Went to Russian Hill to visit a fren and her new swanky pad. Except that it’s not quite swanky yet because everything is still in bubble wrap and not all the furniture has been delivered yet.
But check out the view outside the door!
The view from the left. Stick you head out the door and turn left.
Do the same as above, except turn your head to the right and look.
How about an eastward rooftop view? Gorgeous day today too…
When everything arrives, then you’ll see pix of the interiors!
warp
And here it is a moment later on the Fulton Freeway. Party goers exit their vehicle while another one goes to warp…
Whoooosh
Nighttime
This was taken on a Saturday night before heading out. No flash!!
Taken with a GR Digital; click pic to enlarge
Pictures come out real purty if you can hold the camera still!!!
Emporium Dome
Last week, an amazing thing (for San Francisco) happened. We actually got a new mall! It was built on the site of the old Emporium that went out of business in 1995.
Yes it takes a very long time to build things here.
But one of the things that the new mall builders restored was the big signature dome.
The symbol of the new San Francisco Centre
You can click on all the pix on this blog for a bigger version…
First Meme
Apologies for the lack o’ posts. My poor MacBook was diagnosed with RSD. That’s Random Shut Down for you non Apple types. The good thing is that Apple has acknowledged this as a problemo and is fixing it. My MacBook was sent in last Monday. It came back this Monday. So far so good.
So I found this meme on Xuan’s blog. Here we go….
01) What is the phone brand?
Dopod S300 (AKA Cingular 3150)
02) What are the last 3 digits of your mobile number?
918
03) What does the 2nd message in your inbox say?
Hey! Have a great flight back! Was glad to meet up with ya…
04) Who’s the first person who comes up under the letter M?
Ma (HP sorts by last name)
05) Who’s the last person you rang?
Returned Lee’s missed call. He wanted advice about the upcoming Election
06) Who was your last missed call from?
Lee
07) Who’s the 2nd person who comes up under D?
Depalma
08) What does the last message in your inbox say?
It’s Sat in SF? It’s Tues am here! Thanks for the joke!
09)Who comes up under J?
Jen (again, last name)
10) Go to your Sent Items – what does the 10th message say?
Saw some of the Indo haze over SIN. Yuck. Like a really bad in HKG. Weather (here) cleared up so nights were nice.
11) Who’s the 4th person who comes up under S?
Shu (still last names!)
12) Who’s your network provider?
Cingular in US, StarHub in SIN
13) How many messages are currently in your inbox?
I dunno. Maybe about 25?
14) What do you have as your background?
Big D for “Dopod”. I dun have too much imagination when it comes to backgrounds.
15) Who’s the 2nd person who comes up under R?
Roper (you guessed it, a surname!)
16) Who do you have on speed dial 3?
I don’t use speed dial
17) If you’re on Pay as you Go, how much credit do you have?
Postpaid here. Prepaid in Singapore. Got about S$18.35
18) Who’s the first person who comes up under C?
Callahan
19) How many bars of signal do you currently have?
Full
20) What do you have as your main ringtone?
Some techno ditty that came with the phone. Am looking for “Heavy Action” ringtone to replace that.
Now get to it!
Saturday’s Senseless Acts of Debauchery (AKA “the weekend”)
This weekend isn’t a “lost weekend” because I remember it. But it ranks close.
One pearl of wisdom that I painfully remembered (around 0330 Sunday AM) was to “never mix alcohol”. That’s not a ban on mixed drinks; instead it’s a ban on mixing types of alcohol. The rule is to stick to one kind of booze for an evening’s carousing because mixing will make you hella sick.
If you drink cocktails, stick with that for the evening. If you drink beer, best to do that all night. Same with wine. But it’s a very VERY bad idea to drink beer for 6 hours then move over to liquor and beer at the same time!
This weekend in San Francisco was Fleet Week. Except Fleet Week is a bit of a misnomer. It’s only five days long this year, but I’d think that “Fleet Work Week” is a bit awkward. Also tomorrow is a fake holiday, Columbus Day which only the government and the banking industry gets off. In theory, it’s a school holiday so kids can check out the ships that are here for “Fleet Work Week”.
The highlight of Fleet Week is the arrival of the Blue Angels. Every year, they do the same show with the same stunts and every year it’s cool! All last week, it was crappy, cold and cloudy. Then on Saturday, it got gorgeous. Blue skies and warm. Perfect timing yes?
I went over to a friend’s place to watch the Blue Angels from his roof with a bunch of other people. Then we watched football and played the “debate drinking game” during the Schwarzenegger/someotherguyrunningforgovernor debate. Then I went to dinner. That whole time was about six hours of beer. One to two an hour. Then around 2300 or so, my friends and I went down to Anu down on Sixth Street near Market. Cool place in a sketchy area. That’s when the mixing began. *shudder*
This, my friends, was a sign of what to drink!!!
I started with a Guinness. But somehow drum n’ bass (which was being spun by the resident DJ) puts me into the mood for clear drinks. So I moved over to Chopin Martinis. There were a couple of those. Then another Guinness showed up when rounds were bought. Followed by a Sapphire Tonic and other drinks/shots. All served up by a very kawaii bartender who hails from Eastern Europe. She just got hired a few weeks back! Must visit out there soon…
Hmm. I think i take better photos inebriated…
All of this wrecked me around 0330 while in the four-point stance against the wall in the Denny’s men’s room. At least I know that my aim is good…and I didn’t drive. And the next morning, there was Country Fried Steak and biscuits in a styrofoam take-out in the fridge.
Anu
43 Sixth Street
San Francisco 94103
415-543-3505
http://www.anu-bar.com
Himawari Ramen
San Mateo (just south of SFO on da 101) is the Bay Area’s epicentre of ramen. Most, if not all of the shops with “good ramen” are all here.
The old standard bearer is Santa Ramen. And with visiting Santa, the old rules still apply. “Leave San Francisco at 1600 for dinner of stewed pork ramen at 1800.”
Sometimes that’s impractical, even for good ramen (unless you are in Shinjuku waiting at Men-ya Musashi). We (me and my flatmate and his fren) got to Santa at 1845 and saw the 60 minute long queue. We (collectively) said “screw it” and drove back to downtown San Mateo and Himawari Ramen on 2nd Avenue.
Himawari is a newer player on the ramen block and both Santa and Himawari have their detractors and defenders. They are a younger group of people running the restaurant and it shows in the decor and menu choices. Santa is in an old store of some sort and the menu has the basic ramen dishes, appetizers and beer, Himawari has a modern Japanese design and has shochu cocktails in addition to a long sake list and different appetizers. Think Shitamachi versus Daikanyama and you’ll get the idea.
I had a Calpico-hi, a thirst quenching beverage made from Calpico and shochu. Yum. Hic. This got me thinking. I have shochu at home. I also have Pocari Sweat. Put the two together….!
WAHAHAHAH! Ahem…time for appetiser.
It’s pork that’s fried. I forgot the name and those aren’t my hashi in the pic!
The meal of the evening all around was tonkotsu ramen (AKA Kyushu-men).
It’s art, I tell ya! ART!
Himawari uses thinner ramen than Santa so the ramen has a satisfying “snap” when you bite into them. The broth isn’t quite as rich as Santa’s but is still flavorful. It could have been a bit hotter when it got to the table, but there were three orders and I was busy taking pictures…
All in all, a worthy competitior to Santa and now I’ve got two places I can go to for my ramen fix!
Himawari
202 2nd Avenue
San Mateo CA 94401
650-375-1005
Sunset from Russian Hill
Sometimes the weather here can be pretty nice. It’s been warm (23 degrees or so and DRY) and pleasant for the past few days. Although at nighttime, the wind picks up and it gets kinda chilly.
Sunset over Russian Hill, San Francisco CA. Shot with a Ricoh GR Digital.
Singapore Chinatown
The Majestic and the Yue Hwa Building, Eu Tong Sen Street, Singapore. Shot with a Ricoh GR Digital
The land of the overtaxed and the home of the fat
After five interesting days without broadband access for my trusty MacBook, I’m back in the US.
It’s a bit far to travel for broadband, I know, but a flashpacker’s gotta do what a flashpacker’s gotta do! Ha ha.
I flew back to LAX via TPE on SQ. All I gotta say is that a 16 hour flight never went so quickly. Of course being able to watch Training Day, The Godfather Part 2, Jasmine Woman and bits of other flicks on the flight back made the time go faster. Along with being fed to death. SQ is the only airline I know of so far where you can gain weight on the flight if you finish all the meals that they give you.
Of course 6 or 7 Singapore Slings help that along too (!).
Because of my extended absence from the net, blog updates will be an exercise in time travel. I’ll be posting pre-dated entries. Look on the “Recent Updates” column on the left for new stuff.
Now back to the grind. Sigh.