Tip the world over on it’s side and everything loose will land in Los Angeles
Another day, another step in the settling in process.
 From this morning, we are now able to do regular shopping at any store (almost as I am sure there are some exceptions here and there), using our brand new check cards (aka debit card in the UK). Not our “Visa Credit” yet, but we’re getting there!
From now on, we can stop spending our UK Pounds and paying stupid exchange fees and use our newly acquired US Dollars.
Wake up call at 6:20am. Coffee, shower, jeans and off we go. Sarah drove me to the “Fox & Hounds”Â, English pub located on Ventura Bld, a mere 10 minutes away from home and at 7:10am, I was in front of a “telly”, watching “footie”, sipping a “pint of Guinness” and eating a “bacon sarnie” (with brown sauce, please!)… No need to say that this felt like a breath of fresh air (despite being in a pub), being able to be somewhere that looks and feels familiar, having all my marks again.
The main difference with my former “local” (aka “The Frog”). The attendance had most of their teeth in their mouth (the Frog being famous for many of its inhabitants to have more fingers than teeth)!
Bitter sweet moment though…Time to admit that I had maybe turned into more of a “Brit” than I ever thought I would have or ever admitted and that London after 8 years had turned into my real home. It is always once you’ve lost something that you realise how much you miss it. I should have known.
Oh and for the records, Arsenal (our team) did lose to Chelsea (our local team) after an semi interesting game only highlighted by a major punch up at the end of the second half, promptly followed by 3 red cards (expulsions for our American friends)…
Can’t win every times!
Remember “The Prisoner” and his motto? Well, seems that the same doesn’t apply over here!
After 2 weeks of wait, glitches in the system and daily phone calls to our local Social Security branch, I have a social security number!!!
Why is that so important could you ask, as I have had a French one almost since birth and I didn’t get an English one until I met Sarah (remember my plan was to leave London within one year)? Well, here, no “Social” equals no nothing! No credit card, no bank account, no cable TV, no drivers license (or driving class), no gas, no electricity or even water!
A bit of a pain in the bum I must admit but the wait is OVER!!!
I received my number on Thursday and have spent the last 2 days on the phone trying to hook our new home to all the aforementioned utilities and starting to have a life!
Another major hurdle crossed and we are now human beings worth speaking to (at least in the eyes of every service provider here)…
Second weekend in SoCal and we are blessed by a long weekend / bank holiday, special time for us to recharge our batteries and spend some time looking around… Well, not exactly…
It seems that each and every bank holiday in this country are the theatre of major sales, from cars to chiropractors, including telephone handsets, BBQ, washing liquid, super large portions of food, well, you get the drift!
So anyways, as we saw a couple of ads on TV (yes, we have been watching the ads here, as we only have an old style TV) for Sears et al for their sales…
So first thing in the morning, the family is ready and we jump in our car having a clear plan of action in mind. Let’s go “quickly” to Sears, Ikea, Target, Best Buy, Macy’s, Ralphs, Trader Joe’s and more if possible… I know, it sounds silly, but we thought we could complete this relatively rapidly…
FOOLS!
So we did cover most of these places but it took a bit longer than we hoped it would… Actually, it took us most of the day!!! Poor Thia spent almost 6 hours in her push-chair, sleeping through lunch time as we were still at Target trying to understand how this place works (following Sears and Ikea and a couple of 99¢ hot dogs).But the result was pretty impressive. We ended up coming back home with:
And the rest of the evening was spent in trying to install all this new AV kit, facing the challenge of a new set of standards, connections and set top boxes…
Thank you Mr President for this fantastic day.
I am a poor man now!
Our first long weekend in the US. The weather is with us and Arnaud has offered to go with him (and the family) to Santa Monica for an early walk on the beach and lunch in front of the ocean…
Fabulous idea…
9:00am, we are all ready, wearing our summer clothes, covered with sun tan lotion (except Sarah) and all ready to go.
10:15am, after having tried to go the scenic route (Sunset and Santa Monica boulevard), we make it to the pier. Temperature already reaches the high 20s and Thia is happy running in the sand. Well, actually, she loves it!
Some nutters are in the water but we might not want to go there (considering the weather is as good as a Summer day in Brighton). Kids had to try the huge carrousel on the pier, but both girls seem to have had enough with one ride.
Lunch on the beach was fun and simply magic for us, coming from London and considering we were doing this mid February…
Sorry for the guys in the cold, but we had a fab day!
Now, let’s go and try this sushi place that Steve S has been recommending for months!See you later!
More pictures under the PrettyPix sectionÂ
