Fun Times!!

No, really!! Actual fun times!! 

For a while I have wanted to get back to writing the kind of posts I used to write for Adventures of a Puuurplemonster Abroad, back when it was my place to share all the cool things I was up to in my new life in America. Obviously for a while there the fun times were a bit scarce and I had other things to write about, but I think it's about time I started sharing the good shit with you again too!

It's not that there haven't been plenty of fun times recently. There was the awesome Halloween party that Jared and Erin threw a couple of weeks ago, and my kick-ass ninja costume. There was the Formula 1 brunch party I hosted last weekend for the Austin grand prix. There was the gourmet corn dog party Doug had for his birthday. There was the day we all spent at Testarossa Winery for Rachel, Heather & Jessie's birthdays. 

All of these events would have made good fun posts if I had remembered one thing - to take some bloody photos!! There was a time when I wouldn't leave the house without my trusty little camera just in case there was something cool to document but I am rather out of practice! 

So I make this promise, here and now, to always keep my camera close at hand, with battery fully charged, and to start injecting a little fun back into my blog!!

Today I would love to tell you about the awesome night Doug and I had out in San Francisco on Saturday. First up, we discovered an awesome little restaurant called Gilberth's. We had done a little research on the train up to the city and were positively salivating as we read through their menu! I wish I had taken some photos while we were there, but I always feel a bit silly getting my camera out in restaurants and taking pictures of my dinner!

The food - wild boar empanadas followed by a kind of Cuban pork tortilla thingamy for me, Brussels sprouts fried with chili, lime and manchego cheese then a lamb and chorizo burger for Doug - was every bit as delicious as we hoped it would be, and we have been raving about it to anyone who will listen ever since! If you ever find yourself in the Dogpatch area of San Francisco I wholeheartedly recommend that you give it a try, although you may want to call in advance as when we showed up just before 6pm the place was already booked out and we got the last free table!

We followed up dinner with one of the coolest and most unusual events I have ever been to - Hot Glass Cold Beer at Public Glass, a glass studio and school.

For $25 you get to pick and keep a beautiful and unique hand blown glass, which you then get to fill with as much wine or beer as you want for the duration of the event!





And it was very tasty beer - the Atom Splitter Pale Ale from Pine Street Brewery - not the cheap crap that I would normally expect at something like this.

Anyhoo, glass in hand, you are then free to wander around the workshops and watch the demonstrations. In one room they had a couple of guys working with blowtorches doing some very intricate work. I wish my photos could do justice to the display we were watching - both the highly skilled work the men were doing and the rather funky dancing from the guy in the Grover hat (not Cookiemonster as I originally reported - thanks Anda!), although his moves did take him dangerously close to the flames at times!! 

It was hard to tell exactly what they were making at first as they were making small parts that were later joined together to become a fantastical multi-tentacled .... thing! The creature may not be something everyone would want to put on their mantelpiece (although I would happily), but only an idiot couldn't appreciate the level of skill required to make it.

In the main room there was a couple of guys working on what looked at first to be two simple glass orbs.

It was a long, long process of heating, shaping, blowing and repeating over and over, then adding some more glass and repeating over and over again, with more guys getting involved as the orbs became larger and harder to manipulate alone.


This went on for a good couple of hours and just when I thought the whole point was to make pretty glass orbs, suddenly everyone seemed to jump into action! 

It was hard to see exactly what was going on from our angle, and it was so busy that that was the best vantage point we could find, but the orbs were attached to an air compressor and rapidly inflated, then people began pulling on the rods attached to the glass to stretch it out and weights were attached to make a beautiful piece of art which was then scooped up by a man in a fire proof suit and taken off to be cooled. I wish I had had a chance to see the finished object close up before we left as the glimpse that I got was spectacular!

Apparently this is a regular event and definitely something I would love to do again. I'll be keeping an eye out for future dates and hopefully rounding up a wee posse to join us next time - if anyone fancies coming along please let me know and I will keep you posted on the plans.

Well, on that note I think it is time to wrap this up. I look forward to bringing you many more happy posts in the very near future!!

Laters ...... x