Things I like about living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area

• The bridges.
• The adrenalin rush after an earthquake.
• My wife is happy.
• Working in an office with my San Franciscan colleagues.
• Knowing that people are less likely to break the law.
• My son loves his school. Both of his mothers love his school.
• Walking at night.
• Gadget and technology gluttony.
• Amazon Prime.
• Live music.
• Ice Cream.
• Possibility.
• Access.
• I can talk to my boss every day.

Things I do not like about living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area

• The inevitability of a major earthquake.
• Fear for my children.
• Lagging behind most of the world in time. By the time I wake up, most world events of the day are past tense.
• Sorrow for my country.

Things I miss about South Africa

• Boerewors.
• Coals.
• Velt.
• Hadidahs.
• Seeing and feeling Table Mountain.
• Working in an office with my Cape Town engineers.
• My fruit trees.
• The part of me that is still there.
• Black people.
• Decent 3G.
• Opportunity.
• Being able to show my sons part of who I am.
• Depriving my sons of feeling South African. And feeling South Africa.
• Ubiquitous Rugby and Cricket.

Things I do not miss about South Africa

• Fear for my children.
• My wife not being so happy all of the time.
• Knowing that people are more likely to break the law.
• Feeling that something is missing at my son's school.
• Feeling personally responsible for more people than my immediate family. A nanny, a domestic worker. Even an old fired gardener.
• Sorrow for my country.

But I am also becoming something else.

I have been growing vegetables. Lots of them, organically. I started back in March.

What has happened while I have been doing this, is that I have been drawn into a whole new thing. I don't even know how to keep up with all the stuff I want to learn and know.

Some random examples:

1. Where does the food I eat come from?


2. How much of the food my family needs can I produce at home?


3. How do we make healthy food cost less than a McDonalds Burger?


4. How can I catch rain water and use it?


5. Is there a way to make five star hotels that don't kill the world?

So I made a place on the web to talk about this stuff, or at least my experience.

Update: Life became a little hectic. Things like the birth of my second child, a move to a different continent and so forth. I have retired the aforementioned project, but not the thoughts, which I plan to continue cultivating.