PCH and a Shabby “City”

Driving PCH north from Santa Cruz offers the constant of a changing Pacific and a mixed bag of adjacent land usages. Market Gardeners and Farmers ply their trades.

Flatter than Kansas, this “Big Wave” mecca sits undisturbed.  Enjoy the trip up the coast

Oh and San Francisco;  RUINED by a plague of politicians, a rather shabby shadow of its former self.

“It’s Déjà vu all over again..”

"It's déjà vu all over again". Yogi Berra explained that this quote originated when he witnessed Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris repeatedly hit back-to-back home runs in the Yankees' seasons in the early 1960s

I find this quote quite poignant, another sojourn to the bay area and Robbie off for a month in Hawaii. After my Bay Area trip its back to China (mainland).

On to the time at hand, a weekend looms and coastal vistas beckon.

So far; a mild summer (euphemism for overcast skies). The “City” aka San Francisco is infamous for inclement summer weather.

Saturday plans include a circumnavigation of the SF peninsula:

Motoring along PCH, coast highway 1, from; Santa Cruz, via Half Moon Bay, into the City.

2007 Meng Ku; Sheng Pu

Continuing life on the road, I dig through my acquired booty, looking to augment my domestic travel supplies and top off my office cache. That accomplished,  I’m ready for the off, on Thursday next and I metaphorically trip over this Sheng-Pu

Not being a big fan of young Raw / Sheng Pu-erh, Mrs.Yang put this gift in amongst a purchase of my normal fair. Reporting to be a: 2007, Spring Tips, Raw Pu-erh Tea. A  400 grams Cake, comprising of; “Early Spring Leaves”  This was picked up in early 2008, just before Chinese New Year, Link to relevant posting

Being stored in So. Cal, I foresee a long aging process ahead.

Wrapper Aesthetics: This outer label presents too much, methinks. The modern “Inner-Ticket”, printed on glossy paper that separates easily from the pressed leaves.  I lean to the older / cheep paper that, in part, ends up in the soup.Over the years we see many variants of Inner Tickets: Nèi fēi (内飞): Small ticket  or a Nèi piào (内票): Larger ticket  .. many now include a full on Flyer as part of the inner propaganda.

Now its time for: 亮女，我饭票 liang nu, wu fan piao (short form of: Pretty Girl,a local euphemism for waitress, my lunch receipt / ticket) 

Asia Bail Out: … Hello Monterey (nice trade)

Having printed my boarding pass and about to board 883 to Hong Kong, when I had to abort, revamp / re-schedule basically rearrange the ripple effect.

Matt and Jenny Lee (Singapore based) are now in the US.

I made a return trip to Santa Clara via a long weekend in Monterey.  Robbie made this trip with me. After 4 weeks diving in tropical waters she dove the COLD waters of No. Cal .. Extremely Beautiful but Cooooold water off Monterey and Carmel.. That’s why they invented Dry-Suits.

Sunday, Second day of diving. 7:30am the boat docks.Robbie, first to sign-in.Famous for its rugged coast line, Monterey Bay, Central Californian Coast LineThe GREAT Coastal Rock Decorator:An old Lighthouse stands a lonely vigil, sending its piercing, but silent light.A fallen guardian, coastal life is hard.Modern adventurers, looking and hoping …Spending more time in SC,  I managed to organize my temporary HowffGood thing about this area, no shortage of VERY good Chinese food …

Life on the Modern Tea Road

Time on the road is a constant fact of life .. past couple of weeks have seen me setting up temporary digs (sequestering spare offices). This week I am with a sister division, next week it will be at a minimum of 3 locations in the far-east.

Typical of life on the; “ Modern Tea Road”

Also: Robbie is on a SCUBA Photo Safari to the Philippines  Nice work if you can get it

Mundane Monday:… 平凡的星期一

Much has transpired over the past few months at home and abroad (Singapore / mainland China)  I was set to be in Northern China at this time .. but, “The best-laid schemes o’mice an’ men gang aft agley” 

So, this fine Monday, I re-commission my office into a “temporary WAR room”, moving the tea-table to free up space .. a little less than optimal, but serviceable.This optical table (aka my conf. table) could well be an: “Industrial Chic” Tea Table (if I can find some spare time)

Oxford FAIL to repeat 2010’s 2nd place

Cambridge, unchallenged pick off 2nd place with ease, at the 157th Boat Race.Wellingtons await Oxford and Cambridge.

Oxford, seem delighted to cross the finish line ahead of Cambridge. (web agency pictures)

Tea Table (Cha Ji) Prototype, Rev B

I’ve made a couple changes to my prototype tea table.   Here is the updated table, fully commissioned. All in all I’m pleased with: size  design and function.Hardware: Main Drain Outlet .. I changed from the “External Barb” fitting to a “Plastic Push Clamp” design. Various reasons prompted this change. Size was the key factor along with volume of tea/water overflow. .. Based on building this prototype, lessons learned will be implemented on the next generation, using some well figured exotics.

Inspiration is all around

The S’pore Grand Hyatt Executive club has an interesting set of architectural free standing wood sculptures.  … A little out of scale for a home but they do stir the creative juices. All created from a single tree and cut from solid sections