Clairey does San Francisco - Day.... lost count

Photos will follow - panic ye not - Flickr have stopped me up loading photos - apparently have exceeded my limit - not sure what I think about that - turning down my beautiful photos.

This weekend was memorial weekend - which means one thing - HOLIDAY!!! Finally the germs that have been circulating in the office caught me and with it came the inevitable mild homesickness - a silly urge for some homespun sympathy - however fake. I ventured out once - having slept all day - to the apple shop - and now am the proud owner of one extremely smart mac book computer - no idea how the thing works but we'll get there and as lil bro Niall said  - the keys are actually sexual. have spent hours since then taking photos of myself in various warped lenses on my photo booth - with inbuilt webcam - (amaaaazing).

But strangely enough, in this strange old town - the apple shop was not the most eye catching thing I saw that day. Within 5 minutes of leaving my house - I walk into a swarming sea of cyclists - who have drawn the traffic to a halt - I must be becoming slightly blase to these random occurrences - it didn't strike me as odd until I had waited for 5000 slowly moving bikes to pass before I could cross over. Critical mass - apparently - raising awareness about cycling - once you have ridden in this town you begin to see their point slightly - my bottom is now in protest over the bumps and lumps and man hole cover filled roads .

So reach the safe, reliable environs of the Apple shop, everything clean and white and glass - I'm  almost comforted by its stable and consistent brand essence and aesthetic. then suddenly the momentary peace is shattered by a re-encarnation of shaun of the dead. 200 zombies march en masse into the apple shop, wiping their "blood" stained hands all over every clear surface they can find - shouting "brain,brain,brain" before lapping the upper floor and then leaving - completely undisturbed by security or store staff - "every 6 months the same" the forlorn store manager says as we raise a curious glance on leaving.This is a strange place indeed.

devilettes - derby bash

But the strangest prize must go to Roller Derby. How has news of this phenomenon not reached me in 27 years? Teams of fishnet touting girls on roler skates , most ceremoniously daubed in war paint before "bouts", give each other porn names, by which they are known for the rest of their lives - like some strange pagan baptism - go on to a roller rink and skate around in circles apparently trying to hurt each other! It's strictly girls only - and its sport rather than performing art - and it's for grown ups. This week I learnt about "Dirty Little Secret" from Iowa - that's "Dirty" to her friends - who is over 30 - and now beginning to wonder whether the horrific bruises that cover her legs from hip to knee are really worth it any more (WHHHAAATT!!???)  But what is most cool about roller derby is that it sort of inhabits a peripheral sub culture - where leather clad bikers and goth chicks meet for  burlesque strip dancing and sado-masochistic debauchery. it's wild.

Sunday I ventured as far as to gather a group together for an activity I wanted to do but needed friends for - and lo and behold they came! it was amazing and made me think how comparatively hard it would have been to do the exact same excursion in london with ones closest friends. The only issue was that the whole point of cycling to sausalito and around is to enjoy the beautiful weather and views over the bay. The fog was so thick that we could hardly see the road in front of our tyres and the wind was blowing so ferociously that at one point crossing the  Golden Gate bridge I thought it was going to take me with it

the brave team

the team

But we all soldiered on wondering what we were thinking and who's awful idea it had been. My cold now at full force - nose running wildly into my scarf and my pour lungs working over time to compensate for the snot. it. was. nice. We get to sausalito - it's fine - but boring and cold so we head on to tiburon. where we............got drunk again. it's all too predictable, i know, but the pink lemonade tasted good and was so well deserved..... and then the sun came out (as did my grade 3 sun burn again - this time around the t-shirt mark is making a kind appearance - that's class for you).... in short it was a great day spent at Sam's - a cool and trendy place to hang out and get poopfaced.

Ralphy at Sam's

if that wasn't enough - finished the day with Cocktails at the top of the Mark - that one is for you Daddy x