Oakland

In the Bay Area, I got a window into the complex world of coffee roasting. My friend Luoi has become a professional coffee roaster since last we met, and we got to relive old times in a new way. We rose early, made a stop for coffee and, clutching our warm beverages, bundled up to spend a few dark hours in a warehouse.

But my, how times have changed. Instead of her listening to me go on about what makes a good cup of coffee, she was the one enlightening me on the various qualities of different beans from different regions. How they are roasted, brewed, ground, consumed.


I watched her inspect the beans as they turned from green to brown, listening for certain types of crackling and inspecting them for oily residue on the surface. I used to be the coffee fanatic between the two of us, and now I'm happy to have a decent cup of whatever-the-hell-that-is (who can be picky in Urumqi?) while she is studying the science of what makes a great cup.

I also spent some time with my friends Martin and Beth, a couple of my ever-diminishing pool of contacts in the Bay Area. We did what people do there, which is go out for good food. This time back really made think about the fact that after just a few years of being gone, it's almost as if my seven years there never happened and were I to return, I would be almost as rootless as the first day I arrived at the age of seventeen. At least I'd still know my way around.

Los Angeles

Another winter spent in Los Angeles, manipulating lots of confusing theoretical lists of numbers in order to maintain my confusing, all-too-real life in China. I may have moaned about being under stimulated but I certainly had some good times. Alan and I got into the hills in LA on impossible rock-face-finding quests and had some good scrambles.
Although I miss snow in the too-sunny LA winters, it was nice to be able to strap on my hiking boots and play. Alan is of course a fantastic hiking companion with a leaning towards the impractical that takes us into interesting corners of Southern California that few other people bother, er, dare to go.


And there were, of course, the holidays. We have had the added fun the last few years of splitting time between the two parental units, an honored American tradition that our family has just recently started taking part in. Truth be told, it's not so bad, just significantly quieter than it used to be. The guy next to me in the picture is my brother, Nathan.