hills behind Berkeley where we were afforded some spectacular views looking back over the land and out over the bay once again. We stopped a couple of times at various spots and got out for a batter view, from different angles but always with the same breathtaking quality. The second time I 'turned to walk back to the car and noticed faz the first time the numberplate. I remember Robin Johnson saying that in America it is possible to have a numberplate with almost anything on it and that Forry Ackerman has the number SCI-FI. I had not quite believed it but there on the front of the Browns car was the plate reading LOCUS. The opportunity was, too much to pass up so I captured it with the camera. We drove a little way further and then suddenly we were at the Brown residence. From the road it looks like a low single story house but as 'we walked down along a board path to the front door I realised that the road level is only the first level, the hill drops away steeply and there are another couple of levels below the first. By Australian standards the price of the plane might have been modest but an Australian who could have afforded a house like it would have considered himself quite rich. We were introduced to their cat, called "cat" and shown around the house, we were impressed and it was easy to understand why Charlie & Der a liked showing it off. The back yard was magnificent but not, I suppose, very useful for growing things in. The land Juan dropped away very steeply and the tall pine trees down at the.bottom of the 'valley were well below the verandahs of the house. The verandahs were also balconies, obviously, and we settled ourselves down on one of them (there are two, one on top of the. other) and talked for a while. Charlie decided to see if there were any other people around we might see hut unfortunately they were all tied up, though I did chat to Grant Canfield for a few minutes. For dinner we decided to drive to Oakland for a chinese meal at a restaurant Charlie & Dena liked. The drive down through the hills was very enjoyable in the dusk with the lights of the city just becoming visible. I suppose I should mention that very early on that if we weren't actually in San Francisco but in Berkeley or Oakland we didn't still call it San Francisco. Why this was so I'm not sure but when in Berkeley one does as the natives do. So I suppose I should say that the lights of the cities of Berkeley, Oakland and all the other cities but that seems to take up a lot of time so I hope the locals won't mind if I don't. The restaurant didn't look to be much but the food was excellent, even though the dumpling soup wasn't all that I would have liked, Valma persisted in trying to get me to eat prawns but, as always, I got out of it. I had always been under the impression that chinese foods weren't spiced to make them hot in the same way that Indian meals are. I was wrong and I suppose this is partly due to the styles of cooking that I've been used to. That meal was very well spiced and in particular the bean paste (or whatever) was very hot. 77