Okay, I lied. Last night I didn’t pull an allnighter playing Ascension. I played Ascension until 1AM with my good buddy Chris Whittington, and then wrote last night’s blog post. The reason it appeared to post at something like 6AM UK time is because I am actually in California right now, but was unable to say so.

Why? Because today was my brother’s surprise 40th birthday party, which managed to remain a secret for months, even right up to today. Good job, everyone. And happy birthday, John!

Now he knows I, the rest of my family and Andie are all here, though, I can comfortably and confidently say that yes, I am indeed in California enjoying weather that is quite a bit better than what I understand is rather chilly back home.

I like America a lot. Well, the parts of it I’ve been to, anyway. I’m aware it’s a rather big place with plenty of grotty bits as well as pleasant places. But certainly I’ve never had a time when I felt like “oh no, not America AGAIN.”

California in particular is a beautiful part of the world, featuring everything from woods to beaches to mist-capped mountains. I would very happily live here given the opportunity (namely, an offer of employment that would sort out my work visa for me) and probably wouldn’t return to the UK in a hurry if that happened. Yes, it’d be hard leaving friends and parts of my life behind in the UK, but I feel the good things that would come from living in the States would outweigh those negative things. Besides, the Internet makes staying in touch with people easier than ever, and given enough money, you can always hop on a flight across the pond to visit people.

This is all a moot point, of course, because no-one has, as yet, offered me permanent employment in the United States and offered to sort out a work visa for me. So far as I can make out, this is a complicated procedure designed to make it as difficult as possible for people to emigrate to the United States, dependent on a cyclic series of requirements that all seem to contradict each other, or at least cancel each other out. For example, the last time I looked into a potential international move, it seemed that I wouldn’t be able to get a visa without a job offer, but I wouldn’t be able to get a job offer without a visa.

Obviously there are ways around this, otherwise there would be no (legal) immigrants in the U.S. But the whole process seems like a huge challenge, and like something of an impossible dream right now.

Ah well. I shall just have to enjoy the trips across the pond when they do happen. I’ve certainly enjoyed this one so far.