Watch out for Justin...

Our next-door neighbour is becoming a media phenomenon! Today he and his "big brother" website project are on the front of the San Francisco Chronicle (click here for article). You may even hear about him in the UK, as some very plummy-voiced guy from the Observer has just called to interview him! Surely this will just be a fad - it doesn't make for very interesting viewing. Warning: if you're tempted to look, beware that his website is not for the faint-hearted, as the chatroom can get quite rude and is not parent-friendly.

In other news, poor Jon has had a hard time of it today trying to get sorted for our weekend getaway to Tahoe. It turns out that you can't buy snow chains for his car, and these are often legally required to get across the mountains. I guess it will serve him right for buying a BMW. The only option is to get cables instead, which apparently aren't much use, but should get us past the checkpoints. At least no snow is forecast.

I've had a couple of nights out - the francophone meet-up on Wednesday, which was quite cool. Last night I went to a bar in the Mission district after work with some people. It looked like quite a dive from the outside and is a big biker hang-out, but it had a nice beer garden, so we were able to sit in the sunshine. I decided to get one of the historic streetcar/trolley-bus things back home. It was my first trip on one - actually quite exciting! There was a short walk at the end, as they drop you off in Fisherman's Wharf, but it was worth it. I've had the day off today as it's César Chavez Day (no school), but still been quite busy. I've been going around Italian restaurants this afternoon soliciting for donations for the Italian School fundraiser, as I've offered to help with that.

Only in San Francisco...

We've discovered that we can be the ultimate nosy neighbour - the guy next door is broadcasting his entire life via live webcam on his website 24/7 (justin.tv) - can you believe it?

Also, today I saw a bloke taking his dog for a skateboard (yes, a skateboard) in the park. The bulldog was happily gliding along while the owner ran alongside brandishing a treat.

And I've just spent the evening speaking French to a load of random people I don't know, very few of whom were actually French. (It was actually a francophone meet-up - soirée fromage et vin - in a stunning condo on Potrero Hill in the south of the city).

What can I say? It's a crazy place!

Entertainment, Japantown & the western reaches

On Friday night we went to our first gig in San Francisco to see Badly Drawn Boy, a British artist, at the Great American Music Hall, just around the corner from where I volunteer at Shanti. It was a lovely venue – built in 1907 just after the great quake, and still boasting its original columns and plenty of ornate stucco. It was a fairly small and intimate location to play for what is actually quite a big name in the UK. Apart from the music, it was quite a social event too, as we got talking to a few people and, by a bizarre coincidence, met a British chap whom I’d come across in a lift a few weeks previously!

It’s been a slightly disappointing weekend weather-wise, but we’ve still managed to make the most of it. On Saturday, we wandered over to Japantown. The route there took us through Chinatown, up and over Nob Hill (the posh bit), past the Grace Cathedral (modelled on Notre Dame in Paris, but rather incongruously made of concrete) through the less salubrious streets of the northern Tenderloin and finally to the malls and restaurants of Japantown itself. It does not have as much to offer as Chinatown, and I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it to the casual visitor, but we spent an enjoyable couple of hours there. Its only real aesthetic attraction is the peace pagoda, built in the form of a mushroom cloud. We had a cheap sushi and sashimi dinner there before heading downtown in the bus. We arrived just in time to get cinema tickets to see “Zodiac”, a film set in San Francisco in the late sixties and seventies, telling the (true) story of a string of unsolved serial killings in the Bay area and starring my favourite actor, the lovely Jake Gyllenhaal. It was quite an eerie experience, watching it and thinking that, unlikely as it is, the killer could still be at large! Anyway, it was a good thriller, but you’ll have to wait until the middle of May for it to be released in the UK.

Yesterday, we went for our jog in the morning – have to keep in training now that we’ve signed up for the 12km “Bay to Breakers” run! In the afternoon, we decided to take a walk on the western side of the city along the ocean front, in spite of the rather ominous-looking fog. This was actually very rewarding: we started out by the ruins of the Sutro baths, which used to be filled by sea-water and were a major attraction in Victorian times. We then headed north past the still just visible mast of “the Ohioan”, which came aground in the 1930’s, and is just one of the many shipwrecks along the coast. We then continued up along the surprisingly wild coastline, through what almost seemed like a garden of wild flowers, emerging in the super-wealthy Seacliff residential area. We had to walk through this for a while, past ridiculously opulent residences, some in the form of French châteaux, with perfectly manicured lawns and idyllic gardens. We finally came out on Baker Beach, which runs up to the start of the Golden Gate Bridge, of which we could only make out the strut bases: the rest of it, even the road, was shrouded in fog! On our return journey we were fortunate to see some dolphins very close to the shore.

Today, my “work authorization card” arrived – about a month earlier than expected. I guess that means I’ll have to find a job now!

It's an elk's life

Ended up feeling a bit worse for wear on Saturday, perhaps after having drunk a little too much wine (oops!), so didn’t do a huge amount. Went to “Target”, a chain of huge stores which sells everything, and bought a few things for the apartment, including a rug and a (very cheap) footstool. In the evening we went out for a gorgeous meal at a little place on Fillmore Street, “La Méditerranée”. I chose to go there because they have pledged to make a very generous food donation to the event I’m helping to plan at Shanti. The food was delicious – imagine North African/Greek/Middle Eastern tapas – and not expensive. The rest of the city was celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, though – revellers in green with silly hats and shamrocks were everywhere! I couldn’t believe it – it’s not as if it’s New York, after all.

On Sunday, we headed up to the northern end of Point Reyes. We set out on a hike to Tomales Point, and soon passed a sign warning that mountain lions were “regularly” sighted there – oh, good grief! So I went back for my hiking pole with its sharp end and put some rocks in my pocket! I’m sure people think I’m ridiculous, but these things are the size of leopards and can drag prey up to seven times their own body weight. Anyway, it was a nice walk out towards the point, which is a reserve for Tule elk, large deer-like creatures. We saw quite a few, but only females and babies, so none of them had the characteristic big antlers. The landscape was quite Scottish, and indeed must have struck the early settlers as such, because there is a little community called Inverness there. However, on our return hike back to the car, the only good view we got was of the inside of a cloud! It was really quite weird, hearing the surf crashing below and not being able to see it. We then went to a little state reserve there for another walk and a view of the inlet, which marks the position of the San Andreas fault, but the weather didn’t improve until we got in our car and headed south, where it changed back to glorious sunshine within a few miles. It seems the whole area is made up of micro-climates! That evening we dined in the fascinating village of Bolinas, at a café we had visited for the first time a couple of weeks ago. Delicious food, lovely atmosphere and really cheap. The ladies of the village were out with their “Stop the War” placards – admirable, but a bit like preaching to the converted in super-liberal, hippy Bolinas.

Jon has just booked our trip to Hawaii (hurrah!) – we’re going on 22nd April for a week, so I’ll be there on my birthday. I’d really like to do a helicopter trip, but a helicopter crash there, which killed a man from Oakland (just across the bay) has just been in the news, so now I’m not so sure! We’re also going to sign up for the famous “Bay to Breakers” run. This is a 12K (7.5 mile) run from the eastern side of the city (the “Bay”) across the middle to the ocean (“Breakers”). Apparently people often dress up in seventies gear to run it – not sure why! You do get some serious athletes, though – last year’s top four were all Kenyans who finished in under forty minutes. My time will be at least double that!

Keeping busy

It’s been great having lighter evenings. On Monday, we decided to do our waterfront jog rather than go to the gym, which was lovely with the sun setting behind the Golden Gate bridge and the city lights twinkling in the twilight. My work at the nonprofit has been more interesting, as I’ve got more involved in planning the fundraising event at the end of May. We’re still trying to get more restaurants on board to provide food, but a lot of companies have been very generous in donating items for our fundraising auction, examples of which include VIP champagne tasting in the winelands & some bottles to take home, a year’s supply of fresh ground coffee, tickets to the ballet, plus several restaurant vouchers. I’ve also joined the marketing committee and yesterday I went to some free training on “how to market your nonprofit” along with a couple of colleagues. It’s not all work, though – on Thursday I went with the same colleagues to a free lunch at the California Culinary Academy. The academy, a training institute for chefs, was trying to market itself to nonprofits as an event caterer.

After the training yesterday, I hot-footed it up to my school in the Marina district (well, actually I took the bus) for the last forty minutes or so of morning school to teach the kids their first French lesson! It was great to be teaching a class again, to see the kids enthusiastically sticking their hands in the air and smiling back at me. I thought they responded so well, much better than I expected, given that they’re a special needs class with behavioural problems. We’re going to make it a regular thing now, once a week. At the end, the naughtiest boy, Damondre (what a name!) even said “Au revoir Madame Hardwick” – what more can you ask for!

The other day I went to check out the French cultural institute, the “Alliance Française”. After chatting to the chap at the front desk for a while in French, he revealed that he was actually English, albeit with a superb accent! Anyway, I paid the annual fee, because it will allow me to take out books, CDs, DVDs and videos to keep my French up to scratch. The book selection wasn’t all that great, so I’ve actually taken out a novel in French translation, because I had been wanting to read it anyway: Armistead Maupin’s “Tales of the City”, set in San Francisco in the seventies. I’ve also been reading “The Joy Luck Club”, after seeing the excellent film some years ago. This is about four Chinese women who emigrate to San Francisco and their daughters, who grow up here.

We’ve got our “emergency kit” together in the last week. This is our bag of essential supplies to aid survival in the event of an earthquake, i.e. torch, non-perishable food, water etc., as suggested by the website 72hours.org, which is based on the premise that in the event of a major disaster, it could take up to three days for the emergency services to come through. Not quite sure what we’d do, though. All the advice says to stay in your home, away from falling objects, but if a serious earthquake were to hit, there’s no way I’m hanging around eight storeys up, waiting for the after-shock! This building was built in the seventies, though, so it must have survived the 1989 quake, which was pretty bad.

I was going to book us in to a youth hostel in Point Reyes this weekend, but it was fully booked when I called yesterday! So, I think we’re going to try and head up there early tomorrow morning so that we can explore the northern area. Yesterday was a baking hot day, but today we have the infamous fog, although it’s supposed to clear this afternoon.

Devil's mountain to a heavenly beach

Another exciting weekend. On Saturday, we visited Mount Diablo, over on the eastern side of the bay. This is 3,849 feet high (higher than anything in England or Wales), and you can actually drive right up to the summit, although we also passed lots of brave mountain bikers tackling the long road up. There were a few trails at the top, but mostly we went for the views, which stretched well over 100 miles to the snow-capped mountains of the Sierra Nevada in the east, then back at a lesser distance to San Francisco in the west, where it was possible to pick out a tiny Golden Gate Bridge, as well as some other major landmarks. Mount Diablo is part of a huge state park, which holds many other delights, including a bunch of weird rock formations near its southern end, which we also had a look at. The foothills reminded us both of the Derbyshire countryside, albeit cast in a different, Mediterranean-style light.

From Mount Diablo we headed to Berkeley, where I joined up with a German conversation group, which meets once a month in a café there. Meanwhile, Jon went to do his own German homework (I’m teaching him the language at last) on the lawns of the university campus with all the other students. Afterwards we decided to have dinner in the town, and opted for Vietnamese – very tasty!

The clocks went forward on Saturday night, so we had an hour less in bed – boo! Therefore, for the next few weeks until they change in the UK, we’re only seven hours behind. After our customary jog on Sunday, we set out north to Marin County, armed with a walking book I bought from a second-hand bookstore in Berkeley. It was a beautiful day, and the temperatures soon climbed once we were over the bridge in Marin. We took the Tennessee Valley trail down to Tennessee beach, named after a steamship which was shipwrecked just offshore. This was an easy and popular hike through dramatically sculpted hills, past groves of eucalyptus, skirting wide tracts of marshland down to a glimmering lagoon and the ocean beyond. It was a lovely beach with high, multicoloured cliffs on either side, although not safe for swimming because of the powerful currents. It was perfect for a picnic and a spot of sunbathing, though, on what was the hottest day of the year so far. Before heading back, we climbed up through thick vegetation to a lookout point, which afforded superb views. We then continued to Tiburon, a well-heeled community nestled behind Angel Island on the other side of the bay from us. This has a large marina and a pleasant waterfront with an excellent vista of the city. We enjoyed an ice-cream in the late afternoon sunshine while picking out the now familiar landmarks in distant San Fran.

My school volunteering has started, and I’m helping out three mornings a week with a special needs class in a middle school. It can be good fun, but is sometimes a bit mixed – today for example, when perhaps the kids were tired from the hour change. Things have picked up a bit at the nonprofit too – last week I called over forty restaurants to ask them to donate to an event in May. Our Hawaii plans have been dealt a bit of a blow, because it turns out the cheap airline doesn’t fly from any of our nearby airports to the island we’re most interested in, Kauai. We can still go, but it may have to be as part of a package deal, which is by far the most economic way to do it, but doesn’t allow you to stay in out-of-the-way places.

Well, it’s another gorgeous day here – sunny and about twenty-four degrees – so I think I’m going to take my Italian homework to the beach or Washington Square. I'll be publishing more photos on the Fotki site at http://public.fotki.com/EllenHardwick/ (password: moocow) shortly.

Living Dangerously 2 - Bobcat Attack!

Well OK, it didn't actually attack us, but it clearly thought about it for a microsecond.

We had quite an exciting walk on Sunday. Let me set the scene. The sun was beating down, we were running out of water and five miles from the car. Hiking vigorously atop a cliff overlooking the Pacific. We had just about reached the furthest point of our hike, and had decided to do a small loop around a lake before setting off on the return journey.

Then I saw the cat. It was strolling back from the shore of the lake, about 50 yards away, crossing the path ahead. Well, I could tell it wasn't a lion because it was spotty and orange, not golden. It looked for all the world like a leopard, which I've seen before in South Africa. You really don't want to mess with a leopard (and never mind that there are no leopards in California).

Then it stopped dead and started eyeballing me.

Being trained in the art of dealing with mountain lions (see earlier post), we stood firm and stared right back at it. (Well, one of us did, the other wailed and started running in the opposite direction.) I could see it was sizing me up. For just a second, I thought we were going to fight.

Then it remembered that it was a bobcat, barely twice as large as a domestic cat, and not capable of killing anything bigger than a small deer. On balance, it decided discretion was the better part of valour, and retreated to the bushes. Victory was mine. How proud I am.

The thing is, we didn't know it was a bobcat at the time, and from that distance it was hard to tell how big it was, OK? So after a brief conference we cancelled our loop round the lake and set off walking back to the car at a lively pace, rocks in hand just in case the bugger sprang at us from the bush. And that's when we ran into the snake.

Now as snakes go it was small, perhaps two feet long at the most, but some of the smallest snakes inflict the deadliest bites, I'm told. At any rate, we were now stuck. Big cat behind, little snake in front, many miles from the car. Overhead, vultures were circling - literally.

Let's cut a long story short here. I'd like to carry on pretending that we are intrepid bush explorers, but the fact is that when we got home we found that the snake was a California red-sided garter snake, possibly the least dangerous snake in the state. The worst it can do is smell bad if you try to pick it up. So although we like to think of ourselves as daredevil explorers pushing back the boundaries of our safe, urban existence, we are in fact just a couple of city slickers who get freaked out when confronted with some of California's least intimidating wildlife.

Still, at least now I know I'm the kind of man who will stand his ground when confronted with what he thinks is a ferocious, leopard-sized cat. That has to be worth something, right?

Exciting times

Took a trip with Susie and an SF-based friend who used to work with her dad on Thursday. We went to the winelands north of San Francisco, starting with a tasting in Sonoma, then moving on to the Napa valley. There are hordes of wineries there. As a rule you pay $8 - $10 for a tasting of 3 - 5 wines, which is sometimes waived if you make a significant purchase. The servers are invariably charming and knowledgeable. In total we visited three wineries, one of which, the relatively secluded Hess vineyard, had its own modern art gallery. I purchased a bottle at the last place, but didn’t go mad because the wines are actually very expensive, starting at around $20 and going up to well over a hundred. There is a huge variety, though – everything from a syrupy late harvest Riesling through to Chardonnay, Syrah (Shiraz), Cabernet Sauvignon and Champagne method bubblies. We also had a nice lunch at a grill restaurant. The countryside is certainly pretty – Napa is a wide flat valley covered in vineyards dotted with cherry blossom and olive trees, enclosed by high hills at the sides.

I went to my Italian lesson in the evening, and it was during this that the earthquake hit. While Jon played it down, it was certainly scary enough as far as I was concerned. There was a loud noise and everything shook for a few seconds. We all stared at each other, fearing the worst for at least a moment. It wasn’t actually the San Andreas fault that was to blame this time, but another one a few miles east. Still, the last earthquake of note was about 500 times more severe than Thursday’s (it hit in 1989 and destroyed a few freeways, although most buildings survived intact). The worst in the area’s history took place in 1906. That quake was bad enough in itself, but it started an even more destructive fire, which annihilated much of the city, as well as approx. 3000 people (although the authorities claimed it was only 500 because they feared that the true figure would put off future investors).

Saturday was a fabulous day in every sense. Beautifully sunny and warm for starters. We began it with our jog to Crissy Fields and back, enjoying watching all the dogs at play on the beach. We indulged in American-style pancakes with maple syrup on our return. Then we headed to the little beach near us at Aquatic Park, stopping at the bookshop en route to buy a guidebook on Hawaii, so that we can start planning a trip! There’s a cheap airline which flies to all the main islands from nearby Oakland airport. It was just about warm enough at the beach for people to start venturing into the water. We then came back to have a latte on the terrace of “our” café just opposite the apartment block, before climbing up nearby Telegraph Hill to Coit Tower, a huge white structure theoretically in the form of a fireman’s hose and funded by a rather eccentric woman who had a penchant for firemen. The top offers excellent all-round views of the city and bay. We did not, however, see any of the parrots, for which the hill is also famed.

We then went to meet a couple of friends at the Empress of China restaurant, probably one of Chinatown’s finest, which is sumptuously decorated and affords more good views from its top floor location. After that, it was time to join the thousands of others to watch the city’s annual Chinese New Year parade. This featured, among other things, Chinese dragons and lions, gilded pig effigies (as it’s the Year of the Boar), brass bands, acrobat troupes, a multitude of floats and even the chauffer-driven SF mayor. It was quite a crush, but a marvellous spectacle all the same.

Today we decided to take a hiking trip up to Point Reyes. This is the wilderness area jutting out into the Pacific which we visited a few weeks back. This time we focused on the southern area, but hadn’t banked on it being so windless and warm, so dressed far too heavily and didn’t take enough drinking water. We followed the coastal trail, which ran along the top of the bluffs, then headed inland for a while past some lakes – more like tarns actually, but that isn’t part of the vocabulary here. We kept going until we saw a scary-looking big cat, which Jon will describe in a separate blog update (approx. 5 miles in), then turned tail in fear. We still had a lovely time, though, as Point Reyes is truly stunning – a real wilderness with lots of wild flowers, trees (especially redwoods and eucalyptus), birds, butterflies, mammals and marine life. In two visits we’ve still only explored a small part of it, so I hope to go up there again soon and ideally spend the night so that we can discover the northern end with its seals, whale-watching opportunities and herd of elk.

Parched with thirst, we drove down to the village of Bolinas, at the southern tip of the Point Reyes land mass. This is a bit of a hippy retreat, situated where a huge tidal lagoon meets the Pacific, and famed in part for its “sign war”. Apparently, some of the locals, keen to keep the place a secret, continually removed all the signs designating its location from the main road. However, the campaign supposedly back-fired when the sign war gained the village widespread publicity in the news. It is a charming spot, and we found such a nice café there that we ended up staying for dinner and chatting with another diner, an American Sikh convert fully bedecked in robes and turban, who lives there. There was a small selection of cocktails with names along the seismic theme, so I tried an “epicenter” (champagne and red grapefruit juice). To walk off dinner, we strolled down the road past the wooden houses on stilts fronting the lagoon and on to the silty beach, from where it was possible to see the twinkling lights of San Francisco in the distance.

More photos are available at http://public.fotki.com/EllenHardwick/ (password: moocow).

Living Dangerously

I'm not sure if it has anything to do with being so much closer to Hollywood, but we appear to be living in a disaster movie.

First there was the landslide on Telegraph Hill on Monday night. We were eating in an Italian restaurant very close to this spot a few hours before the boulders came down the hill. Heavy rains in the preceding week were blamed. "Too bad, Mother Nature, you'll have to try harder than that to get us!" we thought.

Never smile at a crocodile, and never mock the forces of Nature. Last night She tried again with an earthquake. It measured 4.2 on the Richter scale.

Now, before our concerned relatives start entreating us to come home to live in a safer place, let me assure you all that 4.2 on the Richter scale is actually very minor. Pathetically so. In fact, even the earthquake that hit Birmingham in 2002 measured 4.8. What's more, I didn't even feel last night's quake, which personally I found very disappointing, because everyone else noticed it. Perhaps it was the beer I was drinking at the time...

So come on Mama N, is that the best you can do?

Watch out for meteor strikes and tsunamis in the North Beach area in the next few days.