Newsletter - Xmas 200

This newsletter covers the summer of 2000.

It was released to an unsuspecting world on July 25th, 2000.

Hot Town, Summer in the city…

Well, here we are nearing the end of July – over 6 weeks since my last diatribe… doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun? This one’s turned out to be rather a long one, so feel free to skip read, chop into chapters, or just bin it. Alternatively, you could print it out and leave it by the bed for those nights when you’re finding it difficult to get to sleep…

Since this note goes out to a mostly British audience, I’ll start with the weather… we had some record breaking hot days in June, where even the downtown SF had temperatures in the high 90’s. This is very unusual, SF is usually cooled by breezes and fog coming in from the ocean –while just across the bay it can be 15-20 degrees hotter…but temperatures inland were well into 3 figures, so I suppose the basic idea still held true. Since then, July has been cooler than average (apparently), with temperatures sometimes dipping into the 60s. Can’t say we’ve been to worried.. it’s occasionally been overcast all day, but mostly we’re in the season of foggy mornings and evenings with clear blue skies in between. Overall, the weather is good (can’t remember the last time we saw rain) and it continues to amaze… the latest meteorological trick is high banks of fog rushing in from the Golden Gate in the early evening (and I mean rushing… I was travelling on business to New York last week, and eventually worked out what wasn’t quite right – I was slightly unnerved to see clouds travelling VEERRYYY SLLLOOWWLLLYYY across the sky. I’ve got used to the SF style of ‘sprinting’ clouds). Have also made a mental note to ensure I have a GPS fitted if we eventually get a boat out here – the fog banks travel much faster than any boat.

Lynne’s daughter Michele headed back to UK for the summer break in June, so Lynne and I are back to being ‘just a couple’ for a while. We took advantage of this by heading up to Mendocino for a short break last weekend. Mendocino is a very pretty village about 160 miles north of SF, on a spectacular part of the Pacific coast, nestled in amongst the redwood forests. Initially set up to help service the California gold rush in the middle of the 1800’s (I almost said ‘last century..!), has more recently turned into a sort of artist’s community. Well worth a visit, if ever you’re in the area. We stayed in a very smart clifftop ‘inn’ called the Heritage House, which was made famous by the play and film ‘Same Time Next Year’ (which coincidentally was shown on cable TV here just before we went.. Alan Alda and Ellen Burstyn doing great stuff). Each room in the Heritage House is an individual cabin, and they’re spread out over 37 acres of gardens and forest, with varying levels of view and luxurious accoutrements (one even has a piano…). Ours had a HUGE bed and large ‘tub’ (as the folks here say) with a private deck and magnificent view out over the ocean. And BTW, those redwoods are really BIG. I’d read about these, and even seen pictures… but nothing quite prepared me for the sheer size of the individual trees, not to mention the density and the actual expanse of the forests. We had a marvelous weekend being good little tourists by day, then returning to the hotel and pigging out in their excellent restaurant… we also had ‘brunch’ there out on the terrace… this place has a very sensible arrangement where brunch is served from 7:00am till 2:00pm, which suited us just fine.

Other recent excursions have included a trip to the theatre to see a play called ‘Fully Committed’ – this is a very good solo show set in the ‘behind the sceens’ bit of a very high class restaurant – the actor played the guy whose job is to answer the phones and take reservations, but in this case the actor does both sides of the conversation… it’s 90 minutes of non-stop mayhem, with over 30 individual characters and lots of running jokes and sub-plots. Very funny and amazing to watch… see it if you get chance.

On the music front, as well as the occasional visit to the odd blues club and free outdoor concerts (jazz and SF Symphony Orchestra) and the San Francisco Accordion Festival, we’ve been to see the Copper Family (touring Brit folk singers who have a loyal following over here), and also Don Henley (ex-Eagles front man now doing solo stuff – he did an interesting (?) reggae version of ‘Hotel California’). There’s too much going on here to take everything in… and lots of ‘reborn acts’ from the 70s out there touring. We’ve got tickets to see Sting and k.d.lang in August, but there’s also stuff like the Who, The Moody Blues, Kiss, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Jimmy Page, Ozzy Osbourne, Santana, Iron Maiden, B.B. King, etc etc etc. Lynne’s making contacts in the local Morris dancing scene (even contemplating doing a dance-out with the infamous White Rats, the local ‘experimental QPL Morris’ side… if you haven’t already heard about them, and don’t know what ‘QPL’ means then check out their web site at :

http://www.whiteratsmorris.org/

If you’re at all squeamish, avoid the section where it shows you how they attach their bells….

I’m also determined to do something musical too, I’m really missing the Stereotypical forays we used to do in the band back in UK… so I’ve been (very occasionally!) practicing folky stuff on the whistle… need to get some practice in on the bodhran (and maybe my bongos too) as well I think. Possibilities for an accordion/whistle/bodhran/bongo covers band perhaps?? Watch this space for further news on this front!

One of the highlights just before Michele’s return to UK was the Gay Pride parade… apologies to those of you who’ve already heard about this (just skip to the next bit), but it was worth mentioning….

It was the 30th annual Gay Pride parade here in SF, and I have to say that it was just.... well, outrageous. Brilliant stuff in brilliant sunshine under the huge pink triangle set up on Twin Peaks... We joined 750,000 others along Market Street to take it all in.

Started off with 'Dykes on Bikes' at 10:30 am (followed, incidentally by 'Mike on Bikes' - scantilly clad blokes pedalling pink trikes, and then 'Fags on scooters'... really). There were over 200 groups taking part in the procession, and it took over 4 hours to mince it's way past us..

Lots of really funny stuff and very daring costumes (or lack of them). As with every US parade, all political groups, national and ethnic groups and government departments seem to need to take part... so earlier in the year, at the St Patrick's day parade, we had the Irish police contingent, and the Irish Fire Dept contingent... this time we had gay representatives from all of these... Also heaps of giveaways.. Michele was avidly collecting strings of beads, sweets, stickers, handouts etc etc - until she got a bit embarrassed when she realised that the handful of things she'd just grabbed were condoms.

Some highlights (?):

A same-sex marriage (still illegal in California) being conducted on a float as it went along Market Street

the ROTC - NOT the straightlaced "Reserve Officer Training Corps", but the "Righteously Outrageous Twirling Corps" - a group of gay male cheerleaders in tight spandex

PAWS - "Pets are Wonderful Supporters" - featuring doggies etc in tutus

Best slogan - a placard saying "My karma just ran over your dogma"

Anything that mentioned San Francisco specifically

The post-mastectomy women who walked the length of Market St topless to raise awareness and money for breast cancer research

and surprisingly, the Police department float - the parade was 'gate-crashed' by a grungy anti-police group who inserted themselves into the flow immediately before the Police float.. the police let them continue, and they got a surprisingly cold reception, but when the following police bunch came through, they got load applause. (Mind you, this could have been cos the police motorcylists probably appealed, given their big macho bikes and tight leather gear..)

The Stolichnaya Mig-17 aerobatics team were there, flying low in close formation over Market St... and seemingly via their smoke trail putting an arrow through a heart shape previously drawn by a sky-writing plane.

The night before the parade, there was a "The Fence-Sitters Ball" for bi and "bi-curious" folks, but on the actual day we almost got to see a 'Fence-sitter's Ball' - towards the end of the procession, a very tall guy in amazing trashy drag (inluding tight ball-gown, fishnet stockings, 2-inch long eyelashes and Doc Martin boots – but he was carrying a pair of high-heeled strappy shoes) tried to get over the fence where we were standing to rejoin the parade. Without getting into details, let me just say that he obviously wasn't used to doing this sort of manouevre when in drag... he managed to get himself trapped straddling the fence, with both feet (& boots) firmly wedged between the fence rails... ). Michele and Lynne had to help extricate him, amid squeals (from him) and guffaws (from everybody else).

We wandered up to the Civic Centre afterwards where the post-parade party was happening... about 9 city blocks cordoned off and set out for partying.

It was a real hoot!

Michele returns to SF in August (together with Lynne’s other daughters Jennie & Claire who are out here for a few weeks on vacation). We’ve organised a week in Hawaii as a summer break for us all.. (yes, we’re all going to get lei’d..)

We’ve had a few more visitors and itinerants passing through SF (you all know who you are) since the last note – combinations of WhiteCross folks and old pals from Molesey or ex-colleagues from my Data General days. It’s a tough job keeping them all entertained, but someone has to do it…

On the WhiteCross front, we’re slowly dragging more Brits across to join us here in SF – so much so that we took it upon ourselves to re-write the Declaration of Independence to be slightly more in our favour, and pinned it to the door of our head Yank. (Have you ever read the original?? Turgid stuff, I have to say!). And if ever you’re in SF and walking down Market St, look up to the 14^th floor of number 388 and you’ll see a union jack in the window – that’s our office.

Anyway, we enjoyed the big firework display for ‘America’s birthday’ on July 4^th.. we watched it from the shoreline of Treasure Island… and actually we had a good view of 3 separate Independence day firework displays from there. We’re actually getting a bit bored by fireworks though, it seems there’s a display out here every few weeks… it’s pretty common for the big society weddings that happen out here on the island to have a good firework display, usually set off from a barge moored just offshore. And speaking of society weddings, Mick Jagger (and Jerry Hall) were on the island recently for the wedding of Mick’s daughter (his oldest, Karim Hunt whose mum is singer Marsha Hunt). We were hoping they’d have the reception on the island, cos we wanted to see who the band would be, but they all buggered off to a night club in town instead. We’ve been thinking about a more ‘Brit’ occasion where we could have an excuse for fireworks… Bonfire night seems to be the only one. So we’ve already been discussing appropriate food… bangers, of course, and a rocket salad perhaps. (Any other suggestions welcome!)

We’re continuing to try out new places for eats/drinks in the city and outskirts… our tally is heading up towards the 140 mark now….(all in the interests of research so we can be better hosts for our visitors, of course..). But we’re mourning the loss of one of our favourites, the Caribbean Zone. This has allegedly closed down for a re-furb, but I’m suspicious it may never open again….Actually I still can’t believe it ever got permission to open in the first place, being basically a tin shack below an underpass, with jungle foliage, 2 waterfalls and a crashed plane inside. (And I mean a REAL crashed plane… a 1940’s Martin 202 airliner, to be precise..).

Being close to Silicon Valley, some of the new web-based ideas tend to get tried out here first… for a long time we’ve had Webvan and www.opentable.com which is an on-line restaurant reservations system where you can enter stuff like type of cuisine, number of people in party, time, date etc and get a list of available restaurants to choose from and book on-line… now we have a neat new ‘table broker’ system that works a bit like booking a plane ticket (http://www.dinnerbroker.com/)… ie if you can book in advance, for less busy times you get a discount… it also works the other way too… if you really want a table at a given restaurant at short notice, for a surcharge they’ll get you in. Where will it all end??

Speaking of plane tickets, I’ve had some very frustrating journeys lately – been doing some trips to New York, and out of the 10 or 12 flights I’ve done recently, every one has been either significantly delayed or cancelled. I think they’re really trying to run the airlines here at 110% capacity, and any slight glitch causes massive problems. The ‘hub and spoke’ system used by most US airlines also means I end up changing flights is strange places (usually a very tight connection exacerbated by delayed incoming flight). I set a new ‘personal best’ last week running from Gate F7 to C11 at Chicago O’Hare… (those of you who have been there will grasp the full horror of this… ). It’s getting so bad the on United now the flight attendants do quizzes with prizes of a bottle of champagne to try and keep irate passengers diverted… (sample question for all you trivia freaks – name the 9 countries which begin with the letter ‘I’)…

And my other gripe about airports (“and another thing!!!…”) is the trend towards infra-red activated toilet facilities… all very safe and clean in theory, but very annoying when you’re using the toilet as a changing room, as any slight movement will trigger it… I must have flushed the loo over 20 times just changing into my jeans for the trip home last week. I think the attendant was getting worried…

On the home front, we’re continuing to get the house sorted out… but still need to get the garden organised. We have bought a hammock, a big Mexican-style one which can fit 3 people and is now installed across the patio. (So we now have somewhere to put any particularly noisy or smelly guests – be warned!).

Right, enough for now I think… sorry if it’s been boring… next time there should be more interesting stuff from Hawaii..

© Copyright Cooke-Shuttleworth Enterprises 2001


This newsletter covers the summer of 2000. It was released to an unsuspecting world on July 25th, 2000.		Hot Town, Summer in the city… Well, here we are nearing the end of July – over 6 weeks since my last diatribe… doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun? This one’s turned out to be rather a long one, so feel free to skip read, chop into chapters, or just bin it. Alternatively, you could print it out and leave it by the bed for those nights when you’re finding it difficult to get to sleep… Since this note goes out to a mostly British audience, I’ll start with the weather… we had some record breaking hot days in June, where even the downtown SF had temperatures in the high 90’s. This is very unusual, SF is usually cooled by breezes and fog coming in from the ocean –while just across the bay it can be 15-20 degrees hotter…but temperatures inland were well into 3 figures, so I suppose the basic idea still held true. Since then, July has been cooler than average (apparently), with temperatures sometimes dipping into the 60s. Can’t say we’ve been to worried.. it’s occasionally been overcast all day, but mostly we’re in the season of foggy mornings and evenings with clear blue skies in between. Overall, the weather is good (can’t remember the last time we saw rain) and it continues to amaze… the latest meteorological trick is high banks of fog rushing in from the Golden Gate in the early evening (and I mean rushing… I was travelling on business to New York last week, and eventually worked out what wasn’t quite right – I was slightly unnerved to see clouds travelling VEERRYYY SLLLOOWWLLLYYY across the sky. I’ve got used to the SF style of ‘sprinting’ clouds). Have also made a mental note to ensure I have a GPS fitted if we eventually get a boat out here – the fog banks travel much faster than any boat. Lynne’s daughter Michele headed back to UK for the summer break in June, so Lynne and I are back to being ‘just a couple’ for a while. We took advantage of this by heading up to Mendocino for a short break last weekend. Mendocino is a very pretty village about 160 miles north of SF, on a spectacular part of the Pacific coast, nestled in amongst the redwood forests. Initially set up to help service the California gold rush in the middle of the 1800’s (I almost said ‘last century..!), has more recently turned into a sort of artist’s community. Well worth a visit, if ever you’re in the area. We stayed in a very smart clifftop ‘inn’ called the Heritage House, which was made famous by the play and film ‘Same Time Next Year’ (which coincidentally was shown on cable TV here just before we went.. Alan Alda and Ellen Burstyn doing great stuff). Each room in the Heritage House is an individual cabin, and they’re spread out over 37 acres of gardens and forest, with varying levels of view and luxurious accoutrements (one even has a piano…). Ours had a HUGE bed and large ‘tub’ (as the folks here say) with a private deck and magnificent view out over the ocean. And BTW, those redwoods are really BIG. I’d read about these, and even seen pictures… but nothing quite prepared me for the sheer size of the individual trees, not to mention the density and the actual expanse of the forests. We had a marvelous weekend being good little tourists by day, then returning to the hotel and pigging out in their excellent restaurant… we also had ‘brunch’ there out on the terrace… this place has a very sensible arrangement where brunch is served from 7:00am till 2:00pm, which suited us just fine. Other recent excursions have included a trip to the theatre to see a play called ‘Fully Committed’ – this is a very good solo show set in the ‘behind the sceens’ bit of a very high class restaurant – the actor played the guy whose job is to answer the phones and take reservations, but in this case the actor does both sides of the conversation… it’s 90 minutes of non-stop mayhem, with over 30 individual characters and lots of running jokes and sub-plots. Very funny and amazing to watch… see it if you get chance. On the music front, as well as the occasional visit to the odd blues club and free outdoor concerts (jazz and SF Symphony Orchestra) and the San Francisco Accordion Festival, we’ve been to see the Copper Family (touring Brit folk singers who have a loyal following over here), and also Don Henley (ex-Eagles front man now doing solo stuff – he did an interesting (?) reggae version of ‘Hotel California’). There’s too much going on here to take everything in… and lots of ‘reborn acts’ from the 70s out there touring. We’ve got tickets to see Sting and k.d.lang in August, but there’s also stuff like the Who, The Moody Blues, Kiss, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Jimmy Page, Ozzy Osbourne, Santana, Iron Maiden, B.B. King, etc etc etc. Lynne’s making contacts in the local Morris dancing scene (even contemplating doing a dance-out with the infamous White Rats, the local ‘experimental QPL Morris’ side… if you haven’t already heard about them, and don’t know what ‘QPL’ means then check out their web site at : http://www.whiteratsmorris.org/ If you’re at all squeamish, avoid the section where it shows you how they attach their bells…. I’m also determined to do something musical too, I’m really missing the Stereotypical forays we used to do in the band back in UK… so I’ve been (very occasionally!) practicing folky stuff on the whistle… need to get some practice in on the bodhran (and maybe my bongos too) as well I think. Possibilities for an accordion/whistle/bodhran/bongo covers band perhaps?? Watch this space for further news on this front! One of the highlights just before Michele’s return to UK was the Gay Pride parade… apologies to those of you who’ve already heard about this (just skip to the next bit), but it was worth mentioning…. It was the 30th annual Gay Pride parade here in SF, and I have to say that it was just.... well, outrageous. Brilliant stuff in brilliant sunshine under the huge pink triangle set up on Twin Peaks... We joined 750,000 others along Market Street to take it all in. Started off with 'Dykes on Bikes' at 10:30 am (followed, incidentally by 'Mike on Bikes' - scantilly clad blokes pedalling pink trikes, and then 'Fags on scooters'... really). There were over 200 groups taking part in the procession, and it took over 4 hours to mince it's way past us.. Lots of really funny stuff and very daring costumes (or lack of them). As with every US parade, all political groups, national and ethnic groups and government departments seem to need to take part... so earlier in the year, at the St Patrick's day parade, we had the Irish police contingent, and the Irish Fire Dept contingent... this time we had gay representatives from all of these... Also heaps of giveaways.. Michele was avidly collecting strings of beads, sweets, stickers, handouts etc etc - until she got a bit embarrassed when she realised that the handful of things she'd just grabbed were condoms. Some highlights (?): A same-sex marriage (still illegal in California) being conducted on a float as it went along Market Street the ROTC - NOT the straightlaced "Reserve Officer Training Corps", but the "Righteously Outrageous Twirling Corps" - a group of gay male cheerleaders in tight spandex PAWS - "Pets are Wonderful Supporters" - featuring doggies etc in tutus Best slogan - a placard saying "My karma just ran over your dogma" Anything that mentioned San Francisco specifically The post-mastectomy women who walked the length of Market St topless to raise awareness and money for breast cancer research and surprisingly, the Police department float - the parade was 'gate-crashed' by a grungy anti-police group who inserted themselves into the flow immediately before the Police float.. the police let them continue, and they got a surprisingly cold reception, but when the following police bunch came through, they got load applause. (Mind you, this could have been cos the police motorcylists probably appealed, given their big macho bikes and tight leather gear..) The Stolichnaya Mig-17 aerobatics team were there, flying low in close formation over Market St... and seemingly via their smoke trail putting an arrow through a heart shape previously drawn by a sky-writing plane. The night before the parade, there was a "The Fence-Sitters Ball" for bi and "bi-curious" folks, but on the actual day we almost got to see a 'Fence-sitter's Ball' - towards the end of the procession, a very tall guy in amazing trashy drag (inluding tight ball-gown, fishnet stockings, 2-inch long eyelashes and Doc Martin boots – but he was carrying a pair of high-heeled strappy shoes) tried to get over the fence where we were standing to rejoin the parade. Without getting into details, let me just say that he obviously wasn't used to doing this sort of manouevre when in drag... he managed to get himself trapped straddling the fence, with both feet (& boots) firmly wedged between the fence rails... ). Michele and Lynne had to help extricate him, amid squeals (from him) and guffaws (from everybody else). We wandered up to the Civic Centre afterwards where the post-parade party was happening... about 9 city blocks cordoned off and set out for partying. It was a real hoot! Michele returns to SF in August (together with Lynne’s other daughters Jennie & Claire who are out here for a few weeks on vacation). We’ve organised a week in Hawaii as a summer break for us all.. (yes, we’re all going to get lei’d..) We’ve had a few more visitors and itinerants passing through SF (you all know who you are) since the last note – combinations of WhiteCross folks and old pals from Molesey or ex-colleagues from my Data General days. It’s a tough job keeping them all entertained, but someone has to do it… On the WhiteCross front, we’re slowly dragging more Brits across to join us here in SF – so much so that we took it upon ourselves to re-write the Declaration of Independence to be slightly more in our favour, and pinned it to the door of our head Yank. (Have you ever read the original?? Turgid stuff, I have to say!). And if ever you’re in SF and walking down Market St, look up to the 14^th floor of number 388 and you’ll see a union jack in the window – that’s our office. Anyway, we enjoyed the big firework display for ‘America’s birthday’ on July 4^th.. we watched it from the shoreline of Treasure Island… and actually we had a good view of 3 separate Independence day firework displays from there. We’re actually getting a bit bored by fireworks though, it seems there’s a display out here every few weeks… it’s pretty common for the big society weddings that happen out here on the island to have a good firework display, usually set off from a barge moored just offshore. And speaking of society weddings, Mick Jagger (and Jerry Hall) were on the island recently for the wedding of Mick’s daughter (his oldest, Karim Hunt whose mum is singer Marsha Hunt). We were hoping they’d have the reception on the island, cos we wanted to see who the band would be, but they all buggered off to a night club in town instead. We’ve been thinking about a more ‘Brit’ occasion where we could have an excuse for fireworks… Bonfire night seems to be the only one. So we’ve already been discussing appropriate food… bangers, of course, and a rocket salad perhaps. (Any other suggestions welcome!) We’re continuing to try out new places for eats/drinks in the city and outskirts… our tally is heading up towards the 140 mark now….(all in the interests of research so we can be better hosts for our visitors, of course..). But we’re mourning the loss of one of our favourites, the Caribbean Zone. This has allegedly closed down for a re-furb, but I’m suspicious it may never open again….Actually I still can’t believe it ever got permission to open in the first place, being basically a tin shack below an underpass, with jungle foliage, 2 waterfalls and a crashed plane inside. (And I mean a REAL crashed plane… a 1940’s Martin 202 airliner, to be precise..). Being close to Silicon Valley, some of the new web-based ideas tend to get tried out here first… for a long time we’ve had Webvan and www.opentable.com which is an on-line restaurant reservations system where you can enter stuff like type of cuisine, number of people in party, time, date etc and get a list of available restaurants to choose from and book on-line… now we have a neat new ‘table broker’ system that works a bit like booking a plane ticket (http://www.dinnerbroker.com/)… ie if you can book in advance, for less busy times you get a discount… it also works the other way too… if you really want a table at a given restaurant at short notice, for a surcharge they’ll get you in. Where will it all end?? Speaking of plane tickets, I’ve had some very frustrating journeys lately – been doing some trips to New York, and out of the 10 or 12 flights I’ve done recently, every one has been either significantly delayed or cancelled. I think they’re really trying to run the airlines here at 110% capacity, and any slight glitch causes massive problems. The ‘hub and spoke’ system used by most US airlines also means I end up changing flights is strange places (usually a very tight connection exacerbated by delayed incoming flight). I set a new ‘personal best’ last week running from Gate F7 to C11 at Chicago O’Hare… (those of you who have been there will grasp the full horror of this… ). It’s getting so bad the on United now the flight attendants do quizzes with prizes of a bottle of champagne to try and keep irate passengers diverted… (sample question for all you trivia freaks – name the 9 countries which begin with the letter ‘I’)… And my other gripe about airports (“and another thing!!!…”) is the trend towards infra-red activated toilet facilities… all very safe and clean in theory, but very annoying when you’re using the toilet as a changing room, as any slight movement will trigger it… I must have flushed the loo over 20 times just changing into my jeans for the trip home last week. I think the attendant was getting worried… On the home front, we’re continuing to get the house sorted out… but still need to get the garden organised. We have bought a hammock, a big Mexican-style one which can fit 3 people and is now installed across the patio. (So we now have somewhere to put any particularly noisy or smelly guests – be warned!). Right, enough for now I think… sorry if it’s been boring… next time there should be more interesting stuff from Hawaii.. © Copyright Cooke-Shuttleworth Enterprises 2001