Kiwi Klippings

Yesterday was spent at yet another shopping mall. Of my own choosing, of course, no one forced me to go.

I very much wanted to go to Walmart to see if I could get a repeat of some garments that I had bought two years ago. Fortunately I was successful in my mission and managed to buy a few other items besides.

I also took time out just to wander the aisles to see the vast array of items for sale - window shopping, without the windows.

I had been thinking that the Hispanics had left San Francisco and moved south to Los Angeles as they abound there but I had not seen many since here.

I discovered that if they are nowhere else in San Francisco, they are certainly at Walmart, as all the employees I saw that day were Hispanic in origin. The lady who greeted me as I walked in the door would have been more than 70, about 4'6" tall, who spoke with an extremely strong Spanish accent. The Hispanics have not left town after all.

After a couple of hours I moved on to the other stores in the mall. One shop I went to, Sears, I had no intention of buying anything, but spotted a pink square yoked top that I liked. It had been $25 and was marked down by 50%.

I joined the queue at customer service and when my turn came to be served the assistant rang the item up and said, 'that will be $1.07 please.' 'Oh, really,' I said. 'Yes,' she said, 'that's what you get for waiting in line.' Total mystery to me what waiting in line had to do with it all but I did not argue and was more than happy to pay just $1.07 for the top.

A few more shops and time out for coffee and I was about done with shopping centres.

I had picked up a book in Walmart and was happy to read that while I waited for David to pick me up when he finished work.

I took up a bench seat near the front entrance overlooking the vast shopping mall parking lot. Not a bad place to do a bit of people watching. Most of the parking lot was filled with modern cars but suddenly there was what had to be a vintage Volkswagen, looking very sad and worn and without a sign of polish being driven by a very old lady. Not long after another granny like person passed by on a bicycle. Another surprise for me, in the world of motor cars here, some do actually ride push bikes and age does not appear to be a barrier.

We went together to pick up Jackson from day care. A quick trip home and then we all went out to dinner to meet another of Lisa's work friends, Valerie.

This time a totally different type of shopping centre at Santana Row. Very upmarket and very nice.

Shopping malls like the one where Walmart was do not have shop windows but Santana Row was different, more boutique type style stores. It is obviously the in place to be in the evenings and there was a constant flow of people walking through the area.

The restaurant where we met for dinner 'Straits' had a Singaporean style menu and food was excellent. A very popular place, just humming with people - only down side for me was that the lighting was too dim and the music too loud, but we did have a lovely time, nevertheless.

After the mail meal we moved to the bakery next door which had some of nicest treats I have ever seen available. We were able to take these outdoors to sit and eat and as the evening was a pleasant one we enjoyed our time together there again watching the passing parade of people.