So this evening after a fine meal at Boulevard we were pleasantly surprised to find ourselves hailing a rather more staid black London cab. Unfortunately I’d forgotten just how hard the suspension is on a London taxi (well, British cars in general really) and tonight I had a firm reminder. The journey proved that you don’t need a hell-for-leather driver to get a rollercoaster ride.

If you feel the desire to find out for yourself with the bonus combination of gnarly San Francisco roads then go out, drink some beers and catch yourself a ride home with Luxor Cabs. Make sure your journey takes you through the Bullit parts of town and hold on tight.

The Muni journey was put to good use with an informative pocast from Sparkletack. This concise Coit Tower hstory lesson saw us as far as the turntable at Powell where we hopped directly onto the cable-car and trundled to Washington Square.

Having spent a chunk of the morning at the gym and not wanting to expend any more effort on using our legs, we had planned to take the bus to the Tower itself at this stage, except this was the point where things went a little pear-shaped.

After a twenty minute wait we began to wonder if we were standing in the right spot after all and as we crossed the road to investigate the alternative bus-stop we watched our bus pass through out of reach on the original side of the road.

Unable to spare another twenty minutes we decided to put our laziness to one side and walk. This was a good decision as the steep walk to the tower itself affords some fine views and as it turned out not was too much effort after all.

Once at the tower paid our $7.50 access and took the short and rattly elevator ride to the top. The wind was blowing a gale (as I imagine it must do a lot up there) but thanks to the glass which now covers the ‘windows’ it didn’t bother us. If you are in town hitting the tourist points then the Coit Tower may not have a revolving restaurant up top but the views are still the best in town.

With the snow covered mountains of Lake Tahoe a distant memory, it was with much enthusiasm that I donned my Glenn Plake T-shirt and caught a sequence of trains and buses to arrive at the Fillmore & Lombard stop.

It didn’t take much to work out which way to walk from there, just head for the hills. An impressive and somewhat surreal sight of a snowy street greeted me as I looked up along Fillmore.

Possibly even more surreal than the last out-of -place ski-slope I witnessed at London’s Covent Garden a few years back.

Despite being early afternoon on a workday, there was a strong and up-for-it crowd lining the ski-slope.

What with the sun being fairly vicious I would have preferred to have made my way up the shadowy side of the road, however in order to make any progress at all I was forced to brave the hot side sans-sunscreen.

A mixture of snowboarders and skiers were wooing the audience with the thrills and spills of a sizable jump, and with each drop-in the crowd built the atmosphere up to a crescendo of stomping feet.
Despite the impossibly slow moving sidewalk areas I was able to catch a good view of the proceedings from several angles.

There was a strong presence from the SF Fire Dept. who were presumably there to put out smoldering backsides of those skiers who slid butt-first along the bristly run-offs of astro-turf in true comedy style.

As for the results - I didn’t hang around to find out. But as for a successful event I think it was worth the wait and hopefully the locals enjoyed it enough to allow a 31st birthday party next year without too much fuss.

It was waaay too early to worry about such things and so nothing more was thought about this until the evening as we clicked off the TV having watched Shaun of the Dead in the relative security of the indoors.

Meanwhile outside lurked that opossum. Too late! As we stepped outside to investigate, the reanimated creature lurched towards us with a menacing snarl and bared teeth before we clouted it over the head (as you’re s’posed to do) and dispatched the wretched creature into the garbage just in time for the morning’s collection.

(No opossums were harmed in the making of this post)

So the price of fuel is now hovering above the $3/gallon mark pretty much all over the USA.

Perhaps that will coax more people into something a tad more practical than the usual SUV. But just what is the cutting edge alternative for the San Franciscan?

Well for starters how about following the lead of the Sausalito police who appear to be getting themsleves around in tiny city cars these days. Silmilar to the highy competent Mercedes-Swatch ‘Smart car’ which is proving very popular in Europe, not just in the city and but also rural areas.

Another option is to jump into an elecric tour buggy, although we may see more embarressing moments such as the one I witnessed down on Market Street the other day where the unfortunate driver and passenger were caught stranded as a street-car bore down on them.

They eventually had to get out and push. Not ideal. Or perhaps they were just attempting a recharge from the electric tram cables…

By a Good Curry I actually mean an Indian curry as made back home in England. During my nine months in the USA I’ve been somewhat disappointed by the narrow choice offered in Indian restaurants and surprised more than once by the unexpected flavours in what I’ve ordered. It is of course simply a case of what you’re used to, and as I understand it, English curries are far removed from anything found in, say, India. Here in the States there seems to be a greater balance of cuisines, whereas back home, Indian food reigns supreme. The reason? The pubs kick everyone out at 11:30pm which is exactly where the Indian restaurants find their niche market.

However, things are looking up. Having recently spent time in Inner Sunset, I must make a recommendation for ‘the closest yet to those dishes I miss back home’.

Walk down 9th between Judah & Irving to Tasty Curry and hand over a fistful of dollars in exchange for a chicken tikka masala. While you’re at it ask them to throw in a sweet naan. You could of course start eating at this point, but I suggest you walk back out onto the street and along Irving where for a few dollars more you can purchase the rest of your meal (rice, plain naan and spicy popadums) at Naan & Curry. Nice.