I spent one Sunday morning playing with my new digital camcorder, cropping, cutting, extracting, dragging with iMovie. It was a lot of fun and pretty hassle free. At the end of the day, I came up with californian.mov [67MB]. I am rather proud of myself.

With the trip to California nearly at an end, we grasped an opportunity to visit Yosemite. It's been so long since I was there last, I just wondered whether driving into the valley would have the same impact. I'm pretty happy that it did.

Everything is on a grand scale here, even the rock. You drive into the valley, and suddenly huge masses of rock enclose you. You feel trapped. Sweaty palms. Dry mouth.

It was such a pretty time to see Yosemite, as the major waterfalls were in full flow. Huge thunderous sounds echoing in the valley. How does the water get up there? Must be sucked up somehow. Um.

I am Erwann. I am ze French - now with added complex. Sorry dude.

Some day I'll promise myself to go back to Yosemite. 2 hours on Saturday just didn't cut it, neither did the 3 days a few years ago. Perhaps in September Yosemite will be waiting for me.

On Sunday, I wandered around Stanford, a really pretty campus. Very American. Kind of quaint.

Suzanna took me for a walk along the coast, which was wonderful. With fresh sea breezes and impressive views, it really rounded off an excellent trip. We then wandered down into North Beach, for a non-chunder Italian, before heading home by way of some windey roads. Suzanna rocks, in a gnarley sort of way. I love Californians - they are definitely being who they are.

Americans are funny sometimes.

I have finally gotten to see Sun's offices over in the US. It's pretty impressive and humbling stuff. I never knew this company was so big. The facilities are all on a grand scale, and it really feels like a little community - very friendly place. I could get used to this!. Silicon Valley isn't a terribly exciting place though. Everything feels lego shaped. I'm not sure why.

We went for a drive on Sunday - taking in some of the hills around the valley and that beautiful Pacific Ocean. I'm hoping to head out to Yosemite next weekend and then maybe Lake Tahoe and Red Rocks if I have time.

I managed to find some cliffs to boulder on, but they were made from sandstone and I found myself pulling off holds left, right and center.

It's not just silicon.

Okay, so whatever happened in the last month seemed a blur. Even though I got to travel to some really wonderful places like Sella, Spain and Gola Island, Donegal my motivation to take photos has been low.

Things have been wonderfully busy, and this incredile roller coaster continues to career all ways, unpredictable from one day to the next.

Stuck on an island, away from civilization was wonderful, if even only for 4 days. Gola is a perfect place, that I desperately want to return to.

It seems a long time since I was in Sella - such a pretty place, that my slides don't really do it justice. I gave a slide show this week, on a mixture of Gola, China and Sella. I only then began to realize how lucky I have been. Travelling to new places is a lot of fun - it's nice to think there are enough places to keep my occupied for my life. I travel to San Francisco on Saturday and looking forward to it.

And if you look carefully enough, I do exist.