ARE YOU AFRAID OF EARTHQUAKES?

I dream of the following scenario….
Substituting the Monday daily grind of pre-occupied workers getting back into the hustle and bustle of the working week, with my preference to lay in the sunshine, beside the pool on a glorious sunny afternoon, with a book and notepad to scribble my thoughts.
Ooops!!!! It’s not a dream; I am actually relaxing here by the apartment pool, taking in this glorious sunny day and writing away at my blog on this extraordinary Monday afternoon.

The weather the last weekend has been beyond expectations for many San Franciscans, but it can change without warning from day to day even from hour to hour. The previous weekend was a little on the chilly side for our second big bicycle ride, that took us through the Golden Gate Park to the Pacific Ocean. (Satellite Map of our ride). There were some steep hills included but that’s just all part of the experience… the pain days are long gone, triathlon training is just around the corner.

Darren took a business trip to Seattle through the week. Darren and Todd met up to conduct some customer handover meetings. I am positive it was a tough couple of days for them both, undoubtedly all work and no play.

On the subject of work and play, Craiglist.org is an online classifieds that is a great resource for everything from employment to classes and activities. I have taken quite a fascination to exploring the posts for intriguing and bizarre things to do in the city of San Francisco.

One recent heading to capture my attention:
ARE YOU AFRAID OF EARTHQUAKES?

Afraid might be a little extreme, but I do spend a fair bit of time talking about our future earthquake experiences and boring Darren while I recite scenarios that I have created in my warped mind. Whether it be running for our lives whilst windows crash down from office buildings around us, or our vehicle dropping off the edge of a collapsed Bay Bridge in a scene reminiscent of a Home & Away season finale.

So it only seemed fitting that I volunteered our time to share our (or my) crazy thoughts with the documentary team from BBC London, even though we have only lived here for less than 3 months. Our recent relocation was a different spin for our interviewer, Professor Dan Cruickshank, as he asked how we prepared for a move to an earthquake prone city, a city just waiting for the Big One to strike. It was an interesting afternoon in Union Square, just one of the not so common everyday activities that you can find yourself participating in thanks to Craigslist.

However, the past weekend is now over and I did not make Darren do any silly little activities (Oh actually just one, but I can’t speak about that until next week).
This past weekend has actually been a nice balance for the sexes. I do find that a lot of weekend activities do favour the female sex, we drive to picturesque little towns, savor the scenery but for the most part end up strolling along the main street browsing through shops and cafes followed by more shops and more cafes.

Sunday we took a cruise in our Zip Car - Honda Element, to the coastal town of Half Moon Bay (pop. 11,500) a short 45 kilometre drive south of San Francisco. Of course the main drag in Half Moon Bay is in fact called Main Street and Darren and I did indeed browse the Street, enjoyed lunch at a cute little cafe but then we also took ours bikes and cycled down to the Legends of Motorcycles Show at the Ritz-Carlton Resort.

It’s nice to find a testosterone filled activity to keep 'the boy' feel satisfied with his weekend activity. For extra bonus boy credit we finished it off last night with a late night session of Spiderman 3 on the IMAX big screen.

There are a multitude of books out there like 'Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus', or 'He’s just not into You', all delving in, to try and explain the difference between the sexes. I uncovered an example of some strange male behaviour online this week and this inspired me to include a little report on the funniest or oddest posting I find on Craigslist each week.

WINGMAN WANTED

This was the topic of the Inaugural Winning Classified.

Looking for a wingman - m4mw - 26
Looking to go out but no one to go out with.
Looking for a wingman type personality
I'd like to throw some of my "game" on a couple lucky ladies and would like a "wingman"
to laugh at me or encourage me to move on after getting shot down.
I'll get shot down plenty of times but that's the object.
I'm just looking to play some pickup games.

Straight Guy Looking for a wingman - m4m - 34
I'm a STRAIGHT guy looking for a good wingman. My girlfriend and I broke up a while ago and I have a little lost since. I've gone on a few dates some via CL. The CL girls pics are have been misleading. The girls I was set up with were not my type either. I'm a fun outgoing clean cut guy. Lets go out in SF and meet some girls.

I was riveted to undertake some research into the role of the wingman, turns out it was a lot more comprehensive than I could have imagined.

The Urban Dictionary’s Guide to being a Wingman:
A Wingman is a guy you bring along with you on singles
outings (like to bars) that helps you out with the women.

Typically in these ways:

• The Wingman will always be there to “occupy” least attractive girl of the pair so that you may engage in the “hottie”
• Often, when an attractive girl is out with an ugly friend, she often feels restricted to not leave that ugly friend alone, thus making the hot girl, un-touchable.
• When the wingman technique is used, both girls are approached by the men, and the Wingman automatically engages in conversation with the ugly girl.
• Now that the hot friend sees that the ugly girl has finally found a man, she is now free to start scouting.
• This is where you come in “unexpectedly” and “accidentally”, and begin catching up on “old times” with the Wingman.
• The Wingman then offers the ugly girl to dance, (which rarely happens to her) so she wont be able to resist.

And finally for inspiration: The Light Coors TV Commercial where future Wingmen are reminded

“You’re taking one for the team, so your Buddy can live the dream”.

My entry commenced with dream talk, so it seems fitting to end it on the dream..... although definitely not my dream.

XX

Mel

BTW.....We found a few of our favourite things this week, thanks to Australia Fair and the local BevMo store.