The Fat Kiwi is blue.... and Chinatown contains strange things

Today we finished painting the last of the Fat Kiwi, just before the last cans of spraypaint ran out.

Here we are:




So now the doors are on, the door handles are on, and the doors and the rest of the cabin are painted. Happiness.

We also visited Chinatown this morning, so I could buy cherries (currently in seaon and the focus of some sort of frenzy every day at the grocery stores in Chinatown. At 59-89c per pound, compared to the usual price of $2-$4 per pound in the supermarkets, I guess I can see why). The shopkeeper at each store (usually an old lady) stands, unpeturbed, in the middle of the mass of hands grabbing at cherries, dealing out large handfuls into a bag for you. She will never let you pick your own; possibly to avoid all the old ladies "cherry-picking" the best ones only. I see them doing it. Or possibly just since I'm an intruder in this strange world, and apparently she thinks I don't know any better.



We visited lots of really interesting shops. I got yelled at by the shopkeepers in most of them for taking pictures of the live and not-so-live animals.... I am so glad I'm a vegetarian, it still makes me sad to see it all.



This was a very angry turtle. It had a strange pointed snout, webbed feet and large claws. It looked up at me both entreatingly and menacing as it tried to climb out of its bucket.



The fish on the far right, closest to the man's gloved hand, was just out of the water. It flapped around. People were choosing which one they wanted.





Brendan bought eggs at a small shop called "Neverending Quail" behind the fish shop. It mostly consisted of a whole lot of chickens and quail in cages in a small room, with a tiny area for the shopkeeper to stand in front to sell the eggs, and enough space for two people to stand in line. The room also included a very angry, quacking duck in a small cage.

The chickens looked curiously at me. The quail were unimpressed, mostly since I stuck a bright camera flash in their faces. Sorry, little quail.





I think these ones were Californian female quail.

As we were leaving, I found the frogs (and was severely yelled at, but not in English - maybe they thought I was from PETA):



Yesterday and today the North Beach Festival has been pumping out loud music and loud drunk boys, essentially a wine and food festival. Apparently it's the oldest street festival in the US, and includes pizza tossing.

I checked out the aftermath last night in North Beach, but there wasn't really much to see beside drunk yuppies, girls in tiny dresses and heels on a freezing cold day, and empty white tents along the street. The traffic was atrocious though, worse than Monday-morning levels! I walked home from North Beach rather than endure bumper-to-bumper traffic on the bus for the length of Chinatown.



Today we watched many people try to park in the too-small parking space in front of the Fat Kiwi. (We did tell them not to park there - we're not sadistic.) Yesterday Brendan saw two tickets and one tow happen on that spot!

San Francisco! We loves!

We've just this minute got back from San Francisco. I loved it, and so did Brendan. We could definitely live there. It's very glamorous. I can imagine being a San Francisco girl - living on one of the hills in a tiny turn of the century apartment, wearing very high wedge heels and a tiny skirt and walking my tiny glamorous dog. I guess it's a city made for small, elegant people.

I loved pretty much everything about it. The teeny, tiny boxy apartment houses, clustered so tightly, each one with ornate security gate and windows and other decorations. (An architecture student's wet dream.) The incredible views from most hills we drove up or down. The funny little cable cars - so old and clunky - decorated with Victorian advertisements for chocolate (1800's) and filled with tourists clinging on tightly and swinging from the back as they ground up steep hills. The bustle of Chinese New Year in Chinatown, with constant firecrackers - the first day of the New Year. (There are 15 days.) The sense of overwhelming scale as we drove in on the freeway/ motorway - I felt like there was too much to take in at once. How the shops in the financial district sold clothes which screamed, "Bankers!" The clothing... mmm.

Yes, I would love to live in San Francisco. I just don't know if we could afford the rents. US$1.25million for a studio apartment! It reminded us heaps of wellington - a dirtier, bigger, more vibrant Wellington.


One of the first things we saw when we arrived on Mission Street was a homeless man walking through the centre of the waiting cars on the street with a sign - "please give money for coffee". I thought you only found that in Wellington....

We also drove down Lombard Street - the world's (or is it just the US?) most crooked street. It was full of tourists taking pictures, and cars waiting all along a steep hill to drive down. A cable car stopped at the top so the tourists crammed into it (most barely hanging on with one hand) could use the other hand to take pictures. Driving down Lombard was quite odd - I felt as if we were a toy car being pushed back and forth by a toddler.

Our friend's mum drove us, which was great. Our friend lives with Stefan - she told us he wears special toe socks with one big toe shaped into them, so he can wear them with jandals. As much as I think this is a fashion crime and should be outlawed, I am informed by some people in New Zealand that this is considered acceptable. Ew. Reminds me of high school - roman sandals and knee-high socks were de rigeur at my college/high school for so long.

Anyway, our friend bought some bright green fluorescent ones to wear with her jandals/sandals, to tease Stefan with. People stared at her feet a LOT. It was funny to watch. She looked like Shrek. Proving it IS a heinous fashion crime. (You know who you are...)

Before we could grab lunch, we had to park! The joke is that you know you're a true Californian when finding a parking space brings tears to your eyes. This was true. We went around Chinatown for a long time trying to find a park so we could have lunch. Eventually we went to Fisherman's Wharf and parked there instead, and had lunch at Fisherman's. It was very touristy, and the smell of fish filled the air. Crabs sat packed on top of each other in a big glass aquarium next to where we ate, motionlessly awaiting their fates. I felt bad for them.

We wandered around the Piers for a while as well, feeling touristy (and buying socks). We also walked past the wax museum! I need to go! You can see the wax models of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt right there as you walk past.

Just as the sun was starting to set, we went and drove over the Golden Gate bridge - the sunset was amazing, looking over at the city - it was alight. I felt bad because our friend told a woman standing next to us taking pictures to move so we could have a photo with no-one else in it! The Golden Gate was very impressive, and the area was gorgeous. Alcatraz - the impenetrable fortress - we could have reached out and touched. It must have been so heart-wrenching for people imprisoned there - the city, and freedom, looks so close.

Lastly we wandered around Chinatown and found dinner. Firecrackers went off all the time - kids ran around stamping on little ones. It had a disturbingly high number of strip clubs in that area. Including a place called "Showgirls".

We really need to go back. There are so many things to do, you need to make many trips.