On the 11th Jan 2018. This is our last leg then! Fam & friends have told us it has whizzed by back home, but I seriously can’t agree. This is the closest to a time warp I have come to. We set off at about 10.45am from our little SF apartment and get in an Uber with a sweet person called Yvette. For those that are reading this that are not aware, the correct term for someone of undisclosed gender is ‘We’ rather than he/she and Mx rather than Mr/ Mrs. I find the ‘we’ confusing as it confuses if the conversation is about a single or plural. Maybe an alternative will be invented soon! In China, the ‘you’ word and associated, are adapted for whether you are male, female, older, or younger, so I have no idea how they would cope! So we head off in their car and have another deep conversation about politics, state of the world etc. I’m not sure what it is about Uber drivers in SF, but we have really connected with many of them and it’s been great to share their (in the plural) stories.
Leon and I get out the car at a vape store and Leon tries to source some e-cig without any cannabis in! The lady owning the store was lovely and from Palastine. She made me a cheddar pita melt and gave me some water, just because, while she was answering our questions about Gaza Strip. Her family are there and she can’t get to them, as Egypt blocked the road. My heart breaks as she tells me her grandma is desperate to see her and the kids but can’t. I feel so lucky of the freedom we have in the U.K and hope we never have to experience this kind of separation and isolation from society. Remembering how our friend Wasi, the tour guide in Sri Lanka couldn’t even get a visa to Norway for a holiday or any of Europe, even with sponsorship. So wrong.
Anyhow, we walk to Fisherman’s wharf, some unsavoury characters eying is in from each corner at a cross road. Glad to finalliy get to fisherman’s wharf again and Leon buys a hat, as a nippy 11 degrees. Getting us used to it!
I’m Starbucks, one young Oriental lad is running round doing all the work while two other young female employees stare, tap and laugh at the phones, dragging their feet, and generally slacking (they have Starbucks aprons on and are behind the serving bar so they are def not on break). This makes my blood boil. I HATE the injustice, and think of the times in my life I have come across a few people like that and I have been in that lads shoes. So for me back then, and for anyone now that is experiencing this, I take a photo, and post/ tag it to starbucks in my rage. #timesup hash tag going round, and I have to highlight this is happening for all genders. Not OK, and I hope they learn from it & help their team mate out. Slacking, lazy, disrespectful colleagues have to be my bug bear.
