A years worth of catchup - are you still with me?

JULY 2022

Time ran away with me and I lost the impetus to share my journey and also I felt I had said all I had to say about being a foreigner in a foreign land….. but after reconnecting with an old college friend, Max, who sent me monthly blog updates which were very entertaining and who encouraged me to start writing again. It’s taken a while and I may have only a few readers, but hello to you and welcome to my continued adventures and inner thoughts on the mad world we now live in.

A QUICK CATCH UP ON THE LAST YEAR…

July 2022 saw Max, Dani & Arthur arrive in LA. I baby sat while Max, Dani and Mark went to see the 4th July celebration with Steve Martin and Martin Short at the Hollywood Bowl and then we celebrated Dani’s birthday at the Calabasas fireworks with our neighbours Marla & Alan and no we didn’t see anyone famous at all, but Arthur was a big hit with everyone he met. We packed in a long weekend in Santa Barabara, Zuma Beach, a blues jam with my neighbour Alan and day at Disney (Arthur loved Moana and Winnie the Pooh the most) and the ‘It’s a Small World After All’ ride took on a whole new magic when we saw Arthur’s expression – we luckily only went on once though! 😊

Then I had my lovely school friends Nic and Rach to visit, and we visited all the LA highlights, walked for miles and laughed every day – I had a ball!!

At the end of August, we travelled to South Carolina to my daughter Poppy and Reagan’s wedding. We flew into

Charlotte and immediately knew we were in different red territory on our 4 hour car journey into South Carolina (bear in mind that the colours for the political parties are opposite here and amusingly to me the Republicans have aligned themselves with the communist red). There were massive billboards with ‘In Trump we trust’ etc and grotesque portraits of the orange man himself. It was amazing that we didn’t pull over and throw up. On the border there was another huge billboard saying that this is the last stop for legal abortions – all very unnerving.

Mount Pleasant is a very beautiful city right by the sea, which looks like something right out of a travel brochure. The architecture is stunning with an old world feel of Gone With the Wind, with plantations all around. We stayed in an area which was a holiday destination and took ages to get anywhere as everyone poodled along in golf carts – bloody frustrating. There is a road called Trumpton hilariously!

The Wedding was in The Post House Hotel and was absolutely wonderful! Poppy looked stunningly beautiful and radiant and Reagan looked very dapper and is the perfect Southern gentleman. We met some lovely South Carolinians who we found were quite different to Californians and one man when learning we lived in California, let out an exclamation of horror as if I’d said we lived in hell itself.

In September, we took a trip to Montana to visit our friends Eric and my travel buddy from 2019, Jannet. From their beautiful house with goats and deer, we travelled to Yellowstone Park and glamped. We learnt that the previous year a Bear had wondered onto the campsite and invaded a child’s wigwam. I was very glad to see that there was a loo inside the tent, as I would be terrified to have to get up in the night and come face to face with a big hairy beast. It amazes me that the wigwams are still up and that parents would calmly place their children in them!

The following week we went to Nashville and Memphis with our other friends Sam and Angie and saw lots of live music including the 80’s band Spazmatics who are absolutely hilarious and visited Graceland again – which we loved!

October saw my adorable cousins Ian & Julie visiting us and again the visit was filled with enormous fun and laughter, ending in a Amy Winehouse tribute act, which was so convincing that I fully believed she’d faked her own death and then come back as a cover act…. Well after a few wines it made sense. Actually, she did keep dropping her Brit accent towards the end of the night though. 😊

At the end of Oct, we returned to the UK and were very excited to see Max’s band, Rootwork, perform live in Camden and for Mark’s 60th and had a roaringly good time at The Great Fosters…..

And on our return to the USA we had another party at the Golf Club for the American lot, which was a riot…. with an enormous bar bill and someone passed out in the loo at the end of the evening to prove it

Thanks Giving saw us travelling to Boston to stay with friends Vin and Luciana, where we watched the World Cup, trying not to dwell on the human rights violations associated with the event. We had a wonderful time and even managed to fit in a visit to see the Celtics play basketball…always a joy!

We were very excited to have Max, Dani & Arthur come to us for Christmas and whilst it did feel sad not to see everyone as we had done every year since forever, it felt as if it was time to let them be grownups and make their own plans. We saw Disney on ice which Arthur loved but poor Max and Dani had major jetlag and even a skating Mickey and Goofy couldn’t sustain their interest between nodding heads.

2023

With the New Year, came a resolution that appears every year but after all my travelling was even more pressing….Diet!!!

Well, that being said by the end of January we went to see Popz and Reagan in South Carolina (where Popz had been staying for a month and then we went onto the Dominican Republic where Mark intended to take a week off work – unheard of, believe me! We swam in the pool, drank copious amounts of alcohol (it was a free bar) and ate…..so much for my diet!

In March we were back in the UK, Mark was working in the London office and I had lots of hugs from my kids and was Arthur’s playmate. We had Arthur’s birthday party, a visit to Windsor with Jake, pub lunches, found the wonderful Watts Gallery near Guildford with Max, met up with old friends and enjoyed the snow and hale…. You would too if you hardly ever saw it. During a Sunday family meal in a pub, Mark’s old boss who had moved onto being the chairman of the board, called Mark with the info that with the board she had decided that Mark’s boss wasn’t cutting it and had to go…. She assured him that he was safe, but when speaking to his old boss he was told that he had 6-9 months tops and he needed to watch his back….. ☹….. 😊….

Mark went off to London to meet with the two new CEOs and I got excited looking at houses in the UK…. By Wednesday, Mark said…”why are you sending me UK houses?’…. he’d obviously been on a different emotional journey than me and had secured his career and position…..

Then my wonderful cousin Barbs came to stay and we had a raucous time, visiting Santa Barbara, seeing a Rolling Stones cover Band, Whales, Alpacas (we love Alpacas and Lamas), Moon Da Bang (a famous South Korean potter) in action at my studio, an Art Show and Barb took us to Warner Studios to immerse ourselves in the world of Harry Potter and Friends.

Mark was called to Washington DC, or as you see in every US film…’R nation’s capital” and I was excited to tag along with him. What a beautiful city. We walked everywhere and gazed at the Whitehouse; the Capital building (but we weren’t allowed in as we didn’t have guns!); the moving and inspiring Lincoln Memorial and only had time for one art museum, as well as seeing Les Misérables in the Kennedy Centre…. I’d love to go back as it really is one of my favourite cities and I’d love to go inside the White House.

In May we travelled back to the UK again for my nephew Steve and Corinne’s beautiful wedding. It was so lovely to have everyone together for such a wonderful celebration and Arthur as usual stole the show!!

Current issues making me think that UK politics aren’t that bad….

1. Disgust as there are shootings every day, including a local shooting in the shopping centre involving a drug deal. No shooting or shooter is analysed in any way to discuss modifying laws as the news has moved onto the next tragedy.

2. Dismay as Tennessee lawmakers were kicked out for their part in protesting for gun control.

3. Celebration and ‘Up yours’ when they were returned to their positions – their speeches were moving!

4. Horror when Supreme Court take away freedoms - Abortion banned in many states.

5. Continued disgust when Morning after pill banned from some states, but happy that some Dem States are stockpiling it.

6. Sickened and angered when a Dem lawmaker switched sides to Republicans straight after election.

7. F***ing mad at Marjorie Taylor Green – well …. Everything she says really!

8. Disheartened that everything is about money here… not policies or supporting society.

9. Sadness at the banning of drag acts & books before any legislation on guns.

10. Hatred of people that say they are Pro-life, then own a gun and refuse health care to women or money for the poor families.

11. Continued hatred of people who profess to be Christian, but act in every way opposite to that.

12. Shock that Ronald Reagan agreed to no assault rifles during his time as president.

13. Incredulous that the Supreme Court will allow people to deny services to the LGBTQ community as its against their religion – see point 11.