The weather is sweeeeet this weekend! Nicci blew through her household budget this month buying some 'essentials'... among which, items I do agree to be essential here, two reclining sun loungers which are now positioned on our balcony facing the sun. I've jumped into the shade to avoid melanoma and to update you on what's going on. England blitzed the West Indies. And I'm hoping Quins will have brushed London Irish aside, but the Setanta-i service has let us down again and so I have to wait for technical help before being able to access the game. I figure my chances of not being told the score before I get to watch it are much increased over here, as there isn't much interest in Rugby Union (although when I tell them it's American Football without the pads, some seem to show a degree of interest, but zone out when they hear you can't throw the ball forwards).

This morning we drove to Capitola. Nicci had been there a couple of weeks ago with some girls when on the CPC womens retreat and wanted to show me. It is a lovely seaside place. We wandered round some cute little shops. We bought some more 'essentials' (two pairs of flip-flops for Nicci, one pair: silver with a silver flower on top), and enjoyed some fish and chips on an open terrace looking over the sea before walking along the beach and back to the car for home. Some folks were obviously doing some sort of civil engineering project as a very complex and deep sand thing was under construction - they seemed to be having fun.


Last night I'm afraid I left Nicci at home alone with another man. Luke is the 18mth old son of some friends from church whose regular baby-sitter had bailed at the last minute, threatening to kaibosh their date night. Nicci gladly stepped into the rescue, as I had taken up the offer of a work colleague to take his extra ticket to go to see Keane in concert at Oakland. We left straight from work - the venue was a large theatre, but big enough to hold a pretty big crowd. We got there early enough to get a place pretty near the front (about 8 people back). I was familiar with their first album and I recognised some of the songs from the second album, but it was just brilliant! The leader singer seemed to be having an amazing time - he looked to be genuinely bowled over by the crowd's response: perhaps a sign that they could 'break into' America and make it very big. This was the first night of their US tour, but he said it was going to be hard to beat the 'vibe' of last night.
Most people who I told I was going to a Keane concert had never heard of them, but Chris from work is an avid fan. And after last night, having previously been a moderate supporter, so am I.