Hello again...

I know that I have let you down ….. I know I promised a regular Blog about the adventures of an Englishwoman in LA ! ……..but you don’t do it one week … and put it off the next …..and then it’s like marking homework …. It all builds up at a frightening pace and you find a million excuses not to do what you promised ….and you know that you are letting people down, but its nearly Christmas …..lots of false promise ….. and here we are on the 22nd March finally restarting the Blog !!

So firstly, let’s get up to speed with what’s been missed….

Animal Shelter

· Paris never came back after her adoption

· Missy, Abby, Waldo and Charlie were adopted too much to our joy

· I have new human friends there, Joanna, Claudia and Brian

· Currently I have been trained to walk Level 2 doggies and am working on Level 3 (I may have walked a level 3 dog called paws by mistake, but let’s not tell anyone that J)

· I’ve been taking 2 claases a week of around 8 people of all different ages and nationalities and have been asked many times if I am Australian, or think I’m from Downton Abbey.

Weight Watchers

· Its probably still going on, but I may not have been for a bit….. :-)

Chorus

· We performed pre-Christmas at a Hospice and the Westlake Promenade

· Post Xmas we had the weekend Chorus Retreat at a lovely hotel called Grand Vista in Simi Valley ( we sang from 8.30am to 7pm … had dinner and cocktails and then sang some more!)

· I have been asked to be in charge of social media and be on the board

Xmas / NYE

· Had a lovely if manic time in the UK

o Atlas (Poppy’s dog) was hilarious

o Family trip to London was wonderful

o Far too much food was consumed and it was far too short a time, but it was nice to back in our own home.

· We bought a Jukebox !

· Some Americans now know what Mince Pies and mulled wine are J

· NYE was probably great, too but we missed it !

Pottery

· Met some great people

· I am now throwing on a wheel …it’s a work in progress

· Made a load of pieces for my new Grandchild

· Best not to mention politics, as I discovered that a lovely lady I’d been sitting next to for 4 months was a Trump fanatic – what a shock!

Social

· Burns Night (4 more Americans have now drunk whisky , ate Haggis and sung Scottish songs !)

· English themed Night (for some of the chorus …. Consisted of Cottage Pie, Trifle and other English goods)

· Found a proper LA Theatre and saw Sting in The Last Ship !

· I signed an NDA so cannot tell you about an afternoon in Malibu with the mother of a famous model – shhhh... it was Miranda Kerr’s mum!

· Two cookery classes, French Bistro with Cara Mia (one of Mark’s work colleagues) and a Pasta making class with Jake

· Spa day at a wonderful hotel in Westlake Village where we were surrounded by botoxed faces (men included)

AND

· We brought Daisy over to be with Lulu

So those are the missed highlights, but let’s dig into one of the things above and a few other pertinent things.

The JukeBox

For the last 30 years or so we have always aspired to own a Jukebox, but the time was never right for a whole host of reasons. All that changed in December of last year when we were thinking about what Christmas presents we could buy each other and we stumbled across a company called Jukeboxes Unlimited and a gentleman by the name of Don A Muller !

Don has been in the Jukebox business for 48 years (which is probably about 30 years longer than his real hair- look at the photo and make your own judgements) and has an encyclopaedic knowledge of music and jukeboxes. Don has supplied JukeBoxes to the likes of Lyndsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, Eric Idle, Jack Black, Matt Groening (Simpsons Creator), Karen Carpenter, Steve Martin, Hugh Hefner to name but a few and he had the pictures to prove it…… he now has the honour of adding the Woodhams family to his list of his customers.

We drove the 5 miles to his ‘stockroom’ which turned out to be just a normal house, until you went indoors that is. Whilst there was a small kitchenette, a tv and a sofa every inch of available space was taken up with Jukeboxes (probably 30 in the house, 60 in the garage and another 200 in storage !) He even had a jukebox that played albums; over 35 hours of songs in one machine. We spent two hours listening to Don talk about his career and his favourite machines , his favourite celebrities and it was absolutely fascinating. We walked away to sleep on it, but had already fallen in love with a 1958 Seeburg JukeBox

When it was delivered it did take us about 7 hours to put the singles in the machine the right way round and in the right order but it was worth it…..

Welcome Arthur James Woodhams

Mark and I flew to the UK to await the birth of our first grandson on the 28thFebruary …..”the due date”, but had to kick our heels for a few more days, as neither mother nor baby seemed particularly focused on delivering as to schedule ! J

Arthur James Woodhams was born on the 10th March and he took our breath away. I experienced the closest thing to time travel the moment I held him. It was like going back in time to the 20th October 1988 and holding Max for the first time, the same colouring, the same lips, the same eyes and the same feeling of absolute, complete, overwhelming love. With the feeling of wonderment, came the excitement of watching this little boy grow up (albeit remotely). We know that Max and Dani will be fantastic parents and they will struggle, survive, cry and laugh just as we did. The temptation to guide them is so overpowering, but as grandparents we know that no matter what we think or feel, they have to have the freedom to find their own way – just like we did and just like their children will too. Having said all of that Arthur is such a wonderful bundle of perfection that it melts our hearts whenever we think of him and I have my fix each day looking at photos and videos.

Coronavirus permitting we will be back in the UK in May …..

COVID-19

Coronavirus permitting is a really odd way to end a paragraph - a reflection I guess of the strange times that we now find ourselves living in. As a global family we have gone from disregard to disbelief and everything in between.

Here is the USA it just feels like a comedy of errors, a perfect example of how to mismanage a crisis (or potential crisis).

I think I have said before that America feels like a very polarized society. You are either red or blue, and there isn’t much in between; certainly if you believe what you read in the media (and more importantly in Facebook!). As an independent I stand back and look at the fact that we all know that we have a problem , we knew that with Wuhan, with Singapore, with Italy, yet I find myself living in a country where its President has said that :-

· "[Coronavirus is] going to disappear. One day—it's like a miracle—it will disappear."

· "Now, the virus that we're talking about having to do—you know, a lot of people think that goes away in April with the heat—as the heat comes in. Typically, that will go away in April. We're in great shape though."

· "Now the Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus. You know that, right? Coronavirus. They're politicizing it ... And this is their new hoax.""

· I always treated the Chinese Virus very seriously, and have done a very good job from the beginning, including my very early decision to close the 'borders' from China—against the wishes of almost all. Many lives were saved. The Fake News new narrative is disgraceful & false!"

The really sad thing is that all of this has left the USA a little leaderless and that lack of leadership (in my opinion) is one of the primary reasons that there is an underlying state of panic here …… its undeniable that not enough has been done and that there has been no investment in prevention or preparation.

I saw the first real hysteria when I first got on the plane home and it was a shock from the calm indifference in the UK. Trump had said that the USA was restricting travel from Europe the day before. I sat behind an America lady who was wearing gloves and a mask and was loudly shrieking at her husband about how close she was to people and not to touch the remote without wiping everything down first. When I got off the plane the taxi ride chat was filled with doomsday messages and my neighbour texted to say that I would have trouble getting any food as all the shelves were empty. A scary welcome home for sure. As it was, it wasn’t as bad as that and I did manage to get enough food – but no loo rolls! I started to worry that Mark wouldn’t get home the following week, but luckily he managed to bring his flight forward to a Monday return and he had no issues in the airport, despite the media’s suggestion he would be there for hours.

We see around us a need to wash hands, wear gloves , hoard supplies and wear masks , but the level of hysteria in some parts is so much higher than that. On the flip side there are parts of the nation that don’t believe it will impact them… the spring breakers , the naysayers , the people still going to restaurants that should no longer be open. So, you have to look at it and ask whether the American people trust their President enough to do what he says? Do they believe in him enough to not panic buy, to isolate properly or in fact behave like the two senators that decided to ‘dump’ millions of dollars worth of stock (after being briefed in confidence of the forthcoming pandemic?

Don’t get me wrong, I have met some truly wonderful Americans who are aligned for the greater good, have empathy for others and who too, are frustrated.

We live in scary times and I, like many others I’m sure, have swung from depression in thinking that things will change forever, worrying about my family and friends; the shelter animals, left in their cages; the homeless; the low paid workers; the elderly; the people without medical insurance….. to calming myself by trying to see this as just a phase that we will all get through and playing my part by self-isolating.

For my own sanity I have made an excel spreadsheet of things to do during this crisis…. I am learning chess, playing guitar, learning piano and throwing pots on my rented pottery wheel, as well as gazing at pictures of Arthur at regular intervals during the day.

Keep safe and well my friends and take care of one another and we will meet the other side…..