1.30 January 3rd , Fort Worth and it's 75 degrees

I guess I have to start with Happy New year though quite a few of you are making me feel guilty for starting with such a cliche. I was beginning to feel rude having not bored you for a couple of months. And I may now have seriously tee'd you off with such a nice temperature (yesterday got to 77 today will be 80). Does it help entice you back if I say thanks for supporting me and reading the blog over the last 18 months.

For me 2008 seemed to come to an end in a bit of a rush. I had a great Xmas back in England and the brightness of the weather was great. I have had a lovely cosy time with Riona and it has been good to see family and friends.

P and I have not done huge amounts of travelling over last 8 weeks (except of course to England). My trips to exotic Scarborough and Cardiff are worth a mention and not just for the mulled wine in the pub to which Roisin takes me and the Whackers' cod and chips complete with two slices of bread and a pot of tea kindly donated by Mr Mark Billam Esq. expert on the dietary shortcomings of the US population.

Here's a few pictures I didn't put up in 2008 as I found the snoring with some of my longer entries was discombobulating that long piece of string that connects us across the Atlantic and was in danger of severing it permanently.

So here goes:

A distorted Empire State Building



More hidden artistry in New York you have to look up to



Wimbledon's Colonial Cousin




A Texan sunset



Muriel in Brighton beach (Little Russia by the Sea)



And Philadelphia



Pools of light, Shenandoah



Flutterby, Shenandoah



A Japanese backwater of Williamsburg



Another example of the copious fungi of Shenandoah



Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah/Virginia



Sharman before the snake...., Shenandoah



Do my feet reveal
a) a floor tiler's smutty joke (or my smutty mind),
b) enhance a piece of erotica
c) (if you believe a as well) prove it is possible to slip one past the God Fearin' Texan grand inquisitor of imagery, literature and the performing arts.



Well Ar say boyyyyy if Ar didn't know better this is the biggest, Ar mean THE BIGGEST chicken coop full of..... THE noisiest bunch of barrel chested gun toting roosters in modern politics (Texas State Building, Austin, Texas).



Sometimes it is the little things....Hinges in the Texas State Capitol building...



Flying into San Francisco



Muriel in the Medical quarters of the USS Lexington, Corpus Christi



Door handle, Texas State Building



An artiste off to work at Venice beach



The small car that never caught on in Texas



Always makes me think in gentle moments of Mrs Doubtfire, in angry moments of Clint Eastwood



Carmel Beach, Japan (just kidding)



San Francisco Fancy Dress Shop



Stage left - the feet of the Honorary member of same group....



Sunset over Yosemite







Hydro-electric power station - Niagara



Pretty flora - Adirondacks



Wintry Laburnum Avenue, Hull





Brecon Beacons - December







My mate - P.



And a giant (albeit Hershey) Kiss to you all for 2009

If you're going to San Francisco be sure to take a camera everywhere

For the number of folk to whom I have waxed lyrical about our trip to San Francisco I have been pretty tardy about putting up this blog. Sorry. This has in part been due to the fact that we came back absolutely shattered and because we took that many pictures and had that much fun that it is difficult to know what to tell you about without potentially boring you rigid.
We resided at the Monarch Hotel, Geary St. It is a European style hotel which has recently been refurbished. P may not have booked it if he had seen the neighbourhood first, it was truly difficult resisting the adult entertainment centre opposite especially when it was just $7 an hour to watch the lap dancers from your own private room. Not to mention our other Mecca to adult pleasures.


I did consult some friends as to whether I should put this photo up and for those of you disapproving I obviously asked the ones with bad taste. Other than the area the hotel was clean but there was no coffee in the room and the breakfast is additional.
Close by there was an Edinburgh Castle pub but trust me, not even the lad from Fife Mr Hynd would venture in there, the password was a grunt, plus a flash of your scar and gold teeth.
SF is fresh, cool and still v hippy but with an intelligent speed so there is not a huge amount of jesting material, occasionally we found our own….
The second one I thought was a new branch of the Yorkshire Bank..



There are great views at every turn. Central SF from Russian Hill, view from the top of Coit Tower (Russian Hill) which was followed by another hair-raising ride down Telegraph Hill, Phil in Alamo Square with the Victorian painted ladies and SF city view in the background, Bay Bridge and Pier 29.







Here I got a sudden rush of work sickness so got a photograph which I may use as a screensaver to remind me of all my work colleagues. The publicity says that you are extremely noisy (understatement of the year) and smelly (possibly after conferences).

The highlights were…Cycling over Golden Gate Bridge to…..



Sausalito, which is Italian Alps in flavour

And Tiberon where Sharon Stone apparently has a property, the rest of the residents looked that old they would make great props at US Halloween party…It was like Toy Town or Camberwick Green…not a spot of muck on the Fire Engine or Patrol just shiny shiny bells and paintwork.

You then catch the ferry back having cycled lots of kilometres and the view of SF is spectacular.

We cycled the bridge twice, second time in an attempt to get to Muir Woods..We stopped two thirds of the way up the photo is halfway looking out over the valley (has to be said said in Welsh accent). We freewheeled all the way back down and I didn’t realize just how high we had climbed despite what my legs and lungs had been telling me for the previous hour. It was exhilarating especially as being barmy English we didn’t wear hats. By the way I cannot exthol enough the benefits of a wide, gel seat.

We did culture too, going to the DeYoung Museum of Art in Golden Gate which has a top floor 360 degree viewing lobby which is just spectacular. I also tried to get with the artistic flow.





Then we went sporty and played a round of pitch and putt. It had been 30 years since I had wielded a golf stick. Last time was Sewerby Park near Bridlington, with my dear old dad who managed to slice a ball into the flamingo compound of the children’s zoo. I also followed him in true style hitting a branch of a tree 8ft above the point I struck the ball. Raargh I was as awesome as Tiger Woods and as effective as “Frosties” Tony the Tiger…It was the only branch on that side of the tree….accuracy was all. The best bit was watching everybody duck as the ball went into free fall pin ball machine mode between club, branch, tree and floor. I must have hit the ball hard as even Phil ducked and he was 50 yards ahead on the other side of the freeway doing a David Bellamy impersonation.
And so to the Trolley buses, they are wonderful to ride and the trolley men are as sarky as any New York taxi driver.


The other great tourist attraction was Alcatraz.. I picked the evening tour on our last night so we would see it partly in daylight and then once inside dusk would be coming in. What a sense of hopelessness there must have been for many men.




And apart from our burgeoning property acquisition business,




I momentarily considered branching out into this profession, then remembered all the POOH
and was worried I might have to deal with owners who prefer their pedigree to go about in luxury only.

Laugh we nearly crashed our bikes …xx