I decided today was “a day of action”, but didn’t wake up until 11:00. The head wasn’t very delicate and so I pressed on!
I visited Cafe Roma for my usual large latte – this and two cigarettes = breakfast! Having returned to the hostel I then set up workstation in the ballroom. I got a nice corner spot out of the direct sunshine. (This makes one hot and you can’t see the screen half the time due to the glare – and superior strength - of the Sun!)
First to come and chat was John. He was waxing lyrical about our fun last night, we both agreed it was good to exchange a bit of English irony (like plastic, but made out of iron for the Yanks) and wet ourselves laughing waiting for the “locals” to get the joke – they usually had to work it out “out loud” before the quarter dropped! John is here for the next eight months working in the hostel, so it has literally become his home.
John disappeared to tend to some chores and Stephanie & Jolie came into the ballroom. They came over and had a chat. They had been shopping in fine girlie fashion and with the Canadian $ outstripping the US$ it was cheap shopping for them. They leave the same day as I – Saturday – but they know where they are going. All I have is a car rented and nowhere specific to drive it to! I attempted to make some progress.
Eleanor came in then and so I stopped to have a chat with her. She is leaving Saturday, by Greyhound to LA where she then flies back to Leeds. We waxed lyrical about Death Valley and the geological formations on show, and she admitted that it had fired her interest in knowing more about the way the valley was formed. She left to meet a guy she met travelling in China two years ago. He has since married and is in San Francisco with his wife, so they were all going to get together for a few drinks and a chat.
Marcos came in next. He came and asked if I had seen his “Constructing the Universe” book. “No” I said, “I gave them back to you after taking all the details.” “I know,” he said, “I remember you put them in my hand”. He had loaned it to an American guy who was about when we were discussing them after I had returned the books. We formulated a suitable punishment for all book thieves; they were all excruciatingly painful and resulted in death, and then he went off in search of this American guy. I know how he feels – books are precious things! (Both in the “Local Shop” and the Gollum sense.)
I eventually gave up on getting anywhere as:
1. The wireless network seem to be incapable of connecting to the Internet
2. I had finished my coffee
3. I was hungry and it was 15:00
I packed up my laptop, took it up to my locker, and went out for something to eat. I decided to take JD’s recommendation and went to Yii’s (a Chinese restaurant) for duck over rice. This was a superb recommendation as the meal was delicious and cost less than $5. I headed back to the hostel feeling quite stuffed.
Having re-established office back in the ballroom I set about trying to get some things booked up for Humbug. (Humbug is the great commercial fest and book-balancing exercise which used to be the winter solstice before religions ruined it and corporations made shit loads of money out of it convincing idiots and morons that they must take out loans, or get new credit cards, for in order to buy overpriced crap they wouldn’t normally buy. It is also an excuse for restaurants, pubs, clubs, diners, etc. to serve up warmed up plastic, cardboard or reprocessed food with a sprig of holly on top and charge ten times the price for. Call me cynical but that is exactly what this time of year is – a cynical rip-off and exploitation of the gullible!)
My success was rather thwarted by a small procession of people who kept stopping by to chat to me: John, Neil, JD, Eleanor, Marcos, and “the Canadian girls” were all guilty (well as much as one can call people guilty for being friendly) of delaying my plans.
After a few hours of this I gave up, packed up and just settled for sitting in the ballroom and chatting to everyone who wanted to.
Later on – after dark – it was suggested we go out for pizza so a bunch of us took a stroll up the road to a pizza place and indulged in some very fine pizza.
After this we went back to the hostel, collecting some beers as we went, and proceeded to drink the beers and chat about many things.
When all the beers were gone I decided it would be a very good idea to go to bed, especially as it was now tomorrow! I returned to my dorm and succeeded in getting to bed without waking any of my roommates up and was instantly asleep!
I will do some serious planning later today...
Wednesday, 2 April 2008
San Francisco - Day 9
I had another slow and gentle day today as I felt I deserved it.
After breakfast I went out in search of the usual coffee and then took it back to the ballroom. Some of the Death Valley crew were sitting about and we all sat there chatting and reminiscing over the trip. We all agreed that it was a wonderful trip and the group of people we had made it ultra-enjoyable. We all decided to re-convene in the ballroom this evening after dinner (tonight was a free dinner night) and have a little re-union party. That agreed we all split up to attend to various things we had to do. Mine was; go out and find some lunch!
When I returned after lunch I was sitting about uploading my latest photographs when I encountered Neil an Everton supporter from Liverpool. He started chatting to me about the locality and any points of interest. We chatted about places visited for a while and as Neil had come from Las Vegas we exchanged notes on that. He had been there for the Hatton Mayweather fight but had to watch it on a big screen – which they charged for, of course – as it was sold out. We both agreed it was a “totally over the top” place and there could only be one Vegas because the world has no need for another! (One could argue there is no need for the first one as it is so obscenely wasteful.)
About 19:00 – dinner time in the ballroom – the old “Death Valley Club” re-convened for a social gathering. Having got food we all colonised a long table, beer and wine were produced and a thoroughly good time was had by all. After the food was finished we all cleared up and then more drinks were procured.
The whole thing developed into an impromptu party and I eventually crawled off to bed at about 2:00 to sleep very soundly.
After breakfast I went out in search of the usual coffee and then took it back to the ballroom. Some of the Death Valley crew were sitting about and we all sat there chatting and reminiscing over the trip. We all agreed that it was a wonderful trip and the group of people we had made it ultra-enjoyable. We all decided to re-convene in the ballroom this evening after dinner (tonight was a free dinner night) and have a little re-union party. That agreed we all split up to attend to various things we had to do. Mine was; go out and find some lunch!
When I returned after lunch I was sitting about uploading my latest photographs when I encountered Neil an Everton supporter from Liverpool. He started chatting to me about the locality and any points of interest. We chatted about places visited for a while and as Neil had come from Las Vegas we exchanged notes on that. He had been there for the Hatton Mayweather fight but had to watch it on a big screen – which they charged for, of course – as it was sold out. We both agreed it was a “totally over the top” place and there could only be one Vegas because the world has no need for another! (One could argue there is no need for the first one as it is so obscenely wasteful.)
About 19:00 – dinner time in the ballroom – the old “Death Valley Club” re-convened for a social gathering. Having got food we all colonised a long table, beer and wine were produced and a thoroughly good time was had by all. After the food was finished we all cleared up and then more drinks were procured.
The whole thing developed into an impromptu party and I eventually crawled off to bed at about 2:00 to sleep very soundly.
San Francisco - Day 8
We arrived back in pouring rain at about 7:15 am.
It was a bit strange waking up heading into a city – all the open view had gone! It might sound rather silly, but I was missing the desert.
The group of people, the majority, were staying at The Green Tortoise hostel, so some of the guys headed off from the bus station and the remainder all piled out at the hostel. I bid Seena and Paul farewell, and thanked them for making the trip such fun and a memorable experience.
We all formed a forlorn looking huddle in the reception area of the hostel whilst we got sorted out with rooms. During this time most of us grabbed the available breakfast of toasted bagels, coffee and juice.
When I had my room allocation I retrieved my bag from the storage room and proceeded to empty it onto the floor and sort out all my stuff. The first thing I generated was a large laundry pile and then repacked my main bag with rather pleasing efficiency.
As it was now mid-morning I decided to go in search of lunch and coffee. When I returned, mission accomplished, I decided to get my laundry out of the way. The laundry room is available after 14:00 as the hostel staff uses it for the hostel laundry during the morning.
As I was about to actually do my laundry I met a couple of my new roommates: Magnus, a Swiss guy who was travelling through the States and Andrew a guy from Bradford. Andrew was a bit of a giveaway as he was wearing an England football shirt. He could wear this with a modicum of pride as they had actually won a Euro qualifier game but we both agreed the lovely little prima donnas had to win ALL their remaining games to be sure of qualifying – this ridiculous “24 points from 30 should be enough” mentality is totally stupid, we want 30 points from 30 and then there is no doubt or waiting for other results to help you out! We shall see. Magnus could afford to be snug as Switzerland had already qualified through being joint host-nation with Austria. He very kindly did not rub it in though. As we were chatting our last roommate entered the dorm: JD (John by name) an American yoga instructor. He was en route to China to live where he will be teaching English (he speaks fluent Mandarin) and studying Chinese meditation techniques. I wished him the best of luck.
After chatting to these guys for a while I actually started my laundry off. I had a read whilst the wash cycle was going and then slung it all in the dryer. I had a small result with this as it already had credit on it and I didn’t need to feed it money – yippee!
After it was all done, folded up and put away (I was obviously feeling very domesticated at the time) I then had a sauna, shower and lay on my bed listening to some sounds. I did the usual wake up, get into bed and go back to sleep later – and dreamed of deserts.
It was a bit strange waking up heading into a city – all the open view had gone! It might sound rather silly, but I was missing the desert.
The group of people, the majority, were staying at The Green Tortoise hostel, so some of the guys headed off from the bus station and the remainder all piled out at the hostel. I bid Seena and Paul farewell, and thanked them for making the trip such fun and a memorable experience.
We all formed a forlorn looking huddle in the reception area of the hostel whilst we got sorted out with rooms. During this time most of us grabbed the available breakfast of toasted bagels, coffee and juice.
When I had my room allocation I retrieved my bag from the storage room and proceeded to empty it onto the floor and sort out all my stuff. The first thing I generated was a large laundry pile and then repacked my main bag with rather pleasing efficiency.
As it was now mid-morning I decided to go in search of lunch and coffee. When I returned, mission accomplished, I decided to get my laundry out of the way. The laundry room is available after 14:00 as the hostel staff uses it for the hostel laundry during the morning.
As I was about to actually do my laundry I met a couple of my new roommates: Magnus, a Swiss guy who was travelling through the States and Andrew a guy from Bradford. Andrew was a bit of a giveaway as he was wearing an England football shirt. He could wear this with a modicum of pride as they had actually won a Euro qualifier game but we both agreed the lovely little prima donnas had to win ALL their remaining games to be sure of qualifying – this ridiculous “24 points from 30 should be enough” mentality is totally stupid, we want 30 points from 30 and then there is no doubt or waiting for other results to help you out! We shall see. Magnus could afford to be snug as Switzerland had already qualified through being joint host-nation with Austria. He very kindly did not rub it in though. As we were chatting our last roommate entered the dorm: JD (John by name) an American yoga instructor. He was en route to China to live where he will be teaching English (he speaks fluent Mandarin) and studying Chinese meditation techniques. I wished him the best of luck.
After chatting to these guys for a while I actually started my laundry off. I had a read whilst the wash cycle was going and then slung it all in the dryer. I had a small result with this as it already had credit on it and I didn’t need to feed it money – yippee!
After it was all done, folded up and put away (I was obviously feeling very domesticated at the time) I then had a sauna, shower and lay on my bed listening to some sounds. I did the usual wake up, get into bed and go back to sleep later – and dreamed of deserts.
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