the house wraps itself around us, i cannot take this place in, i wander around looking at the views from different angles, the floors are simple, untreated wood, spaced around two inches apart with an infill of cement, the inside walls are rendered in a rough plaster and either painted white or left in the natural finish, the windows are huge allowing light to flood in and views over the ocean  and mountains, i do a little digging on the 'net and discover the house was designed by a famous californian designer, ron mann and his wife ivy rosequist, [they later designed the famous cannery in san francisco], i go out to look at the chickens in the yard and notice the st.christopher nailed to a piece of wood by the gate, the gate is set in a seven foot high wall which gives you no clue as to what lies behind it, this really is a special place, its full of fantastic books and art, but, above all that, is the energy, i try to capture this in my photo's but nothing can do it justice.

so, as we are making the approach into san francisco international airport i glance to my right to get my bearings and see a virgin america plane  pretty close to us, that close i can see pilots in the other plane, i know it's close when the stewardess sitting behind us goes 'shiiiitttttttt', our plane takes a steep turn to the left and starts to climb again, the captain comes on the p.a. and announces that we are 'a little close to the other plane for comfort so we are going to approach again', 11 hour flight, usual scrum through immigration, baggage claim and alamo car hire and we make the half hour drive to our holiday rental at montara beach, the place is stunning, meet the owners, william and christine who show us around before leaving us with two bottles of local champagne and a basket of free-range eggs from their own chickens who have a coop in the backyard, we shower and make the short journey to half moon bay to pick up provisions for our evening meal and breakfast, been awake over twenty four hours now so sleep soon descends, i wake at 4.30am, trish is already up and we sit drinking tea, victims of the dreaded jet-lag, we go back to bed but i'm awake again at 0600 hours, tea and camera in hand i sit on the cliff top watching the pacific break on the rocks below.

i'm taking a couple of weeks off, mr's b, jack, jess and me are off to the states for a holiday, we fly out to san francisco tomorrow, taking my computer with me but if i don't post i hope you understand, laters all.

monday night, out on the sporty, it's getting cold, my fingers soon numb off with the combination of temperature and the vibration, i stop after 60 miles to warm my hands on the cylinder heads, the roads are great, very little traffic and dry, this is the best time to ride these roads, as i sit on the bike to take the photo's i'm struck by the simplicity of the sporty instruments, big speedo, no tacho or temperature gauges, couple of simple warning lights for neutral, high beam, oil pressure and indicators, the high level supertrapp is hot against the inside of my right thigh, i can smell the warm oil drifting up from the shorty s+s bellmouth, this is motorcycling at it's most basic form and i love it, i stop in matlock for a coffee, it's dark now but i sit at one of the pavement cafe's to drink my beverage, some of the famous illuminations are lit and i think about visiting here with my mum and dad when i was a kid, dark october and november nights, cold and crisp, watching the boats on the river derwent and marvelling at the lights, bag of chips and asleep in the back of the car on the way home, different times from a long time ago, imagine telling a child today that you were taking them to see thousands and thousands of 60 watt lightbulbs in the shape of cartoon characters, santa and snow white and the seven dwarves, they would say 'no thank's, i'll stop on the wii, playstation, x-box thanks', i finish my coffee and head home.

kent, early nineties, my bmw cutdown, me looking like judge jules with yellow shades, we had been up all night in the rave tent, dancing with the hells angels, more continentals there than brit's, we had travelled further than most of them and they had to come over the channel, great day's, 'you have the fire?'.......

converse, been wearing them for 35 years, i still get the same buzz buying them today as i did all those years ago, this is a pair of 'sailor jerry's', got these in florida, possibly five-six years ago.