Blog/2024-12-31/End of the Year

This has been quite the year for us.

January

Julie and I spent New Year's Day last year in Torres Del Paine, hiking up to Mirado Britanico and then to Refugio Paine Grande - the mountain lodge.

I rushed Julie to this point saying that we needed to get there before the trail closed. Fact: there was no one to close it

We use to live just off 4th Street in San Francisco's SOMA district. The building we were in had some 14 units or so (with each one built as a loft). Ours was on the top floor and we'd wake up to views of downtown San Francisco. We moved out of there just as the tall building at 555 4th St started being built.

You can see the crane in the shot

Around that time, Canadian-Indian relations weren't so hot because of the Khalistan issue and the killing of a Khalistani leader. This particular issue would cause us some annoyance since it made it harder for my parents to get a visa to Canada to go see my uncles and aunts who live there.

That day was really something

They had jeeps too

SOMA is full of event spaces and things like that, so one fun thing that happened was that Julie was walking home one day when she saw that there was a LiveRamp event happening at Thriller Social Club - which is on the corner of the street we live on. So we stopped by and had some of them over since another friend of ours from LiveRamp was staying with us that week - a pleasant coincidence.

The music here is very loud.

February

One of the days in February there was this big deal downtown near where I worked and there were lots of PG&E trucks and police gathered around a smoking manhole.

It was a big deal guys

That was when we'd just started playing mahjong and barely had the rules together: we'd play the Taiwanese variant that Julie's family played to start with. Eventually we got around to playing the Chinese Standard tournament rules which are somewhat more complex! (and I think more fun, but Julie wins most often at both)

A crude start!

Our home there had a single parking spot that was quite tight. At the start of the year, Karen had been traveling a while and her car battery had run out. The only problem was that the only realistic way to get into the car was via the passenger side: which had no keyhole. The car was out of charge so the fob wouldn't work. So it fell to us to pop the hood with a tent rod through the few centimetres the driver's side would open before jumping the car (at which point it scared the metric Jesus out of us by going at full car alarm).

Perhaps shouldn't have backed in

This was also when we first went over to see our friends Charles and Anne's child. Charles was sort of responsible around this time the previous year for Julie and me finally getting together because at our other friend Armaan's bachelor party he brought up Julie and asked whether or not we were dating. Panicking I said yes, and then had to inform Julie of this fact.

For Chinese New Year that year we went to see the parade, the favourite part of which for me was all the little kids from some school dressed as mahjong tiles. Adorable! Sadly I don't have a photograph of them.

Appropriate Clothing there from me

The parade was a nice event for San Francisco since it packed the city: something that isn't that common here since the pandemic and resulting WFH policies have left downtown looking like some liminal space representing an abandoned city built in the '90s.

Quite the crowd for SF

And then we flew to Hawai'i to stay at Julie's childhood home. We were visiting because her sister was getting married.

Back at home for Julie

March

While we were on O'ahu we visited the Pearl Harbor memorial sites, including the USS Arizona memorial. This last one is quite striking when you think about all those young men in their 20s heroically attempting to fight back against a surprise attack. War is fought by a lot of young kids. And the biggest discovery for me there was that ships of that time needed a lot of firemen because they were steam powered. Almost everything was dedicated to boilers and managing them etc. Automation and superior engines must be quite the advance in war these days.

We hit up a few old spots we also like: The Honolulu Coffee House and Jai Dee Massage right by it on Kapi'olani Boulevard.

We then went to visit my childhood friends Avinash and Anisha and their two kids. This was the first time Julie was seeing them so unfortunately they all ganged up on me for telling her tales of my tough life in India. We watched the Netflix special from Mike Birbiglia called The New One which is about him, his wife, and his child. This is one of my favourite comedy specials. I just about died.

I also taught Julie how to play Carrom and we had a good few games. We've still got the board, but we don't play it so much anymore.

Obvious novices

Ages ago, someone on Reddit's /r/sanfrancisco had been talking about a police cruiser with a picture of Texas on the back window and some chap who was a policeman replied that they don't get to do things like that and that all cruisers have to be identical and so on. Well, mid March I actually spotted this impossible police cruiser!

Clear as day! That's Texas!

We also flew to Vancouver for my cousin Monisha's wedding.

I'm blue da-ba-dee

The actual wedding venue was quite stunning!

Julie has clearly stolen my overcoat here

We also went to Pitt Lake which is quite the drive from Coquitlam in British Columbia but is a nice easy visit.

There were a bunch of ultralights in the air

For the final day of the month, my buddy Sherif and I went to the local Gooner bar to see Arsenal play Manchester City. A nervy away game at the Etihad: 0-0.

A good day, overall. We stood in the street and had a morning beer watching the game.

April

Terrible start to the month with the Hualien Earthquake. Julie's family there was fortunately unhurt. Damage in the house but they were fine.

We managed to fit some lumber from Home Depot into the car.

An advantage to not having a closed bed like a Cybertruck!

And saw it, stain it, and screw it together to prototype our wedding arch.

The actual structure is more-or-less exactly what we used

This was also our last IVF cycle.

May

This was a pretty good month. Our friends Shreyas and Karen (who lived with us at the time) were married at City Hall by the same judge who ran our ceremony a year before.

We also had Julie's bachelorette.

Yes, post-wedding bachelorette

In the middle of the month, as I was walking back home by Moscone, I saw some protesters at the doctor's conference. They were anti-circumcision guys. To be honest, I thought they had a point.

We also went to Las Vegas since our nephew on Julie's side just finished high school and we were to attend his graduation ceremony. Afterwards, we went to the Sphere to see Postcard From Earth by Darren Aaronofsky.

I didn't really like the message but the visuals were amazing!

The week after, when we were home we decided to go hike Angel Island.

On the way up

A few days later we ate at Tiya - which is a fancy Indian restaurant. The food was pretty good and we'd return to it later in the year with my parents and brother.

June

I bought a sound meter with the aim that I would catalogue the noise level everywhere I go. In the end, it turned out that the iPhone microphone is pretty good at this and if you use the NIOSH app you can get just as good an estimate as with a calibrated meter.

Anne couldn't make it so Charles and I went. It was a blast. Very funny!

We also walked by and hung out to watch the SF Pride Parade. It was pretty much coincidence since we'd gone to Barry's Bootcamp that morning and were just walking back. Market was closed and this was going on. We watched a bit from McKesson Plaza and then walked home.

A good thing to watch after Barry's Bootcamp

July

This was a big month for us. July 20th was the day we were having our wedding. But first, it was American Independence Day. For the Fourth of July, we went on the Napa Wine Train.

If you like fizzy flavored wine this is the car for you.

A week later, Julie had an embryo implanted.

I had already done my bit by now

And a week or so after that, Julie and I had our wedding ceremony here in San Francisco on Treasure Island.

In the city where we met, became friends, started dating, and on and on

It was exactly what I could hope for. Unfortunately for me, I got an intense case of the hives the week before and an upset stomach a couple of days before. To be honest, it was a week with a lot of sensations. But the whole thing went off well and we had loads of friends and family attend. A happy day.

August

We went to Vegas for my bachelor party. This was a good time. I shot automatic weapons for the first time which was quite the experience. And we went to Absinthe, which Julie had been to and loved. We also did this laser tag thing in a maze where the pistols had these blanks that would explode to create the impression you were firing. The vest you wore would then shock you. This was a tremendous time. Then I learned to play poker and lost my money.

We also signed a lease for a place across the street starting September 15. It is nice and sunny and close to both our places of work. About then, our other friends Armaan and Chandler moved closer. Armaan, Shreyas, Sagar, and I would then play basketball fairly regularly for the next few months.

At the end of the month, we went to Yosemite Valley and hiked a little bit. I'd twisted my ankle playing basketball so I didn't do Half Dome like some of the others, but still had a good time.

Taft Point was quite foggy to start with but it did clear up near the end

A Starlink Mini works very well in the valley with a tool battery.

September

September was primarily occupied with moving. We hired Royal Moving Company as movers and they were very efficient with everything. I was quite surprised that they were able to do everything within the window. It was a semi trailer truck's worth of stuff. We had to pack and then unpack and it took forever, mostly due to my own laziness since Julie was very diligent about all of this.

We also arranged to have some things taken away but a couch was stolen overnight as we left it for our scheduled SF Recology pickup, which wouldn't be a problem except for the fact that the thief moved it to the other side of the street and left it full of his hypodermic syringes. This was awful, but after calling 311 we managed to get rid of it.

To be honest, it's quite heavy so someone very dedicated went through this. This kind of mess is unacceptable if you can do all that!

We also flew to France for a friend's wedding and used the opportunity to take a look at the Paris Air and Space Museum. This place is hella cool because it has two Concordes and a hell of a lot of fighter jets and so on.

After the wedding we flew to Santorini where I had my first hit of The Resort Experience.

October

We explored Santorini a bit more, catching all the tourist sights, and then flew through London, took the Eurostar, and flew back from France.

This is also the month I stopped working at Dexterity Capital.

We also celebrated Shreyas's bachelor party.

His favourite cricket team

November

We went to San Francisco's First Thursday block party. It was a pretty good time though most of the food is quite expensive. This was right by where I used to work and quite close to home so we just biked over.

Surprisingly crowded again. SF "returns" in fits and starts

We also went to the SF MOMA party but that wasn't that much fun because it was quite crowded. Funnily enough we ran into the head of the HOA of our old building there. Small world.

As far as I can see, no reason to go to the parties unless you like drinking. The exhibits are the same and easier to see during the day.

We went to visit my cousin in LA for Thanksgiving. I've always liked Los Angeles but the traffic there is positively insane. Fortunately, because it was a holiday things were better. If I hadn't gotten myself into a motorcycle accident I bet Julie would have let me ride there and then it wouldn't be too bad to live there because lane-splitting removes traffic.

There was this little delivery bot running down the sidewalk in LA

Then it was off to India.

December

India needs a whole post of its own. I'd forgotten how crowded the country is.

This is three in the morning. There's a lot of traffic!

Shreyas and Karen had a wonderful Indian wedding. Julie couldn't join me since we're expecting in March but I represented the family!

I also got to try out the Vande Bharat Express.

Pretty good by Indian standards!

I got to stay with my brother in Bombay and see a lot of old friends in Bangalore, Chennai, and Bombay.

On the way back I stopped over in Leicester in England. Julie joined me here and we stayed at my cousin Winston's place with his wife and three daughters. We went for a little walk down by the river near Burghley House.

Very quaint. Classically England.

When we returned to San Francisco, a couple of friends unexpectedly visited us. We made noodles with the pasta maker.

The pasta maker attachment is quite handy.

We also saw some dates at the store and decided to make some sticky toffee pudding for a pot luck at our friend's. It came out quite well, though my first attempt at the treacle resulted in a hard sugary blob! You have to leave some water in there.

Nigella's recipe at the BBC is pretty straightforward to follow

We then went to visit Julie's family in Las Vegas for Christmas. I'd already inflated in size after my trip to India. This trip completed the job, though I ended still sub 200 pounds - which is a bad weight for me.

The Arte Museum in Las Vegas was a sort of lightweight TeamLab electronic art space. I wish more of the exhibits were interactive but they were all quite nice to look at.

And finally we went to the Anyma show at The Sphere. I really like his music, and I really like the Sphere so this was a great opportunity to have both!