Category: Seattle

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Saturday/ the State Route 520 bridge

Here is a picture from late Saturday afternoon, driving due west across Lake Washington on the State Route 520 Floating Bridge  into the sun.   It was a beautiful day, with blue sky and 83 F (28 C) temperatures.    (Yes, yes – I shouldn’t take pictures while driving with my cell phone, and I really do NOT touch my phone as a rule while driving).

I’m on the far left in this panoramic picture from Wikipedia (search for Evergreen Point Floating Bridge).  In 1989, an electrical fault caused the draw span to open during rush hour, causing one death and five injuries. In 2000, a gravel barge struck the bridge, closing it for eleven days and causing $500,000 worth of damage.  The bridge is actually nearing the end of its useful life and is scheduled for replacement by 2014 after a lot of political wrangling over how to go about it, and Microsoft weighing in as well.   (The Microsoft campus is on the east side of the bridge in a town called Redmond).

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Thursday/ got the visa

I took the bus to downtown to go pick up my passport with the new visa in, at the office. I stayed there for a bit to catch up on my e-mails as well.

Waiting for the No 10 bus on 15th Avenue. The Newcastle Brown Ale beer truck must have replenished the supplies of the bars and restaurants close by : ).
The view of downtown from my desk in the offices on 5th Avenue, towards Elliott Bay in Puget Sound. (Ignore the mosquito in the window! Ha!). There’s Macy’s department store, and to its right the lower triangular one is Westlake Center. Look for the monorail train at the bottom, picking up passengers for the short run to the Space Needle.
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Wednesday/ passports and visas

It was rainy this morning, and cleared up later.  I don’t mind the rain at all.  One of Seattle’s monikers is Rain City, after all. (For a while there was Jet City, while Boeing was still headquartered here, and we have Emerald City for tourists, a better one than Rain City, I’m sure).

It was a busy day, but not too hectic.  I bought a Mandarin phrasebook (the inevitable panda on the little guy’s shirt), a Hong Kong book, and a Chinese character study book. Sounds like I’m serious about learning some Chines,  but all I hope for is to make a start with, say 200 or so characters !

My passport and multiple-entry visa will arrive tomorrow (the first visa only allowed two entries, and I have used both).  I also went ahead today and applied for an ‘enhanced’ drivers license that can be used to cross the border into Canada and Mexico by car, ferry or rail (or foot, I suppose) – just in case I had to send in my passport, and then want to go up to Vancouver for the weekend.   I was allowed to smile, see? : ) which surprised me because I thought smiling distorts the biometric data gleaned from one’s face (lines between the eyes, nose and mouth) on the picture.

Tonight my friends & I went to a nice neighborhood bar for cocktails, beers and pub food. It was wonderful – it always is.

 

 

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Tuesday/ at the office

My body clock is still somewhat shifted, so I got up really early to come into the office here in downtown Seattle.  I use the bus two blocks from my house with my Orca card (in Hong Kong it’s an Octopus card, which I already have and plan to use lots as well).

All the printers in the office were replaced just last week (of course) with different models, so it took 30 mins for me to install new printer drivers, and then when people started arriving at 8.00 am I still had to go ask for help to scan and send in my expense reports since the instructions by the printer had not been replaced.  Aargh.

Looks like a beautiful day here from where I’m sitting.  I wonder if February will be as mild as January.   Last month was the warmest January on record here in Seattle.