ALASTAIR + LALEINIA

Hope you have a good weekend!

Summer Saturday's have been pretty booked, and this one was no exception! Off to Yosemite national park for some sightseeing we went, and boy was it pretty. Leaving the yellow and brown flat valley for the gorgeous mountains was a real treat. Half Dome, Yosemite National Park Yosemite is basically a load of granite rock that was supposedly cut into these incredible mountains by a glacier during the last ice age. Something like that, we are not geologists, nor does that stuff interest us too much, but what great views! At the summit of a lesser peak Of course, the highlight of the trip was seeing Half Dome, which Alastair wanted to climb this year but never got round to getting a permit. They only give so many out per day because of the cable part of the climb. Hopefully next time Alastair will do it, but there was no time like the present to get some climbing practice in! Well since there was no climbing, there was plenty of staring to compensate. If you ev...

Alastair spends a lot of time driving for his job. Sometimes the days are long and there is nothing to see. Other days are more fun, full of great views or funny instances. On one particular day however, Alastair saw some goal posts in a back yard, and after reversing to take a better look, he noticed that there was a huge net around what looked like a football pitch, and some floodlights around the whole place. Intrigued, he got out of the car and approached the guys that were cutting the grass.  After a few minutes of chat, it was discovered that this was the venue for a competitive six a side league, and that the season had just begun. Alastair began telling them that he was good, and that he should be allowed to join their team, and so it was agreed that he could play one game for them to see if he was good enough to play for the season. That Saturday, brimming with confidence, Alastair arrived with his fan club of one, Laleinia. "I'll probably only score 4," he th...

This weekend was filled with Kip and Al-filled adventures! Hanging out with these two is a spectator sport. All you have to do is sit back and prepare to be entertained. Here's four things that you all missed out on this weekend. 1. Short shorts at Mystery Spot.   2. Having a kick-about and touching dead pelicans at Santa Cruz. 3. Playing tennis, slack lining, and playing tennis while slack lining at Natural Bridge.  4. Mighty Boosh quotes. Classic times. Crazy days.

June 30th 2012 was the day that Laleinia finally found more enlightenment in Football than Shopping. Back to the bay area we went for California's version of el clasico! We had been anxiously awaiting our first football match together, and finally it was here. It seemed like everything was going against us, first with Alastair locking the keys inside the car at the Gilroy outlet malls (which were awful by the way), and then with Google Maps leading us astray in their home town, dumping us by a dried up lake on Stanford campus, but when all was said and done, we arrived at Stanford Stadium and took our seats on the first row behind the goal. Beckham, a life long hero for Alastair and one step closer to Victoria for Laleinia, was most likely the reason for the Earthquakes abandoning their home for the larger Stanford Stadium, where the 50,000 in the crowd saw him curl in a trademark free-kick to cross that off their bucket lists. He doesn't score too many for LA Galaxy, ...

Alastair and Laleinia have been itching for a new adventure. After many hours of working throughout June, a weekend getaway was much needed. Bags were packed and off they went! Laleinia and Alastair haven't been to Hollywood, and they've been wanting to go to a beautiful beach, so Los Angeles was perfect. Down south is just a blur of cities, so we're going to call it all Los Angeles. We arrived pretty late and headed straight to the Hollywood walk of fame. Even at a late hour there were many clubs and shops meeting the demands of the many people. Sirens from cop cars kept blaring every few minutes and many heads turned when a very fancy car sped by. It seemed as if we were in Las Vegas all over again. After walking down the strip, we headed back to our hotel. Breakfast was to be eaten at the very cute OP cafe in Santa Monica. It was rather crowded, so we ate outside. The weather was fine, so we didn't mind. Alastair ordered a breakfast burrito and ...