An eventful couple of days…
I started the New Year with a house full of stuff, rooms which needed cleaning and bags that needed packing. By 1:30am on the 2nd, I had an empty, clean house and bags full of clothes and tea. At 3:30am I got up to go to Heathrow, where I met Amir and his wife, Kirsty, as planned.
Queuing to check-in, we were told that the flight had been overbooked, and would we consider being bumped in return for $1000 flight vouchers. We had nothing planned to do in SF, so we took the deal, ending up on a flight 20 minutes later, with a free upgrade to business class. Breakfast was champagne and lunch was filet mignon.
The stopover in Chicago was pretty uneventful, but the red carpet lounge was nice, with a subsidised bar…
Pat came to pick us up at San Francisco International to make the 10 minute drive to his place in the Mission district. The house is great – really nice old style to it, and full of gorgeous aged oak furniture which Pat seems to find in dumpsters.
After having some tea and a bite to eat, and saying hello to Emilie (his girlfriend) and Henley (his dog, named after the regatta), we headed out to walk round the block and have a couple of drinks in Jay’n'Bee, the local bar.
