Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair

It’s amazing how much you can fit into a Golf. They’re quite small but have a Tardis like ability to swallow household items. A feature that came in handy that year.

As the housing market started to improve I began to investigate some options. My job required me to be near an airport in Europe. Ideally in the UK, France, Germany or Sweden so I would be near to at least one major customer. Living in rural Hampshire was lovely but I wasn’t meeting anyone to spend my life with and without any dogs it was a lonely life. The list was  narrowed down to; Manchester, a fun city and if I lived within site of Old Trafford I could lose my ‘Plastic Manc’ title and see United play on a regular basis. London, I’ve always felt I should have done it in my twenties but its never to late.. Stockholm was my bosses favourite choice because most customers were nearby. Munich, a great city (and still on my list). Paris would be fun. Sydney? I had loved my time on Australia and 6 months earlier I would have gone without a second thought. I qualified for a visa on points so didn’t even need a job offer. Or should I go back to New Jersey? I didn’t love the state or the thought of being office based after all the years on the road, but my biggest group of friends were there and I knew life would be good. I could even live in New York and do the reverse commute.

After some serious thought, and getting my house valued, I narrowed the choice down to Sydney, New Jersey and Manchester.

A well timed quarterly trip to New Jersey gave me the the chance to investigate that option. My friends were now well placed in the company so I asked them about opportunities. Surprisingly my enquiries were treated with a common response “we would love you to come back… But it would be a mistake. A commitment to life with the company”. But one person. My old manager asked – “how would you feel about California? We have a  great opportunity, we just took an order for millions of dollars  from one customer and we need someone we trust to give them local support”

Before the end of the week I had an offer from the President of the company and all I had to do was decide between unemployment in Australia and a good job in San Francisco. 

Not as easy as it sounds,

and the idea of a bar job and life in a camper van at the beach nearly won. But it didn’t…
My house sold within a week, I decided that I was young enough to try California first and if it didn’t workout I would go to Australia the following year.

So off I went, On my own. Gulp.

Last time I moved to the US it had been easy. Logistically it had been harder with a wife, a dog and two cats, but everything else was easier. Having someone to help find somewhere to live, to make new friends was definitely easier. This time it was all in me. Choosing a home, choosing a car and building a life.

I went to San Francisco with the expectation of living in a Victorian in Pacific Heights, you know like the classic picture of the painted ladies, but after some initial searches I decided that living near the freeway was going to be important for my 45 mile commute (which had been met with resistance from my managers but after growing up 70 miles from London and living 45 miles from New York k wasn’t going to start my new bachelor life outside the city).

I eventually found a great loft in a building called the clock tower. Near to the freeway, and with loads of character. It was owned by a British engineer so I decided that it had to be fate… I was set to sign the lease… But I had agreed to look at another place and so to be polite I thought I should go anyway…

The other place was fairly new, smaller, soulless, a studio but had great facilities and even more importantly a great view. The bedroom looked out at the Twin Peaks  and the living room looked at down town. I was sold. I thought to myself ‘you can sit and look at your cool exposed bricks on the ground floor or you can sit on the window ledge on the 15th floor enjoying a glass of wine and looking out at the city’

It was an easy choice.

Next on the list of jobs was to buy a car (yes I know this is a car blog, thanks for sticking around…) so being a single Brit in California I decided it had to be a sporty convertible.

Most of the list had featured before; BMW Z4 (not a Boxster), Porsche Boxster S (expensive and hard on clutches with all the hills), Honda S2000 (too noisy at 75mph) but then something new showed up in my searches.

When BMW launched the E36 model M3 they had made a decision that the M division wouldn’t be able to make enough of the model to satisfy the US market so the 325i was modified. Not a real M3, more of a 332i with upgraded suspension. It had less power than a ‘proper’ M3 but had a flat torque curve which made for an amazingly quick everyday car. I found one in my budget and bought it.

I had so much fun that year, enjoying the February sun whilst enjoying Marin (the drive north through the mountains, with the smell of eucalyptus heavy in the air is surprisingly similar to the drive along the coast from Melbourne) and cruising along those twisty roads left me smiling from ear to ear.

I still consider this car to be one of my favourites to date and I am sure I will own another. Small, light, nimble and powerful.

Fun every single day.