After finally falling asleep around 1.00 a.m., I was awoken at 6.00 by the chattering noises of the early morning partiers lining up at the club across the street. I had two many things bouncing around my mind to be able to go back to sleep, so I got up, reluctantly, and spent the early morning pottering about my apartment.

By 9.00, it was obvious that it was another beautiful, warm day outside, and I resolved to go running before inevitably running out of steam later in the day. Shirtless, I climbed into my jeep, took the upper windows right out, and pulled out into the driveway, and shot across town, up over Nob Hill and down again towards the Marina. It was one of those wonderful San Francisco days where it seems like it's all sky and colorful flowers- a day that fills you with a sense of the moment.

After I came back from trip East, I'd decided to start taking more photos of some of my favorite parts of San Francisco, and today, on Russian Hill (where Mrs Madrigal lived in "Tales of the City"), I parked and walked around with my camera and tripod.

In a tiny little park I just found today on Russian Hill

After taking the photos, I finished my drive down to the Marina. I've been meaning to go running in the Marina for a long time - it's one of my favorite parts of the city, but it's a bit too far to drive for an everyday run, so today was the first time. As I pulled into the parking lot, and saw the sunlight reflecting off the blue bay, and the yachts flecking the waves, I decided that I couldn't imagine somewhere nicer to be than right here, right now.

In the parking lot at the Marina

But as I set off running, I realized that I was already more tired than I'd expected, so I cut short my run after only 30 minutes. It felt good though.

At home, after a shower, I climbed back into the jeep and drove to the Castro for brunch at my favorite diner, Baghdad Cafe.

I can't imagine a more relaxing way to spend a Sunday afternoon than this - eggs, coffee and the New York Times on a sidwalk cafe. As always, on a warm day in the Castro, there was plenty of color. I saw the girlfriend of one of my best friends walk past, hand-in-hand with a new girl! I guess things have changed since I went away!

When I took a photo of the street, including my waiter, he asked about it, and when I told him it was for my web-page, he said ""Next time, I'll take my shirt off first!".

At Baghdad Cafe, for brunch

San Francisco, Sunday, 22nd August 1999, quarter past midnight.

As happened on Friday, I'm having trouble getting to sleep because of the noise from outside. Those selfish brats playing their boombox car stereos are the reason. This is adding to the cold realization I'm coming to that I've made a bad mistake in moving into this apartment. It's not only the noise, and, in fact, I don't think that would be enough to drive me away. It's only really bad on weekends, and I get used to it quickly after being away for a while. And, in any case, I can always do what I'm doing now - play my repeating CD of ocean waves to provide white noise.

The other reason I feel I should at least consider moving is that I'm having misgivings about my landlord - the fact that he rented one of the downstairs apartments to the lunatic that is in there right now who is a former friend of his. The guy is due to be evicted on Wednesday, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that nothing goes wrong with that. But until then I still have to tolerate the guy's constant stream of visitors tramping up and down the stairs, occasionally ringing my door-buzzer by mistake. Oi veh, I certainly don't want to move again already, but I don't know ...

It was nice to be back in San Francisco though, despite the noise from the streets outside my apartment. Today proved to be a glorious Summer's day, with temperatures in the upper 70s - in fact, probably the warmest day of the Summer so far. What a nice welcome home. Having not slept well Friday night, I didn't end up taking as much advantage of it as I would otherwise have done. In fact, I spent part of the afternoon snoozing on my sofa. But, it was nice to go out in the sun in the afternoon. I even took my laptop to the Castro for brunch!