04-VIII-2007.
This being a saturday we didn't visit SFBC. Part of the day we just worked in the room, checked emails. Burt is commenting on Go's Civic, and goes on and on about different engines, variants, VTEC stuff. Also checked Beatrice's webpage, to check for any phones I may use.
The hotel's lobby is connected with the mall, the rear wing, behind the parking, is actually a hall extending into this japanese mall. Went that way and took a stroll through the mall, I guess bought nothing. Perhaps something printed in japanese, as Lena is taking the course, but then I don't know whether I'd choose right. At least made a bunch of interesting pics and had a few smokes outside.
On UA, about checking the elections - the 2000 and 2004 election fraud is still a hot issue:
There's a way, but you need about 4-5 political parties who can't stand each other. Then have one of each at every place where ballots are counted. They'll check and recheck each other to death. That's how elections work in Serbia, and people learned to trust that. Specially when each party does the tallying separately for itself and goes public with its results. You see six parties posting the same results on their websites within minutes. Can't cheat that, unless all parties are in it together. If they are, and they do this so plausibly, they are also capable of running the country.
Another lunch at Harry's.
Then we took a cab and went all the way across one of the hills to see dr Richard. Early august, still windy, and heavy swaths of fog all the way, as if it was december at home. The SF weather is weird as shit.
The situation was kind of weird, as he was freshly divorced, the kids were with him (and his brother too), the house was new and largely unfinished (redecorating). Furniture sparse but what there was was chosen with taste. The way to toilet was not exactly an obstacle course, as there was some light and it was possible to navigate between the boxes, unloaded furniture and heaps of stuff. His daughter was trying to get his attention, while he was trying to speak with Jan as much as possible, so at some point I managed to get her amused with my finger and mouth tricks. Something good came of my playing accordeon, fingers still flexible.
Good wine, good photos, nice conversation and of course Jan was mostly working all the time, trying to see how to accommodate this or that. I was still too fresh on the app to be of any use.
He drove us back in his van, with a brief stop to take a couple of night shots of the panorama from the hilltop. Then we passed Height-Ashbury. Um, yeah, right. Almost on time.
In the room, I took a nice video of David trying to stay awake while indulging in his daily dose of television. He woke about six times a minute.
Mentions: Beatrice Palmieri, David Berton, Gorana Sredljević (Go), Jan Brenkelen, Jelena Sredljević (Lena), Reginald Burton Cape (Burt), Richard Fauntlerault, SFBC, UbiquAgora (UA), in serbian