Gill came up trumps on this one by taking a temporary transfer with her employer Sun Microsystems to work one of the international TimeZone support roles based in the Bay Area, California. The deal included free accommodation in the Marriott Execustay apartments in Mountain View, hire of a brand new 4x4 (perfect for the trekking and boarding trips that we had planned), and lots of days off due to the working shift patterns.

Thinking back at how much travel and adventure we crammed into those nine months makes the mind boggle. To think that we may have taken a different path in life and not experienced all of the amazing things that we did in western North America is a very sad reflection indeed.

Our apartment was a good size and suited our minimalist style perfectly ... 1-bed with a sofa-bed in the lounge for when guests came. The nightlife consisted of going round other TimeZone colleague's apartments and partying, or walking down to the local Irish exported brewhouse that was Molly Magees. Worthy of note below are the pictures from Mollys when Steve 'tourettes' Arkley came over for a holiday and reminded himself of all the fond memories he collected during his own lengthy TimeZone secondment.