A Birdie

Russell cajoled me into posing for a picture today. Then he emailed it round the office with some of his copy added!

It is now the weekend!!!!!

Cocktails and dinner

At last the back of this week's work looks set to be broken. I'm meeting Antonella and Debs at a restaurant named the Slanted Door for Cocktails and then dinner later on. The girls are already there when I arrive and I'm intrigued and pleasantly surprised to learn from the bartender that "a wiry caucasian guy" had already paid for their drinks. Result.

Regardless of this they stayed and had a marvellous meal with me. An item particularly worthy of mention was the Raw Scallops with Caviar served in a Vinaigrette sauce!!

It was a really late night - again. But really enjoyable.

Wednesday

Don't need to go on about work today because it's all a lot more manageable today and I know exactly what is going on. Went to meet Courtney today who is a friend of Kate and Lynnie. Lynne had sent over some love for us in the form of a huge book of cocktail recipes. I think the idea is we need to start a bar at our apartment. I've no excuses now so maybe I should give it a go!!

Debs and Antonella had a good day out with Debs ended up being photographed with a group of Dairy Princesses!!! Don't even ask!!

I have some emails to send from home and some forms to fill out but I'm definitely going to try to get to bed earlier than usual tonight.

Still in full-on work mode

Work got quite intense today!!!!

When I got home (Late) Debs had arrived from the UK. She stayed up to say hi before jetlag dragged her transcontinental tiredness to bed.

I love the view of the church from our apartment window.

Workin' it baby!

Worked long and hard today. Took a half hour break in the evening to meet Antonella and her cousin with her son in the Metropole. Went back to work and did a few more hours before sharing a cab home with Chip.

The heat is on as we head for Wine Country

We headed to the Golden Gate Bridge in the morning, top down and feeling sassy. We've decided to drive up to wine country and get some serious sunshine. We hadn't realized that the sun had also decided to go to wine country today and have a bit of a sit down. Wherever the sun sits it is phenomenally hot for miles around.

Just after crossing the bridge, we pulled in to the view point to get a look back at San Francisco. There was a definite holiday feel everywhere as people took advantage of the exceptional weather to enjoy the views and just generally hang out.

Anyway, we had places to go so jumped back into the car and headed for Sonoma. It wasn't long before the temperature had nudged up to the high 90's!!! I had to put my cap on to stop my brain from being fried in the heat. Normally it's not too much of a problem as I don't really use it that much. But right now, even with Antonella navigating I was having to focus and concentrate in order to stay on the right road and in the right place on the road. Why? you ask and no I haven't been drinking...

You see, American roadsigns are very secretive about giving away any advanced information. preferring instead to wait until you are about to commit before giving you the smallest hint of which direction will get you to where you want to go. And then the ones they stick up prominently read like they are from the series " Roadsigns for Dummies. Anyway we made it to Sonoma and drove up to one of the wineries to have a look around.

We were pleasantly surprised to see hummingbirds drinking in the gardens. Not sure how they got the corks out of the bottles even though they'd claim it was water flowing into the fountain from the winery press!

We walked around the main square in Sonoma looking or something to eat and thinking how nice it would be to be to suddenly come face to face with an iceberg. The temperature was searing by now so lunch was more an opportunity to go and sit in air-conditioning rather than sample the culinary delights of the city.

After we ate we drove on to Napa - which was basically shut! They were probably going to open the shops and everything again later when the temperature cooled down a bit but it was a bit of a ghost town while we were there. It looks very well to do and I'm sure we will pay it another visit in the not too distant future.

Then oh the fun we had driving back home. No wonder Americans are always keen to subscribe to the services of a guide when on holiday. They probably are used to this from not having any decent signs to anywhere here in the States.

We made back without too much trouble anyway, taking in Sausalito before finding an amazing view from a vantage point before driving back across the bridge and into San Francisco. I think Antonella is starting to feel withdrawal symtoms now knowing that the car will be sent back home soon so she's taking pictures of it "on vacation" in california.

Putting the car away after another day out.

Sun-soaked on a Saturday

We took the MUNI to downtown to do some shopping in the morning. My shoes have been claiming more and more territory in our walk in closet so Antonella decided to treat them to some smart new stacking shoe boxes. There is an amazing store called the Container Store which sells, well er, containers. We stocked up on what we could carry paid and left. We had a quick walk around the shops to make sure we had everything then headed back home on the MUNI.

It reached 95º in town today and although it was declared a Save the Air day, we still had to pay for public transport as it's the weekend. On the Train home Antonella sat next to 2 Chinese ladies who spoke really loudly and non-stop all the way back to our stop. Not sure how it works, but everytime we get public transport, Antonella sits next to 2 Chinese women who speak really loudly and non-stop all the way back to our stop! She's probably subscribed to some sort service for reasons only she can possibly know!

Just thinking though, I should be really nice to her because she cooked me an amazing Swordfish Lunch accompanied with a Virgin Mary. Yum, Yum, Yum!! Oh and she bought me some fantastic cake too. Antonella Rocks!!!




So I starting sorting through my shoes and tried to get organized in a few other areas too. I'm still lacking in the shoe box department but it will be easy enough to pick some more up during the week while I'm in town working. I'll probably try to get to bed early tonight.

Here comes the weekend

Work was all about getting it done today. We were booked to have drinks round at one of our neighbours but I turned up over an hour late because of all that needed doing at work. To help get me through the day, I bought a L'il Kim album on i-Tunes.

The drinks with our neighbour turned out to be fun and we ended up staying out really late getting through who knows how many bottles of wine. She's a really interesting and passionate women and she is also the current President of the San Francisco Rotary Club.

Hot, Hot, Hot

It was another Save the Air day today in the city. Someone should get Ken Livingstone in London to take note. Basically, if the pollution levels rise due to the heat and traffic, all public transport becomes free of charge for the day!

For me, the average joe-about-town, the weather is fabulous. Very hot, very sunny, yeah talking 'bout Californ-i-a!!!

Lots of work to get through today but managing to continually tick things of my to-do list which is very fulfilling.

Went out with one of my friends from the office to an amazing place named Absinthe in Hayes Valley. Service was excellent and the ambience was great. Definitely a recommended if your're in town.

Almost Home

Antonella has been doing amazing work with the apartment while I have been out at work in the days and it's starting to really look like our "home". It's felt like home right from day one so this is an added bonus that it looks more and more like home.

Outside it's been yet another beautiful day in the city

Our bedroom is coming together nicely

Another sunny day but not much else

Another fairly uneventful day today due to a very intensive work day. Antonella baked some cakes today, or are they biscuits? Anyway, they are tooth-shatteringly crispy and very tasty.

Went to bed at 11pm today which is very, very early for my current routine!

A Sunny bright Monday... outside

It was a lovely day in the city today although I experiened it from the office window. Most of my time in the office was spent attending meetings but things are beginning to move again.

Spoke to James in San Diego on the phone. He's planning to come to San Francisco in September and has also invited us to fly down to go sailing with him.

Managed to squeeze a gym session into the evening before going home and doing some more unpacking.

A bridge, a lighthouse and some trees

We're making sure we take advantage of having our car here so it was off exploring again today for us. We crossed the Golden Gate bridge for our very first time only to find it was completed shrouded in fog until we crossed into Sausalito on the other side where everything was bathed in glorious warm sunshine.

We headed from there to the lighthouse at Buonita Point where you have to walk across a suspension bridge to reach the actual structure. It's all quite an adventure and the bridge itself can only carry two people walking across at a time!

We spent some time there before driving further into Marin County to Muir Wood to walk amongst the redwood trees. It's areally magnificent place with tall straight redwood trees reaching up to the skies all around us.

After completeing one of the designated trails, we drove back to San Francisco. On the approch to the Golden Gate Bridge, we were treated to some great special effects - as the fog gave a really Sci-Fi feel to the views we could see of San Francisco and the bay.Click here to see more pictures

An Easy Saturday in San Francisco

Started the morning sorting through some more of our boxes bringing a little more order to our apartment. One of the women from the office came round with her friend and was able to take some of the boxes we'd finished with. She's moving within San Francisco and rather than throw perfectly good boxes away she will be able to use them to move her things.

We are supposed to go out tonight but have not heard anything yet so we decide to make some plans for the rest of the day. First we drop off a few things at the recycling centre before driving up to Twin Peaks again to start the San francisco Scenic Drive.

VIEW FROM TWIN PEAKS

It goes all the way around the city and some parts actually take you inside. it's a really interesting drive and it's something that our friends will most likely be treated to as they come and visit here. It's amazing how many different weather pockets there are as you drive around the city. One moment your are in hot bright sunshine and the next you are in pea-soup fog! The circuit takes us roughly 3 hours and being in the fresh air all day has actually left us feeling quite tired so we head home.

TIRED AND BACK AT OUR FRONT DOOR!

We've had a message left for us when I pick up my phone at home to go out. We pick up so food as we have hardly eaten all day and are too tired to cook tonight. The plan is to go out later, But as we eat it becomes clearly apparent that we are headed for bed!!

Lightweights or what!!!

Sake for Sake's sake!!

Work has reached a climax point today but all the necessary conversations are being had. Nothing left to do now but to wait for Monday when some direction will be passed to our office.

So what better thing to do than Start the weekend ASAP.

Once home we washed and changed before going down to EOS bar in Cole Street for a Bellini and other drinks while we waited at the bar for some friends to regroup.

We have planned to go out for dinner all together at Hama-Ko, a Sushi restaurant in Cole Street. The food here is absolutely amazing. We thought we had already had the best Sushi here but this place outdoes everywhere else we have eaten at. Sushi and Sake are in abundance as we eat, gossip and drink.

One of our group knows the Sushi Cef really well and we are treated like royalty as we dine and socialize.

it's really nice to be able to walk back to our apartment after a night out without having to worry about driving, parking etc.

Misty Blue again

A more normal day today. In fact a normal Thursday. Lots of resources to align at work, lots of projects to get my head around and the usual esoteric but fun set of people to acheive success with. Even though it was really hectic I actually felt very mellow.

The weather was really pleasant today and i managed to get out for a 15 minute break at lunchtime. I was meant to go out for drinks tonight but it was getting on by the time i was finished at the office. Anyway I'd been out the night before to Azur - a bar in downtown San Francisco opposite Banana Republic. It was to mark the leaving of one of our project managers and wish her well in the future.

It was beginning to turn dark when I got to our apartment and it was quite entertaining to sit by our windows and watch the mist rolling in.

My Imaginary Car

It seems that I have been under a huge delusion over the past few days that have manifested themselves as vivid highly sensory hallucinations! No! I’m not taking anything! However, If I’m to believe what I’m being told by Californian and Federal Motoring Agencies, the car I’ve been driving around in doesn’t exist here in the States!

I still insist that I can see it, touch it and more to the point, sit in it and drive it around. The DMV on the other hand tell me that my car can’t be here because it doesn’t show up on the computers here and it doesn’t carry any Californian or Federal stamps. Ah I tell them. That’s probably because it isn’t a Californian car. And further, it’s the reason I filled out the paper work before I brought it in stating I was temporarily bring the car in from the UK. I see say the DMV. Pay us $260.00 and we’ll inspect your car and start the registration process.

I pay the money, they check the car. The result? “Sir this is not a Californian car”. Am I surprised? No! That’s why I did the paperwork in the first place!!!!

So what do I need to do to register it here? Apparently, even though the car may still pass the emissions tests, I need to take it to a Federal Lab who will most likely recommend modifications in order to get a federal stamp so that I can take a smog test. As I prepare to go through satisfying this requirement, I’m additionally advised that it could take months and would probably cost in excess of $20.000!

You know what – I’m going to ship the car back home to the UK. Hopefully it will exist again once it gets home!

The Department of Motor Vehicles

Today I went to the DMV to register our car here.

My head is still spinniing and my Brain hurts!!

Muni, Muni, Muni. Only Muni...

The weekend is truly over and it's back to work with a vengance. Lots of logistic issues for me to get my teeth into today and the day is zipping by as if it has just been shot from out of a cannon. Before I leave work I remember to get my papers ready for a trip to the DMV tomorrow.

At least going home now I can let the train take the strain. I get the Muni train to and from work each day. It's the closest thing in San Francisco to the London Underground but much, much more civilised! Also the lines sound a little more impressive too. I travel on the N Judah line.

Nice Big Chests

Who said Sunday was a day of rest?! It wasn't just me with loads to do. Italy had to go out and win the Soccer World Cup. Antonella was not over-impressed with their performance but nevertheless happy that Italy are now the World Champions.

After getting the Sunday papers and cooking breakfast, I got stuck into putting together 2 chests of drawers from IKEA. They're quite big and sturdy and have left my hands slightly sore from repeatedly wielding a full arsenal of screwdrivers and allen keys. After a few hours had passed and the game was truly Italy's, my chests stood magnificantly upright along one wall of our bedroom.

Deciding to get some air and have a break before tidying up, we got in the car and drove up to Twin Peaks again. This time the cloud cover was rapidly building up around the peaks as the rest of San Francisco gradually disappeared into the fog leaving us in a grey hazy bubble of hourless time.

We're feeling a little peckish now so we drove back down to Cole Valley and bought a couple of burgers to take home from the Burger Meister. We stopped off at another shop to buy a bottle of Merlot to drink with our meal. Quite an interesting label on this Californian offering. It's called "Three Blind Moose". It went down really well with our real meat burgers and fries. I had a Double Burger which was very big but beautiful and satisfying — rather like my two big chests!

Deep Breath and then...

Up at dawn, Catch Muni Train, Go down to O'Farrell Street and pick up a hire car, Drive across SanFrancisco Bay Bridge, Get completely lost in Oakland, Find Ikea, Spend loads of money, Stuff the car with purchases, drive back to San Francisco, Get caught in a traffic jam, Arrive at home, Start to set up furniture in our bedroom and check the electrics, Drive hire car back for drop-off, visit Apple and Computer Store in Market Street, Get Muni back to Cole Valley, Walk up to our apartment, Set-up TV and Cable, Eat, and then some more Ikea building before bed!!!!

Pictures are a selection taken crossing The Bay Bridge

View from our living room

Glad it's over!!!

It's been a tough week. Really looking forward to the weekend now

Not Miami, but nice

So glad I went to the gym yesterday instead of today. There was so much going on at the office today that by the end of the day I felt totally sapped. The ym would not have been a good idea today. I spoke to our Tenants in London today who are having trouble with one of the doors. They’ll go ahead sort something out locally and we’ll cover it from here. Meanwhile, Antonella has been sorting our home in San Francisco out and had the bath re-enamelled today. It's looking almost brand new now.

I can't use it tonight though as the treatment needs to dry over night - which is a shame as I have just got home from a Bar and Club named Fluid in Mission Street. Anyway, Fluid had a bit of a Miami vibe to it which made it quite a nice evening just hanging out, listening to dance music and people watching and chatting

It was supposed to be a not too late night out but here I am now at 2 in the morning just going to bed and hoping to be up in 4 hours for work!!!

Well it's my own fault

I Commute. Therefore I live here.

This morning I actually had a choice of clothing to wear to work. It was such a luxurious feeling to step out into the sunshine feeling confident and presentable. Even though I had back to back meetings at work today things were generally slower than usual. It is the day after the holiday and it's also the middle of the week.

I bought some electrical plugs and adapters for our TV hoping to have it working when I got back home. It turned out I'm still one adapter short of a connection - so, back to Radio Shack tomorrow I think.

Antonella has been working her magic in the apartment and the whole place is really starting to come together.

Indepedance Day

It's the national 4th July holiday today so no work. Well not in the office anyway. Instead it's a trip to Radio Shack and then Safeway to pick up bits and pieces that we need to make our apartment a home - where we can also eat! Hence the Safeway bit. We also drove up to Costco at Harrison Street to buy an electric sweeper for our hardwood floors. Before going into Safeway, we stopped at a fresh juice and smoothies bar where we found that not only can you purchase a fresh natural drink, you can also have vitamin boosts to your order! Well, we bought 2 smoothies, but when confronted with "Do you want a boost with that?", we made our excuses and left.

On our way back we saw an enormous mural running along the side of a warehouse. In fact, as we drove home through Mission district, there seemed to be healthy competition as to which streets had the better murals. After unpacking more boxes, I managed to spend a few hours working getting prepared for my day tomorrow. Antonella and I finished the day by watching some amazing firework displays from our windows as the city celebrated the American Independence.

Spidey Returns... Boxed Office Hits!

Grabbing our hand luggage we stream from the apartment that has been our home for the last 2 months for the last time! We hail a cab to take us to our new home in Cole valley. As we sit in the back of the taxi, I can almost hear the hopeful refrain "Swing low, sweet chariot, coming for to carry me home..." in the background. Not unlike being in a scene from a golden Hollywood oldie. However there are no tears this time. Just joyous anticipation.

We are still in the taxi when we get the call that our container has arrived and the crew are waiting to unload for us. We can hardly believe it's really happening but get straight into the spirit of it anyway. The Crew are very friendly and efficient and unloading is done at a very brisk pace.

Our apartment is soon completely overrun by uniformed boxes. Boxes in the hallway, boxes in the closets, boxes in the bedroom, boxes, boxes everywhere.The crew have completed their mission now and as tomorrow is the 4th July, they're keen to get going to begin the celebrations.

About 5pm, my mobile rings. It's the Auto Shipper alerting me that our car is outside the apartment ready to be unloaded. We literally skip downstairs to see our little Spider perched on the back of the transporter. After greeting the driver we set about bringing our Spider back down to earth.

Levers were turned and buttons were pushed while all the time our car was slowly lowered to the road and cleared from the transporter. I'm sure I heard it sigh with relief as it realized that it was now free to burn up the open road again after being stuck in a container for 2 months!

















After nipping dow to the petrol station and giving Spidey a good long drink of gasoline spirits, we drive up to Twin Peaks for the 1st time.


What greets us is both unexpected and absolutely amazing! The views over San Francisco from here are epic. It's also very windy with a very fast moving a changeable micro-climate.

We finished up the evening having noodles at The Citrus Club in Haight Street.