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and last updated August 10th.,1998.
And because I am in San Francisco now and doing lots of research..*grin* you aren't getting a whole new page yet
....just know that I LOVE San Francisco ....that coming here has probably made the whole trip worthwhile...and that I will tell you (almost) all just as soon as I stop making with the tourist stuff!
Spent the first couple of days out of Fresno in Silicon,Valley, at Mountain View, the home of Netscape...
We had two nights staying at the Mountain View Residence Inn, and spent the second one driving into and around San Francisco, checking where we might like to stay , since I liked the feel of the cityand we WALKED on the Golden Gate Bridge...or rather Webweavr walked and I sort of forced myself to move from one stanchion to the next without letting go of any, because I had just discovered I have a serious fear of heights when they include autos hurtling by about two feet away and a slight swaying of the whole structure..and the knowledge that the San Andreas Fault is just underneath!!
But when we reached the selected motel in the Marina Area , which had kitchenette-suites but we hadn't scored one(The Cow Hollow Suites), *grin*, we found it had..no refrigerater and no microwave, but it DID have a coffeemaker and WE had Webweavr's toaster....
Webweavr drove the car.....and I was gratified to find he missed the freeway exits probably more than I would have....
And we drove OVER the Bay Bridge, which I think is prettier and more spectacular than the Golden Gate Bridge, and I saw the fog rolling in.......at 3.30pm!!
And Webweavr thought I was kidding until he saw the color of my face and so he decided to come back to firm land also.
?
And because I needed more film, with being serious picture-taking country, we went to the souvenir/;tourist shop there and they had the door closed twenty minutes early and only let us in if we promised only to buy film
because didn't we know there was a football game on? And that film cost me just under US$20 for two rolls..Hmmm!
And because I had a kitchen that night, I did a supermarket stop, and took the opportunity, of course, of cooking up some lamb chops for Webweavr. AND and a batch of ratatoille because he assured me ALL modern hotels and motels have rerigeraters and Microwaves in America..
And we talked to the folk at home while I cooked and things were good!
and we improvised our own refrigeration chamber by making use of the icemachines the hotel has aplenty!
And one leaked, and, next morning I set off the smoke alarm by trying to heat pastries on the toaster,
And the second evening Webweavr manoevered the car down Lombard Street (c9ookedest street in the world, and we went on to Telegraph Hill and did the speechless gaping-in-wonder-at-the-view- tourist thing, because this was just after sunset and seriously, incredibly beautiful!
And then we walked up and down Columbus and Broadway and saw the clubs and restaurants..and clubs and restaurants...and clubs and restaurants...and clubs and restaurants...and a computer store with a whole five generations Chinese family eating at a table set up right in the centre..
Every unit here has its own back patio, and these areas are overhung with wisteria, and surrounded by pebble gardens and low hedges, and lawns leading across to the pool.
I have five outdoor chairs and a little table all to myself, and, except that the Powers-That-Be seem to have confused the ideal temperature for Paradise with the oven setting for the Other Place, I could spend a lot of time out there...
Of course, having the big sliding door open quite defeats the purpose of the air conditioner...and must lead to the situation they had in this area yesterday, when they had such a power shortage that electricity was cut off for 12 minutes in every hour at peak demand time.
I have the feeling that I may have trouble sleeping, my first few nights at home, without the sound of the air conditioning cutting in and out in the background..
But...even though one part of me says I am crazy to have left the southern beaches, where the temperature today is 28 degrees cooler than here, the other part , which is really LIKING it here,( even though I miss the companionable sound of the ice-maker), says..
And I already feel I have seen so much..after just the two days on the road...
The mountains themselves, the bit I drove through, all dry and yellow, look very much as we see them in the movies....I could almost have expected to see some long, lean, black-clad figures emerge from behind a rock or two...but then one looks over the edge and sees the other half the Freeway below, with all the trucks comning the OTHER way,and there always seems to be a helicopter or two and small planes.....and not a palomino in sight!!
And you see houses built on the most AMAZING places, not like the eyries around Bel aire, marvels of architecture that they are, but humble family homes clinging to hillsides, huddles in canyons, or defying the odds in the the one bit of riverflat for miles... a tribute to the human insitinct to fight nature and survive.
Then, when one does get out of the hills, the valley happens so abruptly, and is so very flat, that it is an astonishment..and the freeway changes from four or five forward lanes to three and finally two...but still divided......inside the crash barriers they use dense shrubby growth rather than trees here..and the bushes are all in flower at present...lots of oleanders and hibiscus and pittosporum-types...nice!!
It is hard to see far, though..there is an incredible amount of blue-grey haze so that sunglasses, though needed, are almost a nuisance!
And apparently very efficient at catching and holding the runaway vehicle, too.......WITHOUT forcing the driver into the boot....er.....TRUNK!!!!
Pity they only have three nights vacant here before the weekend.......
And who knows...if it ever cools down I might get to see some more of these mountain roads and orchard-filled valleys...!
And Webweavr brought around a BIG bottle of cold white wine, VERY welcome when I was still trying to
cool down my own supplies after the long drive, no easy feat with the tiny motel-style 'frig...no icemaker in THIS one!
And he ALMOST found me still in my swimsuit, but not quite, though I was still dripping wet..and folks, there are some people from Tampa, Florida here who TALKED to me as we swam...kind of nice at 10pm, all swimming around in 80 degree heat, making CONVERSATION!!
In between stops and starts I am reading a SERIOUSLY good book, Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, which
combines a story of this state in the 21st Century,(and I recognise all the geographical features, and the streetnames
and the expressways), plus computer theory and practice, plus an interpretation of a lingusitic theory I studied
in post-grad., plus lots of pharmaceutical stuff..
And I am still trying all my contact lenses in my right eye, one after the other..looking for one that will read
street signs from a distance AND map names up close...AND let me read to update this page when I eventually
GET where I am going each day!
Along with Viagra, laser eye surgery is being heavily advertised here, and I hope I will have enough money left when I get home to
look at it seriously....my friend, Zach P had an appointment for assessment the day I left for here, (July 21st,
and I asked him yesterday how the examination had gone off, and he laughed and said I had REALLY been out
of touch since he has been assesses, operated, and was now recuperating, MINUS his (much hated) glasses....
Okay, Okay, so you want to look SEXY and DEBONAIR, right?
Personally, I never really noticed the glasses, being one who looks at a person's MIND...
And to those of you still asking, 'Are you coming home soon?', the
answer is "er....NO!!".
And I vitrioled back that I would have seen a lot more of his country had I not been waiting around so much in the hope of seeing HIM!....that I felt I had WASTED far too much of my time here!!
And that, I suspect folks, is the end of the traditional long and beautiful friendship..
But I have told him I will go back that way IF I get the word from him, and in the
meantime I have, as they say, Other fish to fry..
BACK TO GOLDEN OLDIES BUSINESS.
Please mail all your questions,answers and comment about this home page to:
robink@mail.austasia.net
©Robin Knight, 1998.
And Webweavr, who has done a lot of hard work looking up and forwarding accomodation details, is now no longer just a picture on my hard disc...but exactly like that picture..as we would say in Australia"
And HE says I am younger and prettier than he expected, that the picture at the top of this page doesn't do me justice....
Hmmm...*grin*, THIS from the same man who said he expected to be in awe of my MIND....
Have to say, folks, that when it comes to successful LINES, one can't beat a mature male of Irish Ancestry!!
Even though he and his partner, Jack, want to talk Distance Education Business to me, and I think I might be in a position to give that business a bit of of a boost, I think we could have a lot of fun.....
In fact, it would probably not take very much at all to see me cancelling my bookings in the San Diego area, since I am settling in nicely at one of the places Webweavr sent me details about, a place called Paradise, would you believe?
Course, I could come back here next week...
Would that be Paradise Regained,then, Hey??
...and strangely named roads of course!
And I had asked him to find some coffee mugs, styrofoam not really being my thing, and he brought two nice pink ones, and, since the microwave is a style I recognise,while he went to find the motel's ice machine, I made the first good cup of tea I have had in America....
But Webweavr.........put.... ICE in his hot tea........aagghh!!
He says it is the only way to drink tea!
and, as you would realise, NOT something I am exactly used to in this country!
And then Webweavr put up my clotheslines for me and drank his tea while I did my washing, and and before we had finished the bottle of wine , that washing was all dry and could come inside again...
And then he plugged in my modem to the datapoint, and we set up the IBM connection and I checked my EMail before we started chatting..
He said if I didn't like this motel, which is QUITE unlike the Residence Inns I have been staying in, we would drive around after his working day and look at the Oxford Suites Apartments in nearby Chico..
But I said I always think I don't like a place when I first arrive..and am usually in love with it by the next morning...
And believe me, folks, this place is NO EXCEPTION.......and it has untimed local calls, too, so I can work online!
Now, if someone booked here for the weekend could just have a change of heart, or change of plan...all would be very well, indeed, with my world!!
There are some seriously funny parts, too, which one reviewer calls:
I love it, and I have pages turned down everywhere for future reviewing...
But if I can borrow a scanner next week, I shall just HAVE to show you the memo sent to all federal employees
of Next-Century Los Angeles, regarding the setting up of Bathroom Tissue Pools..
That, and some of the rules and regulations for the employees of UncleSam cut close enough to the quick to be totally believable..
to anyone who has been a government Employee, as I was for far too long!
Oh, and having been wearing out sunglasses with monotonous regularity, (I should NEVER have sent any
HOME!), I finally gave in and bought two pairs of American manufacture, in the tiny catseye shape my oleder
son will APPROVE, he who is such a connoisseur of what is IN and NOT IN!
And I bought them at one of the big pharmacy megastores at Manhatton Beach, a big SAVE-ON mart, where I was
subjected to the most incredibly inefficient display of photo-processing and retrieval I have EVER encountered...
Bannockburn people, if I tell you that the processing sytems here, often in stores side-by-side, which run 7 days a week
and 18 hours a day, are so hit and miss that they make the system which is our pharmacy's despair look totally, benignly
user-friendly!!
(Non-Bannockburn folk, it is illustrative of the point I am making, here, that last Xmas our pharmacy won a prize for
the most protests issued on behalf of customers...)
In fact, the whole expedition to the big pharmacy in the mall was a real study-tour, which will take a whole
Bannockburn News page for the telling....sufficient to say I was
VERY glad not to have the pharmacist-husband with me....
?????????????????
Hmmm,Zach, how on earth are you going to look INTELLECTUAL and ACADEMIC now, hey?
Well, Hon...the very best of British luck to you....
And I can tell you now the girls at the Residence Inn in Atlanta thought your glasses were no handicap at all...
couldn't work out why you were so anxious to get rid of them...
So, why am I struggling with these contact lenses when I could get bifocals?...
It doesn't do for a WOMAN to look intellectual!!
I suppose I still plan to do San Diego and part of Mexico, IF the guardian angel can be persuaded to look the other way, but I am kind of liking it HERE...
And even though the San Diego guy I came to see DID send me his entire two weeks' itinerary, showing that he MIGHT be able to make some time available next Friday week, being free for lunch that day and all that afternoon, I had been just evil enough to forward back to him the email where he originally thought of this trip, explaining to me how I wouldn't have to pay any hotel expenses, and would spend most of my time 'with the person who though of the idea.."
And he replied that, while this trip hadn't turned out as he had hoped, or as I had expected, while he was too busy to see me, I was seeing a lot of his country, a good thing!....
Especially since I assured him I would call him at home before I left for Australia!.....
Serve you.right,Gravel-Voice, RIGHT!!!
And in this summ,er climate, don't even need the frying pan for that!!
This next part of this trip promises to be very different, and, I suspect,rather exciting, and I think I am moving right out of character, here......
Or maybe it is just the real ME emerging...just needed to get out of LA is all !!
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