear that we won't let it defeat us; that we won't allow the scale of the challenge to drag us into cynicism or hopelessness. By being a part of the 10:10 project (or any other which aims to create a new paradigm of environmental practice applied to daily life), you're standing up for optimism, ambition and the idea that we can work together to build something better.And Lord knows, as we enter a new decade, we all need to act together and now.
Below is a list of 10 ways you can make an impact. 1. Purchase Environmentally Preferable Office Supplies - everything from paper to file folders. Look for supplies with high amounts of post consumer recycled content and are recyclable.
2. Purchase "Green" Cleaning Materials - these will improve the indoor air quality of your space and reduce water pollution.
3. Replace Your Tap Aerorators with water Efficient Aerorators - reducing your water consumption up to 50% and energy used to heat water.
4. Purchase Energy Efficient Electronics and Appliances5. Turn Off Lights, Equipment and Tools at night - activate energy saving features to save energy during the day.
6. Adjust the Thermostat.
7. Use Energy Efficient Lighting – replace incandescent bulbs with energy efficient CFLs or LEDs. 8. Purchase Local Sustainable Food/Snacks.
9. Support Local Business - to reduce your transportation carbon footprint and support your local economy.
10. In the Workplace Hold Sustainable Education Lunch-and-learns.
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Autumn’s Adventure
Las Vegas to Death Valley
In an effort to corrupt our daughter completely, we flew to the capital of Vice - Sin City.
To ensure maximum exposure to the iniquities of Vegas, we went with Sophia, Gerardo and Ava.
Gerardo has frequent flyer status in Vegas so was in capable charge,
booking us into the MGM Grand,
a hotel of such size and gilt it required about 30 receptionists at check-in plus a bank of video monitors all exhorting us to see shows of varying dubious quality.
Esme was beside herself with excitement at being with Ava, who was very patient with the younger child’s exuberance.
First stop was the palm-fringed colonnaded pool. I had brought Esme’s swimming costume but within a trice she was naked in the water, rising only to pee in it most decorously. Luckily the lifeguard’s attention was elsewhere!
It actually started to rain so we retreated back along shiny corridors of shopping, marble, casinos and restaurants to our rooms, Esme with just a towel covering her modesty, having refused all entreaties to get dressed.
The towel slipped off entirely as we reached our corridor and she scampered along with glee, causing a passing cowboy complete with hat and spurs to dryly remark:
“Livin’ the dream.”After restoring a semblance of decorum, we took the spacelike monorail around the back of the skyscrapers,
alighting at the Sunset Strip at the confluence of the Palazzo, Venetian, Encore, Wynn and Treasure Island – for a delicious Japanese dinner at Sushi Samba.
Here Esme continued in the Vegas spirit by table dancing at our booth. Keep this up girl and you’ll be keeping Colman and I in comfortable retirement!
After dinner we watched the pirate ship at Treasure Island ‘sail’ along the strip for a highly theatrical battle complete with cannon fire and smoke.
Esme and Ava entranced.
That night, Colman and Gerardo reignited the city’s flagging economy on a bar crawl.
The next day we took in a whirlwind tour of the Strip.
Visiting Disney…
New York…
Upscale shopping…Paris…
The Bellagio complete with Chihuly glass ceiling…The real lions and cubs in the MGM Grand…
Then lunch in the Rainforest Café where Esme and Ava had fun in the photobooth…
And Esme got freaked out by the near lifesized elephant trumpeting beside us…Transferring to our people mover and onto our voyage into the desert!
Vegas is all that you’ve heard about and more. And less. It is also highly mundane - a shiny shopping mall with lots of glorified gimmicks – much trudging required.
And it had changed considerably since my last visit in 1993: skyscrapers, designer labels, casinos actually less to the fore now masked by incessant branding.
The hinterland remains scrubby, some building sites half-finished; parking lots, roads and freeways giving onto depressing structures.
People are definitely, ahem, ‘plus size’; food and snacks at every corner.
And you notice the cigarette smoke. Living in California, smoking is nowhere present in public.
Colours are red and gold, the more tasteful emporiums do a big line in glass and steel.
Carpets are patterned and busy, chandeliers and light fixtures gilded.
For us 20 hours was plenty.
We had dipped our toes into Vegas waters and managed to leave with our souls intact.
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Death Valley
Luckily, getting out of Vegas is easy.
And the open road soon took us into some striking scenery.
Slopes, ranges, cacti.And through small hick towns whose only raison d’etre seemed to be gambling,
such as Pahrump, which had some old time nostalgia among fast food outlets and sprawling garages.
As we headed into Death Valley National Park, geology was writ large around us.
Huge folds rippled alongside desert flats.
First stop, Zabriskie Point,
which afforded a wondrous panorama across scoured hills and ranges.
We checked in to our adjacent cabins at the Furnace Creek Ranch, as the sun slanted across original now decaying pioneer wagons.
Tarted up, we drove to Furnace Creek Inn up the road for sundowner cocktails looking out over Death Valley and exploring around their palm oasis gardens, followed by a swanky dinner.
And then – how decadent – we retreated down the valley to our naturally warm spring-fed swimming pool where Esme indulged in her penchant for nudity, and Ava and I went swimming in the dark. Fun!
Death Valley SightsIt started out overcast – lucky as even at this time of year it can still get pretty hot.
First stop was the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes.
The girls did well to walk the kilometre or so to the dunes, which were anchored by thorny desiccated trees and rolled most gratifyingly – both literally and metaphorically.
Ava and Gerardo loved jumping off into oblivion, snapped by Sophia.Esme slid down slopes with Colman, snapped by me.
The pearly sand was fine-grained and powdery.In the distance burgundy-coloured mountains glowed when the rays shafted onto them.
The clouds were clearing.
Sunlight illuminated the scrubby lime green desert plants, which studded the desert.
Back south we drove alongside the Black Mountains ridge.
We pulled up at Golden Canyon.
Iron-red rocks guard the entrance.
Inside you head up a classic wadi-like cleft in the yellow canyon.
Red oxide colours reappear in front of you in the Red Cathedral cliffs. Green colours were also present – caused by decomposing mica.
Next stop, the Devils Golf Course.
Created by the evaporation of a long-gone lake, which left jagged and salt-crusted gravel mounds – that apparently extend down more than 300m.
We were heading inexorably towards the lowest point in America - Badwater Basin salt flat – 86m below sea level.
It was getting hot now.
Hats a necessity.
I wanted to walk out to the actual lowest point where dazzling white salt deposits gave the illusion of water.Esme decided to follow. I had to carry her on my back but couldn’t for any distance.
I asked her to wait there for me while I took some photos. Big mistake.
Her howls echoed around the Black Mountains and reverberated for what felt like miles.
She cheered up in time for the Artist’s Drive which switchbacks through an alluvial fan and alongside the Artist’s Palette - colours include pink and yellow (iron salts) and purple (manganese) as well as green and red.
Pretty.
The girls were sightseen out. So we retired to the pleasant warm swimming pool where Ava showed off her fishlike prowess,
and Esme stripped off again bouncing with squeaky excitement.
Our last night finished with sundowner cocktails on the terrace, this time there were lovely streaks of orange and pink.
We had time in the morning for one last swim – Esme clinging on my back –
before heading to Dante’s View,
which at an elevation of 1700m looks down on Badwater Basin below (the salt-flats resembling lakes) and across towards the Panamint Range and its highest crest, Telescope Peak, 20km away and at 3367m in height. Amazing that mainland America’s highest peak in the lower 48 – Mt Whitney – is just a few more km up the valley – 4421m high.
The girls were disinclined to get out of the car – and small wonder as it was freezing! – so the group shot featured four rather than six.
Thank you Gerardo, Sophia and Ava for hanging out with us for our big autumn adventure!
What a land of contrasts!
Vice and valleys, gambling and gorges, shopping and salt flats, highs and lows – all within a couple of hours' drive.
Much to Gerardo’s delight, Esme has been playing ‘let’s go to Las Vegas with Ava’ ever since…
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Halloween
Any Excuse to Dress Up
It was charming watching Esme really get in to seasonal celebrations –
and autumn/winter is especially fun in America.
Her new school (here she is scooting to school), Holy Family Day Home (formerly run by nuns and the oldest pre-school in SF, just four blocks from our door), has a Harvest of the Month theme and October’s was pumpkins, November’s squash and December’s, apple.
There was the obligatory outing to the (somewhat faux) Pumpkin Patch.
I went on the field trip and it was one of those days when your child is the one every other parent present looks at thinking ‘thank God, it’s not mine’. She got out of bed the wrong side, was sulky and argued at every juncture, culminating in a lengthy writhing, screaming fit on the ground as we waited to go on the hayride.
Two days later every child and teacher brought their costume into school.It was great fun to see the whole playground full of cowboys, superheroes, princesses and firemen.
With great unoriginality Esme opted to be a ballerina, as last year.
And again at the house costume event hosted by Bogie and Saal that weekend, although she did wear cat ears for a while.
Tom and Saal looked very scary as ghouls, although Esme shrieked with delight rather than terror; 
Kim was most glamorous as a flapper,
Bogie had very tight sailor trousers on,
while Colman wore his djellaba.We went to Paula and Ethan’s Halloween party for grooving and cavorting.
Colman had waited all year for his goatee to be joined by suitable props.
And he brought out the hat again for Day of the Dead on the 2nd November.
Dressing up is not just the pastime of the old, new friend Vivienne’s 3rd birthday party had a princess theme.
(Here they are together at the Discovery Museum:)
And Oz was a fireman for his 3rd party.
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San Francisco, Music, Food, Love
San Francisco Giants
It was great to be in SF when the Giants won the World Series. 
The whole city turned orange and black for a month – the TransAmerica pyramid and Civic Center lit accordingly – which chimed in nicely with Halloween.
We didn’t exactly follow proceedings – Colman taking particular delight in saying how proud he was that the Giants had won the Superbowl – but the posters and flags everywhere were infectious. Here, Gerardo and Colman celebrate news of a win for the Giants.We happened to be out in the city (indulging in some Beatles karaoke) on the night they won, and fire engines and hobos alike downtown united in cheer.
Less pleasingly, there were riots in the Mission that night as revellers set fire to cars and overturned a bus.
Just what I always feel like doing when I’m happy about something…
And I dashed in to town to be 15 rows back along Market Street for the subsequent victory parade, my first ticker tape experience!
Music
The autumn saw some great gigs.
We went to see Gorillaz with Jecca, Rob, Ethan and Paula – they were terrific – especially the visuals - and it being Halloween, the band came out in costume.
Paula and Ethan and I went to see Roger Waters perform the The Wall – absolutely one of the best shows of 2010 anywhere, as voted by Rolling Stone – and we had great front on seats. Yes, a pig did fly.
And for the fourth time, I went to see Leonard Cohen, this time with Dan, Dayna and Adam. He skipped on stage, saying ‘who knows when we’re this way again so we’re going to give you all we got’, and duly did so for a near 4 hour set including an interval. D&D said it was one of the best concerts they had ever been to. I’ll be seeing Leonard as long as he’s touring. Him and that band = sublime.Food
We have a monthly date night which is a great opportunity to try out lovely restaurants in the ‘hood. Normally Colman takes me out, but in November, I took him to a very Bay Area event: a banquet hosted by SF Forage. 
Foraging is the latest foodie craze, and this occasion saw a warehouse space filled with long banquet tables, fellow diners were an interesting bunch. You brought your own wine, they provided 9 Italian/French inspired courses, each with foraged ingredients.
My favourite course was the fish soup with foraged garlic and seaweed followed by the crab and oyster ceviche. Colman loved the pasta with wild boar ragout – especially so as our friend, Fred (pictured in his Halloween not hunting outfit), had shot the animal in question.
Colman’s Yahoo bus buddies, Jen and Greg, had a progressive dinner party (where each course is in a different house, we hosted the main course) one Saturday night, another successful SF foodie experience – gorgeous appetisers.
LoveOur Visitors of the Autumn were Sean and Jeremy who were in town for just a flying visit, but it was great to see them.
I took them on the Mission Murals tour, introduced them to Esme, we went for dinner.Sean and I have been friends for over 15 years – and I got quite sentimental as we said goodbye after cruising the Castro.
We said farewell to one luminous Jane.
And bid fond welcome to another.
And there are new friends to love too. 
Annelise invited us kayaking for her birthday. So Esme and I had a wonderful time paddling on the inlet beside the houseboats up to the baseball park,
nearly out into the bay.
Great way to spot birds… Just sayin’…
We had the gays over to dinner to fete Tim
who was here for a visit from Seattle,
our chance to repay him for his gracious hosting skills.Top
Thanksgiving
Dan and Dayna’s
For the fourth year we have been honoured to be included on the guest list for this annual epic gourmet extravaganza.Esme watched Toy Story 3 before overcoming her shyness at being the youngest there by several decades.
The feast was incredible!
Dan made a memorable speech acknowledging his 50th birthday.It was great to connect with Boo and Alain.
Esme was most impressed with the numbers of real ballet dancers present.And after dinner commandeered two of them to play table football at the pool table, which kept her amused for hours.
We had to drag her home!
Half-Moon Bay
Thanksgiving Friday is a holiday in the US.
So we went with Armani, Geoff and Marcus for a stroll along the shore at Half-Moon Bay on a stunning day.
I was reminded that we had all taken a Thanksgiving walk together when our babies were just 2 months old three years prior.
Esme and Marcus got stuck in on the beach, talking nonsense to each other.Chasing the waves…
And wielding sticks…
We finished our holiday weekend with Sunday lunch with Dev and Shital and family – who had been so very generous to us on our first arrival in San Francisco.
A real sense of the wheel turning full circle.
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Tis the Season to be Jolly
Esme’s Christmas
It was the first year she really got into celebrations; we counted how many trees we could see in the windows on our way to and fro school.
We reprised our successful outing with Marcus to the Velveteen Rabbit.
Our Puddle Jumpers time (the year Esme spent in a coop pre-school) was very special for us as a family…Esme’s highlight was probably the Puddle Jumpers Christmas Party, which was a really nostalgic afternoon as I realised we would probably never return to this space again…
complete with Father Christmas (who Esme was wary of), here seen with Theo…It was a great turnout and Esme was in her element with her friends.
And a reminder that things never stay still and will always move on.
Her class, Sunflowers, at her new school, Holy Family Day Home, had its own Xmas party the following week. The kids had been practicing for a week or two to sing ‘Jingle Mitten Bells’ with bells sewn on gloves or mittens.
They gave an enthusiastic if incoherent performance!
Esme squealed with delight, hopping up and down with excitement.
Isis very serendipitously joined Sunflowers during the autumn term, and Tracy and I arranged a long overdue playdate over the Xmas holidays to the Discovery Museum.Esme loved showing Isis around the place; she also got really stuck in to the painting corner.
Ballet
But the highlight of her Christmas – by a long chalk – was our outing to The Nutcracker.
This was a dream long held by me, and I bought her a special dress (second hand natch), and shoes. Getting ready and getting there all planned with military precision. Taxi called. It didn’t come. Panic!
In the rain I half-dragged/carried Esme as far as Mission Street, anxiety levels rising as we had the tickets and were meeting Sophia and Ava there.
Eventually we found a taxi and made it to the Opera House with 10 minutes to spare. Bathroom stop. Programme. Kids’ Nutcracker colouring book. Booster seat. Found our seats. Found Sophia & Ava. Lost Nutcracker colouring book. Bent over to stuff gear under seats. Lost button off designer coat. Curses! Curtain up!Esme was AMAZING throughout all this mayhem.
She sat on her booster seat, transfixed on the stage.
She LOVED the performance.
Pleasingly her favourite section wasn’t the little ballet girls in the waltz of the snowflakes, nor the sugar plum fairy dance, nor even the triumphant pas de deux between Clara and her Prince,
but the fight (including cannonfire) between the toy soldiers and the King of Rats and his henchmen – reserving particular glee for the King’s demise down a hole until all you could see was his tail waggling in defiance.
Here she is dancing at the Opera House after the performance.
…and she still wistfully asks whether Christmas is coming soon so we can return to the Nutcracker.
Two days later we had a playdate with ex-Puddle Jumpers, Calliope and Sophie Lee; all three girls donned tutus and danced to the Nutcracker around the living room. It was hilarious!
We dashed up the road to see the annual OTT Christmas Tree and display put on by a Noe Valley gay couple – the girls full of awe and wonder.
At church she was an angel in the Christmas pageant, but still wanted to be a ballerina...
She interpretative dances to the Nutcracker music in her tutu (or without) on a regular basis.
She remains fixed in her ambition to become a ballet dancer (we are less enthusiastic about this long-term goal after seeing Black Swan) as you can see from her ‘mission statement’ at school.DLG
My Xmas highlight was the DLG Christmas Party hosted by Amy.It was the best attendance in months, only Michelle unable to be with us. We toasted absentee friends – Abby, Amy B, Rachel – and made merry with food and wine – an excellent spread.
The White Elephant gift exchange was hilarious.
One prized gift was a hessian wine tote labelled DLG, ultimately won by Jen Franklin, who promised it would bring her out to play more in 2011.
I did particularly well snagging a striking brooch made of tagua (so-called eco-ivory from the tagua or ivory nut from a tree found in South America) from Jason. 
The star gift was brought by Nicole – a shake-weight which provoked much mirth, claimed in the end by Sylvia.Our DLG Christmas was rounded off by a traditional Chinese banquet with Jason, Debra, Jen D, Tracy and Isis. Esme was intrigued by the revolving platter and amazed me by getting stuck in to the jellyfish, declaring it a little too spicy!
Christmas Day
This was our first Christmas ever without any family members present. We were both wistful and blue in the week prior to Christmas.On the day itself we headed over (in pouring rain, a feature of this winter) to a leisurely luncheon kindly hosted by Paula and Ethan, and joined by Armani, Geoff and Marcus.
Ethan and Paula provided appetisers and dessert,
Geoff and Armani conjured up a wonderful pork roast and sauce, we did the wine and all the vegetable sides.
The kids had a wonderful time, hardly a cross word between them. 
Esme was pleased to see that Ethan and Paula did actually have a tree (unlike us!) and was delighted with her clarinet from Granny and Poppa.
Marcus got right down to playing with his marbles.
Armani noticed the kids were remarkably quiet; they had found a cabinet chock-full of miscellany and had taken every item out and into their ‘boat’.
Esme was most helpful in reuniting the objects to the cabinet but the nonetheless it was time to leave.
Thanks P&E and Iggy for hosting!
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New Year
Catherine
Boxing Day saw the welcome arrival of Catherine for her second visit to San Francisco.
We hosted her and Morgan for dinner on arrival; 
they joined us the next day for an afternoon of family fun with Lelli, Kristan, Steve and Soren. The kids gave each other presents…
performed music…
played balloon-ies…and hugged.
Catherine and I had a lovely girly outing to Noe Valley where she treated me to lunch and a mani-pedi – thanks darl.
New Year’s EveOn New Year’s Eve morning I volunteered at the Food Bank with Jen D and Jen F; we all felt very virtuous in preparation for hedonism to follow (the brown rice we bagged showed up at the ‘farmers market’ at Esme’s school months later.)
We booked Lelli to look after Esme and Haraldur so we could party on with Arne and Cati.Cati was looking magnificent with bosoms you just wanted to fondle.
Catherine and Morgan joined us too.First was Geoff and Armani’s where a house party was in full swing.
Marcus disappointed we hadn’t brought Esme with us.
We piled back into Arne and Cati’s people wagon and headed to Dan and Dayna’s ever-excellent New Year’s Eve party.
Here we caught up with Boo and Alain…And were surprised by Adam and Jen in festive garb…
Adam making the most of his costume’s shock factor.
The hospitality was terrific – Colman and Morgan invented cocktails with predictable results.
Our hosts were in resplendent form…We saw the fireworks at midnight from the upstairs window.
And then Arne, Cati and I returned to relieve Lelli so she could party all night at Thievery Corporation –
ah what it is to be young.Colman stayed on with Morgan and Catherine until 2-3ish (memories were hazy apparently) when they headed into the drizzle to find a taxi.
None showed up, unsurprisingly, and Colman, by now the hangover beginning to take effect, got grumpy trudging home in the rain.But Morgan and Catherine, hand in hand, were happy to float home in the rain in their bubble of love much to Colman’s disgust!
Colman had an impressive hangover the next day, alleviated by looking after Sophie Lee who came over to try out Esme’s new easel and painting smock (a great present from Uncle Patrick).
It was a very emotional farewell to Catherine in the best bakery in SF, Tartine;
we look forward to seeing her again in London.
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Arachnid of the Autumn
On our way back down from Dante’s View in Death Valley, Sophia spotted a tarantula crossing the road. So we stopped for a closer look.Amazing to get so close!
It was utterly beautiful. Four different shades of brown, wonderful hairy legs, and two fearsome fangs up front.
It was singularly disinterested in us – determinedly marching across the bitumen into the rocks beyond the road.
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An Announcement
Unexpectedly, in late November, I found out I was pregnant.
This has helped us make a decision about our future lives and direction.
We have been agonising about what to do: to stay in San Francisco or return to London, a place we still think of as home.
We have workshopped this extensively with friends and family, here and there, done SWOT analyses, examined every angle, every pro and con for each city.
And ultimately decided that we should return to the UK in spring 2012, to be closer to family and old friends, to return to our house, and to build a life for our family in Europe.
We will leave our hearts in San Francisco, while our heads tell us London is the place to be, for us, at this time.
[Esme portrait by Moyra Scott nee Chestnutt - she's available for commissions!)
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Murals
Stencil
Bumper Stickers of the Month
I’d Like to Give Leprosy to the Beautiful People
Women May Come and Go, But There’s Nothing Like a Truck
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