Each year there is an International week at Caltech, with different events which range from Chinese and Japanese calligraphy, tea tasting (which I always enjoy) and the week ends with a food fair, with dishes from many countries. The International Spouse Club had 5 dishes this time.

From Japan, China, South Korea, Russia and France.

We all spent time in the morning and days leading up to the food fair preparing the dishes.

I helped prepare the Caviar Sandwich, and of course we had to test them and they were very nice.

Above is our table of food.

woe

My plate of food, which all was great, including potato stuffed bread, samosas & madalines.

A really good day was had and with all your can eat for $5 it was a complete bargain.

Well after our eventful first week of falling over & hours spent at the American embassy, we finally got to do the fun stuff.

Well Saint Patricks Day arrived so obviously we had to celebrate. So off we went to Strabane, Co. Tyrone to watch the parade.

To end the days events we went to Katy Dalys to listen to a band and have a few drinks. The band was fronted by my mother-in-laws cousin and took requests, like all good bands they knew every song that was requested.

A few days after St. Patrick’s day my father-in-law decided we should all go to the Bushmills Whiskey distillery for a tour. When we got there we found out no photos could be taken inside, but we still had a great time. The tour guide discussed how there are three steps to distilling whiskey and the differences between bourbon, scotch and whiskey. He said that bourbon is only disctilled once, scotch twice and whiskey three times. (For those who don’t know whiskey is Irish Whiskey)

He also discussed the different types of casks that they use, the maturity in age range and bottling. Areas which we saw. Click here if you want more information. You know you do

At the end of the tour we were all given a taste of whiskey. There were 5 to choose from and luckily 5 of us.

I got Black Bush, Christopher got 10 year Bushmills, Rusty, my father-in-law, got 12 year Bushmills, Marie, my mother-in-law got original Bushmills and Granny got a honey Bushmills. Sláinte

Here we are enjoying our whiskey.

The weekend before heading back to my parent’s house arrived and to see us off they had a wee gathering. A good night was had by all of us, as well as a good trip.

We both came to Ireland to visit Christopher’s parents and get our visas.

We landed at the city of Derry airport on Saturday March 9, in the rain, after the flight from Liverpool John Lennon airport was delayed by 2 hours. After getting off the plane we started walking across the Derry runway, when I tripped. I tried to stabilise myself which we resulted in my falling flat on my front in a huge puddle with a huge cut on my right knee and very painful ribs.

After a little bit of rest we saw some relatives.

On the Tuesday we were Belfast bound for our visa appointment, wow it took a long time to get the interview. When we did eventually get to have the interview the man only called Christopher in, but he checked if I could also go in, it turned out I could.  Then success we got our visas. 1 more year in Pasadena. Yay!!!!

We arrived on Thursday February 28, we had already been told of two parties happening on Saturday March 2. The first our was our nephew Thomas’ first birthday party and the second was out friends Victoria and Christopher’s (yes everyone needs a Christopher) wedding party.

Thomas’ first birthday party.

The last time we properly saw Thomas was before our trip home this time was last year 3 weeks after he was born, so we were looking forward to seeing all of the changes he had gone through. we were really looking forward to this.

We got there and like most first birthday parties it was mainly adults and a few children.

I had a few people not recognize me which would upset most people but for me it was like water off a ducks back.

Us with Thomas and before anyone says it we know he looks like us.

It was a great chance to have a catch up with people who we haven’t seen in a while.

Our brother-in-law with both boys

And party food.

Then later in evening we were off to our friends wedding party. Victoria and Christopher got married in Wales at the end of December obviously we couldn’t go due to location.

They had a great band doing live music and a very cheap bar, £2 for an Irish Whiskey, which was $7 per single in Pasadena.

Enough about alcohol.

Of course we had a night of dancing and drinking like normal and I managed to get pictures. 

Of course as usual I was the social butterfly

I’ve been home a grand total of 1 day and my mummy bought me a brand new Android tablet.

This post is the first of many using this tablet.

February, 18 was the Pasadena Rock’n'Roll half marathon which was passing by our apartment building, so we thought we should go out and watch for a wee while, whilst some of the runners and even walkers came past.

We found out from a flyer that was delivered that there would be a band playing on the Caltech lawn, so we thought were not that far away so lets watch the band.

We went on our little walk to Caltech to watch the band and runners. This is a good combination. Listening to covers of classic rock songs and runners, wearing tutus, skirts and what ever they feel like wearing go by. A lot of them dancing as they went past the band.

We stayed until it was time for Christopher to get ready for his usual Sunday football/soccer game, then we decided that we had to go home as we saw the last runners come past.

I managed to get some pictures from twitter as people crossed the finish line.

Even a group of Elvis’ ran and stuck together. Now that’s team work.

To round our day off I went to watch Christopher and his football/soccer team play.

Believe it or not VICTORY!!!! (for the 3rd consecutive match) they won 7-1. Great game.

As some of you probably saw my dismay through my Facebook and Twitter I thought I should share it with those who haven’t been able to see my complaints.

It started last Wednesday when the home owners association advised that the gas would be off due to repairs that needed to be done, with that it meant no gas & no hot water. Also it meant either leaving a key with the association manager or staying at home for the whole day, so I chose the staying at home option.

It got to 11:00 I had asked Christopher if he would come home so i could go to the Women’s Club meeting, which is was doing for me. But, I got a little knock on the door and a note saying access wasn’t available to all condos, so the works couldn’t continue. So no gas but the hot water was fixed. So i cancelled Christopher coming home and went to my meeting.

The work men were scheduled to come back that evening, but again cancelled as could not get access to 1 condo, so they decided to come back in the morning.

Thursday morning rolled by and the workmen came back, but guess what?!? They still couldn’t get access to that 1 condo.

The Home Owners Association manager was very apologetic, and made it his mission to find out where this mysterious person was.

So that was another day wasted and I had to reschedule my optician appointment.

It got the evening and we got another note put on our door, saying that the work would definitely be going ahead on Friday.

Friday morning rolled in and therefore I couldn’t go food shopping.

This time the gas man finally came and checked the gas in the condo and he started the work. Only to be told there was a gas leak. So another night with no gas.

Saturday morning rolled in and I thought this is the morning we get hot breakfast, which we could do with it being Februany at Subway and its $5 for any foot-long sub. So I went and got us both breakfast.

Just as we finished breakfast there was a ring of the doorbell and the plumber who was fixing the gas leak was there.

They turned the gas back on after fixing the leak and we could cook again.

It was very annoying being stuck at home for 3 days  not being able to a food shop and cancelling appointments, but it’s all fixed now.

Last week we had the great opportunity to listen to design Alicia Hardesty from Project Runway, and being the Caltech Women’s Club publicity chair it was up to me to make the event known within the Caltech community. This was a joint venture for a change with the Center for Diversity, so I was asked by our website chair if I would advertise this for both the Women’s Club and the Center for Diversity, which I did.

Before I started I thought it would only be fair if I contacted the designer @originaltomboy on Twitter first, which Marcia thought was a great idea.

The plan was to actually speak to her at the event but it was very well attended by undergrads, grads students, post docs, faculty and wives like myself and Krug the Thinker

Above is Marcia Brown from the Women’s Club (CWC) Introducing Alicia, sorry I know the picture isn’t very good, but it’s still a picture.

Alicia was greta she talked about how her love for fashion developed and some of the things that she first started doing, for example falling in love with Vogue magazine (and to be honest who wouldn’t) and cutting articles and images from the magazine and then pinning it to her bedroom walls.

She advised the strangest thing that happened to her was being called trendy and her reaction was kind of like, “well, that’s not what I was going for,  for those of you who know me it sounds a lot like me. Considering I’m known for buying things at the end of the season and holding on to them for a couple more seasons then starting to wear them. When it comes back into fashion I could then try to convince people I made that trendy, haha yeah right like anyone would believe that. Plus I’m not one for being trendy, comfort is how I roll.

Anyway, enough of me back to Alicia.

She showed us her fashion Bible which was given to her by a friend when she started her studies.

She then went onto say how she had met a Caltech Student on a South Western flight from New York and they got talking about his work and her work as a designer. Then it came to pinnacle that she would like to do a clothing line science based. She came up with the name X² She got this name from the image on her label for Original Tomboy, the squared acts as the science part and the X from her label the Northern Kentucky routes of the line.

She showed us how she was creating a Wabi Sabi feel to the line for example denim with petina zippers, as it shows that objects become more beautiful with age.

We were also shown how to play safely with bleach, t-shirts and lab coats (now that’s an unexpected combination)

She also showed us how an Original Tomboy dresses, jeans-wise. Kind of like mens jeans, looser fitting, higher waist/hip and deeper pockets.

The night ended with her showing some of her newest pieces and a raffle draw which I didn’t win. :’(

Anyway a good night was had by all.