We decided to go our separate ways today, so it was nice not having to stop every so often so Tony and Jimmy could have a smoke (although I bet they relished not having to go into every damn candy store they saw). I headed into town at 10am and took a bus to the Golden Gate Park. It's a really serene place, kinda like a huge version of Western Springs.

I wanted to go see the penguins at the California Academy of Sciences, but admission was a whopping $30, so I flagged that. The area around the entrance, known as the Music Concourse, was scenic and had three fountains in line with the main stage at one end of the park. I got an American Hot Dog for lunch and went to the Japanese Tea Garden afterwards. Admission there was $7 and I can't say it was really worth it but I was definitely glad that I went. A lot of the ornamental features reminded me of the trinkets you find in Zen Puzzle Garden, which is fantastic, and certainly a job well done. I also saw some squirrels running around. Yay squirrels!

Further west, there was Swan Lake where a lot of waterfowl had gathered around the lake's edge. There were also some paddle boats that people had hired to explore the area. It's spring so there were quite a few new adorable ducklings and cygnets waddling around. I continued further west, following a little brook running beside the footpath, until finally I reached the bison paddock. Disappointing.

I bussed back to town and did some shopping around Westfield and Macy's. On the top floor of the Macy's building, there's a cheesecake shop with the most delectable selection of cheesecakes like a Reese's Peanut Butter Cheesecake, Pina Colada Cheesecake, Strawberry and Cream Cheesecake... I settled for the Mango and Key Lime Cheesecake and it was soooooo gooooooood.

I wandered around the area for a while, stopping by the Yerba Buena Gardens where there was a memorial to Martin Luther King. There was a water feature with a waterfall that you could walk behind, and inscribed on several plaques at the back were excerpts from MLK's famous speech. I ended up walking to Chinatown for dinner where I had salt and pepper spicy prawns. Together with the cheesecake, I'm pretty sure I undid all the walking from today.

Last day tomorrow :( I'm not ready to leave!

Alcohol is weird. I've heard it tends to amplify whatever emotions you're feeling, which might be true to some effect and certainly I've noticed this. But what I find weird is that my overall mood depends on the crowd I'm with. Last night, I was feeling pretty snarky (this could also be attributed to the stupid girls at the table next to us who were dressed like Lady Gaga clones and sounded like vuvuzelas at higher, screechier frequencies) and everything seemed to annoy me. If I had gone out for drinks with my workmates, I think I would have been a lot more jovial and social.

Anyway, it's been pretty busy for me. In among the Starcraft II achievement gathering I've been doing, I've also been writing tools for the impending Black and White release sometime next week, as well as working hard on PikPok's latest game for the iPad. It should be done soon, so uh..watch this space! ¯\(º_o)/¯

Last weekend was all about the Japanese. Friday night was the first Friday of the month, so it is customary we hang around with the other iPhone developers of Wellington at Hashigo Zake. Sunday was the Japanese Cultural Festival, which amused me greatly because I recognised so many elements just from watching Anime. There were mandalas, mochi, taiko drumming, tea ceremony demonstrations, lots of food and lots of people. Photos in the gallery whenever I can be bothered.

On Monday, being the first Monday of the month, Monsoon Poon have a deal where they serve unlimited plates of Firecracker Chicken (at least, until they run out. They ran out of 40kg of chicken in under two hours) as well as naan bread, white rice and a beer. Firecracker Chicken is a delicious dish of crispy, juicy chicken smothered with a tantalising spicy sauce. So good!