Travel to Pacifica, CA was the main activity this week. Spring has sprung there already.
Diana flew out on Tuesday to help her Mum with cataract surgery on Wednesday. All went well and recovery seems to be on track. Although I was alone for Valentine’s day, I did get a nice sign and bowl of treats. Clorinda had “Pacifica Penguin” waiting as my Saint Valentine gift.
I joined McD in Pacifica on Friday afternoon and we had a very enjoyable dinner with Clorinda’s new neighbours (Andy and Jude) on Friday evening. They live about 50 yards up Gypsy Hill from D’s Mum and their house has been beautifully remodeled with huge windows and views of the ocean. The sunsets are amazing. Andy and Jude first moved to California from England in 1989 and opened a record store in the Haight Ashbury district of San Francisco. They are a very interesting and kind couple and have been great neighbours for Clorinda in the short time they’ve been there.
We met Finn in Los Gatos for Saturday lunch at a relatively new restaurant called Bywater. It’s owned by David Kinch who has the 3 Michelin star restaurant, Manresa, in downtown Los Gatos. He loves New Orleans and wanted to open a small, casual restaurant serving the local food. Bywater is a gentrifying but still pretty funky neighborhood of New Orleans that does have some great restaurants. I caught up with Finn over a yummy brunch and D sat at the bar and caught up with her friend Aimee who also lives in Los Gatos. It was nice to see Finn free of back pain and feeling positive.
The interesting painting on the Bywater wall, “Society of St Anne Meeting Spot”, refers to a New Orleans marching krewe that parades each Mardi Gras. Known for the very elaborate costumes of its members, the group gathers in the Bywater each Mardi Gras morning, with the Storyville Stompers brass band providing the music. As they pass through the Faubourg Marigny and French Quarter, additional costumed marchers join the parade at various coffee shops and bars along the route. The marchers continue to Canal Street to watch the Rex Parade and then return into the French Quarter. Of course it made us think of our own favourite Anne from New Orleans.
After lunch we played bocce ball at Campo di Bocce across the street (a very Italian spot). This was a lot of fun. McD and Finn weren’t much of a match for Aimee and me and of course we were very gracious in victory.
The eating continued with a three course dinner at Kris and Cat’s home. As usual, Cat provided several very entertaining stories – one from his childhood with a flaming Christmas tree being thrown out into a busy street below and another involving driving his new race car to get smog tested. Dessert was advertised as pear flambee but the rum refused to catch fire – even when subjected to a welding torch. We always come away with some great memories from a visit to their home.
Will and Christine were our lunch companions on Sunday. We let Will pick the spot and he came up with NOLA in Palo Alto – unknowingly keeping the New Orleans theme going. Lunch was great and then we made a visit to see the new apartment fully decorated and looking very cozy. It’s great to see them so happy with a very nice place to call home and a much shorter commute for Will.
Not too much progress on my Turkish book this week and I did start a new book for light relief between Turkish lessons – “Uncommon People, The Rise and Fall of the Rock Stars” by David Hepworth. Each chapter focuses on the rise or fall of a particular rock star in each year from 1955 to 1995. I very much enjoy Hepworth’s writing style and interesting stories. Here’s one about Ringo Starr joining the Beatles in 1962 – “The strongest influence on his upbringing was his grandmother, a woman of nineteenth-century superstitions. One was the belief that any child unfortunate enough to be born left-handed must be trained out of the habit. She set herself the job of making sure young Richard wrote right-handed. He subsequently played a right-handed drum kit with the inclinations of a left-hander. It’s Ringo’s grandmother we have to thank for the characteristic lacunae that made so many of the Beatles’ drum parts impossible for other drummers to play.” Diana’s Dad was similarly forced to write right-handed but performed surgery left-handed. David Hepworth was the host on the British music program “The Old Grey Whistle Test” which I enjoyed very much – check out some of the episodes on Youtube – some great performances.
Not too much time for new music discovery this week but I did hear this great song from my favourite Govt Mule album, Dose.