Damn you, Campbells! Sell 'em in the US.

I need to give a shout out to my new co-worker, CQ!

She had related to me that her mother was going to Australia in June, and I suggested that she let her mom know about Tim Tam. These are incredible biscuts/cookies made by Arnott's - an Australian icon of a company - which was acquired by the Campbell Soup Company ten years ago.

When I was in Australia, all of David's friends asked if he had shared with me a Tim Tam. He replied that he hadn't yet and his friends were in shock. That next day, we went to Woolys and I asked him about this Tim Tams, and he led me down the bikkie aisle. I found them in many varieties: Original (Milk Chocolate), Dark Chocolate, a coffee flavored version and my personal favorite -- Chilli Chocolate (which doesn't exist anymore.) I bought as many as I thought prudent.

I bought one of each package and quickly devoured them before our ANZAC Day weekend trip to Cairns. While in Queensland, I headed off to a Coles and bought a package for the visit. After returning to Sydney, I bought six packages of Tim Tam, 3 for Sydeny and 3 to bring back to the States (with my copious amounts of wine.)

What I thinks draws me to them is that they are not avaiable Stateside. We can get a good Tassie beer at Rae in Philadelphia. The Ants Pants Cafe on South serves your toast with Vegamite, if you ask. I've gotten Milo at the South Square Thriftway. However, these delicious caramelly chocolate cookies sandwiching a thick layer of tasty chocolate cream drenched in chocolate remain illusive.

734

For those of you who know me or have been following my blog, the numbers 3, 4 and 7 are more often than not found in my hotel room numbers. When I get only 3s, 4s and 7s, then I take it as a sign.

My hotel in Palo Alto was 4024. Fours… Recently, I have adopted a whimsical sense of tetraphobia. This fear of the number four is an Asian cultural belief based on the fact that the Chinese word for “4,” si(3), sounds nearly the same as the word for "death", si(4). Therefore references to the number are avoided.

So I was humorously relived when my room number at the Hotel Palomar in San Francisco turned to be 734. Looking back, my trip was full of folly. Many things went wrong, but, thanks to my friends, I was able to land on my feet. As I settled into San Francisco at the end of my trip, I realized again why I enjoy that city.

In a round-a-bout way, I wanted to share some of the camera phone pictures that I have from my trip to the Bay Area for the Ivy Plus conference.

Here’s a view from the roof of the sky box of Stanford Stadium:

This is Hoover Tower from the Skybox roof: A view of the vinyards of Thomas Fogarty Winery (where the conference ended at dinner):