Hounds of Love

What has been since...

23/10/2006 Home

Hello all,

Well, I made it home and am pretty much recovered from the long flight back. I'm now enjoying some of the music I brought back with me. The 600 odd photos have been loaded onto the PC and I've had a quick look through them. There are some great shots there and I know they will provide me with many treasured memories. I haven't yet had the guts to call my credit card company for a balance...it'll be ugly, I know. The thing is, it might take a little while for some of the charges to come through so I'll wait a week or so maybe... we'll see.

So what now? Have I gotten this travelling thing out of my system? Am I ready to get to work and settle down? I don't know yet. I know that my short and (unsuccessful) experience with the motorbike has not dimmed my enthusiasm for riding so I may very well get myself a bike as transport. This will be cheap to buy and cheap to run. I figure as long as I keep off mountain roads for a while I should be OK. There are a couple of possibilities job wise so I might chase those up in the next few days. If anyone out there has any ideas about work for me, let me know. I need to use whatever contacts I can at the moment. I think work will be a priority for me now, seeing as how I've been off full-time work for over five months now.

So this is a short post. I'm not sure whether or not I'll keep it running now that I'm back. We'll see. If I get encouraging comments then I might keep writing this as long as people are reading. Not sure how interesting it'll be but who knows what further adventures are in store?

So, until I write again dear reader, be well.

M

San Francisco. The lobby @ The Dakota.

Well friends, the adventure is just about at an end. Yesterday I had a bottle of Snapple. Didn't like it...to fruity.I have about 30 minutes before my shuttle comes to take me to the airport so I can fly home and into the bosom of my friends and family. Today was all about killing time and so i saw a couple of movies, had some lunch and that was pretty much it. I saw Flags of our fathers, that was a good movie. Quite moving. Also saw Little Children, Kate Winslet. Fantastic film, highly recommended. So here I am, (heavy) bags packed, mixed feelings about leaving although glad to be on my way home. I met a couple of Kiwi guys this morning who just arrived yesterday. really nice guys who are spending 3 months here, going to tahoe to do some snowboarding and just travelling around. We had a good chat about where to go and what to do. It's a shame I didn't meet these guys a few days ago. Could have had someone to hang round with, have a drink whatever. Oh well. So, I have survived my near-death experience and have seen some wonderful things and some not so wonderful. What a contrast. One day surrounded by the majesty of Yosemite and then back to LA where life is ruled by commerce, greed and celebrity, and then there was the serenity and haunting beauty of death valley at sunset at odds with the constant visions of homlessness and desperation I witnessed here in San Franciso. Encountering the sheer numbers of homeless in this city makes you feel that humanity has been sheared from everyday life. I guess this is necessary otherwise you would never get through a day here without emptying your pockets to these people and still know that at the end of the day you have made not a whit of difference. Very sad but, you go on. I'm really glad I did this trip. It has given me some marvellous moments that I will cherish. I don't think I'm any wiser or more worldly for doing it but nevertheless, I know it will have a lasting value. So there it is. Thanks to all of you who read this and followed my stumbling adventures, providing and audience for my ramblings. I won't bore you with photos when I get home unless you specifically ask to see them. i know there's nothing more boring than other peoples holiday snaps. next post will undoubtably be from Home so, until then bless you all and see you very soon! Love, M.

19/10/2006 San Francisco, 2nd last day.

Hello again, well, last night was a roaring success. Slim's is a pretty good venue, about 10 minutes or about 7 bucks in a cab from here. Three bands were on last night. Doomriders were up first, not bad but pretty run of the mill. Acid King were next, a three piece sludgy doom metal band headed by a female guitarist. They had a psychadelic light show projected onto their backdrop, very effective. The band were fantastic, very trippy and very heavy. Of course the best was saved until last, the mighty Japanese doom juggernaut...Boris. These guys (two guys and, again, a female guitarist) are sensational. They were extremely heavy and at times beautifully melodic, slow, grinding riffs as well as more thrashy pacier offerings. This tiny japanese chick on guitar was amazing and the drummer was heroic...loved it. By the end of the night I was pretty well liquored up and so I stumbled over to my cab and came home a happy man. I do remember being quite chatty with the cab driver. Can't remember what the hell we spoke about but he was cool. Today, naturally started out slowly and I didn't get out of my "crib" until about 12:30. Another beautiful Californian day greetd me as I made my way to the Coit Tower...funny name, it was built by Fanny Coit or something. Anyway, i took the bus through the nightmare that is Chinatown and ended up in Horth Beach where i proceeded to walk up Lombard street which is VERY steep. there is a bus that goes there but I couldn't work out where to catch it so, up I went, almost a kilometer until I reached the tower. It cost 4 and a half bucks to ride the lift to the top but the view was great and so i took out my camera and ( now here's something i never thought I'd say) took a few shots in the coit. So a lot of effort was expended to get this view (and use that line) but it was worth it. The tower is on Telegraph Hill which is a moneyed section of town, quite exclusive it seems. Lovely homes overlooking SF bay. Very, very hilly though. Out in the parking lot, a bus pulled up. I know going down hil is easier but I had my pass with me so I hopped on. this took me to Washington Square and Union Park where people were enjoying the lovely day just swanning about in the sunshine. I had a bite to eat and read my book for a while before heading home. It's now about 4:30 in the afternoon so i'm going to go up, freshen up and go for a walk before dinner time. Tonight I will be experimenting with packing. I think I should be OK with the weight, just have to distribute carefully. So that's about it. Tomorrow will be a time killing day so i might see a couple of movies to take me to airport shuttle time which will be at 7:30. I'll update tomorrow evening probably. Cheers, M.

18/10/2006 San Francisco Day 5

Hello, I mentioned that I haven't been to the Golden gate Bridge yet, well, yesterday I hopped on the bus and took myself there. Great thing that bridge. It's a fantastic piece of engineering but it's also so iconic. You look at it and it's just so familiar, having seen it's image on countless TV shows and movies. I took a walk on it to about the middle and looked out over the bay, very impressive. After that I hooped on another couple of buses and went to Aquarius Records for a peek. This shop is small but was very busy and they have a great selection of hard to find releases. Picked up a couple of cheap CD's. Aquarius is in the Mission District. A largely hispanic neighbourhood with some very poor, run down sections. Didn't really want to hang around there for too long. Lonely Planet cites that area as one in which not to wander about after dark. I can see why. Thnings have been a bit uneventful since I got here, sorry, it makes for boring reading I know but, I resolved to keep this blog up so i'll persist (although I would think several readers would have dropped off by now...bless 'em). One bad thing about the Dakota, is crappy TV. In the other places I travelled through, there was a better selection of cable programs but here there are fewer stations and mostly Network. Some good new shows though. Couple of observations. Everybody speaks on mobiles while they are driving, there doesn't seem to be any fear of getting caught. Public transport in SF is pretty good. i bought a weekly bus pass so there no mucking around with correct change etc etc. The level of toilet water is too high in the states, some places worse than others, not too bad here though. This computer is in the lobby of the hotel and i always get the feeling that anyone waiting for the elevator is reading over my shoulder, it's unnerving! Anyway, it's another beautiful day, sunny and about 22 degrees so I'm off to The Haight, try do some more souvenir shopping and that should take care of it...bloody souvenirs. Good thing crap is cheap! BORIS tonight...can't wait. Looks like tomorrow will be hangover day. Blessings to all, be home in 4 days!!! Yahoo!

16/10/2006 San Francisco, Day Four

Aah, there you are.... After posting yesterdays entry I took a tram to the wharf and got a ticket to Alcatraz for today. I got back and went to Murphy's pub for another bowl of chili and a beer...great chili! Spent last night watching TV. Couldn't be bothered going anywhere. Today I took the Alcatraz tour. Interesting place but a little disappointing. It is an old, cold place but I didn't get a real sense of foreboding, probably because there were so many people there. But, it was worth seeing. It was good to see the excercise yard where Clint Eastwood sat in "Escape from Alcatraz". Took some good shots though. Afterwards I came back into town and went to see a movie. "A Guide to recognising your saints" with Robert Downey Jr. (He was in the film, I didn't go see it with him...) Great film. I've decided to go see Eastwoods new film "Flags of our fathers" on friday. I check out of here at 11am but my flight isn't 'til 10:30pm... I have some time to fill. The amount of beggars in this city is incredible. The last two days I have been cruising around with my MP3 player on so I have been ignoring them, it's been really good. Speaking of movies, I forgot to mention this in a previous post but the previews to the new james bond film looked fantastic, Daniel Craig really looks the part. Good casting choice I reckon. Also saw a preview for "300". It's based on a graphic novel and the story seems to be about the 300 Spartans...looks very edgy and violent. can't wait for that. Also, Borat, the film. The preview was hilarious, hope the film is too. Anyway, back to the beggars. They are pretty harmless, they ask but they don't stalk you or get abusive if you say no. I saw some english prick on a mobile tell one of the to F off when he was approached...I thought that was unnecessary. After the movie I just sauntered about the CBD (it was about 7:30 and there were thousands of people around union square..amazing)with my headphones on. It was lovely just walking along listening to music and looking around. Had a giant slice of pizza for dinner and went to the Gold Dust bar for a beer and a half. Got bored so I just came back to my room at about 9. Saw a guy at the bar, sitting with his wife and I couldn't stop glancing over at him.it took me a while to realise why. he reminded me so much of my dad, it was uncanny. I couldn't hear him speaking so I couldn't tell where he was from but it wouldn't have suprised me if he was a Yugo. Had the right head. the likeness was very strong though. Butterfingers was the candy bar of the day. Quite nice. Chocolate covered crunchy peanut butter...stuff. very sweet though. That's about it for now. Tomorrow I'm off to the Haight again to pick up a couple more souvenirs and maybe head down to the Castro for lunch or something. I'm going to try get a tour in as well. Just an easy way of seeing a number of things and take some photos. Still haven't gone to the Golden Gate. hey Rich, there don't seem to be any Plovers around but there were some HUGE ravens in death valley, as big as cats! But they don't swoop you (well they might swoop you!). Alright, that's it. Be well. M