A catch-up of news and onto week 2

So, I have just set this up, so I will write a few things from week one.

Mark and I drove to the house from LAX in the dark with Lulu in the back panting with excitement (Lulu not me).

Our road isn't called West Hills for nothing, as we travelled higher and higher with incredibly steep roads. I just thought, there is no way I'm walking anywhere!!!! San Francisco type hills!

We arrived to our small cul de sac, but I don't think that's what they call it. There are road numbers such as 22950 - wow. Our road has 4 houses on it and yet we are 7019 - what is that about? Maybe a potential to build more houses? Weird!

We have two Russian families in our road - have you see the TV series The Americans?

Mark and I have been to two off leash dog parks, both 1/2 hour away, one in Thousand Oaks which is called Conejo Dog Park and the other called Sepulveda Basin off leash dog park near Encino, which is very close to LA and hellish to get to with the 5 lane freeway. I am getting better at driving and learning the American highway code, although turning left always makes me take a deep breadth and turning right on a red light is always interesting. All I can say is that Mark has more horns beeped at him than I have had.

In Conejo Park everyone was really friendly, but Lulu was a little overwhelmed by the number of dogs. Sepulveda park was teaming with dogs and she got rather scared there. Nobody chatted there and let their dogs run wild, so maybe I'll leave that one. I'm a dog lover, but when you have a pack of huskie and alsation dogs running towards you it is a little unnerving.

After a visit yesterday to the Encino park yesterday, Lulu really wasn't happy at all, so Ive decided to stay at the local recreation field which is 2 minutes away, by car - I told you I'm not walking anywhere yet!!!

What I love so far....

I love the house, although we are only using one of the bedrooms; I love the electric garage door; I love the garden, especially when its sunny (it was raining heavily for the first 4 days); I love the shopping and restaurants; I love the fact you can take a dog into many shops and they all seem to love dogs; I love that I am here finally spending time with my other 1/2 and the sound of crickets in garden is cool.

Other things.....meeting the neighbours....

They all seemed very friendly - two of the families are Russian as I said.

Everyone was keen to tell about the rattlesnakes and coyotes backing onto our garden. One neighbour opposite said one of her maltese dogs was pulled through the fence and attacked by a coyote after the fires, but it was chased off by the other dog. So we don't let Lulu out in the evening, as that's when they have been known to be there.

The fire stories are interesting and scary, but apparently only happen every ten years - so we'll be OK. They had a fire engine at the foot of the hill right next to our house for the few days of the fires and they kept wetting the land to stop the fires coming this way. They had been told to leave, but all had decided to stay. Scary stuff.

I managed to buy Silent Pool at the duty free and have actually found Marmite here so Im sorted!