Went up to San Francisco yesterday. Quite a hassle to get there on public transport. First had to take the internal shuttle to the CalTrain station at Palo Alto, then transfer onto the CalTrain. I opted to get off at Millbrae, and then transfer over onto to BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) that would take me into the Financial District of the city. Another option would be to sit through the entire 30 mile journey from Palo Alto up into the city. 30 miles. Hmm, that would be as good as riding from Tuas to Changi Airport. Imagine having to commute that kind of distance to work everyday. Probably unthinkable in Singapore, but it's a reality elsewhere. Perhaps our Rapid Transit needs to be rapider... express-type trains. Limited stop services to zip people from one corner of the island to the other corner.
Back to my day. Got into the city, and got on the famous cable cars.. haha... up and down the city slopes. You definitely need a lot of practice to park on these slopes. Inclines of 10 to 20 degrees - common. Lombard Street inclined at 27 degrees had to be converted into a zig-zag street, because cars couldn't go up at all. Cable car ride down to Fisherman's Wharf. Really nice to see the bay shimmering, and the Golden Gate Bridge. Alcatraz in the distance. Had clam chowder in sourdough and fried calamari for lunch by one of the side stalls. Not really a big fan of sourdough, but whatever. It's native.
Sea lions were lounging around by the pier. About 30 of them , i guess. Lovely creatures. Ok, not so lovely when mating season comes around. Complete mayhem. Alpha male has a harem of females, which sub males try to steal from him. Some males take the chance and masquerade into the harem and rape the females. The females start bellowing, and the alpha comes charging. Babies get tossed around by frustrated males... chaos.
Animal behaviour as a sub-branch of zoology under the big umbrella of Biology. It's interesting. Eagerly awaiting my order from Amazon - a book by Joan Roughgarden... more animal behaviour stuff. USPS is late with my delivery.
Just baked a batch of cookies. Ok, cheated by using pre-made dough. But sprinkled cinnamon with the dough, so added a bit of a twist to the cookie. I'm not convinced i got them right. They are cooling down now.. maybe the cooling process hardens them up a bit. At the moment, they are a bit soft. We'll see.
Back to my day. Got into the city, and got on the famous cable cars.. haha... up and down the city slopes. You definitely need a lot of practice to park on these slopes. Inclines of 10 to 20 degrees - common. Lombard Street inclined at 27 degrees had to be converted into a zig-zag street, because cars couldn't go up at all. Cable car ride down to Fisherman's Wharf. Really nice to see the bay shimmering, and the Golden Gate Bridge. Alcatraz in the distance. Had clam chowder in sourdough and fried calamari for lunch by one of the side stalls. Not really a big fan of sourdough, but whatever. It's native.
Sea lions were lounging around by the pier. About 30 of them , i guess. Lovely creatures. Ok, not so lovely when mating season comes around. Complete mayhem. Alpha male has a harem of females, which sub males try to steal from him. Some males take the chance and masquerade into the harem and rape the females. The females start bellowing, and the alpha comes charging. Babies get tossed around by frustrated males... chaos.
Animal behaviour as a sub-branch of zoology under the big umbrella of Biology. It's interesting. Eagerly awaiting my order from Amazon - a book by Joan Roughgarden... more animal behaviour stuff. USPS is late with my delivery.
Just baked a batch of cookies. Ok, cheated by using pre-made dough. But sprinkled cinnamon with the dough, so added a bit of a twist to the cookie. I'm not convinced i got them right. They are cooling down now.. maybe the cooling process hardens them up a bit. At the moment, they are a bit soft. We'll see.
posted by Monty Elm at 3:44 am
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