Carnival and barbeques

I’m a bit late with my blogging this week because we’ve had a long weekend too (Memorial Day) and I was frightfully busy at Shanti yesterday. Anyway, what have we been up to? Well, the weather was a bit disappointing: I think the summer fog season is starting, although at least it clears for the afternoon most days. We went hiking in southern Point Reyes on Saturday and experienced the good old Bay Area microclimates – started in thick, cold fog by the coast and moved into glorious sunshine inland over the hill. We did an 11-mile hike (actually pretty easy after Kauai), mainly through woodland, so not as exciting as some of our previous ones. We didn’t see any bobcats this time, but we did see deer and snakes. After the hike, we headed down to hippy haven Bolinas, and enjoyed another delicious dinner at Coast Café. It’s our third visit there, but I don’t think I’ll ever tire of it – it’s so close to perfection, so why go anywhere else? We did eat far too much, though! After dinner, we looked out across the channel at the opening to the Bolinas Lagoon at the long spit of land on the other side, which forms part of the community known as Stinson Beach, musing on whether it would be possible to wade through it at low tide and come to dinner at Coast Café (since I have a friend whose parents own a superb holiday home in Stinson), avoiding a drive of probably at least 10 miles – our musings were inconclusive! Saw a seal swim in, though.

Sunday was the day of the Mission Carnaval (yes, that’s how they spell it!), a wonderful explosion of Latin-American culture in the Hispanic quarter of the city, known as the Mission. It is definitely the best carnival I’ve ever seen: we stood for two hours watching the colourful parade, enjoying the dancing and thudding beats of the samba, and it was still going on when we finally came away. Pretty much every Central and South American country was represented, from Nicaragua to Colombia. We met up with my friend Randan from Shanti there, as she lives in the area, then went to the home of one of her neighbours for a barbeque afterwards, although it was far too chilly to be outside for too long.

Monday was a holiday, so we started with our run to Crissy Field and back. In the afternoon, we headed to the house of a friend of mine from Italian class, Gami. The weather was actually much better: lovely and warm while we sat in the garden (or “backyard”, as they call it) eating barbeque food and being entertained by Gami’s hilarious housemate, Monique. We even saw a tiny green hummingbird! When it started turning cool, we headed indoors and played a really good card game called “Apples to Apples”, before returning home.

As I said, I had a hectic day yesterday – the Shanti event is on Thursday, plus I’ve begun applying for jobs again. Looking forward to the weekend when Karen and Duncan (our old neighbours) visit, though. Photos of the Carnaval are on the Fotki site.

Bay to Breakers

A tiring week: both of us were pretty busy with work, and I volunteered at a charity clothes sale on Wednesday night, which wasn’t actually that inspiring (too many wealthy society women yelling, “that’s so cyyuuute!” all the time). Tuesday evening was pleasant, though: a really nice guy who used to work for Jon was over in San José on business and came up to San Francisco for the evening. We went out to an Asian-Californian fusion restaurant for dinner, then on to our favourite bar, Vesuvio.

Yesterday, we had to go to pick up our race packets for Bay to Breakers, and also put together some costumes. We found a decent party shop and stocked up on silly stuff: a big union jack and a plastic crown for Jon, a grass skirt and Hawaii-themed accessories for me. In the evening, we went to dinner at Mark’s (lovely guy Jon works with), just up the road from us on Green Street, otherwise known as “Beach Blanket Babylon Boulevard” after the play that is permanently on the programme of the theatre there. It was really enjoyable and we also got set up for another couple of weekends: someone had two spare tickets going for a big music festival in June and they’re all going camping in Yosemite the week after, so we jumped at the chance to go along too.

Today was the day of Bay to Breakers, the 12 km (7.5 mile) run from the eastern side of the city (Bay) to the ocean at Golden Gate Park (Breakers). We were both a bit apprehensive about it, but there was really no need – it was more of a fun run than anything else. There were bands playing at various stages along the course, crowds cheering and doing “high fives” with the runners on the sidelines, plus loads of people in costumes: we saw a group of Elvises, the “spawning salmon” (a gang dressed as salmon who run “upstream” against the crowd from the end to the start), several bananamen (one eating a banana while running – surely that’s cannibalism?!), wonderwomen, cockroaches, gorillas and naked people! The only thing marring the fun was the cluster of Christian fundamentalists at the start of the race, brandishing their placards claiming, “Got hates…”, followed by a long list, finally ending in “homosexuals” in large letters. As you can imagine, they weren’t getting a warm reception – this is San Francisco, after all! However, it is a scary reminder of what kinds of beliefs lurk in some parts of America.



The race was really slow-going at the beginning, as there were so many people (apparently approx. 80,000 in total!), but I am pleased to say that I ran the whole way, even up the dreaded Hayes Hill, and finished with what I thought was a very respectable time of 1 hour 17 minutes. Jon could have gone much faster, but stuck with me. I was proud of myself, as it’s the longest distance I’ve ever run in my life! I didn’t even find it that difficult, but now I really ache! When we’d finished, we all headed to the polo ground in Golden Gate Park, where there was a big stage, a beer garden and food.

Working, Wii and Mount Tam

Had a busy week with work: lots of freelance translation checking, plus trying to finalise things for the fundraising event at Shanti, as well as going into school (just once this week, though). However, Monday and Tuesday were lovely, warm days, so I was able to take a dip in the pool and top up my tan, too! On Thursday I went to a volunteer appreciation gala hosted by Shanti, and Jon was also allowed to come and meet all the people I’d been talking about. He’s been enjoying playing the Wii – mainly Zelda, which James and Emma lent us. I’ve had a bit of fun with Wii Sports, but can’t get on with Zelda.

Yesterday we went for a nice lunch at Samovar Tea Lounge, then hit the shops, because there were a few things I needed. Of course, I managed to come away with only one of those things, along with several impulse buys, including two pairs of Nine West shoes I found on sale. Jon got treated like a king in Nordstrom and came away with some very expensive, but very good shoes. We then tried to go to big fireworks party taking place on one of the piers. We waited in line for 45 minutes only to find we were in the wrong queue when we got to the front, and would have to wait in two further lines, which we couldn’t be bothered with. Today we were also a bit hapless: we went over the bridge to Marin, with the intention of doing a particular hike, but ended up taking the wrong road. It didn’t really matter, as we found ourselves heading up to the top of Mount Tamalpais. We did a couple of little walks up there, all of which offered stunning views – through the binoculars we could look back at San Francisco and our apartment block. It felt really summery up there too, which was great because it’s turned chilly in the city again.

Hot in the city

A very “San Francisco” weekend packed with new experiences. On Friday, we had the opportunity to go to a baseball game because James, another Data Connection guy, had a couple of tickets going spare. It was the San Francisco Giants versus the Philadelphia Phillies (how unimaginative a name is that?!) at AT&T Park, a really cool stadium in the south of the city with views of the Bay Bridge, Yerba Buena Island and the East Bay from the stands. There were even people paddling around in kayaks hoping to catch a home run ball, should anyone manage to slog it over the boundary. Anyway, we both had a really good time – I was surprised how much I enjoyed it and got into it. It was very uneventful for quite a while, but then the SF Giants upped their game and scored a few runs towards the end, ultimately winning! They deserved it too, after the Phillies displayed some very unsportsmanlike behaviour, making use of the “four no-balls and the batter gets to walk to first base” rule when pitching, to prevent SF batting phenomenon Barry Bonds from taking a hit.

Saturday was a gorgeous day, which we started with our run along the waterfront to Crissy Fields. I was pleased that I did OK, having not gone running for a while – obviously, negotiating those gradients on Kauai helped. I then had to work for a few hours, as I’ve been sent some checking by the translation company I used to work for (I’ve actually had a very busy week, juggling that with my volunteer commitments, which included accompanying the kids to a multimedia museum). In the evening, we headed out for dinner at an Italian restaurant that had been recommended to me, but it ended up being very mediocre. We decided we’d not had enough and took up Emma (James’ girlfriend) on her offer to go out to a bizarre club-cum-house-party in the SOMA (South of Market) district. It was definitely one of the weirder nights out we’ve had, but very “San Francisco” and actually pretty cool. The “house” in question had a roof terrace, lots of widely differing, plushly decorated rooms incorporating everything from massages to karaoke, plus dancing in the largest room with its trippy artwork and drapes. Lots of people were in crazy costumes and the air was thick with not entirely legal tobacco. We met a few people Emma knows there, including a pair of philosophy grad students from Berkeley University.

Today has been a scorcher – 29 degrees, which is very unusual for San Francisco. We took full advantage by spending the afternoon lazing on Baker Beach, on the ocean side of the city near the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge. When it got too hot, it was delicious to go and have a splash around in the icy Pacific. There were loads of people out and about on the beach, which is clothing-optional at its northern edge! Back at the flat, I went for a dip in the pool in front of our apartment block – this was the first time it’s been hot enough to make me feel so inclined, but it was lovely. We then went out for ice cream at our local gelateria near Washington Square and watched the world go by.

In other news, Jon has bought a Nintendo Wii console, so don't expect any more sense out of him for a while!

Gig review: Arctic Monkeys

This is the first in an occasional series where I will review the gigs we go to. Really I should have started with Badly Drawn Boy a few weeks ago, but I didn't and now I can't really remember what happened. This is mostly for my benefit to record what we've seen, but feel free to read my ramblings if you're interested.

We went to see Arctic Monkeys at the Warfield on Tuesday. The Warfield is a delightful ex-theatre which looks like it must have been built just after the big earthquake a century ago. It has a plushly decorated interior and a large balcony with seats (who wants to sit through a gig??) We were more sensibly located in the stalls area, where the seats had been removed in favour of a mosh pit.

I admit this won't be an impartial review. I love Arctic Monkeys. Not just for their music, which in my opinion is first-rate, but moreover because they hail from Sheffield and really do trade on their heritage heavily in their songs, which are sung with a thick accent and peppered with regional slang and place names. Listening to them is a brief trip home for me, like going back to the schoolyard.

The support band were Be Your Own Pet. I had vaguely heard of them before. They were a bit too much for me. The singer was a blonde with a Cousin It hairdo who rambled incoherently and threw occasional epileptic fits on the floor. The lead guitarist had a talent for being able to play riffs whilst doing backwards tumbles across the stage. We saw them thrash through a few songs (we arrived late) and they were soon off the stage.

Then came Arctic Monkeys. My God, they're so young! By now the Warfield was packed. They are really quite popular over here, and get lots of airplay on alternative radio stations. This was the first gig of their US tour.

Their set was a mixture of crowd-pleasers from the first album and new material from their just-released second album (Favourite Worst Nightmare) which I mostly hadn't heard before. I liked the new stuff - it's heavier and more energetic on average, but with characteristically good riffs and rhythm.

The band concentrated on the music rather than the show, and although their musicianship was excellent, it felt like a rendition of well-rehearsed album versions - they didn't put a new spin on any of the tracks. I would have liked a bit more audience interaction than we got. The singer (Alex Turner) has plenty of Northern charm and the crowd loved it every time he spoke to them - even when he subtly took the mick out of the people in the balcony for sitting down. So more of that please... I had expected that the gig would erupt when they did Fake Tales of San Francisco, but they didn't really milk it enough. Surprisingly, people got a lot more excited when they did When the Sun Goes Down, which has clearly been a huge success over here, as the entire crowd were singing along in faux South Yorkshire accents (which made me smile widely).

It was a bit disappointing when, at the end of the set, the management turned on all the lights, opened the doors and switched on loud Tina Turner music. A bit of a jolt, that. No chance of an encore then? The set seemed short, but the lads did a very professional job belting out track after track without missing a beat, note-perfect. I enjoyed it.

A week in Hawaii

We’ve just returned from a week on the island of Kauai, in Hawaii. Kauai is the most westerly of the large, visitable islands, approx. a five hour flight from San Francisco. It is famous for its stunning landscapes, as well as for being the wettest place on earth. With that in mind, we had some trepidation about the weather, but actually most of the rain falls on the mountain in the middle of the island, which is permanently shrouded in mist; furthermore the showers elsewhere tend to occur during the night, so we didn’t have any problems.

So, what did we get up to? Well, we spent several days hiking the many trails on the island, and still felt there were others we’d have liked to have done. We did a strenuous eight mile hike along the famous Kalalau trail to a beach crashing with enormous waves, then inland to a waterfall. The Kalalau trail runs along the Na Pali coast, whose ridges and cliffs, sculpted into stupendous shapes by erosion, plunge dramatically into the deep blue Pacific. It would have been amazing to hike the whole trail, but that would have involved eleven strenuous miles each way with heavy camping gear (there is no road access to any part of this coastline) and would have taken several days. We also did a long hike above the valleys of Na Pali – some of it through dense jungle and other parts edging along the ridges. This offered some views of Niihau, the “forbidden isle”, several miles to the west. It has been owned by a Scottish family for well over a hundred years, which runs a kind of medieval fiefdom system on the island and does not allow visitors, or, it would seem, any mod cons. Another hike skirted the stunning Waimea Canyon, known as the “Grand Canyon of Hawaii”.

Kauai also boasts some beautiful beaches, although it’s not possible to swim from many of them because of the dangerously large waves and strong currents. One day we hired snorkel gear and took to Poipu beach on the south coast. There was a bit of reef a short distance out, so we had great fun watching all the tropical fish, although care was required with the currents even here. Later that day we went for a dip at another beach with calmer waters, which made it easier to view the colourful fish. On our last day (yesterday) we explored the beaches of the north coast, including the Bali Hai of the South Pacific film and my favourite, Ke’e Beach, a truly stunning palm-fringed crescent at the start of the Na Pali coastline.

The highlight of the trip, however, was probably the helicopter ride we did on my birthday. This took us over the forested interior, punctuated by waterfalls all fed by the wet mountain mentioned above, one of which featured in the film Jurassic Park. We then headed over the canyon country and then on to Na Pali, which was simply breathtaking. The biggest surprise, however, was when we flew into the crater of the now defunct volcano which formed the island six million years ago. In the dim light (rain was falling on this particular part), with waterfalls hundreds of feet high cascading down, it looked incredibly primeval.

We did a fair amount of eating out, although we made some of our own food too, as we had a kind of self-catering suite. Wherever you buy it, food is pretty expensive in Hawaii, since apart from tropical fruits, fish and coffee, most of it has to be flown in from several thousand miles away. Kauai’s nightlife is pretty non-existent – you have to go to Honolulu for that – but I suppose that was a good thing given the amount of exercise we did!

In terms of wildlife, we saw lots of colourful birds, a monk seal (splashing about with the snorkellers, then sunbathing on the beach like everyone else!), wild pigs, goats and lots of lizards. A big surprise was the number of “farmyard” cockerels and hens wandering around all over the island, even in the remotest spots. Although they are known as “jungle fowl”, it’s probably the case that they were introduced by settlers at some stage in the past, then went wild.

All in all, we had a really good time, and it may well be the most beautiful place either of us has ever seen. The only down side were the rather negative experiences we had at pretty much every stage of being processed at Kauai’s chaotic airport (agricultural check, check-in, security, seat allocation etc. etc.), but at least there was no passport control or customs at the other end, as it’s actually a domestic flight, so we were home about an hour after touching down. More photos are going up on the Fotki site shortly (http://public.fotki.com/EllenHardwick - password: moocow).

Getting ready for the off

It's been a busy week. I've been looking for and applying for jobs (nothing completely ideal, though, and haven't heard anything yet) plus going to my volunteer placements. Jon has been busy too and had a bit of a crisis at work yesterday when the specs for a machine he'd been preparing for the last two weeks were suddenly changed! We've done some socialising too, though: I went to another French meet-up on Wednesday night and we went out for dinner at James and Emma's (James is Jon's colleague) on Thursday night. Yesterday, I went to view the event space (where the Shanti fundraiser will be held) with the event co-ordinator, and we ended up having a lovely lunch afterwards in a vegetarian restaurant at Fort Mason (a former military installation) overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge. Today it has rained a lot and we've just been getting ready for our holiday. We're off to Hawaii early tomorrow, specifically to the island of Kauai. I'm hoping it doesn't rain too much there - the mountain in the middle is the wettest place on earth! We're hopefully going to do a helicopter tour on Thursday, which is my birthday. When we get back, we're going to see the Arctic Monkeys in concert. I just got the tickets today - the gig had sold out, so I contacted a guy through Craigslist (the San Francisco website for EVERYTHING) who had a couple to sell and we went to get them from him this afternoon. For those of you who don't know, the Arctic Monkeys are a band from Sheffield, and their song, "Fake Tales of San Francisco" is probably the only one in the world which makes mention of both San Francisco and Rotherham! Anyway, should have lots to blog about next time - until then!