Orange is not a colour, it's a state of mind

The Orange Sister sent me a photo today of her new puppy – so cute! And smaller than a Mac Book! Name to be confirmed but Stella is the fav so far. Can’t wait for a pat in a couple of weeks.

Yes it’s a big deal, only the 2nd or 3rd time in the 6 months we’ve been here and 1st time I’ve worn my rain boots. Still strange to be in winter in January. People outside the Crazy Offices commented on the boots.

Now then – what are we going to do with this bunch of leaves? Looks a bit like horse food.

Might be similar to silver beet but the leaves are much thicker. Wholefoods had a big pile of ‘healthy greens’ with this being listed at the top so we wanted to take a closer look – they had a recipe tied onto them so that made it easier, a rice, ham and collard greens concoction.  We looked up collard greens on Wikipedia (thankfully we were cooking them on the day before Wikipedia went down to protest SOPA … hopefully by the time you’re reading this it will still be there) for some more info about them after I said they smelled a bit like cabbage when I started cutting them and apparently ‘cabbage plant’ is a common term and indeed the leaves are very healthy – vitamin C, fiber etc.

So we followed the recipe to chop them up and put them in a pot with rice, ham and chicken stock.

Simmered away for 25 mins and ta daaaa – a hearty, risotto-type dish, tasted quite meaty and the greens didn’t have an overwhelming flavor, hard to explain but cauliflowerish. Not bad, but not sure if we’d have it again. Plus our gas elements are incredibly frustrating and don’t quite go low enough that everything didn’t boil dry and stick to the bottom of the pot.

We’ve got such a great little team in the San Francisco office now. After the 2 of us being in the office a while it’s great to have the other 4 guys all start around the same time so we can all feel part of the founding team here. We’ve now got a couple of specific customer-facing guys, events and our US MD. Nice having American accents in the office too. Hopefully we’ll look back on this photo in the not too distant future and marvel at how much we’ve grown.

We didn’t eat fish n chips much in New Zealand but lately The Mister has been feeling like some so decided to make them himself. We had to get some non-olive oil, he chose canola, and then figure out what the fish is here. The nice man in the supermarket picked some firm fish but none of the names are familiar to us. Well, there was halibut but we couldn’t remember if that’s the fish we remember from our childhood’s as being used by bait the last time either of our father’s fished!

I was fixated on keeping the place aired – I left The Mister to do the cooking but wasn’t so keen on the ‘huge pot of boiling oil’ but the recipe he had only need 1cm of oil so there wasn’t much splattering and nothing caught fire! I hurried some creamed spinach together and it was a delicious meal!

Went for a walk today over to Ritch Street – a couple of blocks from work – to try out another Blue Bottle place over there and to see the lunch options our colleagues had told us about. Centro serves Blue Bottle and it’s just a hole in the wall, next to it is Little Skillet which turns out to be a tiny take-away version of Framer Brown that we went to with Bev and Dan earlier in the week (yum, I had meat loaf and mashed sweet potato – my god the portions are huge) and near by on the same street is a small parking lot with a couple of different food trucks that visit each day (Indian and Mexican today) and a sandwich shop Darwin.

So quite an interesting little street!

Here’s the holes in the wall Centro and Little Skillet.

The coffee was great – nice Blue Bottle flavor but perhaps lacking the balls and glossiness of the actual Blue Bottle outlets. We sat on a loading dock across the road and had our coffee in the sun.

Stopped at Darwin and got a mozzarella and basil baguette to share for lunch. Made fresh in front of us – man it was good!

Centro, 330 Ritch Street, San Francisco, @centro330

I’ve decided to help Kara find her way around San Francisco – we’re always swapping public transport adventure stories but there are a few options here and the terminology is quite confusing. I don’t think I’ve got it quite right but if she knows what I’m talking about then at least we’re on the same page!

BART – the underground subway – price per distance, starting at $1.75, Clipper card allowed, scan at turnstile on station entry and exit, to get out, just wait for next station – all doors open automatically, sometimes you can hear garbled announcements about what the next stop is, otherwise study map and look out the window as the train pulls into the station.

MUNI – the above ground trains, that sometimes go underground, $2 flat fare, Clipper card allowed, scan at turnstile on station entry and exit, or above ground, scan on-board on entry only (front or back door), to get out press bell or pull chord – doors will open automatically at next stop, usually a red neon sign displays the name of the next stop.

Rattly trams – over ground central city tram – sometimes old sometimes newer and shiny – I think they’re officially known as street cars, $2 flat fare, Clipper card allowed, scan on entry, on-board (front or back door), to get out pull chord (sometimes press button) and step down into the stairwell to activate the back doors to open – don’t stand in there if the tram is crowded or the doors won’t close and you’ll be shouted at. If you’re lucky the tram driver is rather jolly and will loudly call out the name of the next stop – otherwise look out the window.

Tourist tram – goes up the big hills from Market Street with people hanging off the taking photos, $5, not a tourist so never been on it I imagine you just leap off in manner of an action film hero when you’re approaching your destination.

Bus – goes everywhere, some bendy, some regular, $2 flat fare, Clipper card allowed, scan on entry, on-board (front door only), to get out pull chord (or sometimes press button) and when bus arrives at the next stop, step down into the stairwell to activate the back doors – don’t try this at the traffic lights, you look like an idiot, if the bus is at a stop but the back doors aren’t open and someone yells “BACK DOOR” in the direction of the driver, roll your eyes and give them the ‘have-you-never-ridden-on-a-bus-before-my-vegetables-are-wilting-while-I-wait-for-you-to-figure-this-out’ glare and if no-one else beats you to it yell back “STEP DOWN” – it’s their first time. Sometimes doors open by pushing on the long vertical bar handles on the door – I suggest you sit where you can maintain eye contact with the back door at all times in order to familiarize yourself with the signs – like a big yellow one that might say “To exit bus, push door handle’ and to watch what other people getting off at stops along the way do.

Caltrain – goes out of town down to Silicon Valley – never ridden it, not sure of the cost, I *think* Clipper card is allowed as there were some card dispensers at the train station, not sure of the scanning rules, stopping rules or door rules.

Stepping out for work! Boots a third the height of Beckett’s but I think I’ve seen her in this shirt!

Tried to get a picture of the full moon over the bridge a couple of nights ago but it hasn’t worked very well. For all the fog and haze that hangs around the hills and bay here usually, the night sky here is just stunning at the moment. The hills over in Berkeley and Oakland are extremely clear and sharp and all the lights are very sparkly and reflective on the water. It’s a joy to come home to.

Went on another #5 bus adventure today! Our main reason was to visit the Matching Half coffee shop and then get back on the bus to travel further along to the other end of Golden Gate park with the idea of exploring that. I knew we were going to be fairly close to the ocean when we got to the other end of the park but when we got off the bus and we could see it just a block away we decided to go and have a look. Very blue and lots of people out and about on a very warm winter’s day.

We looked along the beach and saw some kind of look out up on the corner so ditched the idea of a walk in the park for a walk up to the top of the hill – by now I was excited that just around the corner was the Big Orange Bridge. It was a pretty spectacular view in both directions from the point but the bridge was further around. Lots of people were milling about taking photos on the next point we could see around in the direction of the bridge, so off we went.

Through forests, along paths, up and down hundreds of steps, around another point and ta da! There it was. Spectacular sight and no fog whatsoever thanks to winter. We’d gone quite a long way by then so rather than doubling back we turned up through a very flash neighborhood for a couple of blocks and joined onto another major bus route that took us back to town – hello #38! A nice 5 hour round trip!! We worked out the walk was about 2 miles (3.2 km).