I’ll be traveling home shortly; flying across the country on two flights. As much fun as I have had in New Mexico and California on this combined vacation, the longer I am away from home the more I miss KLS and the kitties and my ‘normal life’, so in that sense I’m very much looking forward to getting back.
I’m very grateful to both parties – Florence and Bernard & Lakshmi – for hosting me during my trip. I can only hope it was as much fun having me stay as I had staying!
And to those of you that have been reading the blog… I hope you found it enjoyable 🙂
Yesterday B and I drove up to San Francisco for some sightseeing and shopping. We started with a visit to Fort Point, which is an old fort that has stood for over a hundred years at what is not the southern end of the Golden Gate Bridge. You can see it in the lower left of the photo above.
When we got there, the sole access rode to the fort was being blocked by some police since CSI:NY was filming on a pier on the road. The place was full of ‘hollywood types’ and gawking onlookers. It’s very likely we drove right past some ‘famous’ actors. But we wouldn’t have known since neither Bernard or I have ever seen the show.
It was cold at the fort. As in really, really cold. As in frigid winds of Tartarus cold. The entire structure was open, and the icy winds from the ocean raged through it endlessly and mercilessly. The above shot was taken on the roof, and Bernard and I were mere seconds away from hypothermia at the time. Insignificant shelter was afforded by the rooms inside the walls, most of which held exhibits of fort life back when it was occupied or art installations to celebrate 75 years of the bridge. It is perhaps evidence of how interesting much of this material was that we didn’t run screaming back to the car within seconds.
The above is Bernard posing before a tapestry said to be evocative of the emotions of the bridge.
Two more shots of the bridge, one from inside the fort and one from the roof. The shot from inside is taken through a camera obscura used as part of one of the (very good, actually) artworks. The fog persisted during out entire stay, and made the bridge very mysterious and looming. We were also treated to the periodic wail of the foghorn, which must be virtually unnecessary in these days of GPS.
After the bridge we headed to Fisherman’s Wharf, a tourist location on the bay. I’d never been here before, and it was much better than I expected.
As you can see the weather was quite nice away from the freezing hall that was the bay entrance. Lunch was expensive but delicious (‘Alaskan cod’) fish and chips:
It was very tasty. Bernard said it was the best fish and chips he’d had in the USA.
While wandering and shopping at Pier 39 we found an ‘infinite mirror maze’. Tourist trap it may be, I couldn’t resist and bought us each a ticket.
It was extremely well engineered. The mirrors were at 60 degrees to each other, and very clean. They actually have guests wear plastic gloves to avoid fingerprints! Darkness and flashing lights make it quite tricky to navigate, and after we’d done it in both directions (taking about 10 minutes each way) the attendant showed us the map and it was amusing how short it actually was. Thumbs up for this if you’re in the area 🙂
The rest of the day included shopping at Japantown, at which Bernard purchased some origami paper to add to his massive collection. He’s very good at origami, and there are lots of it scattered around the house. Over dinner I asked what the most difficult piece he’d ever made was, and afterward he took me to his work cubicle and showed me this elephant:
It’s made from a single piece of paper, and stands only about an inch tall. Impressive, isn’t it?
The most famous origami fold is probably the crane. I asked Bernard how fast he could make one, and he said “Two minutes”. My question had no motive, but he was so confident I just had to put him to the test. Do you think he was able to finish it in two minutes? Let’s see…
In an old and dusty album I found some old and dusty polaroids. These date to 12 years ago, when I visited Australia and stayed with Bernard and Adam who were at the time living in the same apartment (that Adam still lives in) in Randwick. I was a bit different then…
I can assure you…
that at the time…
I thought it looked great 🙂
Another polaroid confirms that I wasn’t the only one swayed by the light side:
San Jose is home to a massive Flea Market, which claims 1500 stalls on Sundays. We went yesterday, to check it out. I had high hopes for this place; I dreamt of walking out with such esoterica as an FM Towns gaming system or maybe unopened boxes of trading cards. Instead, I walked out with only this:
But I skip ahead! More on the above later…
The Flea Market is a mostly-permanent-stalls place where you can go to buy just about anything for relatively cheap. Yes they probably have 1500 stalls, but many of these sell the same old stuff you’d see at flea markets world round, such as clothing, toiletries, kitchen supplies and cheap toys. The ‘garage sellers’ are in their own section, and basically drive up and sell anything they like from tarps on the ground. In theory, this is where true gems may be found. In practice, it’s a lot of tools and, well basically garbage 🙂
As with most places like this, occasionally items unlike anything you’d see in a ‘real’ shop can be found. Cockfighting enthusiast items for instance:
Or pinatas of questionable license:
It was brutally, mercilessly hot at the flea market, and this photo shows the genesis of an illness that gripped me later in the day:
The corndog (and fries) were fine, but glimpse that orange soda there? Well even as the guy who sold it to me apologized for not having mountain dew in stock for a guy wearing a mountain dew t-shirt, a thought had begun in the back of my mind that drinking orange soda in such heat may be a bad idea since it makes me sick even at the best of times. When, a couple of hours later, Bernard got me a second, gigantic, second cup of orange fanta AND I DRUNK IT ALL INSIDE 5 MINUTES, well then at that point the damage was done.
As we left the flea market I felt no small amount of nausea, and upon arriving home I was forced to lie down for a while to combat the rising gorge 🙂
So the flea market – poor drink choices notwithstanding – was a fun trip. But given I was the most enthused, what was funny was how little I spent compared to B & L. I purchased only the one item shown earlier: a solar bobbing head unofficially licensed ultraman knockoff sitting on a crapper. And it only cost me $3.
Bernard came in second, buying two LED watches:
And Lakshmi beat the both of us into the ground with a decent bag of stuff and a beautiful piece of furniture:
There’s a lot of furniture stores at the flea market, and the prices are good and the delivery was quick and free.
These past few days Bernard’s been scanning in some old photos. Here are a selection, in approximate chronological order…
Mum and Dad in 197X. I’m guessing Dad’s goal on that day was to look as much like Grinderman-era Nick Cave as he possibly good, and he succeeds well. A beautiful photo of our parents!
Taken at our home at the time, a flat in Jamieson street in Gateshead. Obviously that day our family had plans to either go for an alpine hike or spend the afternoon at a Bavarian beer festival. I appear female 🙂
Part of an audition for an ad campaign for a popular brand of soda. Ultimately we were not chosen. One of the selector’s comments said “The youngest child has a suspiciously large head”.
Here we are riding a horse, with dad watching. This would have been before 1975. The horses name was ‘Horsehorse’ according to my brother, but I seem to recall calling him ‘Hecatonchires’.
Probably about 1978 or 1979. In those days school photos would also include brothers and sisters, if they went to the same school. I’ve got no jokes with regards to this shot; I actually think it’s pretty good. At that time Dad was still cutting our hair 🙂
In Canberra in the late 1970s. This remains the only time my brother has ever seen snow, and was (obviously) the first and only time before I came to the USA. My shoes look gargantuan, and I’m using them to ski-without-ski’s. Even then I was an exceptional athlete.
Back in the 1980s yellow was my favourite colour. Given a choice, it was always yellow for me, including a yellow Sharp tape deck. In time this love of yellow worked it’s way into my clothes, and the above shot is perhaps the quintessential example. This was taken at my Dad’s 50th birthday in 1985, and is representative of what I chose to wear when told to ‘dress up’. Have you ever seen a yellower 13 year old?
Unquestionably the worst family photo ever taken. So bad in fact, that it is sublime in it’s beauty. There’s just so much that jumps out and punches the viewer in the face:
– My coat (which was woolen, and which I once wore to a school dance)
– My hair & glasses (I’m surprised I wasn’t instantly punched in the face every day when I got to school)
– Bernard’s tie & faux tweed coat
– Mum’s shirt & hair (she looks like the lead singer of REO Speedwagon)
– The composition (dad’s head is growing out of mine and he looks hydrocephalic)
And I could go on. This abysmal shot was taken in the late 1980s.
Taken in 1992 by KLS when she visited Australia before we were married. Bernard is holding our then-cat Momus. We look like a homeless family. Even though I was quite skinny then I look tubby, and Bernard’s hair is a sight to behold. It’s a funny shot indeed, and I have good memories from that time so I like it 🙂
Do you like this post? I have other photos I may blog, including a few from my first trip back in 2000 and some of our cats back in the days I was growing up.
