The BBC

 British Bankers Club, of course. 

I woke up around 1, maybe 12:30 and last night had gotten 20 things together and ready to photograph and list on Ebay. I did some cleaning up and things like oiling the bike chain, and took off for Whole Foods via Hedding, so the quickest route. 

I have my pay check in hand but can't deposit it earlier than it's dated, and it's dated for tomorrow so today I was going to do something else. 

It's very windy and there's all kinds of stuff in the air so I was coughing and had a horrible fit of coughing and had to get off the bike right across from the jail, gargle a lot of Listerine, and gradually get better, then went on my way to Whole Foods.  

After a quick visit to the loo I walked over to the train station and was just in time for a train; myself and a lot of other people ran for it. So if I left here at 1:45 and that just barely worked, I'll want to leave here at 1 or a bit before, next time. 

I ended up sitting near some people who were talking, a couple of guys who are somehow involved with trains at a high level something like the whole Western end of the country, and some random guy, and when the random guy left I talked with the train guys a bit too. They hadn't heard of the Skyline on the island of Oahu in Hawaii, though. 

I walked over to the place and did my business and it went a lot better than I'd hoped it would, so as the Brits say, quid's in. 

On my walk back, I stopped in one thrift store and bought a really neat book about Hilo Hattie. Growing up in Hawaii, that had only been a name I'd seen on the side of some of the tour buses, but it turns out she was a real character. The book's not very polished, but the lady who wrote it talked to "hundreds of people" and it's got tons of information in it. Also tons of things I don't think you'd understand if you didn't grow up in Hawaii with your lifetime and Hattie's overlapping, in my case roughly 15 years. It's a treasure trove of things to look up. 

In another thrift store I got a Hawaii Volcanoes National Park T-shirt so there was a bit of a theme here I guess. 

I hadn't eaten yet, although it was late afternoon by now. I was going to go to a sandwich shop by the train station, so I walked over there, and noticed the restaurant "British Bankers Club" has a big patio and really their proper front door, not what I'd seen on the street walking by so many times, right there. I looked at the menu and the happy hour prices were right in line with those of the sandwich shop. 

So I went in there and tried the "happy burger" and their IPA which was $9 for I guess a pint. It was the best burger I've ever had, too. It's not just that I hadn't eaten yet, it's that it was really, really good. And a lot nicer than eating in the crowded sandwich shop, as the place only opens at 4 in the afternoon for the evening shift, so it was just me, sitting at the bar, and a few people who wanted to eat out on the patio, in the wind. 

The waitress/bartender (or at least beer-pourer) was from Chile and we ended up talking about all kinds of things. So that was fun too. 

I felt like I would almost fall asleep on the train ride back, but at least I had an interesting view because it was now commuter hours and I had to go to the upper deck to get a seat. Then it was just a walk back to Whole Foods, buy some beer, ride over to the Amazon place to pick up bubble mailers, and ride back here. 

It's really cold (for the time of year) and blustery out there and it's supposed to be a bit rainy on Saturday. Normally the busking season doesn't start until May so I'm not really surprised. 

Today's freebees: 2 single-serving bags cheddar/sour cream potato chips, 2 bags "Smartfood" popcorn, two little bags peanuts, one little bag pistachios. I could have hauled off the whole box, full of all kinds of chips, candy bars, instant pot noodles, yadda yadda but I only wanted to take what I really like, because it's stuff left outside a different food place and kind of a known point for food to be left out so there are people I'd be leaving in the lurch if I took it all.