Welcome to Sanfrancisco.

13. 

23/03/2009

Pigorilla Power!

One of the ways that one can tell that San Francisco is a great city is from looking at the bow of the ship and marvelling at the flocks of shimmering flying fish dancing above the bow wave before ploughing into the water for a breath before shooting out to continue their merry dance, like some playful chimpanzees with a box full of tambourines. The fish seem to know when we are off to a port that every one anticipates with impatience. Luckily, unlike those before us, we don’t have to be too concerned about receiving a poison barbed arrow into our chests and have more the fear of the shops merchandising to rob us of our hard-earned monkey-nuts.

Another way of gauging a city is by seeing how far people will travel to see you in it. While desperately trying to flatter myself with the fact that Nancy is flying from Seattle to see me, my self importance does not extend far enough to accept the reality and as such have granted her some shopping time which will hopefully include trading in my old life at the Living Shop in Reincarnation Street.

Our first port of call will be very close to where the ship docks, Pier 39 it’s called, and is one of the best places to have breakfast. It will be absolutely wonderful to see Nancy so I am not too fussed about the breakfast, as long as I am eating it with her. I was rather hoping to get her on the ship, but what with all the security, I might as well have given them a picture of her wearing a burka with a visible belt full of explosives....what kind of a planet have we become? I would far rather be fending off pterodactyls with a sharp stick than an army of hidden suits that hide behind the veil of doing what they consider is the correct decision for everyone.

I read recently about those people that adapt to the way the world is being far more suited to it than those that try and adapt the world to suite them. However, it was noted that the latter group is where the world would be looking to for the changes it must undertake. I’m not sure of the changes that I’ll get in a position to consider, revise and complete, but I will go down kicking and screaming when my time is up, if I’m left with the same dysfunctional mess that I see now.

Having just finished a class with a fantastic human being who has truly embraced and lived life, there appears to be a bright side to life that beams into one’s eyes in a far more bright and compassionate way than the familiar, single, bright, train light tunnelling towards me. He is having lunch in San Fran with a friend’s daughter tomorrow who decorates houses that need to be sold so that they are easier to sell.....I explained that I knew someone who did something similar in South Africa.....wouldn’t it be nice if something positive came out of the last business I had (1) that I ended up giving away due to yet another failure of my ability to tell a serpent from a gecko.

The day here continues to radiate its brightness, but we are certainly heading into US winter and the brown, cracked, scaly crocodiles usually worshipping the pool are tucked away indoors. Interestingly, people are still concerning themselves with the compensation that P&O is paying for having missed a few ports and that great British past-time is now coming to the front in its usual form - The Petition. All the embittered passengers are demanding another cruise. By the time they’ve ruined this cruise for themselves they’re gonna need another one!

 I was doing residential corporate interiors in South Africa and ended up doing a deal when I returned to the UK with someone who appears to have totally forgot ever having met me, pocketed the cash from the first few deals and is now persona non grata with the main client aborting any chance of much more available additional business with them and embarrassing me in the process.