It’s the change of seasons here in San Francisco. The rain has stopped and it has been warm. But now it’s hella windy and it’s socked in. It’s almost summertime!
V is for view
This is the view 10 minutes west of my place.
In the center is Seal Rock, a rock where seals used to hang out on. It’s extraordinarily clear because it was 9C and winds gusting to 40 kph.
It’s almost summertime (the coldest time of the year in San Francisco)!
U is for upgrades
Nothing makes a transpacific flight better than confirmed upgrades after you click “purchase”. Usually, my upgrades clear from within a few days of the flight to an hour before. Suffice to say, it’s usually pretty stressful right before the flight.
I have to fly US based airlines, so the experience is usually south of awful, if your upgrades don’t clear. If they do, the business class experience is tolerable but doesn’t come close to matching the onboard service experience of world class airlines.
This last trip was upgraded immediately after purchase so it was one of the less stressful flights I’ve taken. Since I’m an Executive Platinum, I receive a number of Systemwide Upgrades each year to be applied on overseas flights. Which so far has been pretty good. What’s even better is access to the first class lounge at LAX. Best lounge in the USA.
T is for Taxes
Since my tax situation is complicated this year, the always swamped accountant filed the extension and punted my returns until after the 18th. Today is the day of reckoning, where the Federal government yet again will rape me and my family with no jelly. There’s a reason only liberals and government types luurve tax day. Because it gives them the opportunity to extort from working people. Another example how Hong Kong and Singapore are much more progressive than Barack’s ‘murica.
S is for slowly
Blog updates will be coming a bit more slowly over the next week. Since I’ve returned to SFO, things to write about will be a tad less interesting and a lot more rant-y. Because if you’re not angry about how things are here, you’re either not paying attention, part of the problem or just too rich to not be bothered. Also, I have a friend who recently got evicted because her property owner would like to live in his own place. She now gets to brave the wilderness that’s known as the San Francisco rental market. Yikes.
R is for returned
Today I have returned home via the magic of time travel. I boarded a plane at PVG around 1530 and disembarked at LAX at 1230 THE SAME DAY! Time travel! ooooooooooooooooooo
Seriously, it was on AA and the flight itself was OK. However, it will never be up to SQ standards. Like EVAR, And to top it off, like my last flight that landed here, we parked at Terminal 4, marched all the way to the TBIT for passport control and baggage recheck then had to march BACK to Terminal 4. To top it off, once you claim your bags, you leave the secure area which means no returning to the TBIT unless you’re willing to queue 45 minutes to clear security. The QF lounge is nice (probably the best lounge in the state) but not worth that.
LAX is probably the crappiest airport in the state.
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Q is for Queue Jumpers
Nothing says “Welcome to China” more than the hand to hand combat in the daily queue or on the Shanghai Metro. I rode up the lift with a couple of mainlanders. It literally became a fast walking race to the desk, with the mainlanders trying to slide in front of me and hailing the clerk first. Yeah, that’s gonna happen! Move your ass back. The worst thing is that they had Singapore passports.
The Shanghai Metro default is crowded. Doesn’t matter what day or what time, you will be standing and will have to fight your way to the door to get off the train. This is what happens when people don’t have cars. This is the exact situation that the liberals in San Francisco want. No one gets to drive cars (except them) and everyone must ride transit. They also complain that they don’t want BART or MUNI to be “like” Hong Kong or Shanghai. Because liberals all deserve a comfortable seat? HA.
Of course, people on the platform don’t wait for passengers to get off the train before they attempt to board. It’s a lot of shoving and pushing and it’s perfectly normal.
Welcome to China!
P is for Putter
It’s the best thing to do on a pleasant Sunday in Shanghai. I puttered around the tree lined streets of the French Concession. Had an OK pizza for dinner. Then had a fantastic Grand Marnier souffle for dessert. Walked back to the Metro stop talking about old Hong Kong movies. In by 2200. It was a nice day yesterday. And tomorrow, I get to slog my way to PVG for the long flight back. After Saturday’s flight on SQ, tomorrow’s flight on AA will definitely be a downer.
O is for Orange Juice vending machine
So I’m running through one of the tunnels at a (metro) transfer station. Then I see this vending machine. Proof that China will eventually beat the US unless they get their act together.
Yes, that’s a vending machine. And it has oranges inside. You pay 15RMB in cash or a bunch of Chinese e-currencies and it will squeeze you a fresh cuppa juice. Healthy and entertaining. Apparently, I was not the only one intrigued by this machine; three couples also checked it out while I was. Maybe they were thinking I was going to buy a cup so they were hanging around for the show. Problem is that the biggest bill the machine takes is a 20. Didn’t have anything small like that on me. So maybe next time i’m in the metro.
L is for Lobster ramen
Ramen Keisuke is a small local ramen chain in Singapore. Each of the shops has a different speciality. The newest location at Clarke Quay, Lobster King, makes lobster based ramen broth. Yes, it’s awesome.
It’s so goshdarn awesome that when I first visited here back in February, there was a 1 hour queue. On a Sunday night. Still that was better than the 3 hour queue on Saturday. So this time around, we figured, “Thursday night, around 8”. Figure everyone else would not come out cos it was a workday. Ha. Wound up waiting 40 minutes anyway. Ramen was the awesome again. Had the shio this time. And when we left at 2200, no line! So if you want a bowl without the queue, come for siu yeh on a weekday.
Ramen Keisuke Lobster King
3C River Valley Road, #01-07
The Cannery (Clarke Quay), Singapore
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