Berkeley and more shops

Sunday, the 16th August; and we walk up to our local neighborhood and turn left for a change. Walked past some high end restaurants and on to Noah Bagel, where we had a breakfast of a Noah Lox Special and two coffees. Accustomed to huge American serves, we decide on one Noah Special and a plain bagel, so we can share. Opps we forgot we are in California and SF to boot - the home of the "foodie" scene. The coffee is organic, fair trade, low food miles and surprisingly, really good. The lox bagel is smeared with cream cheese, not 1/2" thick like New York and just the right amount of capers, Spanish onion, tomato and cucumber. Hard to share. Lady P gets this strange look about her and you can almost hear her thinking, 'I'm not gonna give Flashy any salmon.' She's nice, and she does give him a little to go with his plain (but delicious) bagel. A very nice breakfast. Onwards and upwards and downwards on foot to the local Kensington Farmers Market not far away. 

My goodness, it could almost be France. A small suburban street closed for about 30 stalls selling the most amazing, organic, free trade, low food miles, non caged, dog friendly, Californian, hippy stamped, high - no very high - quality produce and food stalls. Buggar, we could have forgone the bagel and had a Big Boys Fat Bits rib ends or a paella or lots else. Too full though, but we do need hydration, as it's getting into the 90's. Luckily, we find the local pub, Kensington Circus and have a shandy and a pint of IPA. Flashman did not have the shandy. We could have been in a local corner pub in the middle of London except the barmaid spoke with a delightful Californian drawl. What a wonderful but very WASP suburb and market. We return to our cottage, literally 10 minutes away, deposit our goodies into the fridge, grab 'the bitch', (our navman)  and then head to the shopping malls out of town. It's now 105F. Flashman reluctantly accompanies Lady P as he would like a new pair of walking shoes. We discover Walmart in the burbs and buy $3 t-shirts and some undies and stuff but no shoes. We also try the discount store at Pleasant Hill and a Target at Walnut Creek but no bargains to be had. We do discover a Zachary's Chicago Pizza and being a little peckish, stop in for a slice of Pepperoni and a Stella; the driver has a mint tea. Head along the freeway and down the hill into civilisation, the Bitch doesn't miss  a beat thankfully, as we negotiate a spaghetti junction type freeway connection at Oakland.  Oh, well, there's always LA to finish off the shopping. Home to laundry and admin and a dinner of lamb kofta, yoghurt, mint and cilantro dip and salad, courtesy of the market stalls and the local supermarket. 'Drink the red,' she says, 'Save the whites for when we get together with Tas.'  Who am I to argue.