loveliness.

Category: San Francisco

• san francisco

  Posted at 8:55 am by jasminedesirees, on September 1, 2015

  I recently spent a couple of weeks back in the Bay area, working out of our San Francisco office, and I was reminded of how much I love that city, especially because the weather was amazing, and all I wanted to do was be outside.

  That got me thinking about other times I’ve been there, and things that have happened, so here, in no particular order, are the most memorable things that have happened to me in SF.

  -The time I walked around a corner to see a chubby, bearded man standing in front of me wearing nothing but a fuzzy purple vest (it was Bay to Breakers.)

  -The time I was walking down market and a random man tried to spit on my sister and I, and then a big group of large scary looking men standing nearby offered to kill him for us.

  -The time I was walking down a busy street and a man was standing off to the side, masturbating.

  -When I first started working in the city and I was lonely and friendless and would walk from 2nd street all the way to Haight because there was this little store that had the best Gingersnap cookies. I would get one and wander through the thrift stores looking at old jewellery.

  -The time I was walking down the street on a cold, rainy day, and a random man stopped and gave me his umbrella.

  -That time we did a Halloween bar crawl in North Beach dressed as a peacock, a parrot, a hippy, a pirate, a banana and Psy from Gangnam Style.

  -That time I was walking to AsiaSF and came around a corner to find the coolest building ever, covered in graffiti with furniture hanging out the windows.

  – The Avon Walk for Breast Cancer I did with my mom and sisters. The route took us all over the city and across the Golden Gate up into Marin county. Definitely the best way to see the Bay.

  Apparently I spend all my time walking around when I’m in the city, and I’m OK with that.

  Posted in California, San Francisco, travel, USA | 0 Comments | Tagged bay area, San Francisco, travel

• bay

  Posted at 5:59 pm by jasminedesirees, on August 29, 2014

  As much as I’m loving life in Australia, this video is making me a teeeensy bit homesick for the bay. I’ve been lucky enough to live in some pretty cool places.
  Posted in California, San Francisco, travel, USA | 0 Comments | Tagged bay area, California, San Francisco, travel, video

• iron horse

  Posted at 9:58 am by jasminedesirees, on June 4, 2014

  My aunt was in Sonoma a few weeks ago for a class, so we met up with her for the afternoon. We went for lunch in Sebastapol, then headed out for some wine tasting.

  We just randomly picked a vineyard, and drove out through wine country, down a deserted, twisty gravel road. I figured it was either going to be completely gorgeous, or we’d be murdered by brigands.

  Luckily there wasn’t a brigand in sight, and I am still alive to post this.

  
  
  

  They specialized in sparkling wines, which are my favourite, but they also had a chardonnay flight and a red wine flight, so we got all three so we could try all of them. Our taste pourer was lots of fun and she kept “losing count” so we actually got tons of samples and were quite drunk by the end.

  She also mentioned that she gets to bring home any unfinished bottles at the end of the day. We went wine tasting in Livermore last summer, and the pourer there was a retired man who loved wine so much that he volunteered his time, and was paid in cases of wine. I think he was really on to something, and that is definitely a life goal for my later years.

  
  
  

  After our tasting we headed into Santa Rosa to check out the Russian River Brewing Company, a very popular spot that brews its own beer, to do some beer tasting (the boy is a good sport, but wine isn’t really his thing) but unfortunately the line was stretched around the block to get a table.

  We were just about to head home, when we spotted an adorable little mexican restaurant just down the street, so we stopped in for some tequila tasting and tapas instead.

  
  
  

  It was a lovely day, I’m always so excited when anyone from home comes to visit, because it doesn’t happen very often, and there are so many neat places in the Bay to see, but it’s way more fun when you’re showing someone around for the first time.

  

  Posted in California, exploring, San Francisco, travel, USA | 0 Comments | Tagged California, iron horse, sonoma, travel, wine country, wine tasting

• street food

  Posted at 6:09 pm by jasminedesirees, on April 21, 2014

  One of the things that I’ve always wanted to do in the City since I’ve moved here is go to a Food Truck park. Food trucks are such a big part of the culture here, and I’ve eaten from them a lot, but they have events like Off the Grid, where you can try a bunch of different ones, and get drinks and hang out as well.

  While my sister was here we were driving to Half Moon Bay, and we were hungry. I looked up food trucks on the map to see if any good ones were around that day, and I found one, so we decided to go get some lunch.

  It was a really great surprise to discover that we weren’t just at one food truck, we had accidentally found our way to the SOMA StrEat Food Park, where a bunch of food trucks congregate every Thursday and Saturday nights.

  
  
  
  
  

  It was a really cool environment, with lots of drinks, neat little areas like a barn and a school bus you could rent out for events, and a bunch of food trucks that switch every week.

  We scouted the place out and made our selections, I got beef sliders and crab stuffed wontons, the boy got an amazing pulled pork sandwich, and my sister was adventurous and got ox tail soup, and poutine.

  
  
  
  

  It was a gorgeous sunny day, the food was delicious, although I was a little disappointed to discover a truck that was selling mac and cheese burgers after I was already too stuffed to eat another bite.

  Saturdays are Sangria Saturdays, where they have bottomless Sangria, and they also sell mimosas and lots of other drinks.

  
  

  I was absolutely in heaven, to the point where, after yet another poetic exclamation of undying love, the boy responded with “Do you? Do you love it here? But do you love it?”, and I realized that I would need to try to be a bit more discreet about the depth of my feelings in case he got jealous and refused to accompany me on subsequent visits.

  But just between you and me, yes, I LOVED it there.

  
  
  

  Posted in California, exploring, family, food, San Francisco, USA | 1 Comment | Tagged bay area, exploring, family, food, food truck, food trucks, Half Moon Bay, San Francisco, travel

• why is the rum always gone?

  Posted at 3:35 pm by jasminedesirees, on April 17, 2014

  One of the coolest things we did while my sister was here was visit the Smuggler’s Cove, a really neat bar in the city. I’d never even heard of it before, but it was on her list of things to do during her visit.

  We did some shopping earlier in the day, and then started walking over there. After a brief but terrifying sojourn through the Tenderloin district (I wanted to make sure she soaked up as much SF culture as possible), we got there, but it’s quite sneaky, if you didn’t know where it was you wouldn’t be able to find it.

  
  

  It’s on a quiet residential type street, the front door is plain glass with a very tiny sign on it. Once you go through the door, you find yourself on one side of a draping black curtain. Once you pass through the curtain, you find yourself in Heaven.

  The inside of the bar is a pirate ship. It’s 3 levels, complete with netting, masts and water features, and dark, ominous lighting. There are two bars, one upstairs and one down and limited seating (it only holds 50 people) so you have to get there early.

  
  

  They have over 400 different kinds of rum, and their menu is a massive leatherbound book of rum recipes (and other liquor recipes) from around the world. It’s really hard to pick one, and dangerous too apparently, after my initial selection the bartender dissuaded me since I’d picked a fruity drink with 4 different kinds of rum and “there had been incidents in the past” with that one.

  I tried a couple different drinks selected at random, and all of them were delicious. We also had a flaming volcano, their answer to the fish bowl, that is served in a large wooden bowl, with 4 straws, and a fiery show as it’s served. It was very potent, especially since there were only really two of us drinking it, but it was also scrumptious.

  The Smuggler’s Cove is a very unique place, I would definitely check it out if you’re ever in the area.

  
  

  Posted in California, San Francisco, USA | 4 Comments | Tagged bars, exploring, rum, San Francisco, Smuggler's Cove

• asia sf

  Posted at 8:04 pm by jasminedesirees, on April 10, 2014

  I’ve been wanting to go to Asia SF for ages, it’s basically a San Francisco rite of passage and I knew it would be a really fun night out, I just needed the right person to go with.

  Asia Sf is a bar and restaurant where all the waiters are in drag, and they do cabaret/burlesque style shows on the bar as you eat.

  I took my sister when she was in town last week, and we had a blast.The show was great, everyone was there to have a good time, and the waiters looked amazing, one of them had the best legs I’ve seen on anyone, period.

  The food was delicious as well, which was a pleasant surprise, and their lemon drops were divine.

  I would definitely go back there with anyone visiting the city, as they say at Asia SF, “welcome to San Francisco, where the women are strong, and the men are beautiful”.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  Posted in California, exploring, San Francisco, USA | 1 Comment | Tagged Asia SF, burlesque, drag, drag queens, exploring, restaurants, San Francisco

• surreal

  Posted at 6:36 pm by jasminedesirees, on April 4, 2014

  We were lost in San Francisco yesterday, wandering on random streets, when we came across the coolest building ever.

  It was covered in beautiful graffiti, and had antique furniture hanging from the windows and the roof of the building.

  I know this place isn’t for everyone, but when I come across something like this I can’t help but feel lucky to have lived here, even if it was just for awhile.

  

  

  

  

  

  Posted in art, California, San Francisco, USA | 1 Comment | Tagged art, furniture, San Francisco, surreal

• waiting

  Posted at 3:27 pm by jasminedesirees, on April 3, 2014

  I am sitting at work waiting everrrr sooooo patientlyyyy for 5 o’ clock to get here. My sister is coming to spend the weekend with me and I’m so excited.

  She’s never really been here before, she came out to do the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer with me in September, but we were pretty much walking and suffering the entire time so it wasn’t an all around fun experience.

  I’m taking her to AsiaSF for supper tonight, I’ve been wanting to go there for ages but the boy is not keen on the idea, I can’t imagine why.

  We have lots of big plans, and the weather is supposed to be nice, plus I’m taking the day off to cavort around the bay with her tomorrow.

  I’m lucky because even though we live far apart I get to see her pretty often, but it’s usually with my whole family all together.

  I was thinking about it, and I’m pretty sure the last time we did something just the two of us was when I flew to Calgary to hang out with her for my 18th birthday, so this is long overdue.

  So now I just have to make it to 5 o’ clock. Did I mention I was waiting patiently?

  Posted in family, life, San Francisco | 0 Comments | Tagged Asia SF, avon walk for breast cancer, family, life, San Francisco, sisters, visit

• chef

  Posted at 12:02 pm by jasminedesirees, on March 12, 2014

  Last week we had an onsite work training that our whole team flew out for from all over the country. At the end of the second day, we did a cooking class as a group for something fun to do together.

  It was at Jordan’s Kitchen in San Francisco, and it was amazing. It is a full scale commercial kitchen, but they only do group cooking classes, so we had the place to ourselves. The staff were super friendly, and really knowledgeable.

  We arrived, and they had trays of cheeses and smoked meats for us to snack on, and they were handing out wine before we even got our jackets off.  We made mushroom risotto, flank steak with fingerling potato salad and chocolate mousse with sea salt for dessert.

  Our group got to do everything, they taught us how to chop vegetables, season everything, and prepare, plate and garnish each dish. The food was delicious, mushroom risotto is one of my favourite things in the world. I may have gotten a little too deep into the wine because before I knew it I had nominated myself as the grill master of the group, and was picking up the flank steaks with my bare hands, and expertly (ish) maneuvering them around the flaming grill.

  The chocolate mousse was delish, and we had a post-dessert mini-booze bottle pinata, which is not something I’ve done before but may well become a part of my supper routine every night. It was a really fun activity,  and we got a copy of all of the recipes we made so we can re-create them at home. Not promising I will, because even though it was delicious it was a lot more work than boxed mac and cheese, but still it’s nice to have the option.

  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  Posted in food, recipes, San Francisco | 0 Comments | Tagged cheese, chocolate mousse, cooking class, flank steak, food, friends, Jordan's Kitchen, mushroom risotto, recipes, risotto, San Francisco, wine, work

• bird by bird

  Posted at 3:35 pm by jasminedesirees, on February 6, 2014

  I just finished reading Bird by Bird by Anne Lamotte. It’s a book about writing, why she does it, how she does it, and how she teaches about it. I really liked it, it was funny and informative, with lots of quotes and poems from other writers.

  One of my favourite passages: “One of the gifts of being a writer is that it gives you an excuse to do things, to go places, to explore. Another is that writing motivates you to look closely at life as it lurches and tramps around.”

  In it, she describes writing characters and plot as similar to taking Polaroid pictures, you think you know what you’re focusing on, and what you want the end result to be, but it’s only as you are writing and watch what develops that you really see what the image is that you’ve captured. And often, it isn’t at all what you thought it was going to be.

  I had just read that chapter, and was walking down the street in San Francisco trying to describe the scene around me in my head, and take note of the little details that I usually breeze right by, when I noticed that someone had written LOVE on the back of a walk light that I walk by, just underneath, everyday. The sky was very blue, and I thought it would make a good picture, so I quickly snapped an image before dashing across the street, as the seconds counted down on the cross signal.

  It was only afterwards, when I was looking at the image, that I realized there was an sticker of Henry Winkler, aka The Fonz from Happy Days, stuck on the light post beside it.

  

  Posted in life, San Francisco | 0 Comments | Tagged Anne Lamotte, Bird by Bird, writing

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