Beutiful Jellyfish

The most interesting bit, though, was the area where you can touch some rays, star fish and some small sharks. They teach you how to touch them not to hurt/upset them and it is quite interesting to see all the kids touching the fish.

Touching the sharks

Ray looking at me, wanting to be petted

Touched the Starfish

I didn’t build enough confidence to touch the sharks and the rays, even though the Aquarium people said that they had taken the venom out of them before putting them on the water tank. So I went for the easy and quiet starfish. They feel like rocks.

Pier 39

The sea lions seem to be at the far end of Pier 39, so I kept walking until I heard some noises that sounded like big dogs barking. Then I saw them for the first time, all lying down under the Sun, on top of each other, like a big family.

The Sea Lions

After observing them for a while, I realised that it is easy to climb the platforms that are already occupied by other Sea Lions, which is probably why they are all in the same platforms together, because it makes it easier to come up from the water.

According to information leaflets that you could read at from Pier 39:

The California sea lions “hauled out” on PIER 39′s K-dock shortly after the 1989 San Francisco earthquake. The boisterous barking pinnipeds started arriving in droves, taking over the docks in January, 1990. At first they numbered from 10 – 50, but due to a plentiful herring supply, the available dock space and a protected environment, the population grew to more than 300 within a couple of months. Each winter season, the sea lions population grows as high as 600. Annually, the sea lions tend to migrate to the Channel Islands 350 miles to the south during the summer months, but now a small group chooses to stay at PIER 39 throughout the year.

The Marine Mammal Center (MMC), an organization devoted to the well being of marine mammals, advised PIER 39 that the sea lions should be allowed to stay. As a result, the MMC and the PIER 39 together instituted an educational program to teach visitors about the sea lions.

So the sea lions have been there for 22 years now. I find them very cute, especially when they decide to sleep on top of each other, or when one of them decides to walk over all the others to find a better spot. It is very amusing to watch them for a while, I took a couple of hours to just be there observing their behaviour.

Relaxing time

In the US, hotels normally do not include breakfast, so I tried to find out which place would be nice to visit for breakfast during this short visit. Mamma’s came up very high on all the lists, so I decided to be brave this morning and go there. At 6.30 am I was fully awake, so I decided to walk there enjoying the early morning feeling of the city. I arrived to Mamma’s at 7:57 am. And I joined the queue:

The queue to Mamma's

I was a bit skeptical about having to wait so much, but the couple in front of me was German, the guy was all upset about having to make such a queue for breakfast and the girl was very keen on trying, so whilst practising passively my German I chose to stay and try, like she was suggesting. I mean, so many people cannot be wrong, or can they? An hour later I was allowed in and allowed to order some food.

The food looked delicious through the windows from the outside, and it smelled delicious once inside. I had this long internal debate about whether to go for a salty or sweet breakfast. Finally I opted sweet. I had a latte and a smoothie (which I couldn’t finish), and a taster of French toasts (yes, I chose them over the pancakes, that is having a strong will, isn’t it?)… but my idea of French toasts and theirs was slightly different:

Fruity breakfast (or so I keep telling myself)

I have walked my guilt off by now, so if you ever come to San Francisco, my recommendation is clear, go to Mamma’s for breakfast at least once, but aim at being there half an hour earlier than they open (be there by 7.30 am), and you won’t have to make a very long queue. After that, you’ll be ready for all the hills that await you if you have chosen to walk!

Definitely not a breakfast your Mamma would approve of…

Ricotta and Asparagus Crostini

Just spread a bit of oil thinly on a slice of bread and toast it on a saucepan.

Grill your asparagus your preferred way. Spread generously Ricotta on top of the bread and decorate with the asparagus. This is the result in our case:

 A bit of salt on top of it all will make this breakfast delicious.

Then the second question comes, how traditional do you want to be? Full English breakfast? Ehmmm… not really. I don’t particularly enjoy an English Breakfast. So we explored the alternatives at home, and tried to come up with dishes that were good nutritionally speaking and enjoyable. One good thing about the English breakfast is the eggs. We normally don’t eat eggs during the week, so we decided to come up with some delicious breakfast that included eggs.

And eventually, we came up with this delicious idea, Huevos Rancheros (Ranchero Eggs). We don’t follow any particular recipe, have our own, but the idea is to have a wrap, some spicy cooked veggies on top, some avocado (to counteract the cholesterol on the eggs) and a fried egg on top. And this is what you end up with at the start of your meal:

Ranchero Eggs Brunch

And then you put them together to look and taste as delicious as this:

Ranchero Egg

Good is an understatement! This dish is awesome, it has all the traditional values of the English breakfast (eggs, beans, tomato, bread…) but with the taste of Mexico… and you don’t need to cook again  until dinner, so off I go to enjoy my last Sunday at home for the next two weeks (on my way to San Francisco).

]]> http://www.psychologytech.com/2012/04/29/good-is-an-understatement/feed/ 2 http://www.psychologytech.com/2012/04/27/writing/ http://www.psychologytech.com/2012/04/27/writing/#comments Fri, 27 Apr 2012 19:55:24 +0000 Gema http://www.psychologytech.com/?p=2198 Continue reading →]]> It’s been a long time since I have needed to write for anything other thank quick notes to myself. Starting to gather notes from the new university materials that I have been sent has made me realise, I have forgotten how to write. How to write properly, that is. I hate my handwriting, and I am not sure I have the patience to improve it.

I liked to write in squared paper. When I was at Uni last time, I used to buy this fully squared paper with a particular texture that I loved, and I loved to write on that. Now, in the UK, the most common paper is either ruled or very big squares or nothing. How can the world change so much in 10 years that the paper I used to like doesn’t exist any more?  Should I just take digital notes and forget about handwriting altogether? I am not sure that’s going to be the solution for maths, to be honest.

Searching for my next favourite paper for handwriting…

Last week, we decided to have a go at doing a new activity. A puzzle. We bought a 2000 pieces puzzle of a beautiful German landscape and it has proved to be fun and engaging. We seem to head there every time we need to clear our heads or have some rest from the computers. It is refreshing to have a space where you can be messy and have fun! I guess playing is not only for kids…

Puzzle

]]> http://www.psychologytech.com/2012/04/07/spare-room/feed/ 0 http://www.psychologytech.com/2012/04/03/stonehenge/ http://www.psychologytech.com/2012/04/03/stonehenge/#comments Tue, 03 Apr 2012 07:00:11 +0000 Gema http://www.psychologytech.com/?p=2157 Continue reading →]]> A couple of weeks ago we decided to go out on a Saturday to walk on the forest. There is a forest 20 minutes from home. It is called the New Forest and it is a pretty popular place for the locals in Southampton. We decided to join the locals that go to the forest on weekends and headed there.

We chose two or three places where we could park, according to the map and the area we wanted to walk. Websites recommended to take the train, but taking the train would mean 1 hour trip and being left on one side of the forest with no means of getting to the other side, which is where we wanted to go, so driving there was the preferred option by far. What the website didn’t say, is that the parkings were closed until the end of March. So we drove there and didn’t find a single place in the forest where we could park. After driving around the area we wanted to walk for a while, we decided to go to the next cool place nearby. We saw a sign saying that Salisbury was close and we headed there.

We ended up visiting Stonehenge, wonderful place with a very particular feel. There were people still camping around there (with their caravans) after the equinox, when there seem to be private tours to the monumental stones.

Stonehenge

Stonehenge was very impressive. When you take into account how the people that built it transported those huge stones, then the words hard work have a new meaning, and day to day tasks do not seem that difficult any more.

After this visit we decided to become members of the English Heritage and start learning a bit more about the country we live in.

That is why I have decided to undertake a different challenge as my second degree. I have enrolled at the Open University to study Economics and Mathematics. Coming from an Engineering background I guess this would be a more stimulating challenge for me. I start the new degree in October.

I like economics and I like mathematics, so I think I am going to enjoy the study time. I am not sure how good or bad it is going to be for me to study in English, bearing in mind I did all my education in Catalan back in the day. In any case, it makes things more interesting.

I have had this problem in the past, and it always led in the end to stress and taking time to organise my thoughts so I thought this time I should be proactive and try to fix my behaviour before I felt completely overwhelmed. I started to read the book Getting Things Done, and here I am, trying to figure out how many lists of tasks I need to have to be able to keep track of my tasks. I have been working on this for 5 days or so, I have 6 lists, 3 work related, 3 personal lists of tasks. I cannot help but thinking this method, as I have implemented so far, is a bit of an overkill, but I haven’t figured out how to fix it to make it work for me yet.

One thing is clear, even thought I am not so worried in terms of having to remember all I need to do and I am being way more productive than before, the levels of stress trying to keep up with adding and removing tasks from the lists, haven’t improved yet. I wonder how long it will take me to be water.

And now I run to tick “Writing a post for my personal blog” off the Waiting Personal list task and add another one for three days from now… sigh.