In San Jose

So here I am in San Jose (pronounced the Spanish way with an H) preparing myself for the Blogher conference tomorrow. I have really no idea what to expect and tag along - mesmerised - with my good friend Nancy White who is in the heart of all this world and language

We had a rare day off together yesterday, going down the back roads in her parents' Miata (an open top sports car that hugs the ground and makes a satisfactory noise as we accelerate off from traffic lights). Except for the car everything seems SO big here. The spaces, the trees - redwoods, eucalyptas and pine - are on a scale magnified a hundred thousand times compared to my familiar world of the Serra de Arrabida.

I know that my vision was shaped by living in wide open spaces, infinite horizons and dry earth (in Kenya), and I know it is being reshaped by living in a smaller space with exquisitely beautiful, sacred but uncared for corners of Portugal. I wonder how it would shape me to live in this enormous cosmos.