computors

My computor crashed last week so took it for repairs and in the meantime got a great little note pad from Verizon - I love it!! So now I have two working computors. There are disadvantages and advantages of the Verizon one - the disadvantage it costs quite a lot per month but the advantage it will work in any place or country where there is wifi access and it is small and very lighweight with a good battery.

Australia

Will be flying out to Australia on November 22nd, it is a done deal. Before that, however, I have a lot of work. Will be conducting tours to Arizona, the California Coast including Yosemite, the California Rail Discovery and finally Greece.
So now have to start studying on many things - at least I have a few weeks free so have plenty of time!!

New phone/work

Just returned from my CA Rail Discovery TOur and it went well. On the day I returned my new phone (Verizon Droid X) arrived! I am now studying it to figure out all the things it has on it. It is just like a new expensive toy!!!
My next tour is not until September when I go to Arizona and then it is all go until I fly out to Australia at the end of November or beginning of December. Hopefully I will return from Sydney via Hawaii to meet up with my husband for a long awaited vacation together.

California Rail Discovery

Am getting ready to guide my next tour. It will be the California Rail Discovery with Premier World Discovery. I am really looking forward to it since I have not had a tour since May!. I have 50 guests so that is a lot of people to keep happy but like always I will do my best.

Australia

Just spoke with my cousin Neil who lives north of Sydney by a lake. He and his family have invited me over to visit them. I have not seen him since 1967 when he was just 15 years old!

I am really exited about this upcoming visit and I think I will have a lot of fun. He and his wife Pam have a beautiful German Shepherd called Honda will enjoy playing with her a lot. The plan to take me up to Coff's Harbour for a few days - that place looks really interesting. It claims to have the best climate in NSW and even has many bananas.

Am planning to go at the end of November after I return from my working tour to Greece.

tour guiding

Have almost come to an end guiding the Indians around SF. Have only 6 more tours to go. I must say I will not really be sorry since I feel I am beginning to sound rather like a parrot!!

My next tour with Premier is in July and is my regular tour of CA. Hopefully in September I will be taking a tour to Greece. I do have one in November however, which is confirmed. Am really looking forward to that.

Hopefully I will be off to Australia in December for a couple of weeks.

safaris

Have just spoken with Phil who arranges Safaris to Tanzania and he wants me to market his tours. It sounds very interesting. If I can introduce him to different orgnizations and he gets a group then I will have the pleasure of escorting them - this is a great opportunity and I should take it!

LA

Returned from Seattle/Portland last Friday and am now in LA again driving Mr Dipu!
Am getting very tired and would love to have a few days away for relaxation.
Hopefully tomorrow someone from his office will take over the driving and I will elax by the pool here at the Radisson at LAX

work work and work

This week I actually have 3 days off!! But I am working Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday with my Indian groups guiding San Francisco Tours. I feel that I am becoming like one of the many parrots we have in the city.....
Next week I fly to Portland and then drive up to Seattle and fly home from there on Friday, this is all about "Driving Mr. Dipu".
Next week hope to meet up with Shabir to discuse tours to East Africa, would love to go on a safari again, I love Africa one of my favorite countries.

New work

I may be working for a new company in November with a group of Brits. This is great as it will help pay for my proposed trip to Australia to meet up with a cousin whom I have not seen in over 40 years!!

San Francisco city tours

Am working a lot with Indian groups guiding them in San Francisco. This is really keeping me busy which is good.

denver

Am off to Denver tomorrow driving Mr Dipu! Will be staying at the Hyatt near the airport just for 1 night. Wish we were staying longer.
Have a lot of half day tours of SF this month

california rail discovery/los angeles

Just finished guiding a 7 day tour of California and Nevada. It was as close as one could get to a perfect tour. Great group, perfect weather and Amtrac was even on time!! Next I flew down to LA to drive "Mr Dipu" around. We stayed at the Westin at the airport. I booked it through "Hotwire" Great website.
Next week off to Denver to drive "Mr Dipu"!!!!

California/Nevada tour/LA

Have just returned from San Antonio and Phoenix, it was a very tiring 10 days, I now have a couple of days free before I begin my tour around CA and Nevada and then the day after I finish I fly down to LA to assist my husband for 3 days and then many 1/2 day San Francisco tours so I will be kept very busy.

LA/San Antonio/Phoenix

Just returned from Los Angeles, it was a very tiring trip with a lot of driving. I found it easier this time though since we have a GPS system and it really gets you out of difficulties.
Now I am getting ready for my tour to San Antonio. I have 52 in my group and we stay at the Holiday Inn Riverwalk for 5 nights. I take them to see the Alamo, Austin, Gruene, LBJ Library and Ranch plus Frederiksburg. After finishing my tour I fly to Phoenix for 3 nights and will meet my husband there and then drive him around.
After returning home I have 3 days before starting another CA Rail tour - no rest for the wicked!

LA

Have to go to LA next week with my husband. Hopefully I can call into Premier World Discovery with whom I work. I then fly off to San Antonio for the San Antonio Fiesta. I have a group of 50!! Am a little nervous since I have not been to Texas in over 2 years and have a lot of history to recap on. We stay for 5 nights and travel each day to various places in the Hill Country.
When I return the following day I fly off to Phoenix - its all go

California/Nevada tour

Just returned from a very successful tour of California and Nevada. The weather was great until we came to Lake Tahoe in Nevada. We were unable to take the cruise on the lake due to high winds so I took my group into Reno for a couple of hours, we returned to Stateline via Mt. Rose which at 9,000 feet above sea level is one of the highest mountains around the area.
On our journey to Sacramento airport we left early and our driver had to use chains on his wheels in order to climb the mountains! We left early so had no worries!

upcoming tour

Went into San Francisco today with my luggage and left it at the Radisson hotel where my group and myself will be staying for 3 days. This is so that I do not have to shlep it to the airport tomorrow when meeting my group.
I only have 20 people so it should be a relatively easy tour. We spend 3 nights in SF, 1 in Sacramento and 2 in Lake Tahoe.

Husband's tooth

My husband finally got his tooth fixed yesterday, he now has 2 perfectly matched front teeth!

broken tooth

My poor husband broke of part of his tooth yesterday whilst eating lunch! Thank heavens for 1800 dentist, they really helped us find a dentist open on a Saturday and close by

seattle

Next week my husband and I are off to Seattle for a couple of days, will be a welcome change from Fremont although the weather will not!

work

Begin work on the 24th of this month - can't wait. Am taking a small group of 20 seniors around SF and then on the Napa Valley Wine Train and onto Sacramento for one night and then we take the train through the Sierra Nevada to Truckee and drive down to Lake Tahoe for 2 nights. It should be beautiful up there with all the snow on the mountains!

sacramento

My husband and I went to Sacramento for 2 days but we did not attend the event I mentioned. He was too sick so we finished his work and then drove home early on Saturday. We stayed at the Hyatt Regency which is a hotel I like and I stay there with my groups when I am working.

sacramento

On my husband and I will travel to Sacramento to attend "Vision For Change", guest speakers are Mel Hansen, a Rotarian from Stockton and Michael Hingson, and his guide dog Roselle. They were on the 78th floor of Tower One on 9/11. Roselle led Michael down to safety. I am really looking forward to hearing him and meeting them!
This event is to promote humanity and uniting all of the African Diasporas and to educate those who are interested in Africa.

new found family

My cousin Neil's daughter from Australia contacted me last week out of the blue.I was in Australia with my husband about 4 years ago but I never got to meet Neil and his family. So the last time I saw him was when I visited for a longer stay 40 years ago! Tracy is looking into our family to do a family tree so hopefully I can help a little. I am hoping also that she can help me since I remember my mother (Tracy's great aunt) telling me that we were indirectly related to the famous Sir Ernest Shackleton one of the early explores of the Antartica. Who knows!!

Ano Nuevo Park

Just returned from a nature tour of the Ano Nuevo Park near Half Moon Bay California. The tour was arranged by the San Francisco Tour Guide Guild as a training tour.
We stopped first at Half Moon Bay to see where the surfers surf the mavarick waves. We learnt that Maverick was actually a dog who enjoyed the water!!
Later we spent some free time in Half Moon Bay before continuing south the the park. Here we met a ranger who took us on a 1.5 hour walk to see the Elephant Seals. There were hundreds of them and a couple of bulls started a fight!! We learnt that the females have one baby a year. They can dive down to 1 mile deep and can be without oxygen for up to 2 hours although generally it is less than that.
All in all it was most enjoyable and the weather was great which of course helps.

Dipu at the races

My husband Dipu went to Golden Gate Fields today in the hopes of winning one of 8 plasma TV sets which were being raffled. He called me to tell me his name was the first one to be pulled and yes he did win one!!
I drove to collect him and said TV and we got it home, now the question is how and where will we put it. I must say it looks a great TV!

israel evaluations

Just received my evaluations from the tour I escorted in Israel. They were all great so am feeling really good about myself right now. I hope the company takes them into consideration for the future!!

scott's restaurant

Went up to Walnut Creek today and had lunch with my friend Sandy at Scott's www.scottswc.com. It was most enjoyable and I would recommend this as an upscale restaurant for sea food.
It was great chatting about our upcoming tours for this year.

tour to half moon bay

Have signed up for a tour organized by San Francisco Tour Guide Guild to go to Half Moon Bay and Ano Nuevo State Park. This is mainly to learn about the history of the park and to see the Elephant Seals. Am looking forward to it.

Races

Dipu is off to the races today - hope he comes home with more than his shirt!!
I am going for a bone density test today - have one every 2 years, hopefully I have not lost any since the last time - we will see!!

ruba

here is the new tree

v

Driving Mr Mehta

Have just driven my dear husband almost 200 miles all around the Bay Area visiting San Ramon, Vallejo, Rodeo, Hercules. We then had a well deserved lunch at Skates on the Bay in Berkely and then continued on to Milpitas before coming home! I am tired out!! At least the weather stayed calm with temps in the 60s

face book

Have just become active again on Facebook and I must say I am enjoying it. It is giving me something interesting to do while I am not working.
At the moment though I am beginning to start organizing a Safari to East Africa for a travel agent friend. This is taking a lot of doing and much thinking. Hopefully I am having a meeting with this agent over the weekend to discuss what he expects of me.

ITMI Symposium

I have just returned from 4 days in Tucson with the ITMI Symposium. I interviewed with a number of companies and will now wait with patience to see if anything comes out of it. I am hoping for work with Tauck in Israel maybe next year.
On the day of departure the weather was terrible and fortunatly I arrived early at the airport and learnt that my flight was cancelled. Southwest put me on an earlier flight which was great.
I met a number of lovely people and hope that they will become friends.

ITMI Symposium

Tomorrow I fly down to Tucson for the ITMI Symposium. HOpefully I will find more work there especially overseas tours. We will see. Wish me luck

earthquake

Yesterday at around 10.00 am an earthquake rattled our area in Fremont. It was 4.2 on the ricter scale, there were two sharp jolts and then it was over.

rose parade

On the 30th December I flew down to LA to pick up a group I was to guide for the Rose Parade. They all arrived on time and I took them down to Long Beach to the Hyatt Hotel. We checked in and then went for an early dinner since they had arranged to go and see the "Glory of Christmas" at the Crystal Cathedral. By the time we got back at 11.00 pm we were all very tired.
On the 31st all the Guides and Drivers had a mandatory meeting regarding the parade for the following day. After which we picked up pour groups and took them on a guided tour of LA, we arrived back around 5.00 pm. We then had a little down time to get ready for New Year's Eve. Dinner was served at 7.00 pm and by 9.00 pm most of us were ready to retire for the night.
On New Year's Day we were all up very early since we had to drive to Pasadena and find our seats in the Grandstand for the viewing of the Parade. Fortunatly the weather was very kind to us and was not cold. We only had to wait about an hour before we saw the Parade coming close to us. Captain "Sully" was the Grand Marshall and was leading the Parade. The Parade finished around noon time and then we proceede back to the hotel for a champagne brunch. The rest of the afternoon and evening were free.
On the 2nd Jan we went to see the Floats up close and personnal, it was very interesting to see the amount of work that went into making them. After the visit we went to the Reagan Library and were back in the hotel around 5.00 pm. The rest of the day was free.
On the 3rd we took our guests on an optional tour to the Getty Center and then onto Santa Monica. The weather was great being in the 80s!! In the evening we had our farewell dinner at a restaurant across the road from the hotel.
On the 4th it was time to take the people back to the airport for their departure home. I must say I was glad to be home, it was very tiring.