Musings

So I was in San Francisco earlier this week. Landed on Sunday and what a change the city was from Singapore, I mean in terms of temperature. In Singapore,  where 33 degrees Celsius is sweltering and made me run into the air-con all the time, a cool 15-18 degrees Celsius and windy at that, was so, so welcome. It was like walking in the air-con room. 

But San Francisco isn’t the same in some ways. As in January when I was last there, the younger beggars I’d seen then, were still around. Workers made redundant perhaps? 

Also the popular stores like Virgin Superstore and Disney have disappeared. So sad because Virgin was the place I bought my DVDs. It’s a store I simply had to go everytime I was there. Disney store right in the middle of Union Square is also gone. 

These two places were landmarks in Frisco. Don’t know where Borders in Frisco is? Look for Disney and it’s next to it. If you don’t know where the Apple store is, look for Virgin, it’s across the road.

Some things don’t change, however. Victoria’ Secret in the same building as the Westin Francis Drake hotel is still there. But the B&O audio shop two doors from it is gone. Not that I’ve entered the 2 shops but they’ve been there for as long as I’ve remembered. 

One thing different in Frisco is the shoppers. The taxi driver I spoke to said business has fallen by half. Macy’s and Nike superstore are not as brisk as they used to be. 

What was brisk was business at the Apple store. When I went there on Tuesday, the day after Apple announced the new 13″ Macbook Pro, there were tons of people there. Everyone was buying Macbooks and iPods and accessories. It’s the same when I went to the store in January. 

Some things don’t change, thank goodness.

• My last Macworld
• Holiday tips for Vegas and Frisco
• iPhone 3G works well in Frisco
• An era has ended
• More beggars with dogs