TV Politics and a Party

It’s been a funny week, filled with getting back into a routine after the manic week with Max and Dani and the lead up to the Party, as well as getting ready for our week in Mexico.

And it’s so hot here that people are walking around with umbrellas…finally!

The news has been continuing with the University scandal where a school official was making millions by falsifying students exam results and places to get the rich children in – outrageous actually. It’s also been about the Democrat candidates (who at the moment are not talking about each other, but only about Trump thank goodness). I’ve managed to catch a few of a few of their televised speeches. Bernie Saunders speech was brilliant, but it was later described as a socialist speech, which here is equivalent to saying it was communist. I was inspired by Elizabeth Warren’s speech which was about her struggle to make it with her education and childcare and focussed on the gap between the elite and poor, saying that the US needed to educate and care for all its children – a no brainer in my book. Biden, who had been in trouble for kissing and smelling women’s hair and being too tactile generally, had televised an apology, saying that he would be more mindful in future. He had redeemed himself according to the news, but then in his televised speech made a joke out of it – silly man! But of course this is nothing to what Trump is said to have done!😡😡😡😱

When Max and Dani were here, we watched ‘Vice’ about Bush and Chaney, which I highly recommend. It was unbelievable viewing with so much corruption especially over the Iraq war. It also showed how Fox News started- really shocking.

On SoCal (Southern California), there was a fascinating Tv prog about a writer who had written about all of America’s presidents and it was a glimpse into America’s history. There was the 1842 war with Brits, which also included the Canadians where the USA wanted to invade and take over Canada. He also talked about the war with Mexico and President Poke in 1800s. In 1916 President Wilson who was a racist passed the espionage act which is still used by Trump against the media. He was said to be similar character as Trump. Here endeth the history lesson – but interesting stuff. Thank goodness we’re in California- liberal, humanitarian and enlightened – well mostly.

My iphone kept freezing this week, so I went back to the apple store in Westfields and spent over 3 hours trying to fix it, then decided to trade it in and get a newer version. I had to deal with 4 different people. The last guy was called Matthew from San Francisco originally and we had a good chat about healthcare here in the USA and the wonderful British NHS.

Talking of which, we now have medical insurance set up, so we have had a go at working through the insurance website to pick our own doctor and dentist. These are in rating order with customer comments. It’s a minefield as no doctor has a completely good record and most have some negative reviews. The dentist was easier to choose as you can see if other workmates have used them, so that’s how we chose that. The doctor has been more difficult as the other colleagues rating doesn’t seem to show up and there are many different types of doctors with different specialisms. We’ve been advised to go for a general medical practitioner which is equivalent to a GP we think. Mark is going to ask some work mates who they go to – a very strange system, but we’ll see how it goes when we book in after we get back. There is an advert on Tv that shows a woman walking into a chemist with her 2 young children and thinking to herself, ‘I hope I can afford little Jimmy’s medication’. You see the chemist ring up about $100 and you see the woman shake her head and walk away. The chemist then says she can sign up to scheme that cuts these costs in half. It just doesn’t seem right to us does it? We just assume it will be available to us.

Choir was good fun again this week, though they are getting more intense as they are getting ready for the competition in Bakersfield in 3 weeks. I met Dinkie who is the oldest member at 85 and was visiting. They are all lovely to me and seem surprised I keep coming. 😊 Unfortunately one of the singers, Chrisie, was off as her dog has been missing for 3 days- ‘coyote country’ and ‘likely to be dinner’ a few of them said. Very sad. We were told to record ourselves whilst singing as the group and give it a ‘lodda budder’ and then send it into Monica the choir master – no pressure then! We all used our phones up to our mouths apart from Jennie who used an old fashioned tape recorder.

I had a laugh with my leader Sue (the ex Brit) as we discussed with a few American ladies, what the difference was between when you say something is ‘bollocks’ and something is the ‘dog’s bollocks’. At the end of the evening I was told I have a good voice, but I mucked up the practice so I backed out of the audition that night. Once you get nervous its awful isn’t it - so I defaulted to next Tuesday- what a coward I am!

In Wednesday Zumba this week we had a sub called Megan who played loads of Meghan Trainer songs – which were brilliant and Ive been playing them since. She was all about sexy hip swaying and kept coming in amongst us old ladies (and I’m one of the younger ones) blowing kisses etc. I thought she was great fun, but a few ladies at the end seemed a bit ruffled and said they didn’t like the sexy moves. 😊

In Thursday Aqua, the teacher Lori does a rave dance routine and shouts out ‘woo woo’ at various points to which we all respond. There were several burly six pack tattooed young men who kept using shower next to the pool as they were coming out of the jacuzzi - very off putting especially when one jumped on the deep end too. I’m not exaggerating when I say that the majority of the ladies were staring. Lol

The party:

So I ummed and ahhed over food all week and decided to make chilli and Spanish bake – meat and veggie versions and have a massive cheese board with dips, veg and chips. Mark then told me that there may be a few more people than originally thought. I’d invited my 3 people and the neighbours and Mark had invited the whole office, which turned out to be over 50 people.

Anyway, the Union Jack bunting was put up; Union Jack tablecloth put on; food cooked and deserts bought; Bar stocked up ( Costco here does 2 litre spirit bottles for $10ish); Pimms and Gin Fizz jugs made; Karaoke set up with a list of song suggestions and vinyls sorted. People actually arrived ½ hour early so it was a bit frantic. From 7.30 they all seem to arrive, so our feet didn’t hit the ground and we were racing around getting drinks and chatting to people. Mark refused my suggestion to give people name tags (it’s the teacher in me). Choir Elaine came with her husband as did Neighbour Marla whose husband Mike is a guitar player and wants us to ‘jam’. WW Steph came with her friend from San Diego and her hubbie and we had a really good chat. The neighbours Denise and Mike and the Russian couple Milo and Andrey were great fun. The vinyl went down well with loads of people picking albums and singles to play and then after the food around 10.30, we got onto the Karaoke. People started to leave around midnight, then around 2am we were left with a core of 8 of us singing and dancing (some of who were staying overnight). All I can say is I haven’t laughed so much in ages - they are all such wonderful characters. I ended up taking no photos as I had planned to apart from 3 at the very end of the evening, which you see here....next time! We decided to go to bed at 4am – thank goodness I’d had an afternoon doze!!!

Mark Craver was the first to get up at 10am the next morning and made us all pancakes. Needless to say that after clearing up, and everyone had left, Mark and I slept all afternoon – we are too old for all this partying! I had actually lost my voice Sunday which doesn’t bode well for Tuesday’s audition.

So now it getting ready for Mexico on Wednesday and meeting up with all Mark’s colleagues there. Lulu is off to spend a week with her mates at Wagon Tail Ranch. I’ve used ‘Skinny Tan’ in a vain attempt to take it as its word….

Have a good Easter Holidays everyone.