Anthony works in the grocery store, savin’ his pennies for someday

There’s a conspiracy going on – I’m certain of it. In fact I think that there are a couple of conspiracies going on.

And I’m not happy about either one of them.

The last few days have all had a similar weather forecast – 19 or 20 degrees with some cloud. It’s supposed to be somewhere between cool and cold.

The last 2 days we have gone out dressed appropriately for the forecast and sweltered all day. Not that I’m wearing a snow suit – just a long sleeved T-shirt and jeans. I also hauled around a spare sleeveless pullover and wind-breaker just in case.

And sweated. Like a fat kid in a marathon. All day.

Well, those charlatans at the weather bureau aren’t going to get the better of me for 3 days in a row. Same forecast for today, so I wore a short-sleeved T-shirt and jeans, and took a light hoodie for warmth in the unlikely event that it got cool. Dumped out all of the unnecessary stuff that I’ve been hauling around.

So guess what? It was freezing today.

And I shivered. All day.

It got me wondering whether people who study to be weather-people all undertake similar initial, core studies as psychics and tea leaf readers, and then branch out into a speciality towards the end of their course.

I’m certain that their forecasts are all equally vague, with the resulting accuracy about the same.

”Today we are looking for a high of about 20 degrees, with the possibility of clouds or sun. Maybe rain in the afternoon. Maybe not.”

Bah!

Today was a bit of a more relaxed day for us. There was not a great deal that we wanted to do, so we had a bit of a sleep-in, had a leisurely breakfast, and then headed off to the Japanese Tea Garden with a view to arriving before 10.00am.

On Wednesdays, it is free entry before 10.00am, and that is $18 USD better in our pockets.

So we got our stuff together and hopped into Eric.

I may not have specifically introduced you to Eric previously. Eric is the black Chevy Impala that we are getting around in.

A very manly car, so we gave him a manly name.

The fact that we needed to turn on Eric’s seat warmers first thing probably should have been an early warning that we were facing a cold day, but we didn’t recognise the clue.

On the way to the JTG, TOTIL was given the responsibility of selecting suitable music to play on the wireless on the way there.

Now, I would have chosen something appropriate for the outing, like “Turning Japanese” by the Vapors. But TOTIL instead chose a Spotify playlist called “Theme songs from movies”, or something like that.

When “Saturday Night Fever” came on, it reminded me that there was an advertisment on the TV last night for a cruise, somewhere in the middle of one of the episodes of LHOTP that we watched.

If you don’t know what LHOTP is, you will need to go back and read last night’s post. Sorry.

So the advertisment was for a “Disco Cruise”, starring KC & The Sunshine Band of “That’s the way, uh-huh uh-huh, I like it, uh-huh, uh-huh ..” fame.

There is a song that you don’t want to get stuck in your head! Uh-huh!

The cruise aslo featured the Villiage People and many others from that era … although I’m pretty sure that none of them ever put out a “best of” record.

If there are any young ‘uns reading along today, you’ll need to ask your Mum and Dad to explain a “record” to you.

If you are interested in the details of the cruise, I’m sure that I can get them for you. Rest assured, I won’t be going.

But I digress.

So we fired up Eric, asked Gina for directions, and set off … right into 6 lanes of parking lot AKA the morning commute.

Sigh 🙁

Now, here’s a curious thing.

If you believe everything that you read in Wikipedia, Brisbane has a population of 2.4 million people.

Likewise, according to Wikipedia, San Francisco has a population of only 870,000. I don’t know how they calculate that, but I can only assume that every one of them must have 5 cars each – kids included – because I fail to understand how so many 6-lane freeways can be clogged with so many cars for so long.

Further Googling suggests that the Bay Area – from the Napa Valley down to San Jose, and including San Francisco – has a population of a little over 7 million people, so that possibly explains it.

Anyhow, we finally made our way out of the car park and got to the JTG at about 9.30am.

It is a very pleasant and relaxing Japanese garden, and I think it reflects the fact there is a significant Japanese population in SF (… well that’s my observation, possibly not a fact).

It was very peaceful and relaxing. We stopped and shared a cup of Japanese tea.

My only complaint would be that the Japanese have a bit of a thing for gentle waterfalls and gurgling streams.  That fact – combined with the 2 cups of coffee that I’d had for breakfast and the colder than anticipated weather – meant that … well, I’m sure that you can work that out for yourself.

The JTG are set within Golden Gate Park – an area close to the San Francisco CBD that is 20% larger than NYC’s Central Park. It is over 1000 acres.

After the JTG, we went for a drive around the park and stopped to have a look at the Huntington Falls …

… and then further on to the bison enclosure.

Now, you are probably wondering to yourself why there is a bison enclosure in the middle of the Golden Gate Park … and that would be an excellent question.

If anyone knows the answer, please feel free to comment so that all of us can know why there are bison in the park.

The only real significance of this for me, was that it made me realise that I haven’t had any red meat for almost 2 weeks.

Sigh 🙁

After the JTG, the falls and the bison, we figured that was enough excitement for the morning and we would head back into town.

We left Eric parked just outside the park and waited for the 5R bus to arrive.

San Francisco has another unusual road rule, although once you’ve been to SF it probably makes some sense.

The rule is that when you park your car at the side of the road, you must angle your wheels in towards the gutter if you are facing downhill, and angle your wheels out if you are facing uphill.

Many of the streets are very steep, so this is a rule that has been introduced here.

So the 5R bus turned up, right on time … on the other side of the very busy road, and heading in the other direction.

Sigh 🙁

We crossed over to the other side until the next 5R came along.

Me: “Are you heading into town, near Union Square?”

Driver: “Nope, you need to catch that one from the other side of the road.”

Heavy sigh 🙁 🙁

Back to the original side, wait for the next bus, tap on, $2.50, and 22 stops later we were in the city.

Here is something a bit random. The picture below is an advertisment that was up in the bus.

You’ll probably have to click on the photo to enlarge it, but I’m a little bit confused about the words “… not everyone loves Simon and Garfunkel…”

I don’t know of anyone that loves Simon and Garfunkel, so I’m not really sure what their point is?

Again, if you have any ideas, please feel free to leave a comment and enlighten us all.

If it happens that you do like S&G, then I’m sorry, you are in the wrong place. You don’t belong here.

We found Union Square – not much to see there.

By this time it was well after 1.00pm and time for lunch.

We have had a bit of a multicultural day today, starting with the Japanese Tea Gardens and progressing to Chinatown for lunch.

Yelp is pretty big here, and there was a restaurant that got some very good reviews, so we went there for lunch.

Funny little place. We were squeezed in at a table with a few other people, and I’m certain that we were the only English speaking people there.

We ordered meals, they arrived in a flash, and were excellent. Stuffed to the gills with Chinese food. About $15 for 2 meals including drinks.

Everyone else in the place were speaking Chinese, so I have no idea what they were talking about.

Probably us.

After lunch we went for coffee to a little place called Blue Bottle Coffee.

There has been a couple of times in the States that we have gone for coffee and been told – “No cash, card only”.

Here is a tip – don’t ever try and work out the cost in AUD when you pay for something on card – like a couple of cups of coffee.

2 coffees at $4.50 each plus tax = $10.25.

Paid on card, and converted to AUD = $14.25 for two thimbles of coffee.

But it was a nice brew. Even if it was gone in 2 mouthfuls. That’s about $3.50 per mouthful.

Sigh 🙁

Something really exciting happened on the way home today. We were standing on the corner of Kearney and California Streets in the city, and the Google Maps car drove past.

With any luck, we will be immortalised into Google Street view and it will be proof that we really were here, and not just making it all up 🙂

After coffee, we caught the 5R back out of town and found Eric waiting patiently where we left him.

While it was still early, we thought that we would go and have a look at a few last things.

The tiled stairs …

… and Land’s End.

As you can see, the weather had turned particularly cold by this time and I’d stopped enjoying myself as much as I could have, if I’d been wearing warmer clothes 🙁

Here’s a fun fact: TOTIL is getting better quality images on her iPhone 8 than I can get on the $3000 worth of Canon camera gear that I am lugging around, so credit for all Land’s End images goes to her.

After all that, we browsed a shopping centre for a short while, picked up some dinner and headed home.

Here is another fun fact: fuel in the USA is cheaper than Australia. They have two sets of prices for cash and credit card, with separate prices again for regular, Plus and V-Power, all per gallon.

Regular is about 86 RON, Plus is 88/89 RON and their top shelf superior fuel for advanced engines is 91 RON – the same as our regular fuel at home.

I’ve had a few headaches recently … probably stress-related from a combination of driving on the wrong side of the road and having TOTIL shouting at me every time I drift onto the right side of the road (which is also the wrong side of the road).

We purchased some migraine relief from the pharmacy.

Here is another fun fact: migraine relief tablets here contain caffeine.

So the next time you see me having a cup of coffee, be assured that it is only for medicinal purposes.

The title of tonight’s blog should be fairly obvious. This is our last night in San Francisco and tomorrow we are moving out.

Eric will be refuelled and dropped back to Alamo, and we board the cruise.

I’m not sure how much internet access I’ll have on the cruise, but be assured that I will blog when I can.

Probably after shore excursions.

I started the blog tonight talking about conspiracies. I have a second conspiracy theory that I’d like to share.

There is not only gender inequality (I’ve previously spoken about the lack of restrooms for men), but there is also height discrimination.

Both TOTIL and I have been wearing step counters, and she is consistently doing 10-20% more steps that I am.

I’ve worked out why – I am taller that she is, so my stride is longer, so she takes more steps to cover the same distance.

The moral of the story? If you are going to do a step challenge, make sure that you are challenging giants because they take less steps. That means that you will win.

Alternatively, if it is a team challenge, make sure that you have a bunch of short people on your team.

Ciao

#G&KTAKEUSA