…. at all.
It’s day after day sunshine here. It is definitely very tantalising and the flavour of opportunities around the corner is everywhere. In our case without a car we can’t really reach them because it is true, America is a car culture and you better have a car here or be limited but the opportunities are there.
There is a distinctly different attitude here to everything. An optimism that I am always trying to understand the origin of.
For example in real terms being poor here sucks more than In the UK even (!) thanks to this culture of ‘the individual’ this mentality that creates and progresses SO much “everyone out for themselves: ready, steady, go” but it leaves one a bit by the wayside when in the UK (up until ‘Cameron the Coldhearted Opportunist’ came into power) and Europe there would be some support to helps bridges gaps until one can gain a foothold again.
This here really is not a model I would follow if I had a say over government policy BUT the attitude here is infectious and it is remarkable to find so much optimism in the place where despondency would be in the UK.
Is it just the weather in California? Or is this a nationwide attitude? Still trying to learn how the Americans tick. It is really interesting to pay attention to all the ways in which here is substantially different while looking so much like home. The minds play different.
You can tell I am nibbling on these cultural anthropological ponderings trying to work out the origin of the flavours and what they all mean.
This period of time spent here has been really interesting, despite me not being able to get out very much the pet-sitting gigs and effectively living other people’s lives for periods of time, the living among glassblowers, the reading forums on San Francisco Newspapers (devoid of flower power voices I can tell you!) all this is beginning to give me a sense of Americans and how they might look the same as Europeans but really are not. I am fascinated by how we are so different.
I have a love hate relationship with here, it is tantalising to think about staying and hard to think about the different colours of England that once I am there I adore (the wetness, the green-ness, the wintery-barren-ness, the narrowness of streets)
Birgit Over 7 Seas 
I really enjoy your blog! I was reading some of your older posts and found this one. I have lived in England, Germany and Spain (10 years combined) but the rest of my life in California. I’m not sure I know how we Americans tick yet. :–)
We live in Napa Valley and wish it would rain a bit more – the grapes need it. You may want to check out our California wine country blog: http://www.topochinesvino.com. Follow us if you like what you see.
Hello to you wine people. I am actually naturally tea-total and unfortunately not your best chance of gaining a loyal following but just out of interest: Do you also offer organic wine?
Many of our wines are organic.