Hello everyone:
Have I told you that the statistics have developed? But I guess that's up to Hapoo to explore, like she always did. But I still owe you an update on our last days in SF and the journey back. The last complete day in San Francisco I decided to accompany Shadow to work. I took my laptop and a walkman I had borrowed from his father, so time passed quickly. We had lunch at an Indian buffet, not bad at all, I tell you. Talking about food - hey I had a lot of international cuisine to try: Thai, Chinese, Mexican, really delicious burgers, pancakes (how international indeed), Indian and Pakistani, and of course, delicious dinners at home.
Anyways, after work we went to meet Shadow's professor - a strange chap but nice indeed, I had quite a bit of fun listening to their in-depth discussions about Iranian ancient everything - languages, history, just about everything. And then back home a delicious fish meal and a quiet evening to come. It must have been really quiet, because I cannot remember anything in particular.
The next day I left it to Shadow to pack my suitcase, and after I had arrived at my sister's he proved to have done a great job. Nothing had leaked or broken, how wonderful!That day it was raining, so we decided not to go for a long walk, but instead we bought some more pastry from two Iranian shops, had nice lunch, and then it was time to go to the airport. There the security procedures bothered me, plus the fact that Shadow was not allowed to accompany me through to the gate. So it was quite short goodbyes, and being guided to the security area by an assistant is not a pleasant feeling at all. And then off we went, almost immediately through to the gate. I had a bulkhead aisle seat, how wonderful - and beside me a nice couple with a 16-months old boy. He was great during takeoff and landing, did not make much noise and enjoyed playing with me. As we flew out at night I slept through most of the flight to London.

Over there I had to wait quite a bit to picked up by another assistant, but then we smoothly went through right into the next plane. Another aisle seat, and this time my neighbour was an eleven-year-old girl who was a little nervous. They had announced a few turbulences on the way to Berlin, so she was scared the plane could crush on the way. I calmed her down and distracted her by talking through most of the flight. In Berlin my assistant had no problem finding my two bags, and my sister and her son were already waiting for me right outside the restricted area.

I spent about another week with them, celebrated my nephew's birthday and got used to Central European time again. I really had a wonderful time in the U.S. with Shadow, but I bet Hapoo is delighted to be back at home with me, being able to sleep on her mat by the heater and going for walks with the three of us, Mom, grandpa Ajax and myself. And she will take over the blog from now on - I hope she does not bite me for stealing it from her for the past month. So goodbye from myself and many thanks for reading my updates, Chris:-)