Stayed with John D for 5 days in Dublin, south of San Fran city. We went to Napa for some wine tasting and figured out that the wineries with very grand grounds and tasting rooms are usually overcompensating for not so great wine, but we had some great wines too. Went to Flight of the Conchords final show in their latest tour which was at Berkeley. I had expected there to be quite a few kiwis at the show but we were few and far between - just as well the locals were lapping it up.

Anood kindly adopted me for a couple of days for a Palo Alto experience including girls' night crab feast and the most gourmet bbq I've ever experienced - mini lamb burgers, pork ribs, deluxe baked beans, heart of palm ceviche, kale salad, not to mention buckets of white wine sangria.

Overall I think San Fran seems like a great place to live - not so fun to be a tourist, at least when you're on your own. I experienced the most heckling and street hustling I have anywhere. From the moment I stepped onto the street people would come out of nowhere wanting to give me directions, advice on where to queue for the cable car, or just sing at you, in exchange for a few bucks and it quickly reached a point where I stopped trying to look at my map in public places. Now of course this is just a lifestyle hazard when you hang around tourist hotspots, especially by yourself, but it did get pretty damn irritating after a while.

So yay for friends who took me out of town for some chilling time!

Things learnt:

• don't take photos in Civic Center, you may inadvertently cause a homeless guy to get beaten up

• Fisherman's Wharf is cold. Always. Even if it's sunny in Dublin. Even if it's sunny in the city centre. Take your fleece.

• crossing the Golden Gate bridge is twice as cold as Fisherman's Wharf. TAKE YOUR FLEECE

• ceviche is a salad I can make myself

• shallots are pronounced "shell-its"