1^st February 2006

Oh dear 5:45AM is surely the preserve of a night out, not a morning start? After an emotive good bye with Smurf I turned my attention to packing the final items I would need; socks, pants, toothbrush, passport, visa paperwork . . . nothing essential . . . I had a credit card and my snowboard, the rest can work it self out.

I was glad that I had a taxi to the airport. I am not a morning person and I had used all my charm and smiles for Smurf and mother (or should I now say mom? No. Mother it is.) So I was please I had arranged a taxi to the airport instead of getting one of my friends for a lift.

So when the taxi arrived I was most pleased to find a clapped out old mundano driven by what I can only describe as The Essex equivalent of Paul Calf, “You can’t buy class like that, how much were the fog lights?” . . . . “Twenty quid, Halfords . .”.

He would not shut up and his driving was shocking. I quickly bored of stories of how he was actually testing Ford cars in his job “it’s the only way to get the miles on ‘em”. After a few declarations about being a car nut and an avid Top gear fan I was subjected to a chain of stories.

I had to engage . . .

The “test” ford with 16 gears and a 200BHP diesel engine. The three letters “CVT” did not spark the light in Mr Calf. He was not so complimentary about the V6 cougar he had for a year that rusted apart on him apparently this was not as good as his Focus S160, or was it a ST180, or maybe ST170 “Yeah, that sounds right” ? Apparently he always has problems remembering this, just as he always has problems breaking, looking before changing lanes “It’s like I have three eyes mate, one here, one there, one there and another here”. Say no more.

So you may now have the impression I am not a morning person (It is now 6:50AM PST and I am on my second cawfeeee). I was looking forward to getting the airport to sit down and switch off.

As I entered T3 at shithrow I was greeted b the one arm bandit and Eric, I was actually really pleased to see them! My bags were feeling heavy . . . ;) So we checked in, sat down in a Starbucks for a coffee, something that will be an on going theme in Oregon. This really is Starbucks country, CNN has just announced their shares have soared 20%. I can't believe I am not going to see the Scooby gang for ages . . .

I will skip the details of the flight, I slept. Despite the best efforts of the mad Chinese woman next to me. She was knocking back the brandy and coke like it was ladies night in the Starlight rooms. I would not mind so much but she only decided the spare seat next to me was a good place to sit 3 hours into the flight.

So I landed at PDX Portland to be met by my new boss, all happy and smiley and we trundled off to get me a rental car. I now fully fit in with my Ford Escape. A medium sized SUV. I took one look at it and thought, “yep, snowboards will be no prob in that!” Mind you they had a stack of H3s and I was seriously . . . .

Ana was really good, took me to my hotel and sorted a decent room out then went shopping for juice and cawfee. Tropicana in the UK is available in original and smooth. Here you get smooth, some pulp and more pulp. I went for the middle but now realise that I need the “more pulp” option.

So we hit the mall, nice place, lots of shops, 2 travel adapters we end up in Starbucks! Ana had prepared a welcome pack for me, contains info like phone numbers and map quest details for the office. I am beginning to think that this mornings coffee will be a bad idea once I hit the roads . . .I will be totally wired . .

Any how, that’s the end of day one, I will start the entry for today a little later on, suffice to say it has started with cawfee and will probably end that way too! At least afer this the blog dates will match the dates of the text below!!!