It’s almost my first week back in San Francisco since September and I’m thoroughly enjoying it. The energy, the sun, the relaxed and can-do attitude of the people. It’s simply fantastic.
I’m also really liking the fact that being based in Nob Hill makes it easy to get to the downtown parts of the city within maybe 10-20 minutes. The grid system of street organisation is really smart. I’ve been using Google Maps on the N95 8GB (TMO USA SIM with unlimited data) to navigate around. Now and again I’ll glance at the maps and mentally tell myself there are ‘four more blocks’. Or ‘Wait ’til you see Stockton then turn left’. It makes getting around by foot (and by car) really, really straight-forward. The fact the core city where I’m doing most of my business is (more or less) the size of London’s Square Mile is certainly making the process of arranging meetings very easy. A quick check on Google Maps and you can confirm you’ll be on-time.
Compare this to getting around London in a total panic. Even if you’re two stops away from your next meeting, you can’t quite be sure if you’ll get there within 30 minutes or not. And you’re definitely taking a big risk trying to get from Liverpool Street to Tottenham Court Road within 30 minutes by taxi.
I’ve been celebrating the ease of movement by walking everywhere I can — and only resorting to cabs when I either can’t be bothered (15 blocks sounds easy but can quickly add up in terms of time and effort!) or if it’s about to chuck it down with rain. That said I’ve been pretty lucky with the weather. Whilst everyone I speak to is really annoyed it’s not bright 80 degree sunshine, I’m just delighted to see blue sky and a bit of sun regularly.
I took the above snap of the Levenworth street sign as I walked round to the little shop (or ’store’), Nob Hill Market:
It’s brilliant! It’s got an integrated deli serving an array of home cooked lasagnes and so on along with very good sandwiches. And … Ah the service level! Friendly, efficient — and always fully stocked.
This is the view I’m waking up to most mornings:
It’s very inspiring. Even just having bright sunshine in the morning is inspiring, let alone this cityscape. Compare this to my place in Marylebone, London, where you more or less opened your curtains to a (very expensive) brick wall 10ft away.
I usually walk downtown to meetings via The Fairmont Hotel:
You may recognise it from the movie The Rock (7.2 starts on imdb). There’s quite a bit of early footage filmed at The Fairmont and every time I walk by I can’t help but be reminded.
San Francisco most certainly is a huge contrast to Las Vegas… 
