5.8 Quake in LA

More cantinas last night, El Rincon de la Doa (specialising in sangrita to go with your tequila) and then bar calavera with young Jose, his sister and Helena. We hung around at the house for a bit afterwards and then after they left I watched The Daily Show with Rob Cordry standing in for Jon Stewart (10/10 for effort, but it’s not the real thing) and Episode 5 of The IT Crowd, which was fantastic. I’ll be putting that DVD on my Amazon wish list, but only if the stuff I ordered in Jan gets here OK… Another noteworthy thing happened last night, i got my scrabble rating to 1006. Now I’m afraid to play another game cos I know i’ll lose. I’ll try to shut up about the whole subject until I get to 1100…

This morning was a little sketchy but I managed to pick up my beautiful business cards and go on a wander with me camera. I was just starting to get into taking photos of the rolling stock on the railway off of Avenida Inglaterra, when a security bloke came up and asked me what I was doing and told me to leave. I’m increasingly realising, though, that if you don’t get told to stop taking pictures you’re doing something wrong. Same with driving, if you don’t get honked at or use your horn round here it’s a wasted journey. Anyroad, I got the cards and made my way home listening to the latest Top of the Pods and Total Pod Catastrophe (see spanking new PodCasts sidebar to the right). I stopped for a torta ahogada and ambled home and sita arrived too. She had to have an ahogada too so we went to the little torta shop 20 yards from our house. There Sita befriended a dulux dog puppy (pastor ingles), who was pretty cute, but no Atticus. Then a quick skype with me mum and dad who are back from sunny spain with all kinds of tales.

This afternoon? you ask, well we’re going to get supplies from CostCo then off round Victor and Jana’s again for more sophistimicated dinner party type stuff. It’s looking like the Pink Panther’s on for tomorrow. God help us. In my defence I’ve got a Buuel DVD waiting to be seen too. Isn’t it time for another police academy?

I was gutted to find out me mum’s not coming out after all. She was going to come on Thursday for a few weeks to see us and chill with the Gaytans on Thanksgiving and all that. But it turns out the bout of ill health she’s having isn’t just a virus and so she’ll have to take it easy for a bit so she can get fully better. Mum’s her usual positive/stoical self about it all and the whole familiy’s sure she’s going to be grand once they make some changes in her assorted medicines. I’m still taking TGiving week off though as i’m pretty mentally exhausted and could really do with a break… so i’ll be able to manage a few long distance phone call back to blighty. Me mates Stu and Anne are back from travels round the Orient so it’ll be grand to hear their stories. and i’m wondering how bert‘s getting on with his ladyfriend. It’s all a bit much this week, Bush, new job, mum not coming… Eeh well, things’ll be back to normal soon.

I saw these potatoes in Safeway today. They’re individually wrapped ‘Bakers’ with instructions on how to microwave them (‘7 minutes’). No warnings that once microwaved, contents may be hot.

Hopefully this is a static link… Nicky Wire out of the Manics gets awarded his degree from Swansea at last. He was too busy supporting the Levellers the first time around. I remember my graduation from Swansea well. Sita blew the electricity to the house we were sharing with the hair drier. Mum and Dad came up from Zummerzet. I had to wear a tie and a plus-size mortarboad and gown thing. Me hair was still shortish. Half the ceremony was in Welsh. A harpist harped. People clapped continuously for 50 minutes or so. And I couldn’t get out of there quickly enough. Then we all went to the Cricketer’s/Firkin pub for a quick meal right after. And I think I was in the middle of a TEFL course too and planning the trip to Sevilla. Was it six years ago? Hey ho, when I said remembered it “well” a few lines backs, that’s open to interpretation.

Went to town today and bought Rilo Kiley CD and the March issue of Q. I’m mp3ifying RK now to listen to while walking the beastie. Q’s definitely gone downhill of late, though; these days I read it and think I could do better. And I don’t have the highest opinion of my own writing skills. I don’t reckon it’s just cos i’m older and not in touch with what the kids are listening to. Q always used to be for old people anyway. Luckily us old people have got Word magazine which is marvellous, has some fine CDs on the cover and many decent articles. Seems like a lot of Select’s writers have ended up there now too. I might have to change my 5 star review of Q on Amazon.

I’m still a fan actually. 2 become 1 still hits the spot… Ginger Spice was my fave. I was so young, with so much to learn.

This breaking news comes via alt1040.

Meanwhile, here’s some photos from yesterday’s wandering round town:

TelMex saw fit to block the internet tubes to our house yesterday, hence today´s early morning location. It’s always when you’ve got lots of work on that the interwebs stop. Hey ho, it means that yesterday I got to finish a novel for the first time in ages, Nick Hornby’s A Long Way Down, which was alright as a novel but a tad grating due to his (characters’) overuse of similes. It’s like when you’re watching a daytime Antiques program on BBC 1. And all they do is use puns. But in the long run, it’s like you appreciate it. But sometimes, puns are like a comfortable cushion. Etc. that kind of thing. On the plus side it means I can finally start The Hummingbird’s Daughter, which after 10 pages looks like just my kind of thing. Atticus * also got more quality time than usual. And I spent a while strumming away at the gee-tar. So every cloud etc… And I love Starbucks’ burnt coffee too. So swings and roundabouts are the order of the day.

Ever wondered how to count to 1023 on your fingers? Cesar’s put his vast intellect into creating a demo. My fingers aren’t quite that flexible… The real challenge would be combining counting to 1023 while performing this Daft Punk track (it gets good at about 1 minute in).

Alrighty, back to my research y chamba.

* ‘Cus looked starving at 5.30 yesterday and Sita wasn’t back from the gym yet so I made him a gourmet meal with leftovers from Sita’s steak on Sat night. A couple of hours later and i remarked to Sita that the dog looked chubbier than usual, then I asked her if she’d fed him and she said “Of course, with the leftovers from Saturday mixed in”. So he’d had two huge meals. Anyway, several miles of running up and down the garden later and he puked like a good’un in the living room. There’s a lesson in there somewhere… We need some kind of “Dog has been fed” system in the kitchen. He’s full of beans today though. Not literally.