Trip to Town

Fall is here and there are some fall colors in California but nothing like what I recall to be the fall colors of Vancouver. Still it is pretty in many places. San Ramon has many parks and the area has a lot of trees, albeit fairly short ones with smaller crowns compared to what we have in Singapore. But the mix of green, red, orange and yellow is something you will never find in Singapore. The hills are still brown but the first rains are here and I expect the hills will turn green soon. Today is a rather cool day. The weatherman is predicting rain towards morning. Ryan's golf school called to say check with them before coming in case the class is postponed because of rain. You can already feel the chill in the air. I had to climb out of bed at 4:30am early this morning to turn on the central heating because the cold was getting to me.

Tomorrow we plan to go to Chinatown in Frisco after the golf class. This will be our first trip to town since we arrived over two months ago. We need to get spices, herbs and stuff to cook. Although you can find Asian foodstuff here and there like at Ranch 99 in Fremont, the choices are limited. I generally don't like to go into town because SF is so hard to drive around and park in. The roads are narrow and confusing and most times there is no left turn so for people like me who don't know the city that well, it becomes quite a navigation nightmare. Still for nightlife, great food and Asian groceries, you don't get the variety elsewhere in the Bay Area. I cannot even begin to count how many times I have been lost cruising up and down the narrow and crowded streets of San Francisco over the past 13 years. And the parking is such a challenge and so expensive.

Then in the evening, we go to my friend's birthday party. My friend and his partner, Dan, live in San Francisco and he invited me to his 50th bd bash months ago. The last time I was invited to his house was 3 years ago almost to the month when he asked a group of close friends over for a crab dinner. It was my first experience with the gay fraternity and truth be told, I found it very interesting. They were really very intellectual, all well read professionals, funny and unanimously anti-Bush. The introvert that I am, I was very nervous and uncomfortable at first and almost wanted to bail out of the dinner. In the end I was glad I went. It gave me a new experience and showed me the side of San Francisco that someone like me only sees on the big screen.

I cannot wait to see how the one and a half men will enjoy their first brush with what San Francisco is also famous for. I think it will be fun.