Tag: Holiday


  • Russian River

    Americans take their weekends very seriously – far more so than us lazy Europeans, who have lengthy holidays allotted to us. One of the local get-aways is to Russian River, an hour or two north of the Bay and nestled in some of the finest hills (and vineyards) in the country. Lauryn and I opted,…

  • New York New York

    Taking advantage of the extended Memorial Day weekend, I tacked on an extra day and winged it away from the West Coast for a weekend in New York City. What a place; I had visited in my early twenties, but it makes a major difference when you have local friends to visit and, crucially, a credit…

  • Santa Cruise

    I had the pleasure of Sam swinging by for a week of mountain biking and food. Some awesome days in the saddle, hitting up trails in Marin, the Peninsula, and then a fine finale riding out of Santa Cruise, and up to see the Amgen Tour of California cruise by. Good times! First up, Skeggs…

  • Yosemite is Awesome

    Language is funny. You spend the year throwing around superlatives, describing new features on Facebook or the texture of your new favourite Burrito, and are then totally disarmed when you go somewhere like Yosemite, and faced with things that really are ‘awesome’ (in the base sense of the word), ‘massive’ (as in, unimaginably heavy’?) and…

  • Freitag I’m In Love

    Final step on our super-quick European tour was Zurich, where our airplane was going to be leaving from, and where we had to return the rental car to. I had visited Switzerland a couple of times as a kid, but never as an adult, and never any of the cities. As a place to drop…

  • Würzburg

    It’s been a while since I met Robbie, my flatmate and one of my best friends while at university in Glasgow. We actually managed to link up in Kyoto, while he was at a neuroscience conference (it’s not exactly brain surgery), but this was the first time I have managed to visit his grown-up home…

  • Bregenz & Lindau

    A lovely little excursion through the roundabout-strewn Switzerland, to Bregenz in Austria, up a cable car, down to Lindau in Germany, and back in time for dinner. Not bad!

  • Bali Conclusion

    Perfectly sandwiching my arrival at Dell three and a half years prior, Yuyin and I decided to swap one Pacific island for another. Ostensibly to celebrate the wedding of Nelson and Christina, it was also a great opportunity to catch up with old friend Rich and plot some serious R&R time. Opting to stay in…

  • UK Return

    Sadly, last month we received that Granny, Catherine John, had passed away. A central figure in our family, her influence permeates through her children, her grand children and now their own families. Her creativity, humour, voracious appetite for news and love for her family, will be greatly missed. In contrast to previous trips back home,…

  • Hong Kong Birthday

    Since last weekend was Yuyin’s birthday, she was already in Hong Kong on business, and I had 12,500 air miles from Cathay Pacific gifted to me (a trip to HK needs 15,000), the stars aligned and I jumped at the chance to have a weekend away from Taipei. We have both been to HK multiple…