Big Ben in San Jose

It’s a bizarre noise to wake up to when you’re in Silicon Valley – the distinctive chimes of Big Ben coming across the palm trees. Very disorientating indeed; I couldn’t locate the source but I can only assume it’s some copy cat bell. Either that or someone was playing the Radio 4 news really loudly.

San Jose is a fairly dull place from what I’ve seen, and is apparently one of the richest areas in the world in terms of average salary. Perhaps the two are connected? The area is home to most of the world’s biggest technology companies – eBay, Cisco, Yahoo!, Google and once upon a time Microsoft. The office buildings (or “campuses” as they seem to insist on calling them) that line the highways are a roll-call of all that is best in IT and technology.

And it’s bloody hot, but not too humid… San Francisco’s better though.

Confusing tennis

Andre Agassi is playing in his final first round match in the US Open at the moment, against a chap called Andrei Pavel. I wonder if the people in the crowd shouting "Come on Andre!" find it as amusing as I do...

Foreword

Welcome to "Blogs from America". I'm currently in the process of moving to Boston with the company that I've been working for in London for the past two years, and this is intended to be a commentary on my experiences here over the next year or so (or however long I end up staying here for...). The title, as the more astute among you may have guessed, is a bastardisation of that of Alistair Cooke's legendary radio show, which for 58 years gave BBC Radio listeners an insight into American life from the ex-pat's point of view.

With American culture being so all-pervasive these days, it may seem bizarre to even think about considering it as a "foreign" experience - surely nothing there can surprise me? I've seen enough films and listened to enough music from the US that I must know it inside and out? That's probably part of the fascination - America today is a strange, confusing place - both almost autistically cut off from the rest of the world and at the same time at the centre of everything. My job (implementing internet software solutions - that's all I'm going to say about that!) should take me to many corners of the States, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the real thing squares with my preconceptions.

It's hard to say what form this blog will take; personal memoir (not the plan... I'm not sure I'm a fan of bleeding heart blogs...), travelogue (depends just how much time I spend on the road), or astute and amusing social commentary (probably the aim, but not sure if I can manage it...). Whatever, this is a pretty exciting time for me, and I'm hoping it's going to be worth writing about.