Travels with my blind aunt — Week One, San Francisco
A travel journal from illustrator Toby Melville-Brown and his two month journey around the world with his blind aunt.
It’s the end of the first leg, San Francisco. A week of delicious food, rare insights and some considerable accessibility challenges.
As I mentioned in my last post, our first appointment was at China Live, a fine dining experience in China Town. I began filming my blind aunt, charming the restaurant’s puree purist, Luis, who in turn, introduced her to his creative cuisine. To give you an idea of his calibre, he showed us how to make, sea grass cake with passion fruit mousse and sea grass cracker.
About those accessibility challenges… Our hotel was not safe for Penny. I imagined that foreign environments can be daunting, particularly for blind people, but here I truly understood the sheer impossibility of some spaces. At this hotel, it was essential that I directed Penny in and out of the hotel. Describing every surface, counting every staircase and warning of any drop.
Fortunately, Penny chanced upon the sweetest most generous couple you could hope to meet, Ben and Blanche. From the Lighthouse organisation. For the next three nights, they gave us a place to stay in their strangely nostalgic Californian Bungalow, in Oakland.
We spent the next two days travelling around the Oakland/Berkeley area. First was Brown Sugar. Owned by the unstoppable, Tanya, who showed us her brand of soul food; light ’n’ crispy waffles with a hunk of fried chicken, served with apple syrup, sugar butter. Yes, it was a lot. The other was The Cheese Board Collective. A rustic deli/bakery co-op, that wears its politics on its floury sleeve. Apparently our very own Paul Hollywood had been in just months before, to film a spot. Speaking of which, I hear he’s opening a new bakery in Euston Station! Just what every commuter kneads…
One subject that kept arising in conversations with those we met, was gentrification. Oakland, in particular seemed to be in the grips of a socio-economic transformation. New coffee shops sit next to the old homeless encampments. I felt mixed emotions by those that were enjoying the increased value of their homes, yet aware of the masses that would likely be displaced. All, I suspect, as a result of the growing power, of nearby Silicon Valley.
Amongst all this, there were small of windows in which I could venture off and reflect. One evening, I rode the subway into SF. It was a chance to connect with my girlfriend who has recently moved to Shanghai. She’s secured a role in Punch Drunk’s production of Sleep No More! I’m wildly proud of her. And so over the past week, it’s been strange but heartening, to share stories of our contrasting adventures running in tangent, on opposite sides of the world. Here’s hoping she’ll be able to join us, for at least some of it.
Thanks again for catching up. I’ll be posting next week about our stay in Costa Rica!
LOVE TO ALL X
