pagmumuni-muni

i wonder what he is thinking of at that moment.

* pagmumuni-muni means musing in english.

beautiful mess 2

i remember being a ten year old back in 1934. one day after school, my mother brought me along to visit her sister in the office building where she worked. upon arriving, my aunt took us to the building's cafeteria. the song you're getting to be a habit with me from the movie 42nd street was playing on the phonograph as we entered. on one side of the cafeteria was this long counter with several stools lining it. my mother and aunt allowed me to sit on one of the stools to drink the chocolate malt shake my mother bought me while they had their chitchat on one of the tables. oh, i knew i had to sit still and behave, but those high stools were such a delight that i began spinning, spinning, spinning on it until i felt dizzy; my mother stared in dumb disbelief while my aunt just laughed at my childish antics and said that it's a miracle i didn't lose my malt shake in the process.

i have almost forgotten all about that certain visit until i saw the cafeteria again on my 85th birthday last may, when i decided to drop by this building after so many years.



note: oh-kay, i'm kidding about being 85 years old. but seeing this old cafeteria sure stirred up the imagination. :) btw, the first pic is the original; the second one was tweaked to look a bit older... err, does it?

again, the date is on the lower right corner of both fotos. i'm not kidding when i said that it was on my birthday when i went to this building. hehehe.

beautiful mess

books and papers on the shelf and more of them are scattered on the floor--everything's peppered thickly with lots of dust... yes, the absolute mess in this room really caught my eye. and i love it. everything's just in place for one of the most wonderful spontaneous photo ops ever. :)

the first foto is the original shot, which i took with my fone cam.


some experimentations with brightness and contrast and whatever. if not for the graffiti on the right side, one might think this was taken in 1909 and not 2009. hehe.

walkable san francisco

san francisco is no doubt one of the most walkable cities i've ever been to, and just about now i read a news article on yahoo saying that san francisco is the most walkable city in the US according to walkscore.com, garnering a score of 86 out of 100. new york city got second place with 83.

amazing. and they are both two of my most favorite cities in the world, right next to manila. =)

for my take on walking the streets of san francisco, click here. =)

I Walk the Streets of San Francisco...

finally, I get to post this long-delayed entry. what with having the film developed here and then wonderfully scanned and cropped. ^^

I never expected to go to San Francisco as I originally intended to fly to Los Angeles from Manila. But since I'm a chance passenger and I chose the very convenient time of flying at the start of summer vacation, I got bumped off the flight to LA (twice). It turned out to be my best mistake so far. Hehehe. San Francisco was actually the better bet of chance passengers since it's not as overbooked as the LA flights. And so when all hopes of flying to LA became nil, I was off to the check-in counter for SFO and from there, I was off to San Francisco. Away from the blistering heat and on towards the biting cold. (It may be summer in the Philippines in April but spring has just started in the US.)

I have been to San Francisco many times before but this is the first time that I traveled by myself. And this in itself made it even more memorable. A few days after I arrived, my friend Myka graciously offered to come with me to the city as it was her day-off from work at the time. It's amazing to be in San Francisco once more as the last time I've been there was five years ago. Nothing much has changed from what I can remember; the city is much more laid-back and less polluted than LA. And furthermore, it's more fun to walk there. :-)

The Ferry Building at the Port of San Francisco. Myka and I rode the ferry from Vallejo, and this is where we docked. The fare was actually very outrageously pricey (11USD one way) and we staggered at the cost. But what the heck, this is my first time to ride a ferry there and I am a tourist, after all. The ride was worth it--calm, blue waters, nice scenery, and the prospect of seeing a whale as we passed the Golden Gate Bridge which we didn't see anyway. ^^ And don't you think the sky is perfect?

Waiting by the traffic light to cross Mission Street. The Hyatt is shown on the left side. Take a look at the clean, clean sidewalk too.

Emporio Armani on Grant Street. Grant Street is like the Fifth Avenue of NYC, with lots of designer stores such as Banana Republic, Versace and Juicy Couture.

Random building and streetcar. Obviously the sun hasn't reached this part yet so it's quite dark.

Gateway to Chinatown on Grant Street

Chinatown. Isn't this street so clean? I could walk barefoot here. This is just one of the many steep streets in San Francisco that gives instant exercise to people.

The TransAmerica Pyramid, which is probably the most recognizable structure in San Francisco because of its unique shape.

Another thing that I like about San Francisco is that there weren't that many people walking on the streets at that time, given that it was a Monday. It's almost like Ortigas Center. hehehe. Oh well. I may be back in Manila now, but San Francisco will always be close to my heart. Oh, not really, coz I already left my heart there. :-)

go, miss cheesy!

I just love San Francisco and I can't wait to go back there.