Thursday A cool day. In fact a bit nippy.

Halloween is just around the corner as there are certain indications – gruesome clothing in the thrift shops ) more gruesome than usual) and the appearance of pumpkin flavoured chocolate on the chocolate shop shelves. Truely!

I walked yesterday around the Castro area and Haight – Ashbury “ghetto”. The former is the gay precinct and it’s very much similar to Oxford street in Sydney, but not as seedy. The latter suburb is the area of 60’s flower power. I am sure it has seen better days if not decades. The flowers are artificial, the war cry of that era being “make love not war” . One is forced to make war with the daunting, demanding people loitering and asking for money. It seems that on almost every street corner and metro entrance is a beggar often with a dog. it is impossible for me to know how “needy” they are.

Again i was fascinated to see the street trees along Haight were Australian! Eucalyptus trees the dreaded Queensland Box, so beloved of the local councils in adelaide. As well there were bottle brushes and along the median strip – Kangaroo paws! Google informed me that these Australia. Plants were intentionally introduced in the early 1900s to “dry out” the swampy ground around San Francisco.

As only a minority will be keen to hear about the opera, I will simply say it was stunning. An art deco theatre and a wonderful production. I have the opera on CD but this was my first live performance. It’s an early work of Bellini who died of some intestinal complaint in his early 30s.

The city seems reasonably bike friendly although with the aggressive drivers, I am not sure it would be enjoyable.lots of bike lanes along the arterial roads into the city.