It's Halloween

After spending the afternoon at work in our halloween costumes we went on to the Castro to see the spectacle of San Francisco going all out for Halloween. Pictures from the office can be viewed here

It wasn't quite as awe-inspiring as I had anticipated but it was still good fun.

The guys at work made a great effort and we had drinks and food to round off the day.

Unfortunately, the gathering at the Castro ended with 10 people suffering gun-shot wounds! Still I'm glad we went and we did manage to have fun.
Pictures from the Castro can been seen here

Still in the Halloween Theme

Tried on My costume today to make sure I would be cutting a dashing figure for Halloween!
We have death Levitating

Death with Pecs


Death Stylin'

and of course Death Chillin'

Night Fairy Steps Out

Antonella steps into the spirit of Halloween

Halloween is nigh

And everyone gets really in to it here. Here are a couple of houses in our street

Lazy Sunday

It's been quite a tough week at work including Saturday (yesterday). Got up and went down to the Haight to get some brunch. Afterward, we walked down to the Golden Gate Park buying a Sunday paper on the way.

We sat and read in the brilliant sunshine in the Aids Memorial Garden, while listening to bees and dogs and peoples voices in the distance making up the background noise. Walking back home there were various people drumming around the park giving a very relaxed vibe to the whole area.

Night Bandit

Well, yes, I could be describing myself but this time I'm talking about my first face to face encounter with a racoon!

I'd been out with some friends sharing leaving drinks and stimulating banter and was about to turn into our apartment block when I saw something that was obviously not a big furry cat! It was this creature. It was standing stock still because I think I almost blinded it with the camera flash.

Sorry Racoon!

Trying to recover his vision
after the flash went off!!

And the work goes on

We are in pitch mode again at work.Here are two of the really nice people I work with.

Sunshine and Malibu

It's the last day of the weekend now and we have to think about driving back to San Francisco.

Our guide book had the locations of the stars homes so of course we drove around Bell Air and Hollywood spotting the homes of the rich and famous. Amongst others we drove by the Playboy Mansion and George Lucas' ridiculously large residence - or it could have been a country looking at the size of it!

Afterward we drove down to Malibu to have a lazy lunch at Neptune's Net. It's a seafood restaurant right next to the ocean on Highway 1. It's also a favourite stop off for bikers so there was lots of mechanical eye candy to admire.

I did the drive home this time, taking Highway 101. It was an easy 6 hou drive with fairly easy traffic all the way.

Saturday was a Rap

Got up to a glorious sunny day in L.A.
Grabbed some food and some coffee and a glass of OJ
Then we threw on some threads and jumped into our ride
Dropped the top donned our shades and we started to glide.

We were headed for Melrose, are you ready for this?
We were welcomed into the pink store owned by Paul Smith
The merchandise is hot and it makes me look cool
I'm looking so slick now I could hang by the pool.

So now we're stocked up with shirts and it will soon be time for food
But before that happens we head up to Hollywood.
Driving through the streets the cribs be all looking fly
But we ain't seen nothin' yet as we climb toward the sky.

Baby lookin' whack as we walk up the hill
It's like a scene from Columbo, it just doesn't feel real
Still, we wanna make the most of the neighbourhood
So we can't spend all day in Hollywood.






We stop by our ride for a bite of lunch
Antonella had some sandwiches - it was kinda brunch.
We called two of our Homies and arranged to meet
It went down behind Melrose in a quiet street.

To Live and Drive to L.A.

Left work early today to drive down to Los Angeles for the weekend. Shopping will be high on the list of to-do's! Antonella did the six hour drive down in the night so we could check in to The Sheraton in the Downtown area.

Tonight we'll be staying in a room that isn't exactly what we ordered but the check-in staff have given us Free breakfast for 2 days and Free parking for 2 days to make up for 1 nights inconvenience. - Result!

We still got a king-size bed and all the facilities too.

It actually rained today!

This is the second rainfall we have had since we arrived in San Francisco. It's quite a novelty and it also marks that summer is finally over.

I met Antonella after work in the evening and we went out for dinner at a French restaurant just along Grant (Street). Coincidentally, Grant from the London office had his first official day as a "local" here in the office today!

Castro on Sunday

It's the Castro Street Fair today and although feeling really tired, decided it would be fun to wander down, look around and have some brunch. We had Fried oysters in batter with Garlic Fries. Yum!

Once again, the mood was really good as it always seems to be at these events in San Francisco. There were quite a few drag queens wondering about and the usual live music and dancing. Unfortunately I had to do some work at home so we couldn't stay out too long.

The walk home was straight up a hill - so we managed to get some good excercise in too. I suppose I better do that work i have to do now!