One lady we met had recently battled cancer, and told me the most extreme example of the bizarre Californian law I have already mentioned requiring anything potentially carcinogenic to be labelled. Cancer patients going for radiotherapy are greeted with official notices warning them that radiation can cause cancer...
On Sunday we had our final excursion, a boat trip to Alcatraz Island, the former penal colony. This was really interesting , and well presented using audio sets and headphones. There was also a live phone-in from a former inmate (now retired and living in Florida) who seemed to regret nothing apart from being caught and still hated the guards. They apparently have reunions occasionally and he is looking forward to coming back for the anniversary of the prison's closure next year.
By the end of the weekend there was a slight change of tone: although Jill stayed with me until Wednesday morning, I felt a definite sense of "back to school", and wished I was going home with her. I have focused on Jill's visit for so long, looking forward to it and planning things to do with her. It has been something of a watershed, and all of a sudden I find myself two-thirds of the way through my secondment, counting my remaining time in days rather than months, and with no weekends unaccounted for. I hope it doesn't appear that I have lost my enthusiasm for this great country, but having tasted family life again, I am now ready to go home and feel as though I am facing the next few weeks with no appetite for learning new things.
One thing I have discovered about myself, or at least my wife has pointed it out, is that when I drive on the right I get my "left" and "right" mixed up. I don't have any problem with driving safely here, just in communicating directions whilst driving. It is as though my brain associates the expression "turn right" with turning across the lane of traffic, so that I say "left" when I mean "right". Weird, huh?
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