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By most accounts, weather in the Bay Area is considered pretty friendly. We don’t get horribly hot summers, or frigid winters. And when you do, they are the exception, not the norm. Some people attribute Mark Twain as saying the coldest winter he ever saw was a summer in San Francisco, but that hasn’t been verified. And it really isn’t the case.

The last week or so, the Bay Area saw a series of storms and it wrecked quite a bit of havoc all around. As usual, with most storms, trees were downed, power went out, some homes flooded, potholes appeared, hail the size of quarters showered in some places and people freaked out at the sound of rain pelting and thunder droning. What is unusual about the storms this time is that it isn’t a whole day of moderate rain, but intervals of really heavy tropical thunderstorm-esque drenchings, with the accompanying thunderbolts and lightning, but not all that very frightning, eh!

When you come from the tropics, you’re used to and prepared for the inconveniences of rain, and you don’t bat an eyelid at the deafening gush of all that water just spewing. Thunder and lightning is not a big deal either. If anything, it’s a signal for me to sleep in.

True Bay Area-ites, I suppose, are less used to it. Low lying homes had to be sandbagged because the water levels started rising after the first day. On the second day, roads near the beach like the Great Highway were closed off because the ground started eroding and the sides of the road started collapsing. Gusty winds downed branches and trees and disrupted power in a few neighbourhoods. Some cars were light ablaze by downed powerlines, which is pretty freaky. And some people were injured (some fatally) by trees falling on their vehicles. On the third day and beyond, rivers broke their banks and some roads were completely flooded.

Well. Before these really wet five or so days, there was an apartment complex in Pacifica that was already evacuating residents because the bluff that their building stood on started eroding badly. The building management tried to get permits to add rocks to the bottom of the bluff to reinforce it, but by the time they did it was too little too late. Residents had to stay out, and it was unclear if the building could be salvaged.

With the recent rain we’ve been getting the situation got worse. What was once about 80 feet to the cliffside was now sand on the beach 16 storeys below. Even the building next door had to be evacuated. I was telling KF they should just drop the “a” at the back of Pacifica, since it’s pretty much now just the Pacific. Ocean. Ha! Anyway, when we got a break from the rain today, we took a drive over to kaypoh a bit.

It doesn’t look like much now, but they used to have a pretty large backyard! The street in front looked like a war zone; it was cordoned off and workers were walking in and out. Some residents milled around, in and out of the neighbouring apartments, but there were more people ogling at the spectacle than there were in the units.

They do get a spectacular view of the Pacific Ocean, though. But I wonder if it’s really necessary to live right next to it for the view.

Anyway. The rain will start picking up steam tomorrow night, and by Monday it’ll be rainy again. It’s a little annoying, but it sure beats water rationing.

Brett Favre, Minnesota Vikings Image from SFGate.com

We’ve been watching American Football since the season started, so it’s pretty much 3-4 months now. Last year I caught on to it late, and managed to only get warmed up to it by the Superbowl (AKA American Football World Cup, although of course, the World in this case is confined to the United States). Also with more understanding of the game, I can now root for teams based on some sort of identification of their style or quarterback instead of picking them by the team logo/mascot, hahaha. That’s

American Football though, is a needlessly overstaffed, complex game with too many rules. The saving grace is its throwback to Roman times. Indeed, the game involves a (semi-) armed combatant engaged in violent confrontations with other armed combatants, wild animals (AKA the defensive line and linebackers) and condemned criminals (almost!). While European come across as relatively more refined metrosexuals with their fancy coifs and equally fancy underwear endorsements, traipsing around a ball, coaxing it almost into a goal, American Football will show itself up to be brash, boorish, wild and loud. Moves are magnified, tackles are explosive and half-time entertainment nothing short of spectacular – remember Janet’s wardrobe malfunction?

But like any other game, once you get into it, it gets pretty entertaining. There is something special about sportsmen; guys that get to play for a living are awe worthy creatures. There aren’t all that many of them to go around, but they live the dreams of many.

The quarterback in the photo above is Brett Favre. I’ve never heard of him before I got here. But over these parts he’s a bit of a legend. He’s probably the oldest quarterback in the league – he’s 40, and he had some problems making up his mind about retiring. Twice. Now he’s playing for the Minnesota Vikings and they’re 1 game away from the Superbowl. He’s a fantastic player, and oh so fun to watch. The closest comparable quarterback (in terms of age,experience and quality) would probably be Kurt Warner of the Arizona Cardinals, but Warner’s not fun at all to watch. Here’s our theory why: Favre plays to win. Warner plays to make a living. Favre is fun to watch and you’ll find yourself rooting for him because he’s playing to score. He’ll take the spills of the game to enjoy the thrills. There’s little else in his mind besides winning the game, and it almost seems like he sheds a few years off his age with each touchdown he scores. Warner plays with so much baggage – will he be able to keep playing, provide for his family, will he get hurt – it’s tiresome to watch. Kurt Warner and the Cardinals received a whipping yesterday, from the New Orleans Saints whose quarterback, Drew Brees, is younger than me. Bleah.

Anyway, I’m hoping the Superbowl match up will be between Brett Favre & the Minnesota Vikings vs Peyton Manning & the Indianapolis Colts. It’s a long shot, because to get to the Superbowl the Vikings have to first beat the New Orleans Saints, and that’s a tough team. A tough team because they’re mentally tough, and aren’t afraid to come back from a deficit. It’s going to be a slugfest next week. And even if the Vikings do beat the Saints, they will (most likely) be up against the Colts, and those guys are even tougher.

Needless to say, my weekends for the next three weeks are going to be glued to the telly. Next week 24 Jan, four teams will slug it out for their respective football association’s championship. On 31 Jan, they’ll play the Pro-Bowl (AKA American Football All-Stars Game). Then on 7 Feb, it’ll be the battle royale known better as The Superbowl. Half time entertainment this year will be provided by the relatively less provocative The Who (whose claim to fame is the opening theme to CSI:Miami).

Can’t wait.

We went to Target today – we find ourselves there at least once a week – and as I headed past the eyedrops section I spied a petite twenty-something, maybe thirty-something Chinese lady helping a large built new age sixty-something Chinese man. I was about to past them when I noticed that the lady spoke to the man in Mandarin, and the man responded in Cantonese. But they weren’t really communicating – he was looking for something, and she was mostly saying she had difficulty understanding him. She looked up, saw us, and immediately asked, “Do you speak Cantonese?”

We stopped to help. The man sounded like one of those typical middle-managers or small business owners from Hong Kong. He was looking for eyedrops for an eye condition he had. He described what his symptoms were, and I relayed it to the lady (and I don’t know how she was roped in to help, since she obviously didn’t work there), she seemed pretty well informed, especially about eye drops, and she would try and offer suggestions, but he seemed to be looking for something specific.

The lady was mousey-looking, with glasses that covered half her face and a Mandarin accent that was crisp, but not first generation. I’ve met those types, that size, that face, that speech pattern, that accent, those sized glasses. Strangely the other two I know that fit that description are both students at Berkeley.

In the end, the bridge between the two Chinese languages turned out to be English, which was the weird bit. It was easier translating what the lady was trying to put across in Cantonese, than it was for me to translate everything the man said back into English. Mostly because he had a lot to say. Not about his eye condition. But about how the Americans do business, and how he can’t find anything. He merrily went ahead to tell KF in great detail how he could find it in Hong Kong, and what it was, and how he can’t seem to find the equivalent here, not knowing that KF only understood probably 40% of the content.

Anyway, in the end she suggested the lubricating eye drops (the stuff like tears), and after I relayed it and she saw that the dude found KF interesting, she beat a hasty retreat. After he finished his ditty to KF, the guy picked up the product the lady pointed to, thanked us profusely, and went on his way. I bet he’ll be trying his luck in Chinatown tomorrow.

And all I was left thinking on the way back was how wouldn’t have happened back at home. Mostly because of the Mandarin factor. And if that fails, there’s always Hokkien to fall back on.

It’s now 11:50pm, and the Halloween revelers are still well, howling outside. It’s another 3 muni stops to Castro, idiots!

Boo, humbug.

Oh, guess what it’s Halloween again. This year it’s on a weekend, with a full moon, wonderful weather and the stock markets on their way up from the doldrums. The only thing working against it this year is the Bay Bridge is still closed.

I guess Halloween is the angmo 7th Moon equivalent. The problem is I’m trained keep away from the candy (much less give it out) and not open the door to strangers. If I had kids I’d have issues too – going door to door getting free candy. Psycho alert!!! If there’s one thing I learnt from my time here, is that while I’ve issues, there are plenty others with plenty more here.

True I am used to celebrating other cultures, so starting right now we’re going out to celebrate – with probably a nice meal, some shopping and a movie. We’ll be home late so don’t ring the doorbell.

Raindrops on (not quite) roses, whiskers on kittens

The air has chilled and gone crisp, a stark contrast to the otherwise balmy weather we’ve had. It’s almost as if someone turned the A/C on again, suddenly.

It smells different. It smells of impending rain. It smells like this in December in Singapore. I love that, it meant Christmas and a lit-up Orchard Road, and days off, and the only time coffee ever smells inviting, and crowded malls.

Even when I’m 8,483 miles away, the sudden change in the weather triggers the same feeling. It’s actually very comforting, albeit a little premature this year.

Rain is a little different here than it is back at home. Rain here is usually a light affair, it sprinkles perhaps for the whole day, and is usually a forgettable affair.

Once in a while, it storms. That is what’s supposed to happen tomorrow. The remnants of Typhoon Melor that blasted through Japan a few weeks ago will pay California a visit, dumping snow on the Sierra Nevada and loads of rain everywhere else. Being from the tropics, storms don’t really faze us. We’re used to our tropical thunderstorms; we’ve probably even had to walk back from school through a few in our time.

Storms here mean something different. Bad traffic, really gusty winds going as fast as a car on a freeway, and my personal favourite – downed powerlines. I guess we’d never give it a second thought – blackouts hardly ever happen back home. The power comes back pretty quickly too. We don’t even see the power lines for goodness sakes! Over here, when it blacks out, it could be days before it’s restored, that’s if you live someplace rural. I don’t. But it’s also a little disturbing when you wake up in the morning and the tree you planted a few years ago on the sidewalk (that’s pavement where we come from) outside your home is now sprawled on the Prius parked in your driveway.

Don’t worry. I don’t have a big tree, and I don’t drive a Prius. I’m just painting sorta suburban picture of Lifestyles of the Green and Liberal.

Anyway. Long story short, it’s cold now. It’s going to storm tomorrow. I hope my power doesn’t go out, because I need my tv and my internet, but at least I am not worried about a tree falling over my car. Later, homies.

We finally made it to the beach yesterday. I thought I’d be beached-out too, having spent something like four weekends at either Sentosa or East Coast when I was back in Sunnypour for vacation, but the last few days were way too warm not to head to one of the local beaches here. So I searched up “San Francisco Beach” and found a Guide to the Best Beaches in San Francisco. Which is a bit of a misnomer, one of the beaches was in Marin, so that whittled my choices down to three.

We headed to China Beach. It was a really nice, hot, perfect for the beach day, so the beach was pretty crowded by the time we got there. Still, we found a great seat, and saw a few sealions swimming, pelicans diving for food, and various bugs and creatures scurrying around. Besides, there’s nothing like sitting in the sun, watching the tankers go by, with the Golden Gate Bridge as the backdrop.

China Beach: 428 Seacliff Drive, San Francisco, CA. It’s a nice drive through really swanky houses which hug the coast. Small 30+ car parking lot, and shower facilities (nice).

I had a rather active weekend. First, we set up the Wii after putting it away for a year. First we didn’t have a tv. Then after we set up the tv we didn’t get around to setting up the Wii. So anyway, almost four months after getting the Wii Fit we set it up.

Wee is unfit.

According to the genius that is Nintendo, my Fitness age is 13 years more than my actual age. Which is bad news. The Wii Fit is kind of like Brain Age for working out, and the games are pretty compelling for now. There is a Yoga module, a Strength training module, an Aerobics module (which is totally misleading) and a Balance module; like Brain Age, you get to unlock more poses as you progress and chalk up more time on the system. I’m not addicted. But I’m trying to chalk up at least 30 mins 4 days a week to start off.

Yesterday, KF took the day off, so we went for a hike. I’ve been bugging him to bring me hiking mostly because I’ve been checking up on the State Parks in California and they all sound like they’ll have picturesque landscapes and beautiful wildlife. Not exactly.

Not all of them have toilets. If they do, it’s literally a hole in the ground with a toilet bowl on top.

Landscapes might be stunning, but sometimes the odd phone or power line will ruin your picture.

You gotta watch out for crap – dog, cat and horse (at least I hope it was horse).

Other than that, it’s really nice to be in the great outdoors. The weather now is perfect for it, afternoons are a balmy 18C or so, with a little sunblock you’re good to go. There are plenty of nice parks along the coast, and the drive is fun in itself. Highway 1 is totally quaint. If you’re not in a hurry.

Anyway, I picked McNee Ranch State Park for our hike this time around because it was relatively close by, and seemed to offer a good mix of both coastal scenes and plantlife.
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It didn’t feel like the other state parks, mostly because we encountered some roadwork getting there. Usually it’s quiet around the state parks. This felt like a park in the city, because you can hear the traffic and see the homes in the distance on top of the hill. It took me forever to get up the hill because I kept stopping for photos. But that was the point of going for a hike, at least for me. 3.5 hours and 820 photos later, we left tired, hungry but glad to have made the trip.

I’d wanna go on another hike again, maybe over the weekend, but the other parks seem a little further away. If we get another couple of days off, I’d totally wanna head to Big Basin Redwoods State Park. It looks huge on the map, and it’s next to a few other parks.