It has been a week of eating out.

It began last Wednesday, when - copying a highly successful model from back east - I suggested to two girlfriends that we meet for drinks and dinner at a restaurant in Los Gatos. We had to amend the plan when we discovered that my pick had not made it through the recession, and for various logistical reasons, chose to meet at Left Bank Brasserie, at San Jose's Santana Row for our night out. One large pile of mussels and a glass of bubbly later, I headed back over Highway 17, very content with my evening. We didn't rate the restaurant that highly, but we do have the foundations for a west coast dinner club in the making. (Reciprocal dining rights will be available to the east coast ladies...!)

Less successful was my long anticipated trip to Bonny Doon's Cellar Door Cafe. It appears that, just because you make great wine (rose fans should check out the Vin Gris de Cigare, and Syrah fans should try their Syrah Le Pousseur), does not mean that you run a great restaurant.

The space is fun. Industrial hangar meets wine bar chic is an unusual look, but it makes sense, given that wine vats 20 feet high sit right next door. The tables are communal, and the restaurant touts that the dishes are to share. That's all well and good, but in food (as in comedy), timing is everything. The gap between our starter and main course was so long we thought they had forgotten us. When the entrees finally did arrive, they came at 12 minute intervals, which meant that five of us were trying to eat one portion at a time. Not ideal. And they really did forget my main course. When it finally came sallying forth from the kitchen, I was super-excited...right up until it was set down by the couple next door, who immediately attacked it with gusto. Words were had with the waitress, who attempted to redeem the (already lost) situation by offering us the limpest looking cookies any of us had seen in a long time. The pity of it was that the food that did arrive was good. They just need to work a lot harder on the delivery. And learn to bake better cookies!

Today was spent networking in San Francisco. At lunch I ate a delicious sushi grade tuna salad from Seller's Market, a great (and sustainable) soup salad and sandwich place. And before I headed back down the Peninsula, I stopped for some food for the soul, taking in the Richard Avedon retrospective at SF MOMA.

Tonight, in honor of an earlier post, (or perhaps because she's cooking to celebrate both her own and my uncle's birthdays), my Aunt Daisy is making Julia Child's boeuf bourgignon. The dish takes hours to make. Delicious smells are wafting over me as I write.

Here's hoping that my culinary adventures continue (and continue to improve). Bay Area restaurants on my list include Manresa, (probably a birthday treat, that one), Gary Danko and Amber India. Watch this space for further reviews...

Where to Invest Post-Crash?

In the dark days of the stock market catastrophe last fall, Warren Buffet advised us to buy American equities. Despite my deep misgivings, I followed his advice, wagering a very small amount of my savings (around $1500) in the worst stock market since the Depression. I am delighted to report that a year later, I am 25% up on the investment. $375 won't go far, but it's a darn sight better than the return I would have achieved on my savings account right now, which offers a pathetic return of less than 1%. The laughably named "high yield" promotional CD currently offered by Bank of America would bump it up to a less than stunning 1.2% APY.

I am by no means an investment guru (perhaps this post should come with a financial health warning?) - but as a result of the sale of the Brooklyn Chateau, I now have significantly more to invest than I did last year. Of course, I also have a great deal more to lose.

Real estate has been good to me. I sold my first (London) apartment for double the amount I paid for it within five years. The little house in New York also realized a decent return, even in a truly lousy market in which to sell. In the medium term, most of the proceeds from the chateau will be reinvested in a new nest somewhere in Santa Cruz county. So my current preoccupation is figuring out how best to invest this money in the very short term (next six months), to achieve a decent return without excessive risk.

Of course, I am not alone. Savers all over the country are trying to find a way to make their money work for them, rather than working for the banks they so recently had to bail out. (Sidebar: American check-clearing rules are deeply antiquated, and seriously favor the banks, as the New York Times pointed out this weekend). Saturday's Wall Street Journal warned folks about the possible dangers of fleeing to bonds in search of yield, noting that investors in bonds could get slaughtered should interest rates rise (as they surely will in the not too distant future). Strike one for bonds (particularly longer term bonds).
Mutual funds are regularly touted as the safe option for the risk-averse investor. But many of them have expenses which could significantly reduce gains in as short a time period as six months, or penalties for early redemption (not helpful should we suddenly find our dream home and need to produce a down payment at short notice). But part of our plan will surely involve an index fund or two, as a relatively safe bet.

Stocks offer potentially rich rewards, but possibly devastating losses. I do plan to take a very small holding in Berkshire Hathaway, as a tip of the hat to the Oracle of Omaha for his earlier advice. But at over $3000 per share, it really will be a very tiny stake. Since investors receive Warren's newsletter, I hope to garner more pearls of wisdom in the coming months.

Now some of you might think that it is worth paying for professional advice. But very few financial gurus saw last year's financial tsunami coming. So could I be sure that a professional would look after my interests better than I can? If I lose my own money, I'll be irritated. If someone else loses it for me, I'll be madder than a chimp during a banana shortage.

The reality is, of course, that the old saw of keeping a balanced portfolio is still the best advice. We can neither afford to put our nest egg in only one low-interest producing basket, or in too many risky baskets.

In an earlier post, I mentioned our audition for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Despite our screen test, our Millionaire plan did not work out. We will not be coming to a TV screen near you anytime soon. So the real financial plan is pretty critical. Eric and I are still figuring out how to allocate our assets. If anyone has the silver bullet, please let us know. Otherwise we will muddle through, and (without detailing dollars and cents) let you know how our investment decisions pan out, percentage-wise, in due course. In the words of the Oracle, we hope to profit from folly, not participate in it...

Small World

Three and a half million people visit Yosemite national park every year. If you've been, then you may have hiked Half Dome, with its vertigo-inducing cables, or taken one of the easier hikes to Vernal Falls or Nevada Falls. But the chances are that you haven't even heard of the High Sierra Camps, which are perched high above the valley in landscape which is breathtakingly beautiful.

Last week, in company with an assortment of soon-to-be family members, I looked down on Half Dome from a peak called Clouds' Rest. We hiked nearly 15 miles that day, and saw just a handful of folks (and some mules) on the trail.

There is a sort of fellowship among hikers. Mutual encouragement is commonplace. As you huff uphill, redfaced and slow, complete strangers on their way down will stop to let you know that you are nearly there, and that the view is worth the work. And as you return down the slope, you dispense advice on the walk (wisdom learned just 30 minutes before) about the narrowness of the coming ledge, or the best off-trail view. And you see the same people along the trail as you pause for water, trail mix or lunch.

There are the Boasting Bores, the guys who travel in threes and have always climbed a little higher, walked a little longer and suffered quite a bit more than anything you have done. The Good Sorts are wearing slightly worn gear that has seen a lot of action. They have a map, and will happily lend it to you if you are lost, or take your picture if you are having a tourist moment. They will also overtake you multiple times on the trail, until you lose them completely as they gallop past you on a treacherous climb. And then there are the Complete Idiots, who have ventured out into the wilderness in pristine white t-shirts without sunscreen or a hat, and with only a half litre of water to share between two on a 15 mile hike.

As I walked, I mused upon the similarities between hikers and the folks I have been networking with as I look for jobs. There is a remarkable correlation. In business, the Boasting Bores are the types who assure you that they have a bunch of useful contacts for you, but then are completely unavailable when you seek to follow up. The Complete Idiots are the sorts who think that their Great Aunt Lucy, who once held a volunteer position in a petting zoo might know someone useful in your job hunt. And the Good Sorts are the gold nuggets in the sea of silt, who open their address books (chock full of fascinating people), write e-mail introductions and aggressively help you in pursuing your dreams.

And inevitably (just as it is on the trail), the Good Sorts all know one another. In the week before I journeyed to the north of the state, I met senior executives at Netflix and the University of Santa Cruz. And of course, they were connected. The spouse of one was a consultant at the offices of the other. And so it goes. I applied yesterday for a position at a company where I know that a Good Sort of my acquaintance has an in. I'll be calling him today.

The good news is that the Good Sorts have so far significantly outnumbered the other, less advantageous connections. So to all of the people I have besieged via Facebook, Linked In and phone, thank you. You know who you are, and you have already been terrifically useful. Keep up the good work!