A Californian Christmas

We even got to have a bit of a white Christmas up in the
San Jacinto National Park in Palm Springs.

I hope that you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Christmas was one of the things that I was most apprehensive about. I mean, I come from a fairly large family, and it to me is about sharing things with those closest to you be them relations or friends. Out here I was away from most of those people. Of course, my Mum was still out visiting with me and we had a good bash at making it an exceptional Christmas and made sure that the Christmas Spirit was out in Full force!

My Place

Step one of things was to make sure that my new home felt as Christmassy as possible. Also, wanting to throw myself into American life as much as possible whilst I am here. That meant decorating both inside and out and spending a small fortune doing so (thank goodness for Black Friday is all I can say!).

View from the street

Looking in from the front door. (I liked this view until it
reminded me of the Little Match Girl and then it was sad)

As the entrance to my place is on a back street, there are not many other decorations up. I didn't let this deter me though and the day after mine went up my next door neighbours followed suit.  The door wreath and the garlands were all handmade and despite having some seriously windy and rainy weather (by CA standards anyway) they all managed to stay in one piece and in my opinion were a lot nicer than some of the ones in the shops. Alas we were not the most festive street by far, but as a first attempt I was quite pleased with our efforts.

Yes, the majority of my living room was taken up by my tree!

Inside had to be as cosy as possible which isn't too hard in a place as 'compact' as mine, so that meant Christmas tree lights and candles every evening.

Those of you who know me well know that I love an eclectic tree. There is no design to it, and the thing I enjoy most is that a lot of the decorations mean something to me. I remember my dad saying to me when we were decorating the tree as a child that taking the decorations out of the box was like meeting old friends and it is true! I still remember most of the decorations from the tree back then, some Chinese lanterns that my dad was given, a Father Christmas in a hammock from a bauble, the seven dwarfs which were like stained glass if you put them by a light, the fat robin and the threadbare fairy that we had to mend every year. As a kid it was magical and I knew that when I was older my tree would always be like this too.

My first CA Christmas Tree in all her glory!

When I moved out of home and it was time to put up my own tree, I was excited about building up my decoration collection. I have been lucky enough to stumble upon many adventures that have taken either me or close friends or family to various locations around the world and I have got many decorations from many places. It all adds to the magic of decorating the tree. Each decoration that gets pulled out of the box has a memory associated with it. 'Oh that one was from that time I went to Tokyo, Paris, New York and so and so did that etc', or 'My Mum/Dad brought me that back from ....XYZ.'.

Unfortunately, many said ornaments are back in Blighty and are safely wrapped up ready to be reunited with me on another occasion. This year saw a wealth of new characters, including some from Hawaii, San Diego and the Ballet which already hold memories behind them. The rest of them will be, 'Oh look they are the ones that I got on my first Christmas living state-side!

I love Christmas trees. They are one of the best things about Christmas as far as I am concerned. It always has to be a real tree and as I have a tall ceiling now, I had to take advantage of it. I know it takes up most of the room, but hey, its only me that has to worry about it and I am a big kid so who cares! :-)

The Celebrations

Christmas Eve is a big celebratory evening our here and we were invited to a British themed party (was I a guest or a prop?!?!) at the Thair Household. Everyone made us feel so welcome and we had a wonderful evening meeting new people and making new friends.

The big day itself was spent celebrating with the Galloway family in Ranch Santa Margarita, CA. It was without a doubt the most international Christmas that I have ever had. We were part of the family so it didn't matter that I was so far away from home.

The whole gang except for the two photographers outside after lunch pre-post-dinner food coma

The feast itself was amazing too. Laura really knows how to cook prime rib of beef. To be honest, even though I can be a bit of a traditionalist at heart, I would take this over turkey every single time! Also on the menu was rack-ribs, ham, lobster mac'n'cheese, creamed corn, creamed spinach, bread stuffing, roast potatoes, French onion soup, Yorkshire pudding, marshmallow yams (sweet potatoes mashed) beans, salads and then for dessert Mum's bread and butter pudding, my baked chocolate cheese cake and Bonnie's tirimisu. I didn't even have seconds on the first round as I had to save myself for all of the desserts!

The Galloway's are a prime example of how American's like to decorate their houses. It really does put my efforts to shame, but at least I got to enjoy them.

These are taken in front of the Galloway
House on Christmas Day

Laguna Beach Does Christmas

Laguna Beach also didn't fail to amaze me with the lights also. I look forward to mu drive home in the dark just because I know the streets will look so beautiful - it is like driving through a real-life Christmas card. Some evenings I would even take a little bit of a detour just to go look at some of the other houses.

This particular house in Laguna Beach is a favourite of mine.

The photo below does not do the house justice, but what makes it more impressive in person is that it is at the end of a totally light-lined street where all the houses bar one have gone all out on the Christmas lights. It was magical and no matter how tough my day had been it brought a smile to my face!

The trees in the streets are all decorate out here also. Forrest Avenue looks like something quaint you might find on the side of a chocolate box.

But out of all the lights and decorations that I have seen this year, this weeping willow in Laguna Beach has to be my absolute favourite (not including my own tree of course!). I guess one of the reasons for this is that my favourite fireworks are the golden raindrops ones and this is like one of those that doesn't fade. Beautiful!

There have been plenty of other festive activities to get you into the spirit of things to. Laguna Beach has the winter Sawdust Art Festival, and has a Christmas Community Evening where they shut off the streets and live music plays and all the Art Galleries and shops give out free food and wine. Carollers singing on multiple corners and buskers everywhere - its brilliant. The only thing lacking was mince pies and mulled wine - then it would have been perfect.

And of course, Christmas would not be Christmas without a visit from the big man himself! I managed to catch this snap of him as he was rushing on route to his grotto. I must have been very good this year as he was very generous with the presents he left under the tree. A Californian Christmas? Very merry indeed!

Merry Christmas from Santa

Return to the Old Town

This weekend I took my mum down to visit Old Town San Diego. It was the fourth time that I have been down to visit the settlement as I feel the need to take anyone that comes to visit as it is such an unusual place. One of the things that I love about it is that even though it is such a small place, each time I have been I have managed to see something new.

Some sources say that Old Town San Diego is the birthplace of California and it is now a State Historic Park to preserve the historic building so everyone can come and see what life used to be like here.

Old Town is based on the historic route 101. It was the first official Spanish settlement in California and because of this it has a very Spanish feel to the place with its bright coloured pottery and vibrant fiesta like feel with the small stores and the live music and lots of dancing.

The first time I went I visited the Whaley House, a Victorian building, and the oldest brick building in the area. In its time it has served as a courthouse, a theatre and a private residence. 

The most intriguing thing about this place and what made me want to pay it a visit is that this building has been officially certified as haunted by the US Department of Commerce, and is alleged to be the most haunted house in the United States. They say that the guides experience things on a daily basis, but the guide I spoke to said although she had nothing concrete herself, she heard noises and footsteps and feelings that she was not alone. I was recounted stories of other guests, but I saw nothing, caught nothing on camera and it didn't feel particularly spooky to me. Oh well.

Everyone who works here is dressed in old fashioned clothing which makes you feel like you have been transported back in time to the early settlement era.

There is live music around every corner, and on a couple of occasions that I have visited there have been dance displays on stage.

On my second visit, there was a competition, and I will never forget it as there was a mixed group dancing, but one of the young guys (maybe in his late teens) although he was fairly good, he looked like he was about to burst into tears. I started to get the giggles and was getting angry glares from everyone around me.

This is a permanent stage here and you can usually find some dancing activity to keep you entertained. When you walk to the shops round the back you can also see ladies hiding in trees desperately trying to put makeup on before heading on stage! :)

Some of the places really make you think that you could just tie up your horse outside whilst you went about your business. Here Lubica becomes well acquainted with one of the locals!

One of the things I found quite creepy about this place to start with was all the brightly painted skulls that you  can find in the gift shops. I asked one of the shop keepers what the story was behind it and learned about Dia de los Muertos - a Mexican holiday also known as the Day of the Dead. I visited again later in the year close to the actual holiday (November 1st & 2nd) and found this brightly coloured alter above.

Rather than being as morbid as it first may seem, it is more of a celebration of the lives of those who have passed.People will go to cemeteries or build alters and put favourite foods and pictures, flowers and other items on them.

The Old Town is great to visit at every time of year though. This visit last weekend it was all decorated for Christmas which obviously looks very festive.

On this last visit we decided to have lunch at the Cosmopolitan hotel which was originally built between 1827 and 1829 by the Bandini family and was the largest private residence at the time. They have a beautiful courtyard and a resident piano player who on this occasion was playing Christmas carols. Mum was more than happy to help with the singing of Silent Night - I think the Margarita may have had a helping hand in that.

Corporate Christmas Card Animation

Now, it is not often that I feel the need to post about what I do at work. Yes I am blessed to be working with possibly THE best group of colleagues in the world and sometimes get to go visit some cool places, but lets face it, sometimes work is just work. This years Corporate Holiday card however, (not politically correct enough to call it Christmas card) was one particular project that I was so excited to be involved with. We had so much fun working on it.

The talented Cynthia Enciso was the brains and ideas girl behind this years e-card and designed a story board and all of the images for a stop motion animation. Cliff Brunson was technology wizard, camera man  and general creative wizard and set everything up to enable the making of the animation.

I somehow managed to get involved when Cliff asked if I could make snowflakes out of paper! Ha! I spent hours making them as a kid, (and lets face it, as an adult too) and so felt that I could probably have a good attempt at making some that would meet the high standard of creativity of Cliff and Cynthia (I had seen Cynthia's attempt at a snowflake so I was quietly confident!).

Having to find a way that we could film vertically, and having no specialist equipment, Cliff demonstrated one of my favourite sayings - 'necessity is the mother of invention' - and raided his garage to see what he could put together. A series of tri-pods, A frames and a load of clamps later, the above contraption was born.

Shot by shot, the mountains were moved up and then the trees were moved in. Each piece is moved slightly before the next photo is taken.

Then my snowflakes were brought into action and rotated - I even punched out all of the snow dots. Each dot had to be moved after each photo. The difficulty here was remembering which ones had been moved and which ones had not. If I never see another snow dot again I will be very happy!

Finally all the lettering is coloured in by hand. See - everyone says that marketing is just playing around with coloured pencils - here is the proof!!

Anyway, we had so much fun making this. It took eight hours of shooting to produce 1.14mins of footage, but we were all really happy with the end result. Please watch it and I hope you enjoy it!

Ballet Festivities

I had my first ballet lesson when I was two and a half years old. I can't say I remember too much about it, but I do recall a wooden floor on which they would draw a chalk circle with a giant compass that we had to keep inside when we were doing our moves, pliés and point springs.

I have more traumatic memories of learning ballet when I was a bit older (5-9 years old). Lets face it. I do not have a natural ballet physique. I am fine with that. Now. At the time though, I was very aware that I was a head and shoulders taller than nearly everybody else. Although I know that they were doing it for my own good, even though I used to go up through the grades, I never took one ballet exam, and at the time I never really new why.

Then, it all came to a head when I was nine years old when my teacher, Miss Chase, said to me when I was experiencing slight balance and coordination issues whilst attempting a pirouette, "Don't worry Louise, it is not your fault that your brain has further to travel to get to your feet than everyone else". But it wasn't just to me. It was in front of the whole class and all of the parents that were lined up at the side waiting to collect their children and the end of the lesson. I think it was my own mother that laughed the loudest. That was the last ballet class that I ever took.

When I was eleven I was treated to a trip to the ballet to see Swan Lake in Covent Garden, London which was a great adventure because at the time I was living in Lyme Regis in Dorset and a trip to the Big Smoke was another world. It was a very dear family friend that took me and although I enjoyed it, I could only appreciate it from the eyes of an eleven year old which did not do it justice.

Years on, in my year of choosing to do things that I want to do, I decided that I wanted to revisit the ballet in a festive spirit and so booked tickets to go and watch The Nutcracker. So that is where I headed last night with Mum in tow and two good friends. After a pit-stop to introduce Mum to the delights of Shabu Shabu, we descended on the Golden West Performing Arts Theatre in Huntington Beach.

The performance was put on by The Ballet Repertory Theater which is a volunteer educational organization which was formed in 1977. It relies solely on its fundraising efforts to keep it going, so although there were professional versions around, I chose to support this one, and I am very pleased that I did. It was delightful!

Was it perfect? No. There were stumbles and fumbles, but this made it even more personable. There were young girls that were a little more than three years old taking part which took me back to my days on stage in which I think I played a sea nymph in one and a fairy in another amongst other things (all blink and you would miss me moments!). It was the children that made it so special. Of all ages. Auditions are available for all to take part in which is what makes it so inclusive.

The prima ballerina was a young called Ali Deovlet and I thought she was phenomenal (the lead is shared between four girls who swap each performance). The control and posture was fantastic. It's fair to say that I don't really know anything about ballet, but you can see when someone is good and she was great. She was truly beautiful to watch. It is fair to say that with my extra years, ahem, experience, I now can appreciate the performance.

And to top it off I got to add to my Christmas tree decorations, a Nutcracker Solider and a Ballerina, put on the tree by me and my mum. Another one for the memory box when I bring the decorations out each year!

Parallel Universe...

It is. Moving to America is like moving into a parallel universe. What I mean by that, is that everything is essentially the same, but just a little bit different. There are obvious things that anyone can pick out such as driving on the other side of the car on the other side of the road. There is the English language that isn't quite the English language (don't even get me started on trying to order a glass of water). But there are other subtle differences too.

A big difference out here is that you have to drive practically EVERYWHERE. It was a step too far for me, so one of the reasons that I chose Laguna Beach was that I could walk to shops, restaurants and supermarkets without having to take my car. I could have chosen to live on some grand complex with gyms and swimming pools but I chose a small one-bed condo instead. No frills. In-fact, I had moved to the other side of the world and found a place that felt the most like home (by home I mean my life in England). Instead of a downstairs flat I have an upstairs one. Instead of a shared garden I have my own deck area (I would call it a balcony but apparently it's not), and instead of the Thames I have the Pacific Ocean.

And everything is BIGGER out here. A narrow freeway (motorway) has 5 lanes. In each direction. I think the most I have experienced where two were joining was 8 lanes of traffic all going in the same direction. Craziness! The landscape is bigger. There are no sweeping hills in the distance, they are mountains. Everything is so spread out you can see for miles and the difference in climate means that the clouds in the sky are always high which makes it seem huge.

The biggest parallel universe thing for me though is the supermarkets. I experienced this in South Africa also. Sure, there are some regional and cultural specialities, but essentially they all sell the same things - fruit, vegetables, meats, dairy, bread, pasta etc etc, but it is all different. It is packaged differently, it is displayed differently, there is a water spray for fresh fruit & veg and the order of the aisles are all mixed up to what I am used to which can be very disconcerting - but still it is the place you go to to buy your groceries so essentially it is the same but just that little bit different.

Even when you think you have found something the same, it isn't quite right. Don't be fooled by names like 'English Breakfast Tea'. The stuff you get out here is just not proper. Nutella also. They sell it here and I was excited, until I tasted it that was. I tried explaining (or complaining) to natives who didn't believe me until I had the Bestie over to visit and brought the proper stuff with her for a taste test (I only shared precisely what was necessary for the comparison and ate the rest myself with a spoon). And chocolate. It's still chocolate out here but it is different.

But different is not always a bad thing. In the UK, you talk about Asian cuisine and you are going for a good Indian curry - I love it and the UK does it best (India excluded). Out here Asian cuisine is Vietnamese, Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Thai - and it rocks also! If I ate nothing else for the rest of my life I would be happy. So in both my parallel realities I love Asian food - that is the same, it is just that little bit different.

Beginnings...

I now officially feel like I have entered into the digital age by starting this blog. It’s not to say that I am a technophobe or anything like that, but maybe a little of a traditionalist at heart. This month I even took out a pen and paper and wrote a letter to my brother via snail mail. I regularly keep a journal, but let’s face it - no one is EVER going to read that!

It has been nearly 10 months since I moved to California from a sleepy little part of Berkshire in the UK. I have done a terrible job of adhering to my promise of keeping people informed of what I am up to and where I have been, relying on random Facebook updates and check-ins that I or someone I am with has posted. I don’t tweet. And recently, unless it is work related, I haven’t been emailing either. So in an attempt to honour my promise, I have started this blog to track the random adventures that I have stumbled upon be them big or small.

Granted that I am probably about 11 months late in starting this, but better late than never right? So let me rewind to that 11 month mark. I had just taken the plunge and signed a contract with my work to relocate to California. I never thought that I would be someone who could just pack up everything and go and live abroad so far from friends and family. 2011 for me, was a year that I would not wish on anyone, so when I stumbled upon the opportunity to start 2012 with the biggest adventure of my life, I jumped on it, threw it to the ground and secured it with a pin – aiki-stlye!

By the end of January I had my Visa and by the end of February I was gone, or rather, I had arrived. My New location is Laguna Beach in California, in a small condo (it’s not called a flat out here) which reminds me of an oversized beach-hut, like the ones that I remember growing up in Lyme Regis, which is a whole three minute walk from the ocean (it’s not called the sea out here either). Since I have taken the plunge, there have been an endless flow of new things and discoveries that I would like to share – it has been a year packed full of stumbled upon adventures!