I bumped into BBD at work
I first spotted his wheels, then saw him plying his trade. Wasn't impressed with his photoshop skills tho
s606.photobucket.com/albums/tt148/know_wun/BBD/
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Could have been me, I did work in San Fran very briefly and that's a tasty bit of sign-writing. And two hookers is the way to go if one has the cash.
Are those winter tyres on that Lexus?
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The punch line is,
I threw 50 cents into his hat after taking the photo, and he turned the placard round, to read
"and two gay boyfriends to support"
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I love the hat BBD, but surely those aren't the best fishskin boots?
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What else did you do in San Fran apart from give money to destitute rent boys?
Did you hire a car?
Drive over the bridge? Twin Peaks? That really steep road?
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yes, yes I think you mean the very curly one - Lombard Street, yes.
I love San Francisco, its a city that lives up to your every expectation, and disappoints on no level.
What did we do? Shopping, afternoon beer in the sun at Union Square, Very many cable car trips on the Powell and Hyde line. Crab and clam chowder at Fishermans Wharf, A night visit to Alcatraz. Visit Washington square and the church of St Peter & St Paul (Dirty Harry fans will know the one). Telegraph Hill and Coit tower. China Town at night with a Chinese meal, Pizza and proper Italian coffee in Little Italy. Knob Hill. Russian Hill, Ghiardelli Square..
And of course, the drive over the Golden Gate bridge. I doubt there are many city approaches that are quite as spectacular, pretty or rewarding as the one offered on US101 southbound over the Golden Gate bridge. It was an Hours detour, and $10 dollars in tolls to approach this way and worth every cent.
full, long boring road trip report will be published here soon.
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Done all of those apart from the churches. Did you get to Presidio? Could go a lot more often since my brother lives a bit south of San Francisco but he is buying another house this week (his second!).
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NO didn't have time to do the Presidio. Its been opened up a lot since the army gave up most of it.
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For our last night in SF before flying home (lucky us have friends near Tahoe) we always walk thru GG Park and have dinner at the Cliff House overlooking the Pacific as the sun sets.
Then catch the bus back to the city very inebriated.....
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But did you wear some flowers in your hair?
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No but I left my heart there.
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Your answer seems somehow sadly gay
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No, merely continuing the musical theme.
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>> No, merely continuing the musical theme.
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Indeed? then you didn't recognise the second line of 'I left my heart in San Francisco'? :>)
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Not in this thread though. And now we have lyrics in the other thread too.
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SF is a bit of a provincial toilet if you ask me. Pretentious and bourgeois, although the Chinese food is all right if you can find a good place.
Best seen across the bay from the aptly named Berkeley, full of academics and crooked mechanics, or the Hells Angel infested Oakland where the mechanics are more honest (I suppose the Angels make sure of that).
Liked New York. Liked Los Angeles (the word's stupidest town, chapeau!). Didn't think much of SF though. It's a sort of Hampstead for gamblers, madams and bandits made good in the not-very-old West.
No offence though Zeddo. Pleasant enough if you can avoid alternative-lifestyle folk and other ponces.
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Sorry AM - I'm with Zero. We loved SF this summer. The best bit was a ride on a 1955 'shiny red Mack fire engine' which took us over the GG Bridge to Sausalito via the Presidio and around town.
When we got off near Fishermans Wharf we saw a lovely little garage with about 15 beautiful Alfa Romeos from the 1960s and early 1970s. If I lived in the US, there would be one in my drive now.
The kids also loved SF. We got the bus early one morning to the Pacific and walked around the Lincoln Park and watched the mist disappear.
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>> Sorry AM - I'm with Zero.
Nothing to be sorry about. It is I who should apologise really for a curmudgeonly take on a handsome and unique (although they all are) city.
I didn't hate SF. I just thought it lacked depth and was a bit full of itself. So I didn't really plumb it in all its historical complexity. Even so I doubt if the nobs on Nob Hill would have seemed all that nobby in a civilised country. In Europe the theft, murder and banditry that underpin nobbery were soon buried under mountains of titles and such. That's what we are used to here.
Of course I saw it in the early seventies when all that flower power carp was still dying down. It may be a bit more dignified these days.
I liked the cable cars. They were free too as often as not. And I liked the steepness of the hills. Really made the transmission lock on my auto Plymouth necessary. Even so it was illegal to park without your wheels turned in towards the kerb.
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Ive never been to San Francisco. Quite fancy a trip to the west coast in general but not majorly keen on Americans to be brutal about it. Or at least I'm not majorly keen on the ones I encountered on my business trips to New York or those who came to my home city of "Edinboro" to wear white trousers, tartan hats and talk loudly. Why do they talk so loudly do you think ? Maybe they are nicer in California although they do seem to be a bit barmy on the surface of it. Don't think I could stomach Las Vegas at all. But then it takes all sorts eh ?
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Most Americans I've come across are hospitable and kind especially on the East Coast an in rural areas,
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Absolutely right PU. Friendly and by British standards, surprisingly courtly in their manners.
Not always a good idea to talk about race, religion, politics or history though. They can be minefields.
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Had an amiable chat in a very nice rural bar in Concorde MA about the War of Independence, being a Whig at heart it worked out well enough.....as AC says a risky business especially as our common histories have been so filled with er...anxiety.
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I have never received anything but unfailing courtesy from Americans, even when they are unable to help you out of a dilemma.
The most American of the Americans was a gas station owner in Anaheim who clearly was Indian born and bred. But he had really made something of his life and was 'damn' proud of being American - 'Welcome to America' he called as we drove out.
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I can only remember two customer service "Fails" there - one was in Ipswich MA - a drunken waitress, she was nice enough, just a little too Brahms and Liszt for efficiency and a waitress and funnily enough another waitress in a Bob Evans diner in Florida - too jolly by 'alf for a Sunday morning and her made up word "Yummylicious" just too much.
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Americans are almost unfailingly courteous, albeit at times contrived and meaningless.
Until they find out you are British, and then it becomes genuine. Americans tend to treat service industry or public service staff none too courteously, You rarely hear the word "please" used when requesting service.
"I'll have the large stack and two sunny side up - please- " uttered by a Brit really does illicit genuine courtesy from a waitress
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I thought the era of 'Oh Wow you from England - say something' was over but we went to stay with some friends in upstate New York and found their daughter with a group of friends sitting by the side of the road in a lovely rural area. I wound the window down and said 'Hi Raquel - which way to your cabin' and almost immediately the response from another girl was 'Oh My God your BRITISH - say something PLEASE!'
I mean I'm from the grim North. What would she have said if she heard Price Charles speak?
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What would she have said if she heard Price Charles speak?
He's a Greco German though.
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I remember be asked to do some rhyming slang for a hotel receptionist in Daytona a few years back, and a rather large petrol pump lady somewhere near Memphis insisted I kiss her once she heard my accent...could've been worse I suppose...
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Must have been the Pearly King outfit Smokie.....
"Can I have a brush and broom with birdie's tweet and a beggar's pew. Also somewhere to read and mark my jamjar ?"
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>> a few years back, and a rather large petrol pump lady somewhere near Memphis insisted
>> I kiss her once she heard my accent
That was Elvis.
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If was an an American Indian, he was
A: Lucky to have a job
B: lucky his family survived genocide and hundreds of years of prejudice.
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Yes - I suppose you are right, but this one came from several thousand miles away and spoke understandable English.
Last edited by: Espada III on Sun 24 Oct 10 at 12:08
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>> Maybe they are nicer in California
Laid back is the word. You could spot the "east coast" and "west coast" delegates at a conference. The easties were dressed in stiff brooks brothers suits and ties, the westies in chinos, short sleeves and a beach tan. There is a good reason new ideas and new technology comes from the San Jose valley.
>>Don't think I could stomach Las Vegas at all.
You have to, you really do. Leave all sense of good taste and propriety at home, and just accept, in awe and wonder, the sheer tackiness and scale of it all. Egyptian pyramids, Paris, the Grand Canal Venice, volcanoes, ancient Rome, pirates, Fairytale castles - and that's just the hotels.. It has it all on a scale that Walt Disney could not comprehend.
Its a dreadful delightful place.
Last edited by: Zero on Sun 24 Oct 10 at 12:39
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There is a good reason new ideas and new technology comes from the San Jose valley.
The Brainboxes at MIT might have something to say about that - but I know where you're coming from nonetheless.
An enduring memory of Boston was attempting to cross a wide boulevard - and hesitating at the kerbside in our country mouse ways when a sprightly old lady strode into the road and quipped "Come on you guys - cross like Bostonians"
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>> You have to, you really do.
I can see where you're coming from I suppose but I do feel as Europeans we maybe have easy access to most of the real thing and as such would find a reconstructed and packaged version a bit disappointing at best.
I have no real right to comment though, I've never been. I'd still take quite a bit of persuading to do so in favour of a "real life" or Mk1 destination I think.
Just doesn't appeal to me on the face of it but it must be attractive to many or it wouldn't exist at all I guess.
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I would say see the rest of the world before you go to Vegas, but you will be amazed when you get there. Not my ideal holiday location, but an interesting place in its own right for 48 hours and then a useful jumping off point for the various canyons (Bryce, Zion, Grand) and other interesting places on the way to New Mexico.
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While in San Francisco - BiggerBadderDave
