TV & Cars

My thoughts this week on menus, adverts and news articles from TV:

Mac n' cheese obsession - loads of adverts and on so many menus.

Brussel Sprouts appear on every menu and in most mixed vegetables packs, especially stir fries - they love them. Lots of different ways to cook them apparently. I love them, but Mark hates them....."I can put up with a sprout once a year … but this is ridiculous …..there is something fundamentally wrong with this country."

Queen song obsession on adverts and in restaurants. Bohemian Rhapsody film is an absolute smash hit here and is still playing in some cinemas.

Car-vans- order car on line. They are stored in verticals glass towers and are delivered to your door.

Robotic surgery advertised on TV, showing robotic arms with lasers - James Bond style.

Adverts for medications - you start with thinking how wonderful, but the 2nd half of the advert is the side effects! I always felt this way when I watched House on TV. I was sure I had the ailment portrayed.

This is Mark's favourite advert ….. not sure why :-

A news item on Valentine's Day discussed the THC Drug infused cooking restaurants. I think the chef might have a few issues with tasting the dishes as he was cooking them - he'd be drugged up to the eyeballs. Cannabis is seen as an aphrodisiac here.

BA news item banning fur sales in LA - about time! Wonder what the Kardashians will do.

‘Hyper’ local news- A new LA news channel. How can it be hyper - I ask you?

After watching US TV house makeovers, which are ridiculously big, it has been refreshing to catch a UK TV programme called 'Best House in Town - York: semi detached'. Beautiful perfectly sized houses. 😀 In contrast to the USA homogenised décor, we are a wonderful collection of quirky individuals. Still proud to be British despite the shambles we are in at the moment,

There is a shop down my road called Magic Smokes. I may take a few weeks before I venture in to have a look.

I drove past a shop advertising a Cookie Drive Through and the Los Angeles Pet cemetery.

Mark and I already use the drive through bank...….. How lazy of us.

I actually bought some cookies from a Girl Guide yesterday. They are not on the WW diet though.

Still no Social Security Number ….. everything in this country is dependent on this number , mobile phones , bank accounts , health insurance, store cards etc. and yet trying to actually get one is a very complicated and boring process ….been 8 weeks now and we were told two …. still it could be worse. This is mainly due to the Government shutdown here. Trump is all over every news channel over the 'National Emergency'. Fox news is the only news channel that is in favour.....and so the Democrat nominees begin their year long lead up to the election next year. Should be an even more interesting (and scary) time.

This week I have searching on-line for my car here, as our rental Kia, is coming to an end. After considering almost every car type in a certain price range as long as its red and driving Mark mad because I couldn't choose, I came back to my original choice of a used Mini Countryman. When I got to the garage, we met Darlene (pronounced Daaaaarrrleeeeeeneeee), with a large blacked rimmed hat, with long black hair, heavy make up and speaking like a Barbi doll on acid. She was very nice and also very patient with me when I also asked to drive a used Mini Cooper, which was totally inappropriate for taking Lulu or anyone else around for that matter. We settled on the Countryman after 3 hours- I just couldn't decide! We had been going for drives in a number of them (I even managed to go the wrong way on the test drive :) ) , so it wasn't quite as bad as it sounds and Mark and Darlene were understanding. While we were there we also chatted to another salesman there who was a Brit called Graham. He told us about how he came to Hollywood in the 1990's to star in a programme called 'Studs' which was a dating show. He came for fame which lasted 2 programmes and he was "torched" by the girls on the show (he lost and badly) and then stayed. I wonder if the rules for a green card were different then. He said he'd had a couple of wives and was now divorced. I must google it.

I had a productive day last Tuesday. Had a good chat with a lady I sit next to at WW. She is a similar age to me and seems really nice. Also I’ve lost 5 1/2 lb now🤗

I met another neighbour called Marla, who also has a yellow Labrador called Teddy who added to the number of people telling us to watch the coyotes. The pottery lot were even chatting about how a coyote had been seen chasing a lady walking her dog with a pushchair - where have I come to? It's a bit like everyone has the same form of Terets.

I took Lulu to the vets called West Hills Animal Hospital and she had her injections including rattlesnake venom! This is after the vet who was a lovely lady who shook my hand vigorously with both hands, told me of rattlesnakes coming into the garages at night for warmth. She did add that she had only seen rattlesnakes a few times since she'd lived here. Well that was enough for me. I wondered if they did human vaccines too.

Agility training went well and Lulu is coming on leaps and bounds, literally. I had another good chat with the British couple who have lived there for 15 years and go to dog shows with their dogs. So we are going to see a dog show (like Crufts) on Feb 23rd in Thousand Oaks and saying hello to them there. They seem keen to chat so I’m taking Mark to the agility training next week. He will be taking over the training anyway as I start my choir on Feb 26th... not sure who needs the training more :)

Guitar progressed this week and Andre said I am making improvements and not every piece has to be perfect - I thought that was the point of lessons though. He said I’m better than 90% of his students- god they must be bad! How demoralising for him!

Andre talked to me about playing the acoustic as opposed to moving onto the electric guitar and said it depends how deep you want to get into playing a particular instrument. I said I haven’t got enough lifetime left to get deep into anything, which he laughed at.

I'm afraid there are certain things which are difficult for me due to my very short stubby fingers.

I went to the hairdressers this week too and tried out a hairdresser just down the road from me called Hair Station. When I walked in, it wasn't the normal non judgemental atmosphere I am used to. They were friendly, but seemed horrified by my hair in that where I had been swimming with no cap, it had gone rather yellow and the roots were very dark. I sat feeling a little humiliated while they contemplated what to quote me, took a photo for the before shot and discussed how much older I looked with that hair. I wondered what other people who had met me must have thought. I did nearly walk out, but it got better once they started chatting.

I do miss Bev my UK hairdresser. Jessica, my hair colourist was from Vancouver and had left an older daughter there with her ex husband and who now couldn't follow her here and Lily had travelled here from Romania 6 years ago. I now do have hair which looks lovely, so can't complain, but I may shop around and visit a few different hairdressers for next time. Maybe somewhere with less criticism.

Mark and I have been taking the Driving test app as we've been told we will have to take the test within the year. We only got 75% (the easy one) and did fail, but some of the answers were ridiculous. It may take a few goes. " If you are turning left into a two lane one way street from a three lane road, should your left wheel be positioned near the yellow line on the right or the white line on the left ?" ….. eh ??? we don't even understand the question let alone the answer!

We have set up the PS4 so that we can play Max, Jake and hopefully Poppy online. We played very badly, but had great fun. Its made me want to play other games, so I have come extremely late to Sonic the Hedgehog. Ive been humming the tune for a couple of days.

Whilst searching for art and pottery courses, I have come to the conclusion that American society is two tier with regards to the arts and education as a whole. Every course and college course I have looked at are extremely expensive. Whereas the arts in the UK are subsidised and as an example, for a terms pottery lessons I was paying around £170 ($200 approx) at the West End Centre, whereas they charge $50 for a two hour session here. Termly courses range from $380 to $500 and some art courses are charging $250 per month. I have no idea how anybody can justify that sort of money.

I also investigated how much a college course would cost. I couldn't believe it - the cheapest art degree course I found was over $30,000 a year. Art is definitely for the rich!!!!

On the plus side, gym memberships are less than the UK.

We had a lovely trip to The Edwards Cinema in Calabasas. It looks like something out of the 1950s and has murals on the walls. The seats are recliners and you can lay right back and have your feet up - fatal if you often fall asleep in the cinema (you know if I am referring to you reader). The popcorn here is interesting as it is completely plain and you go to a machine, which Mark and I had thought was liquid sugar, but turned out to be liquid butter. People were putting loads on it.

As with the concert people in the audience responded loudly to the film laughing or talking at poignant parts.....In time I may have to tell people to be quiet!

We are now on our second series of Game Of Thrones - it is stressful!!

Today I actually got Mark to have vegan food. I think he actually enjoyed it!

This week our furniture finally arrives ….. will be very odd I'm sure !

Sorry about all the exclamation marks this week!!