Back to the future 'normality'?

July 2019 In my last BLOG I mentioned the fact that we were both now double vaccinated……the result of having received both vaccinations brought an initial feeling of relief for the first time in many months. Relief but not a complete return to the immortality that we felt before the pandemic…….we still wear masks in shops and enclosed places, such as my ceramics classes, but it is nice to feel ok about not wearing them in the open and when eating in restaurants- we tend to eat outside though. I would go as far to say in the shops we feel naked if we are not wearing a mask and whilst that may just be a question of time, I do wonder whether masks are here to stay for good. The fact that some people choose not to have the vaccination due to their own belief system, I think will be a key influencer for the permanence of the mask in today’s world…that said Vaccinated Southern California residents are all being put into a draw to win $1.5m of prizes…..to incentivize people.

The choice to vaccinate or not, is an emotive topic and I did feel at first that we should support everyone’s right to choose. I am now moving towards having no patience at all with those people and feel it is a civic duty to get vaccinated so that there are no further virus mutations and my grandson doesn’t get Covid – people not getting vaccinated have fundamentally aligned themselves with the crazies - simple as that!

I have a group of wonderful people that I walk the dogs with and we have been united over the last 18 months with our liberal, anti-orange man views and it has been cathartic for me. That united “hive-mind” was disrupted when opinions were shared that impacted my own heritage. I am talking of the continued conversations around the royal family ….. I love the Royal Family and always have believed that they give the country a focal point that other countries (including America) are a little envious of. With Harry leaving and coming to the US to live has created a wave of opinion that is very anti-royal…..Harry is now “one of us” in the eyes of America and as such the rest of the Royal Familiar positioned as “a waste of time” , “pointless”. So, whilst I defend my point of view people believe they have the right to dismiss my life long held beliefs and I have to say – that is very frustrating. In the USA, people are convinced that we felt animosity to Megan from the start and can’t believe that we had a street party in honour of the wedding which I remember having a great time watching it on a big street with my neighbours.

We went to the Getty Centre, as it had just reopened. It is set high on a hill overlooking LA and has a wonderful collection of art and unusually for LA, there were lots of post 20th century pieces, one of which was Van Gogh's Irises, which was spectacular!

In other news, one of Mark’s senior guys retired and we went to Phoenix to celebrate his retirement with a few people. As part of his retirement gift, I made one of my circle pictures highlighting his time at BlackLine and we made our plans. We decided to drive to Chandler in Phoenix ….. it’s a min 6 ½ hours continuous drive and just seemed a bit easier and safer than getting on a plane. That’s like driving from London to Edinburgh in one go and not something we would have ever considered in the UK. The drive itself is pretty normal to Palm Springs and then enters a desert like landscape - a two lane “road to nowhere”, where the dusty, flat, sandy landscape to the hills, is occasionally broken up with a little town , gas station or in our case by some bizarre signs……”DO NOT CROSS WHEN FLOODED”, when I don’t think that stretch of road has seen any water in a thousand years. The other somewhat uncomfortable sign was one we saw just after the first Valley State Prison sign - “DO NOT PICK UP HITCH - HIKERS” – we weren’t and certainly didn’t. However our 6 ½ hour drive became an 8 ½ hour drive when I spotted the signs to an Outlet Centre after 2 hours. I have to say it was so good that we stopped on the way back too! J

We arrived at the Sheraton Grand at Wild Horse Pass, Arizona’s premier Native American-owned luxury resort – effectively the land is owned by the indigenous people and Sheraton have to pay them to use the land 😊 It was a beautiful hotel, long windy road entrance, big expanse of desert all around with just wonderful sunsets of pink and orange. We watched the sunset whilst we were waiting to order dinner – as the waitress (Kitty) approached we put our masks back on. She said “oh don’t worry about that – it’s all silly anyway – I wouldn’t be wearing one either if the hotel hadn’t said “Kitty it’s the mask or your job”! It’s funny that some people just assume that you feel the same way they do.

Next day was the day of the retirement party with 14 people there including their partners. We were lounging around in the pool when one of the guys approached to say hello and he chatted for a bit then went back to join his wife in the bar, it was 2pm, if only we had realized At 7pm we all met to wait for the retiree and whilst we were waiting it was obvious that the wife who had started drinking at 2pm, hadn’t stopped and she was spectacularly loud and sooo embarrassing. As we went through the evening she got worse, cornering people for loud chats, giving a speech that she wasn’t supposed and talking over other people’s speeches and even shouting over the Karaoke if she didn’t like the song – “rubbish, get them off”. It was hilarious and people who knew her said that she was always like this. Needless to say, there was so much wine consumed that speeches went on for 2 1/2 hours, with people saying 'I love you man and I love you dude!' It was like something out of an American movie. Such great fun, I was laughing all night!

On memorial day we spent the afternoon with Alan and Marla at their newly refurbished house, it was a lovely afternoon, although Mark almost decapitated Alan with a frisbee in the pool and Lulu got scared of the bug zapper and was found trying to find a way out of the garden in the dark.

Ceramics continues to be a big part of my week and I am making way to much stuff. I need visitors so I can give them some pottery. I am now making a cactus totem pole - that should keep me busy. I have become part of the ‘family’ there and whilst I do avoid certain conversations to avoid confrontation people seem to like me – it was suggested that maybe I should work there. We were discussing how LA has so many different burger chains and Esther was amazed that I hadn't properly tried In and Out Burger - which is huge here. Next session, she brings in enough for us all to eat and made me serve it in one of there hats. One of the order was their chips called Animal fries, which are famous apparently - it look liked someone had been sick on them to me. One of my friends there, Jayme, has a boyfriend who is in a band, Decadent Decades (they have a website) so we went up to the bowling alley in Simi Valley. Entering the bar the band were playing, but it was difficult to focus because of the look of the Simi Valley audience - tattoos were mandatory, as were sleeveless T-shirts ('wife-beaters' they are known as here), not a mask in sight and some very suspect dancing J. Having said that it was great to see people from all ages not caring what they looked like and just living in the moment. The band were brilliant, but we couldn’t shake the feeling we had been transported to middle America J

Band practice continues to be fun and great for improving my guitar progress, although not for much longer as Rick the guitarist is leaving to move to South Carolina. I have a suspicion that he is a closet Trumper, as he says that loads of people are leaving California because of the politics. This may be true as I have heard certain idiotic people hilariously label us as communist California –– I don’t think they have any idea what communism is!

Food bank is still great and I love having political discussions with Greg and Matt there. We do have the usual nutters who shout and rant that we are ‘communists’ because I ask them to wear a mask while they pick up their free food. I suppose they are everywhere.

I’m loving my OCA art course and really like my new Tutor, who insists on having online zoom chats about my work which is really encouraging. I’m starting portraiture next and feeling much more confident.

For the first time since before the pandemic we had visitors come to stay! Vinny works for Mark and lives near Boston, he came over to attend a work event and brought his Brazilian dentist wife and his son to stay with us for the 4th July weekend. We had a really fun weekend - full of laughs and it just felt really normal. Vin struggled with the fact that the English don’t get taught about Paul Revere (he alerted the army to the fact the English were coming) and as a 4th July topic it was entertaining and educational. We did a VIP tour at Universal studios with them too, although Mark picked the wrong time as apparently Ben Affleck and J Lo did the tour on the very same day! We also went out to Malibu, Hollywood Walk of Fame and even a tour to see celebrity homes, which hilariously 6’ 5” Vin hated as he is terrified of heights (there are many hair pinned bends at great heights in the Hollywood Hills). Mark slept through all of it.

It’s so odd to feel that we might be getting back to ‘normal life’, but we seem far away from international travel and no where near being able to go back to the UK. There are so many Americans telling me they are travelling to the UK or Europe and yet American won’t let the British in – is it that Americans think that they aren’t actually the ones spreading the virus? What BS and it’s starting to make me mad!!!......... and……..breath…… calm……….

Keep safe and well everyone. Hope to see you again at some point this year.