Bad news

When I woke up on Saturday morning the first thing I saw was Flora sitting beside me on the bed and looking down at me - she is so sweet! We have had a pleasant couple of days at home and much laundry has been processed. I took Davie to the station on Saturday lunchtime to get the train home to Manchester. This was more complicated than it should have been because it turns out that there are rail works going on until April which are causing a lot of disruption to travel. However David caught a train to Carlisle, and was lucky then to get a train directly from there to Manchester. In the evening we watched the recently released Luther film. I liked the Luther television series but the film plot was a bit far-fetched. The cats have been paying us a great deal of attention, and Floof has been following me from room to room! It’s nice to be home. 

However news from Kenneth is not good. He has very kindly updated me regularly since he first contacted me when we were in New Zealand. Jackie has still been able to read messages but is too ill to reply; she sent me a little “heart” emoji a couple of days ago. Sadly her treatment has now stopped and on Friday she was transferred to the Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice. By the time we returned from holiday on Friday only her immediate family are allowed to visit her, and Kenneth said that she is very tired and quiet, perhaps exhausted from the transfer or perhaps a further deterioration in her condition. I can hardly believe that this is happening.

* Update late at night: Kenneth has informed me that Jackie died earlier today, peacefully in her sleep. I am heartbroken. 

Home again!

After a delightful (and most importantly horizontal) sleep, I woke feeling rested but somehow wrong, as if it was the middle of the night. Which of course it was, in California. A shower soon perked me up and then we met Cat for brunch at The Two Magpies near their flat, where we had coffee and French toast. I’m hoping that one more good night’s sleep will bring us into line with UK time. 

We walked back to the hotel to collect our cases. It was cold but not as cold as I had feared, probably because California was unseasonably cool when we were there, so we are at least partly acclimatised. The flight from Heathrow to Glasgow seemed so very short compared to all of our other flights. Soon we arrived home to Davie and the cats, and it was great to see all three of them! The cats looked astonished to see us; who knows what they have thought of our absence? There is still snow lying in the garden. We had a curry with Davie and chatted, it was a lovely evening. 

L.A. to London

I went to post a letter in Coronado yesterday morning and I realised that we would soon be long gone from this beautiful (almost) island. The streets are clean and pretty, lined with little shops and restaurants. It was still early enough that the air felt a little cool even though it was sunny. I felt good and yet I felt the weight of intense sadness because of the news from home.

Our journey back to Los Angeles went smoothly, the roads didn’t seem as busy as last week, and we are a bit more experienced at navigating the freeway system. There were no big waits at the airport, and soon we were ensconced in our seats for the ten hour overnight flight to Heathrow. I didn’t sleep all that well I don’t think, maybe a couple of hours at best, and I ended up watching three films! The first was “My Old School” about the man who re-enrolled in Bearsden Academy at the age of 32 under an assumed name in the 1990s. I remember the story well from when it was in the news at the time, and the film was fascinating. Then I watched “Benediction” which was about Siegfried Sassoon and was very interesting but also very sad. And finally I watched a recent Diane Keaton comedy about a 30 year old switching into a 70 year old’s body which was only mildly amusing. 

Anyway I was pretty tired by the time we got off the plane, and what with waiting quite a long time for our luggage and then travelling via the Elizabeth Line (our first time!) and the DLR to our hotel, it was nearly 3 p.m. when we arrived. I leaped into bed, instantly fell unconscious, and had a solid two hours of sleep before getting up to meet Ally and Cat for dinner (they kindly treated us) and then to the Harold Pinter Theatre. The play was called Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons (annoying name) and starred two top luvvies; Aiden Turner and Jenna Coleman. Both actors were excellent and the dialogue was sharp and funny, however the whole premise didn’t stand up to too much scrutiny. We all enjoyed it except James, which doesn’t totally surprise me because it was a bit like Harold Pinter’s “Betrayal” and he hated that! We went to the stage door and met the actors; they are both very good-looking, and I got some photos of Cat with Aiden Turner. We went back to Ally and Cat’s flat for a cup of tea. Their kitchen is stacked up in boxes ready for installation, I can’t wait to see it completed, it’s going to be lovely. It was only a 15 minute walk back to the Premier Inn at Westferry, which is brand new and right beside the DLR. 

Coronado Beach

Today (Tues 7th March) we decided to have a fairly leisurely last (whole) day in California. In the morning we went to the Historic Old Town of San Diego, which is much restored and consisted mainly of restaurants and shops. It’s quite pretty and we wandered around happily. Back in Coronado we had lunch before heading to the beach. We brought beach towels from the hotel and I relaxed on the sand while James took himself for a big walk towards the enclosed naval area. He had a lovely time and saw UH60 Seahawk and V22 Osprey helicopters, and a C2 Greyhound on board delivery aircraft, among others. 

I was feeling preoccupied because of some bad news from Scotland, but it was good to be on the wide, sandy beach in the sunshine. 

Later we went to Little Frenchies for dinner. The food was excellent but the restaurant was rather noisy, I think that it must have been the acoustics. It quietened down by the time we were tucking into our delicious soufflés, and we had a nice chat with our waiter, who is Jamie’s age and about to go travelling in New Zealand for his honeymoon. 

More Balboa park and Point Loma

Sadly it was time to say goodbye to Margaret this morning (Mon 6th) as she was heading back to Arizona. She and I went around a few of the cute wee local shops in Coronado and then walked down to the beach one last time. After taking her to the airport and saying our farewells, James and I returned to Balboa Park. This time we went to the Air and Space Museum, which was quite good; James loved it of course. One of the planes was The Spirit of St Louis which was flown by Charles Lindbergh, and it had a good Space section too. I went round it at a brisk pace and then sat outside in the sunshine and read my book. James went round more slowly to take in all the details. 

Our next expedition was to Point Loma to see the statue of Cabrillo, the first European to land on Californian soil in 1542. His expedition was kind of under-appreciated at the time but he is well commemorated now. I wonder if he would be surprised that there is a great big statue of him overlooking San Diego. There’s quite a good wee visitor centre there too, and we watched a short film about his expedition. He broke his leg during it and died of gangrene shortly afterwards, so he never got home to Portugal again. From the cliffs at the statue there are great views over the city, with Coronado in the foreground.

Balboa Park and La Jolla

This morning (5th) we headed to Balboa Park which is the main urban park of San Diego. It borders onto San Diego Zoo, but we don’t like zoos so we didn’t go in there. Some of the buildings in Balboa Park date from the Expo in 1915, and they are all in a Spanish / Mexican style, kind of yellow ochre in colour. They include many museums, one of which (The Museum of Us) has a tower. Margaret suggested that we go up the tower to see the view, and we were not disappointed as we could see all around San Diego and into Mexico, which is only 10 miles away. There are also lots of open spaces and cafés, and we sat down to listen to the large outdoor Spreckels organ, which was playing tunes from West Side Story. Next stop was the Japanese tea garden - for a cup of tea of course! 

Back in the car we drove to La Jolla (which is strangely enough pronounced La Hoya!) It’s a very popular and busy beachside area of San Diego and we grabbed a quick lunch and went for a walk. We saw lots of pelicans which were just over the fence from the path, which was brilliant. However what was less brilliant was the smell of their copious poop, which was atrocious. I was glad that we visited La Jolla but my heart is definitely in Coronado where I think that the beach is much nicer. 

Later on, we visited the iconic red-roofed Hotel del Coronado for pre-dinner drinks, it’s known as “The Del” to aficionados like ourselves! (Actually we didn’t know that until we read it on the cocktail menu!) “The Del” is where the exterior shots of the 1958 film “Some Like It Hot” was filmed, and it does look very striking with its circular central building and its attractive gardens. And dinner was in the very popular Henry’s restaurant near our hotel. Somehow it seemed a bit less convivial when we were there, than it had appeared when passing it on other evenings. That cannot have been the influence of our merry little group because we had a delicious dinner and a fine time. 

The Midway with Margaret

This morning (Sat 4th) drove over the bridge and parked near Embarcadero. There was an area roped off for some sort of event so we went over to ask a police officer what it was about. She told us that it was a concert “for young people, it’s all electric sounds, you would need to take drugs to go to it!” We thought that was very amusing advice from a police officer! The Embarcadero area is very attractive and we strolled along it, then at Margaret’s suggestion we jumped on to a boat trip which took us south under the Coronado Bridge and past lots of warships. James absolutely loved this of course, and Margaret and I also enjoyed the trip, the bridge and city looked really beautiful from the water. The morning had started off grey but gradually the sun came out and it turned into a sunny and warm afternoon. After our boat trip we walked along past shops and restaurants and had a lovely brunch at the waterfront. Then Margaret proved her friendship for us (yet again, because she has proved it many, many times before!) by suggesting that we should all go to the Midway Museum, since we were right there. James was absolutely thrilled. We had been going to wait until after Margaret’s visit because aircraft are James’ passion and he wanted to spend lots of time on the Midway, so he was really happy to get there sooner than he expected. It was interesting in a big aircraft carrier sort of way, and not too busy so there was plenty of room to wander around. We watched a short but moving film about the Battle of Midway (1942) which was a victory for the Americans, but a costly one. The USS Midway was actually not in the battle, it was built afterwards and was named after the battle. We went up to the flight deck and James immersed himself in all of the aircraft displays, while Margaret and I strolled the length of the deck then went to the café downstairs where we got ourselves cups of tea and then sat outside on a side deck to chat and enjoy the view. Margaret and I have drunk tea in many places but an aircraft carrier must be one of the most unusual. Eventually we went back upstairs to find James, who was finished looking around and was just on his way to find us. Then we walked to the Gaslamp District where the buildings are a bit older and there are lots of restaurants and bars. We stopped for cocktails before heading back to the car. It was just getting dark and as if by magic a bunch of strange characters appeared on the streets, either drunk or high. One man for example was stripped to the waist and was gyrating around while yowling and groaning. I drove back to Coronado and we had dinner in the Bluewater Boathouse Seafood Grill at the harbour, which Margaret had booked. It was top notch and the food was absolutely lovely. I did however regret ordering a pudding out of pure greed; I couldn’t even finish it. We walked back to the hotel in the dark along the promenade. Another great day in San Diego. 

Cycling on Coronado

In the morning we had breakfast in the hotel and then went for a walk around the local area before going to collect Margaret from the airport. It was great to see her! We drove back to Coronado and had a delicious brunch at Frenchies. Then we picked up some bikes from the hotel and went for a ride. This was terrifying because we quickly realised that the bikes did not have any brakes! So there I was wobbling around on the road with no brakes and cars going past! We made our way down to the promenade at the ocean which was carless and therefore much less scary, and we found out that you could slow down and stop the bikes by gently pedalling backwards. We then cycled for a couple of miles along the Coronado cycle path. The good things about it were beautiful views and no traffic, the bad things were it wasn’t beside the sea and was rather straight and monotonous, following the road. I was also very thirsty because I hadn’t taken any water with me. Still, it was nice to be back on a bike and we enjoyed ourselves. After some cool drinks in a café we went down to the beach and James went for a walk while Margaret and I lay on our beach towels and chatted. It was a gorgeous sunny afternoon. 

Later we had a very upmarket dinner in a French Restaurant where the waiters were so attentive that one of them came over when he noticed that I wasn’t drinking my pineapple juice very fast, to see if I liked it! The food was wonderful and we had a great evening. 

LA to San Diego

We woke to a sunny and warmer day (2nd March). By our standards it was warm anyway; I noticed that the locals were still wearing coats! We went down to the hotel pool which we haven’t used yet, not only is it very pretty, surrounded by palm trees, but it is delightfully warm. I was the only person in it, there were other hotel guests around the pool but they remained fully dressed. From our hotel window we have a great view of this year’s Oscar preparations. The Oscars ceremony will take place on March 12th. Since we have arrived, lots of scaffolding has gone up outside the Dolby Theatre so the red carpet must be going to be fully covered. Our local coffee shop where we get breakfast is offering discounts to Oscar workers. 

Our hire car was delivered to our hotel and we set off from Hollywood to San Diego at midday. James offered to drive and I navigated, mostly successfully but I made a mistake right in the busiest part of LA and took us off the freeway. We soon got back on track although the freeway was extremely busy in places, with up to sixteen lanes! It should have taken us two and a half hours to drive to San Diego but volume of traffic added on about an extra hour. We also stopped for a late lunch at the pretty little harbour at Oceanside. James was very excited to see lots of helicopters flying about as we approached San Diego, where the traffic got busy again. We got onto the bridge to Coronado Island which looks very smart so far, and found our hotel, the Marisol Coronado. It’s a small hotel and our room is pristine. We weren’t really hungry for dinner so James went out and got us snacks and we lay on the bed and watched a film about aliens attacking Los Angeles. 

Getty Museum, Venice Beach and Santa Monica

We got off to a slow start this morning (Wed 1st March) James arranged car hire for the last part of our holiday to San Diego, and I had a chat with Kenneth about Jackie. I am thinking about her all the time and sending her my thoughts and wishes across the miles. I feel very far away from her.

We took an Uber to the Getty Museum, and thoroughly enjoyed our experience. As well as the art collection, which is well worth seeing, the building itself is very attractive in a modern way, all white with courtyards and fountains and gardens, and fantastic city views. It was sunny today although rather chilly, and we could see snow on the mountains beyond the city. At one point as we were walking through the courtyard there was a very tiny flurry of about three snowflakes, which sent the locals running volubly for cover and the people in the coffee kiosk were slamming down their shutters! To be fair they are probably nervous because they had some snow a few days ago and there is an unusual amount of snow elsewhere in California. We had a pleasant lunch in the café before taking another Uber to Venice Beach. By this time it was nearly five o’clock, about an hour before sunset, and our Uber driver sternly but helpfully told us not to get caught in Venice Beach after dark; he said that the boardwalk is not well lit and that there can be some very unpleasant characters about. We walked across the beach to the Pacific Ocean which was crashing against the sand, dark blue and shiny in the low sun. Then we walked along the path, lined with palm trees and hippy shops, towards Santa Monica, about 5 km along the coast. Even though it’s winter there we’re still quite a few skateboarders, cyclists, roller bladers, and even a few stalwarts playing beach volleyball. The sun was setting as we approached Santa Monica Pier and we paused to take a few photos before it sank into the ocean. We turned inland to catch a train back to the city, which went well apart from seeing some people smoking crystal meth on the station steps! Then it was a short Uber ride back to the hotel. By now it was getting seriously cold, perhaps because it was quite windy. We went into the Chinese Theatre just across from our hotel and watched Antman: Quantumania which we both found to be very entertaining (although it has had poor reviews from the critics apparently). Afterwards we walked briskly back to our nice warm room at the hotel.