The American Way

Mount Hamilton, Round 2

This evening, Manon and I went back to Mount Hamilton (remember, this is one of the first places we "discovered" upon arriving in San Jose). We finally decided to have dinner there, as the weather is getting warmer, and the potential of a beautiful sunset was too high to miss. The food they serve is pretty homey fare: Manon had the veal scaloppini with capers, and I had a chicken breast smothered with garlic, olives, diced tomatoes and paprika served on a consomme of white wine. Very nice !

Our server (they use the term server here, not waitress or waiter... I'll have to put this on the Odd things about the USA list...) was a lovely ol' lady, and something strange happened: when I ordered a dark heineken beer, she said with a slight French accent "it tastes like carrraaamel" ! It turns out she was French from near St Tropez, and her name was Rosette, and she had been living here for 50 years (she must have been in her late 60's). She was very sweet, and pretended it was Manon's birthday, and gave us some of her homemade Raspberry Cheesecake (Kevin... I ate this for you man, that's how much of a friend I am :-) ).

We had a gorgeous view while we ate dinner, and left, satiated and happy. On the way back though (and this is a long winding road down to San Jose on route 130), a deer suddenly jumped out of nowhere ! Max pumped her breaks, and we slowed down, but still bumped into the deer! Thank God, she had managed to seriously slow down (probably 15 miles / hr), and even though we hit the deer, we weren't going fast enough to hurt it. It stared at us reproachfully for a few seconds, and jumped back into the moutain. Needless to say, Max and I were pretty freaked out, we got out of the car to make sure the deer was indeed ok. Meanwhile, the Park Rangers were right behind us the whole time ! Max went to speak to the rangers while I checked the car, which thank god, didn't have anything. It's not so much the car that I was worried about, but more the fact that if there was no blood or dents, then the deer would be fine. The Rangers confirmed this as well, and we went on our way, scared, but relieved.

We were so wired up by the time we got home that we decided to get into our cossies and head out to our residential spa and sit in the hot tub and swim a few laps in the heated pool... that calmed us down!

Tomorrow, we go to Big Basin Redwoods State Park near Santa Cruz. Looking forward to it! Then it's Shoreline golf course in Mountainview on Sunday morning, and possibly celebrating Queen's Day (Konningen Dag) in true "Oranje" style at Menlo Park, near Palo Alto. In the midst of all that, I'll need to work on my product planning slides (I leave for Israel next Friday), and other work stuff. Busy weekend in perspective !

Signing off,

Shy

Summer is here !!!

The weather has finally turned around... we hit the mid 70's today in San Jose (that would be around 24 degrees Celsius), and it was bright, sunny and absolutely gorgeous. I like Friday's a lot, because it usually means that I can sleep in; by this, I mean that I don't have any calls with Israel or Europe, and instead of waking up at 5.45 or 6 am, I can sleep in and wake up at 7.45. My first appointment of the day is with K*C*, who is the product marketing manager for some of my products, primarily the ones dealing with our high tech/manufacturing/non telecoms customers (logistics management, work force management and a few others). It was a short call, as we've both been really busy with our product planning activities. After that, off to work, Starbucks with Manon, some work, lunch with the team, some more work... and then WEEKEND !!!!!

MercuryNews.com | 04/07/2006 | Let phone and cable firms compete for TV viewers

Link: MercuryNews.com | 04/07/2006 | Let phone and cable firms compete for TV viewers.

This article in the San Jose Mercury news is interesting, in that it touches a lot of the stuff I've been working on in the last 6 months over here at Amdocs. We keep hearing the buzz words, IPTV, Video Comms, Interactive TV, Triple or Quad Play services (that's when your phone company can provide you with home phone, mobile phone, broadband internet as well as wireless in one fell sweep). The fact is, this stuff is happening for real, and it's freaking both the cable providers and opco's out. Trying to build solutions that cater to both is tricky, but fun.

At the end of the day, interactive TV over IP will only succeed if:

• the cost of delivering this service is not prohibitive (today, it costs over 120$ to rollout IPTV over DSL)
• that customers like you and me can easily set this up, configure our viewing preferences, and interact as smoothly with our media platform as we do with the internet today
• and most importantly, what is a critical success factor is how service providers manage to "glue it all together": traditionally offline media devices are becoming broadband enabled (e.g. X Box, Sony PSP, Sony Location Free TV); there are more and appealing customer premises equipment (the stuff you have at home or on you that gives  you access, e.g. X Box Live, Motorola Slvr, Windows Media Center); Exclusive Content (live events, sports, survivor/reality live shows).

Odd things about the USA...

So Max and I thought it'd be a good idea to keep track of some the weird, different, exceptional things about our new home, the US of A. So just for fun, we started drawing up a list. If any of you (americans, europeans, asians, africans, south americans, antarctians, eskimos, any one, really) reading this post want to add to our list, PLEASE DO SO! I'm curious to hear what others think.

Please note, although we are saying "US" this and "US" that, our frame of reference is California, which, as I understand it, is a different country altogether (kinda' like Texas). So a different perspective is welcome and requested!

So far, we have this:

• We haven't noticed toothpicks or mints in US restaurants, whereas in Austral-Asia, you see this more often than not
• The tap water served in US restaurants is absolutely awful... BUT YOU ALWAYS GET SERVED A GLASS OF WATER
• The amount of ice American waiters serve their customers is completely disproporionate to the amount of drink (try... 2/3 ICE, 1/3 drink).
• We love the bottomless cup of coffee, and the fact that even posh restaurants adhere to this policy
• The coffee is actually pretty good (or we've gotten over euro-snobbism through countless trips to Pete's Coffee & the ubiquitous Starbucks)
• County jail buses... in France, we never see the buses that take prisoners to Jail, over here, it seems that I see one a week... with the big iron barred windows.... just like in the movies.
• The salt in salt shakers never gets stuck... whassup with that? Why is it that in the rest of the world, getting salt out of a shaker requires us to follow a draconian training regime to develop upper body strength?
• Ketchup bottles are spotless
• You get 2 or 3 different brands of sweetener as an option for you coffee. Not just ONE. At least 2, and mostly 3: Equal, Sweet'n Low, and Splenda (which is my personal favourite).
• Senior discounts aren't a myth or urban legend: they are REAL, and pretty substantial. By comparison, France sucks at providing discounts in retail or restaurants, you can forget about anything like that happening in India, and Australians are pretty good at this policy.
• The sun doesn't always shine in California (TRUE MYTH)
• Not everyone uses the term "Dude" in California (also another TRUE MYTH)
• One portion feeds 2 people (especially Salads)
• US Salads are good, not bad (as someone told me before I moved)
• There are more SUV's (Sports Utility Vehicles) than Sedans. Wow.

So curious to here what you think about our list, do you agree, disagree? Thoughts/Comments?

The Unauthorized Rolling Stones...

So we went out with friends last night, with the intent on experimenting with another favourite all-american pass time... Pin Bowling. Before heading out there, we decided to grab a bite to eat at a pub called the Brittania Arms. This place is actually pretty neat, and reminds me of the pubs that we used to go to as students when we lived in Brighton... all my favourite British classics were there... from Boddington's (reminds me of the Thursday night curry fest on campus at Sussex Uni... ;-) Richard, if you're reading this, it should bring back some memories) to Newcastle Brown Ale (Alexandre... cela te rappelera du Grapevine...).

Anyway, sat down, had our meal, and found out as we were eating that this band would be playing at around 10pm, called the Unauthorized Rolling Stones. As you've already probably guessed by now, this band covers Rolling Stones songs... what you might not know is that the have a pretty good reputation, and definitely look the part! We were told it might be a good idea to catch them as to see them usually costs 20$, and here we were, with prime seats, infinite supplies of beer at our disposal, it would be a shame not to stay a while and hear them out.

Hmmm. Mistake. ;-)

The band had some problems setting up... they'd fired their previous audio guy (max has the whole story, I'll have to update this blog later to correct it), the mixing system wasn't there, the keyboard was missing... I mean basically it was a total disaster for them. We waited about 2 and half hours before they started playing... and listened to about 2-3 songs. I guess what doesn't help is that I don't like the Rolling Stones all that much.

The most interesting part though about last night was not so much the band, but the audience. Yesterday was people watching bonanza... we counted around at least 6 ladies with upper body enhancements, and folks from all walks of life: academics, IT geeks, Cowboys, Brit-Pop American groupie types, Facelifters, I mean we've never had so much fun people watching.

One particular person, which we'll call Bambi on Ice, was the star of the evening... but that really is a story for another day... which I'll have to tell you when we meet up next!

Max's Birthday... Round 3 (final round)

I've got to admit, I'm really starting to love living in California. In some ways, living in the bay area is very much like living in Greater Sydney, back in Oz. We hopped on the train Saturday morning, and 1 and some hours later, were in San Francisco. Michael, (Debarati's fiance) picked us from 22nd street station (really weird station, check it out here...), and once we picked up my sister we all headed out to the wine country nearest to SF: Sonoma Valley.

Sonoma is beautiful, in some ways, much like the Hunter Valley north of Sydney. Rolling, lush green   hills, quaint vineyards. We were on a focused itinerary concocted by my sister: first we went to Cline Cellars, which has a wide range of selection. They are known mainly for their Syrah, Viognier, Marsanne and Roussanne, but we also got to taste some great selections of Zinfandel, Carignane and Mourvèdre... YUM. Needless to say, for our first round of wine tasting in Sonoma, this was a real treat. We ended up buying a bottle of "Ancient Zin", which we'll save for a nice occasion (hmm, say my birthday perhaps :) ).

Next on a our MUST DO list was to go to one of Debarati's favourite wineries in the valley, which goes by a really strange, odd name: Gundlach Bundschu. Gundlach Bundschu is a 150 year old winery and has been producing wine since the 1860's... Enough culture, and on to the wines: we tasted a2003 Tempranillo (spanish vines), a 2003 Zinfandel, a 2001 Cab Sav, a 2004 Tempranillo Rose and finally Max tried the 2004 Gewurztraminer.

We fell in love with the Tempranillo, which reminded me of some of the Rioja's that you would get generous servings of at the Bellota-Bellota restaurant in Paris (7th arrondissement... one my favourite places in Paris). So we split the 34$ bottle, and decided to lunch (i.e., have a picnic) on the grounds of the Gundlach estate. Oh my... and what a picnic !!!!

Debarati and Michael went all out, they got these fantastic cheeses from the Cheeseboard in Berkeley (I'll need to write about the cheeseboard sometime, it's amazing), roasted a couple of Cornish Hens, and best of all, the baked an awesome lemon, honey, almond and polenta cake that was of course, gluten free. It was a truly royal feast, sitting by the lake of the estate, drinking our bottle of Tempranillo, very very nice....

So all in all, a wonderful day, a wonderful birthday, and round 3 was the culmination of Max's 35th. It's too bad the present I ordered for her a week ago still hasn't arrived , but hopefully, it'll be here on Monday !!!

Signing off,

Shy

Max's Birthday, Round 2 !

Food: ****
Wine: ****
Service: ****
Atmosphere: *****

This is actually a surprisingly very good Italian... why surprising ? Well... I never quite trust the "chain effect", and where I come from, chains are generally "snobbed" upon. Not being snobs ourselves, and having heard such wonderful things about this place, I decided to book it for Round 2 of Max's birthday (the actual night of her birthday). We did not regret it at all !

The food was absolutely divine. I had a carpaccio ($9.95) for starters, which was very good, served with fresh bread, arugula, 5 year aged balsamic and lemon oil, and shaved Parmesan... YUM. Manon had Grigliata Costa Smeralda  (Grilled scallops, calamari and shrimp served with parsley sauce for $10.95).Needless to say, we were both in heaven at this point in time. This was accompanied by a nice Italian bubbly dry wine.

For our entrees, I had the Turtei con Aragosta ($18.95), which are ravioli filled with fresh Maine lobster and in house baked bread topped with shrimp and diced tomato and lobster cream sauce, while Manon had the Spigola con Funghi di Campo ($26.95), a Mediterranean sea bass baked with Yukon gold potatoes, roasted garlic, thyme, white wine and field mushrooms...

We finished the evening with a delicious Crema al Doppio Gusto ($6.95, Fennel infused custard with chocolate mousse and caramelized sugar topping) for Manon, and the standard fare Tiramisu (also 6.95) for myself. I must say that Tiramisu was slight disappointing (drenched in too much coffee, making the biscuits way too moist for my liking).

All in all, a wonderful evening, in a lovely decor. We'll definitely come back here again, the prices are definitely reasonable if you stick to the everyday items on the menu, some of the specials are definitely a bit more pricey! What's great about this place is that it draws up an additional regional menu for the first 2 weeks of every month... so that you can discover Italian fare that you would not usually have the opportunity to eat otherwise.

Great stuff,

Shy

Max's Birthday Celebration ... Round 1

So Wes and Yolanda had a fantastic idea, and organized a cruise in the San Francisco bay, with a champagne brunch !!! It's too bad the weather was horrible, but we had a fantastic time nonetheless! You can catch pictures of the event here, or if the flickr badge is on, click on the images on the right. Next weekend is round 2, with max's birthday celebration in sonoma...

Cheers, Shayan