so, all is lovely (though not particularly sunny!) here in LA. we are staying in an area called Hermosa Beach , in a house that is just a couple of minutes away from a massive stretch of sandy white beach and crashing waves. we are staying with my husband’s auntie jennifer who moved out here over 30 years ago, and she is so welcoming and also an excellent maker of cosmopolitan cocktails (which is always a good trait in a host!). it has been exactly what we needed to ease us gently into the travelling.

the SoCal (Southern California to the uninitiated) way of life seems to us pretty relaxed- everyone here seems to be tanned, quite a few have silly little dogs on pink leashes, and all of them do indeed seem to spend weekends either rollerblading or cycling down the promenade at high speeds (which is a little bit dangerous to the odd clueless jetlagged meandering british person like us!) or leaping enthusiastically into the sea with a surf board under their arm.

we have only been here two days, but we have fallen a little in love with it already. our first night was spent drinking cocktails outside in jennifer’s little oasis of a garden, by a flaming chimonia and eating massive hunks of barbecued salmon, before the jetlag finally caught up with us and we turned in about 10.30. yesterday we had a lazy sunday morning reading the papers and being introduced to the concept of a breakfast burrito (this is something i most definitely intend to bring back to the uk- a toasted tortilla, filled with scrambled egg, peppers, scallions, torn cheese, avocado and salsa is a grand way to start the day!) by the husband’s cousin Chris. Chris and his girlfriend then took us down to the beach for a surfing lesson. i did all of my learning from a dry vantage point on the brow of a little hill at the water’s edge (i like to watch and learn, especially when the water is a little chilly!) but the husband was right in there, wetsuit and board and bright eyed enthusiasm! there was one hilarious moment when a proper Baywatch style lady lifeguard, all red anorak and wraparound shades, sauntered over and warned me that if he had been in there on his own she would have gone in to save him 20 minutes earlier because he wasn’t hanging off the side of his board correctly and looked like he didn’t know what he was doing. i tried to make it clear to her that it was his first ever lesson, and he didn’t know what he was doing, but she just nodded sagely, and told me to pass the message on.

all the family went to a place called ‘Simzees’ last night for drinks and dinner, which is apparently the hottest new spot in Manhatten Beach. they had a massive selection of beers, all of which seemed to be edging towards 9% abv, a great music selection playing out and american football on the many tvs. we had awesome (both in size and taste- mine was almost the size of my head, photo evidence to follow) burgers and the table shared a 'haystack' of blue cheese covered fries. it felt like we were truly in the U.S. of A!!

today we are going to do the tacky hollywood stuff. our hosts look vaguely disappointed in us, but have conceded that to come to LA without seeing the Hollywood sign, Rodeo drive and the walk of stars is akin to visiting London without seeing Big Ben, Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus. ultimately, there is not much there to see, but it is worth it for the cheesy obligatory tourist photos.

i hear rain on the window pane so that is a little disappointing, and not what i expected from ‘sunny californi-a’, but then we are here at the end of their summer so should not have expected too much. even with the rain it is nowhere near cold, like the wet and miserable ‘england in october’ we left a few days ago, so i am certainly not complaining. and i have received an email this morning from our friend in new zealand who we will be staying with at the end of the week, promising that the weather forecast is good and we should have plenty of sunshine over the next few days. tonight we will be checking in to LAX airport for another massively long flight, and another totally different time zone.
auckland here we come!