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and last updated July 28th.,1998.
Before I left, I asked the Husband what he wanted me to do should either of his elderly parents pass away
in my absence...we agreed then that there wouldn't be much point my trying to get home...
and I remarked wryly that the family had all had lessons in arranging a funeral, since we had buried my mother so recently..
But folks, I didn't mean it to HAPPEN!
And I know the last thing the family needs is having ME land in at the last minute, jetlagged and grumpy, as I always
am after a long flight..
And I KNOW my husband will have his hands full for a week or so after...
and I KNOW the family will rise to the occasion and support him...I've trained them well!!
and I KNOW one or two of them think I should be HOME, as befits a MOTHER!!
Hey, Kids, time you took over from me, you know..you with your wives and husbands and egos!!
But.....doesn't make it any easier at all, folks, being this far from home....
Next time I make some comment about the world shrinking, remind me, hey??
And Tuesday July 21st was NOT a good day..a day I spent much of in assorted airports around the country
as the bad weather cancelled flights and rescheduled planes, and tossed passengers about so that they
vomited and did other unmentionable things all around me.....actually my luggage reached CA
before I did...
Then, when I reached here, too late to look about much, I found that the Inn is one of the older ones..
and this unit had NOT been loved...it smelled evil and LOOKED dingy and I was pretty depressed, especially
after the drive from the airport, which, after the greenness and graciousness of Georgia, and the nailclipping
neatness of Vermont seemed so ungroomed and grubby..no airconditioning in the cab, driver tried to convert
me to Muslim, dirty white concrete instead of three story white brick, stunted,struggling little shrubs instead of
Atlanta's lush growth of English trees, and so on..I was quite sure I had made a mistake...
especially when I setup the IBM connection from Manhatton Beach to find that this is the land of timed local
calls....that I pay by the minute, even to call the car rental-agency across the road!!....
and that the datapoint is one of the old kind, which precludes use of the phone simultaneously,
and the voicemail service has no facility for making an answering message.
But I was glad to see the Inn is the style I prefer, with every unit an independent entity, with its own entrance..
no long corridors or sense of claustrophobia, and that the doors and windows can be opened as an alterntive
to air-conditioning...so I unpacked, and burned some Australian incense and scattered some fragrant oil around
and picked some flowers from the garden on my way to leave a grocery-shopping list and tell the nIght
Manager the unit smelled BAD, and updated the page, in a grizzly sort of fashion..and talked on ICQ and
grizzled some more...
but my .sister said it would look better after some sleep, and she was right!
*grin* because next morning it looked quite.....Australian!
And it wouldn't be ME if I couldn't make a home out of a place, no matter how
challenging...
By 9am I had staff people (Mexican, this time instead of black),on MY side, doing what Marriot likes to call that
little bit extra!..so I now have a chair for the little patio, and stored sheets in case someone uses the spare
bed in the unit (try explaining that just in case in Hispanic pantomime, and some stuff has been poured down
the drains and an air purifier worked here all that first morning.
And once I had opened everything up and let the sun in a lot, the whole place started to look and smell better...
And when I checked out the complementary breakfast (which was too gross in Georgia to bother) , it was GREAT
..actually edible, though the open fire alight was a bit of a shock to a summer-thinking system,
and when the fog lifted, I could see there WERE trees, just not very big or very many..but lots of eucalypts
and some palms, and a proliferation of hibiscus varieties, pretty much like our Sunshine Coast, really...
And I went out to check whether I HAD managed to place myself within WALKING distance of facilities,
guess what, I HAD!!
Absolutely everything, one of the best shopping malls I have seen, with a Macys, pedestrian crossings,
restaurants in abundance, even an Italian one, ..AND a SIDEWALK..and PEDESTRIAN CROSSINGS..
.something Vermont and Georgia have trouble with!!
In fact, shades of Australian-style, there are shops and business all along this strip..I see a Target just along
the road in the other direction, and a Kentucky Fried right opposite...even a Posting and Packing shop !!
Even a real, live, American PUB around the corner..
And a liquor store selling Fosters and Australian wines...
So, even though I had ordered some stuff from the grocery shopping, which is done here by a cluey girl who
knows what Tonic water is, and the difference between old and new potatoes, and that a childless hotel guest
doesn't need a gallon of milk, I stopped off at the nearest supermarket..like 50 yards away, which has its back
to the street so you can't tell what is is like and it is..like..*grin*...WOW!
So since I am a serious student of supermarkets, which teach a lot
about a people and their culture, I was beginning to feel I had come to the right place after all, especially
when the checkout man actually got TALKING to me..something that hasn't happened to me often in 8 weeks,
and I walked out of there with shiny black plastic Customer Club Dogtags, feeling quite at home!
And there is even a branch of Enterprise Cars, whose Rodeo I enjoyed so much in
Atlanta, almost right opposite...they had a Taurus for me, but I didn't like the combination of Wheel shift and
handbrake position, so decided to wait for something else, and walk in the meatime..which meant I did get lost, of course,
but also that I got to soak up a lot of the local atmosphere, and, incidentally, that the sun is in yet ANOTHER
position in the sky, and that I will have to learn direction-finding all over again!
Except that I now have a compass, and that is another story further down the page!
And I saw SHABBY homes and BEATUP cars, homes that, in Vermont, would have the Neighbourhood Committee
paying a concerned visit, and cars which made DaveIII's Estate Wagon look to be in good condition...
and I noted that some of those shabby houses had BMWs and Mercedes in the carport, ....and when I looked in the paper, I saw just how
much some of those paint-challenged houses are selling for......hmmmm!!
Andthe new car turned out to be a white Corolla with only 5000 miles, not spectacular, but nice enough and
unconspicuous!
Which is the way I like things.......really!!
So I spent the Saturday afternoon practising entering and exiting the Expressways, just to make sure I CAN
drive to San Diego,and reading the maps upside down, which, as a Southern Hemispherer, I find I have to do...
And I didn't have any trouble at all...really!!!!!
I can get ONTO the Esxpressways no trouble at all, and getting OFF them is even easier...
Could be said,though, that staying ON the Expressways might require just a TAD more work...
The hardest thing was finding enough English speaking citizens to point me in the right direction AFTER
I had fallen off...
But it was a piece of cake...REALLY!!!
The Happy hour here is good, too..runs five nights instead of four and
actually serves enough food that one doesn't need another evening meal...I have tried it each night I have
been here, and am watching with interest the gradual bringing together of a family for a wedding....
But my first night was the Manager's poolside barbecue, and , once again, though the staff try very hard,
the people just don't mix...there was one spare table-seat, with the only other unaccompanied person..a man.
He stayed in the spa as long as he could to avoid having to talk to me, then finally had to get out before he
faded to a shade of his formidable size, but sat sideon to me and wouldn't look at me or speak..finally when
he had dried off enough he took his extra doggybag hamburger, and his cigarettes and waddled off, still
without looking or speaking, even to say goodnight..
After the friendly Georgian folk, who always GREET even if they don't want to get involved, it was a bit of a
surprise! So I suspect I am not really going to get to meet many Americans staying in this kind of place..the
young mothers greet me and comment about the kids but, as DaveIII explained, this a a nation of
stranger-fearers, trained in suspicion from birth.....
And..I suspect...here, as in Vermont, the most SUSPICIOUS character of all is the unaccompanied female!!
And despite the fact that my friend, furtherSouth, (he who PLANNED this trip of mine) is being kept very busy
indeed by his wife during my stay here, it seems I shall not be totally alone in this state...
And Stratshooter knocked at the door, obviously stressed, and badly in need of the bathroom, and hungry, and
while I couldn't work out how he had arrived so soon after I had sent him the 'turning in' message, I figured it
was best to feed him and let him tell things in his own time..
And how nice it was to find that there is another person who gets lost just the same way I do....
Now,
Stratshooter is the friend I came here to play tennis with.
We have JOKED about this trip and kidded around a lot, but I never knew whether he was really SERIOUS
or not about meeting me...so when he didn't show up at the appointed 4pm, and was listing an ICQ Do Not Disturb
sign, I gave a mental shrug, sent him a message that I was going over to the Happy Hour without him, figuring
that he had chickened out, received a better offer, or been legroped by his wife..all the story of my life, lately!!.
And when I had been back from there for a while, I figured an early night wouldn't go astray and messaged him to that
effect...but stopped up to read the papers I had retrieved from the poolside gathering, because the noise
from the next unit had just started again and easy sleep seemed unlikely..
And it turned out (and this took a long time) that he had been driving since 4.30 pm,(5 hours), trying to get to me,
a 60 mile trip, and that he had actually passed the hotel several times, and that his wife would be frantic, (it was SHE
using the DND sign on ICQ), and he couldn't call her because they are living in a motel right now and the office
shuts down at 10pm.
And when he left a few hours later, with two Fosters and a meal under his belt, and a lot calmer, arranging to
come back with his wife at the weekend and take me sightseeing, he gave me his compass, so that I could
find my way around more confidentally.....
Had a bit of excitement one morning...no..not another evacuation...this time the power failed for the entire
complex...which left me the choice of staying in bed or showering and making up in the dark, because the
bathrooms here don't have windows....
Hmm..do you think it means I have been here too long if I know my way round Residence Inns so well I can
shower, wash and condition my hair..dress and insert contact lenses in the dark?
And I have to say, I, did a better job at tackling MY day without power than the housekeeping staff did..
.and I probably giggled more, too!
And, I have to say..the television here is seriously good...
Not that I WATCH TV., you understand, but as a serious scholar of foreign culture, one should at least switch
it on...
And I find, strange indeed, that the F word is not verboten in California!! Hmmmm!
The remote control handset here is so old that all the controls are worn off, which makes channel-surfing something
of an adventure, but it seems to me Californians are well served by this medium....seems funny, then, that there are
cinemas all over the place..
Haven't been to an American cinema yet....
Hmm..need to work on THIS angle!!
And to those of you still asking, 'Are you still coming home early?', the
answer is "er....NO!!".
I shall stay here for a few days at least..but I have the options of going North,to talk about Distance Education,
or going south, as I originally planned......
There is a United Airlines Office within walking distance, too, and I went there after I had conferred with
the nice phone-booking lady, and it is all organized...
though she says no aisle or window seats left, which means a long haul in the centre row....
And I doubt I will have a NATO Lt. Colonel this time across the ocean...
But...incurable optimist, MOI!!
and this interesting Mexican man has come out of the woodwork, courtesy of my sister, Sam...
Sam, where have you been HIDING all these almost-eligible men????
And the guy I came to see DID say he MIGHT be able to make some time available after Monday, but
he didn't say where I would need to be to take advantage of that munificent offer...
But I wouldn't want you to think he doesn't contact me.....he just seems to specialise in around 6.15pm., the
time everyone is finishing up at work and calling me, right?
So he always catches me talking to someone else, and has to leave a voicemail, right?
It's just that all the other folk this happens to can call me later, from HOME, right???
And he said he was going to get his computer back online too, so he could talk to me from home that way
once more.....
Yeah...right,Gravel-Voice, RIGHT!!!
But I am getting a suntan here, at last, since it is not too hot to go outdoors, and I
have everything I need nearby,...and then some!!...and though my cheque-account-balance, when I asked for it,
showed how deep a crevasse the exchange rate is scything through my savings, I would like to stay a bit
longer, I think, and probably could move about a bit..and SHOULD move about a bit....
And there is an interesting invitation to join
Webweavr up somewhere North, (I think...U.S. directions not being my forte')..and he is interesting because
he says he expected to be intimidated by my Intellect and now finds, to his pleasant surprise, that he
is NOT!
Hey, Rich, as a girl who always wanted to be valued for herMIND, I can tell you..that line will get you FAR!!
And there are some more invites to stay in THIS area and be shown around..a temptation, as I have said
already, though, if you are familiar with the term:
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