It's been a while...

Dear readers, as you know I haven’t written for a few weeks. It started with not being able to use my right hand after the bite and then progressed into not feeling I had anything to say. My hand was swollen and painful to move. Doctor Basurco had offered me pain killers, but feeling that they are used here excessively and that so many celebs get hooked on them, I said I’d just stick to Advil/Ibuprofen, though I did have the strongest antibiotics I’ve ever had which made me feel somewhat out of sorts.

So, I ended up just walking Lulu and watching TV, though on a positive note, I did start my Rosetta Stone French lessons. So far, most of it has been ‘O’ level revision and it’s amazing how much I’ve remembered from 40 years ago. 40 years ago!!! I remember my French teacher was a lovely patient older lady called Madame Edelman and I’m ashamed to say we used to play pranks on her. Does anyone remember the sound booths in schools, where the class would have earphones and we used to repeat what was said to us to practice our French pronunciation. She would then be in the main control booth looking out on us and used to switch between students checking on our hopeless mispronunciations. Someone discovered that if you licked the microphone end before you put in in the socket it sent out a high pitched noise. You can imagine the fun we had with that. Poor Madame Eldelman!!

Anyway, I don’t think I’ll ever be even remotely fluent, but it’s nice to give it a go. I use my phone for the app and the microphone is sometimes over receptive to other noises such as the air-conditioning. I couldn’t even get past ‘Bonjour’ and while shouting at the phone and trying all different ways of saying it, emphasising ‘bon’ and lowering my voice to match the male voice used as the example, I still couldn’t make it accept my version and it would give a funny ‘uh,uh’ noise( like in family fortunes) and a big red cross. Of course it’s the microphone I say! LOL

It’s been getting very interesting on the news here. There of course has been the Democratic debates with 20 candidates. O’Rourke saying ‘I’ll come for your AR assault rifles’ (the name says it all). They of course are built for military use for goodness sake. Next day he backed down as there was uproar by Republicans saying that the Democrats will take away all your guns - so disappointing. Americans are absolutely terrified of people taking their 2nd amendment away. I couldn’t believe the debates on CNN the next morning about whether it was a mistake that he had said that. Again I will say it’s beyond me!😱 I cannot understand the mentality of a people who think it’s ok to have that type of weapon floating around, even after all those mass shootings including children. Come on people what on earth is wrong with more stringent background checks at the very least?

NASCAR has reportedly banned all advertisements featuring assault weapons due to a "gradual shift" in the company's position on guns. At last people are pressuring advertisers (of course the only thing they’ll listen to is money and if it hurts the NRAs promotion). I cannot believe that during a family orientated TV NASCAR they would even consider adverts for assault rifles!

Lovely Elaine from chorus, who saw I was feeling blue about my hand and seriously watching too much TV, collected me and took me to Lovi s in Calabasas. We had one of my favourite’s Cobb salad. They do 1/2 and full plates. We had the 1/2 as Lovis is famous or infamous for their plate sizes. It was still huge but lovely.

I managed to learn my new chorus songs even some of the Xmas ones. People don’t use Xmas as it’s seen as disrespectful so write Cmas. One of the songs is called ‘The Man with the Bag’, which I’d never heard before, but its very catchy. Mark is even humming it, at least I think that what he’s humming.

My wonderful neighbour Marla brought round grapes and to see if I was ok. So glad I met her. Its funny how you meet people you connect with, isn’t it? It’s amazing that she is a Graphic Designer and likes the things I like. We also went to the Vintage Flea market and you have never seen such wonderful Halloween things; there were actual movie props with limbs and faces – very scary. Already houses have front yards filled with ghosts and large pumpkins. I can see I’ll have to get to the Halloween store – yes there actually is one! Mark and I I also went out for a very fun and raucous evening with Marla and her husband Alan. They quite happily had a cube of cannabis chocolate at the end of the meal in the restaurant before we went onto a wine club with live music – a cover band playing Tom Petty hits. The lead singer looked just like him! Mark and I only knew 2 songs, but he was clearly a superstar here. Anyway, Mark and I have decided we are just happy with the wine – hic!

At the weekend, Mark and I went to Leo Carrillo beach with Lulu, which is just 40 minutes from our house, just past Malibu beach which does allow dogs. It is a gorgeous beach and pretty quiet. Lulu had a wonderful time running in and out of the waves and made many doggie friends. It was heavenly as we sat in camp chairs with Lulu lying tired on a blanket watching the sun go down.

One evening I went with Marla on a dog walk dog in the wonderful park just a few streets away from us that overlooks the valley, when a dog ran into me and winded me, while his second dog went to number 2 by my foot. The man was apologetic, and I said it was fine, but told him that his other dog had pooed. He seemed put out and said hello in a funny way. Anyway, it turned out it was Mark’s bosses husband Brian who we had gone out with to a concert when we were first here. After walking once round the park, it dawned on me who he was and then I rushed round and apologised for not recognising him. He was very nice about it.

I just don’t expect anyone to know me here, so don’t really react if people say hello.

People love to drop in about the celebs they know here. Marla’s nephew is Joseph Gordan- Levitt. At WW, Char told us about her connection with Jennifer Flavia, Rambo’s wife. She babysat for her and got her a job when she was a teenager as a cleaner. I haven’t met anyone yet. I must be hanging around in the wrong places.

The message that week was ‘It’s none of my business what others think of me’. Easy to say, and easier to follow as I’ve got older, but I still worry about it unfortunately – doesn’t everyone?

Everyone was very excited as it was due to rain this weekend. When they said rain, I expected a downpour, but it was more like a sprinkle that in the heat dried up immediately.

What news - Trump revelations. I watched the news all day, it was unbelievable! We saw Trump with the Ukraine President which was incredibly awkward indeed – ‘No quid pro quo- they didn’t know I could be so nice. No push/pressure.’ If it wasn’t so serious, it would be laughable.....no pressure - LOL. Fox News had Rudy Giuliani on getting really angry and saying he’d been asked by the state department to get involved. Whatever credibility he did have from being the New York Mayor must surely now be gone. He held up his phone and said I have the proof. Why on earth would they pick a private citizen even if he is trumps personal lawyer to deal with affairs of state when I assume, he hasn’t had clearance checks? Delusions of grandeur, I think. I also think he’s a bit off the rails after seeing him interviewed.

‘Rudy Giuliani defended his involvement in the explosive Ukraine scandal that has led to an official impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump, saying “when this is over, I will be the hero’.

I watched TV the next day where the whistle blowers report was investigated in various interviews. If he isn’t impeached now, I have no idea what it would take.

Interestingly, I had my hair done and Jessica who is from Canada had a different view, though I’m not sure whether she was clear on what Trump has done. She was talking about how the rich are getting richer with the poor getting poorer and how medical insurance is too expensive; she hasn’t been to the doctors for 10 years as she can’t afford it and doesn’t have medical insurance. After talking a bit about what Tv we had watched, said that she’d watched the news about Trump. I said nothing, but she said that it was a witch hunt- you never know do you????

I had my colonoscopy on Friday and so the preamble as I’m sure you all know included a liquid diet day, of clear liquids only, but can have jelly/jello but not red). Only positive is I may lose weight. I had 1/2 bottle of MiraLAX at 6pm, then the other ½ on the day at 4am. I’m looking forward to being knocked out to have a sleep!

The Colonoscopy: I waited for an hour in waiting room after logging in with my insurance card and filling in all the forms I had already filled in on the preliminary visit last month. Dr Guiv was lovely and put me at ease. After putting on my gown and being shown to the bed area, it became like a circus of people introducing themselves to me, one after the other. I learnt that there would be at least 8 people involved in the procedure and each one came in shook my hand and looked through the large folder of forms, signing certain ones and folding over a corner of others. Finally, the doctor came back in and I signed around 8 disclaimer forms. It only took 2 seconds to go under after I was told to think about best holiday destination. I thought about Brighton. I woke up 2 hours later back in the recovery area to hear a conversation in the next-door curtained cubicle where the nurse was saying ‘so who were you in the Walton’s?’ I didn’t hear the response or see who it was unfortunately? I wonder if it was anyone we know. Do you remember the closing goodnight messages at the end of each episode?

As my hand got better, I realised I had become a bit low and frustrated and so had a flurry of creativity. I made a flying piggie bank for the new baby to be and painted rocks to advertise the chorus. Felt far less stressed afterwards. Thank goodness my hand wasn’t more damaged.

At the Dog sanctuary, I helped at the Ocktoberfest, where they had a mobile Pet adoption stand. There was a German beer tent and a stage where loads of bands played German music including the Pennsylvania Polka (as heard in Groundhog Day). There was lots of noise and stalls with crafts. It was a lovely event. We had to handle one of the dogs all day, which involved walking the dogs around to meet people to encourage them to adopt and also the raise the profile of the centre. I did 15.000 steps that day and was shattered, but it felt worthwhile. I had the lovely Rex who is a German shepherd and although he gets very anxious when he leaves and goes back into the kennels, he is calm and very affectionate when walking around. We went out with 8 dogs and returned with 6, so we were so happy that Pinto the Pitbull who had been with us for a year was adopted.

Charla has now asked me to train to take over the first day training for volunteers on a Wednesday. I will shadow Steph and then take over in November. Looking forward to it. It is nice to feel useful.

I was getting ready for my trip to Phoenix with Mark, who was there on business and I was shopping in Macy’s for tops. I overheard a conversation on the other side of a sale rail that went something like this: ‘That’s a nice dress’... ‘so do you work in a place to wear that type of thing?’... ‘yes I’m an attorney’... ‘Oh my husband is an attorney. He has worked on cases for OJ and Michael Jackson’. Amazing, I couldn't believe my ears!!!! I didn’t hear of it was for defence or prosecution, but either way, I’m don’t think I’d have admitted to either!!!

…...Driving to the airport on the way to Phoenix we saw the wall of our local psychic had been crashed into by car. Wonder if she foresaw that?

Honestly you couldn’t make this stuff up could you?

I’ll finish with this quote from one of my favourite authors, Terry Pratchett.

'Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colours. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.'