Definitely mid-life.

This is my regular morning set up:

Guardian web-site

Granola (today I opted for soya milk over yoghurt)

Coffee (Monmouth of course)

Water (filtered)

The further into my thirties I go the more I embrace my mid-life urges and I feel perfectly fine about it.

Buses for the nephews

Hello William and Joel here's a picture of some American school buses which Kat very kindly took for you guys she hopes you like it.

It seems like ages ago.

There's a whole list of things in this photo I'm missing.

Check out the composition.

This photo was taken on a late night tourist detour whilst heading home it was only a couple of months ago but feels like a lot longer and if you ignore the fact there's a finger in the corner of the frame the rest of the picture is good. London always looks good from the river at night so it wasn't difficult to take a good photo but, it's always harder to find a reason to take the trip down there on this occasion it was worth the effort and the end of an evening I wont forget.

Silver shoes don't scare me.

I like new shoes especially running shoes and whilst in every other respect I dress in a very under-stated manner I throw caution to the wind in this department allowing colour to be a part of my life where I would normally stick to a very limited colour palette of black, white, grey and navy. Yesterday I acquired a new pair of Nikes (thanks Mubi) which are my first pair of silver shoes and I love them, as you can see they're very spangly so much so they can barely be captured on camera.

License Plates

America is the land of the free and also the funny license plate. This was spotted on the way out of L.A. heading towards San Luis.

Good lads.

I got to hang out with Seth and Riley last night, these two were missed in Cali and our regular Wednesday afternoons will resume soon. I'm thinking I might introduce cards or dominoes into the equation of lager tops and olives at Primrose Hill?

1 x Annoyed Cat

As all cat owners or neighbours of cats will know if you go away for any time when you get back the cat isn't your friend for a little while this is despite the cats reputation for a being an independent/unloving creature as they do seem to suffer from abandonment issues as a species. This is my neighbours cat who was a regular visitor but, since I got back last week it's made a point of meowing relentlessly and tapping his claw on my window so loudly I open my window at which point he runs away to glare at me from a distance. I'm not sure how much longer this game will carry on so I'll let you know when me and the cat make a break-through and are once again friends.

Well done Joel.

Last weekend nephew Joel passed his grading for his yellow belt in karate with flying colours. Congratulation we're all really proud of you! Sorry this is a bit late mate my internet has been a bit rubbish.

The Holiday Hangover

There's nothing worse than a holiday hangover and it hits the moment you step off the plane back into the regularity of pre-holiday life which is nearly always a disappointment for the first few days. After my extended break it was bad coming from a sunny beach in the morning back to a grey and drizzly London so it helped to have such an excellent flatmate.

Tamsin wasn't in when I got home but she left me a welcome message.
Then she helped my jet lag with some seasoned traveller advice.
The best part for my transition back into home was a late birthday cake and present! Thanks Tamsin you're the best.

Only a 4 hour delay

So I got spend an extra hour and a half waiting at the gate then a further two and half hours in the plane on the tarmac. Luckily my super power is the ability to instantly fall asleep when I'm on a plane so I hardly noticed the delay and slept nine of the ten hours on the way back.

Goodbye Banana Stand

and Newport Beach.

The last meal

We had our last Banana Stand bar-b-que last night under an impressive looking full moon. Goodbye Balboa you were amazing.

Brunch and the Back Bay

It was my last full day in Balboa yesterday so Kat and I went for brunch at the Rusty Pelican then had a ride around the Back Bay for the last time. It was fun but also sad as the dream is nearly over.

For Joel and William

Hello nephews here's a lifeguard pick-up truck I saw on the beach yesterday.

Oh my patriotic!

Yesterday the wait for the ferry took approximately 1 hour instead of the usual 3 minutes so we decided to cycle round to Newport Beach instead. On the way past the endless line of cars there was this dude in the middle of it all.

Fireworks photo number 2

I thought none of my fireworks photos had come out too good but I had another look and this one was not so bad.

Happy Independence Day!

The next big thing is...

golfcarts!

Hollywood High

After eating cheeseburger number 3489 I looked across the road from Mel's Diner and saw the world famous skate spot Hollywood High. No funny or interesting story about this sorry.

Whatev's

This is Michael Jackson's star/temporary memorial as you can imagine everyone's pretty mellow about him dying out here.

There's never a bad time...

for a cheeseburger. We had ten minutes free post sign and pre boulevard so we nipped into Mel's diner for a cheeseburger, I think we're averaging one every three to four days and are feeling no guilt about it whatsoever.

Hollywood Boulevard

After checking out the hills and sign we ticked another tourist activity off the list by walking down Hollywood Boulevard. It reminded me of Oxford Street a bit as it starts off kind of nice then gradually becomes increasingly crap with the people hanging out there getting more and more mad. You start off walking down checking out all the names on the stars then after a while you get bored of doing it although I was really pleased to find Diana Ross as I have been listening to a lot of motown the last few months specifically The Supremes who are definite top fivers for me.

Wardrobe malfunction?

Today we drove up until the Hollywood hills to get a good view of the sign it was a fun adventure. We let Dave, our less than enthusiastic sat-nav, lead the way to the recommended location Kat found on yelp which entailed going up a long winding road with a wrong turn or two until eventually we popped out on the top of the hill. We got busy getting our tourist photos on the go and all was going swimmingly until it came to Kat's jump shot when we discovered she had dressed inappropriately! High heels and tight jeans what was she thinking? After checking the Hollywood sign out we walked over the road and checked out the view of L.A. over the reservoir which was nothing short of amazing.

After the beach...

we will often go for a couple of drinks in Newport then get the ferry home. I love living in London and all that entails but I've discovered the life I ultimately want.