I managed to get to sleep really late on Wednesday,and so I thought I'd beaten the jetlag, waking up at 8:45am yesterday. I did feel rather odd all day, but couldn't really work out why. Last night I went to bed at 23:30, and have now woken up at 6am. Very strange indeed. hopefully by tomorrow I will have adjusted.

It's really lovely and hot here, even down by the beach. Cosily in the 20s during the day, chilly at night. I think it will cool down a bit next week. I've booked a very short skiing trip that I can't really afford, to a small resort only 3 hours away. I hope the snow doesn't all melt. The website says it is still around 0 degrees, but there is no snow on the trees when I look at the webcam. The slopes look rather empty, which is ideal, of course.
Woo!

I'm back, and LA has warmed up just for me. 20 yesterday, lovely.

An opossum crossed my front garden today, just a few feet away from me. They are very, very ugly, or at least, the ones living near us are.

http://www.aaanimalcontrol.com/Professional-Trapper/wildlife/CA-Los-Angeles-Wildlife.htm

Incidentally, on that link, there's a fantastic little icon down the left for 'Dead' animals.

ohhhhh my lord. I've discovered that american milky ways are EXACTLY the equivalent of Mars Bars. No more buying them for 2 quid from the UK shop.

California, I have a cold. Please stop being 13 degrees at night, thanks v much. I don't have the right clothes!

RAIN.
Nice summer rain though. Bizarrely, every time it starts to rain, our power supply cuts out for a minute. Very, very strange.

I still don't miss the damp dark days of the UK, though I miss the architecture a bit. Having seen a lot of California now, the geography really is absolutely stunning.

I have been to Yosemite (second top attraction for me in the states, after the Grand Canyon), Death Valley (hot! Prehistoric!) and Joshua Tree National Park (beautiful!).

The towns, however, are not very interesting architecturally at all. This may just be because most of them are not very old, I don't know.

Not much other news really. Stuff continues, etc. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPlQgHVF0_E

Music by me.

oooh, and I went on a boogie board on Monday and finally found out what the whole surfing deal entails.
I didn't stand up, and only caught a wave the first 3 times, but it is great fun. You glide really fast, pushed along by the current. Ace.
Which reminds me, my flatmate kindly let me drink her Ace cider. Best name ever, and had a great taste. Need to investigate more. Cider is now my fav alcoholic beverage, I've decided.

I had an amazing weekend, where I had a fun hike on Saturday morning, a crap time at the polish drinks meet in the evening, and then a great sunday with brunch with a friend and then tea with Brits for many hours. Monday was a bank holiday (Labour Day), and I went to the beach and street party, while failing another assignment for the online course because I couldn't get hold of the film we had to watch. Gah.

Yesterday I mostly watched Weeds, before finally getting down to work in the evening. Got really into it. I'm such a terrible worker. It will take me hours or days to start, and then once I get into it, I'm fine. Today more of the same, with less wasting of time, and then a trip to see the new Whole Foods nearby. Hurrah, I can now cycle to overpriced organic food. In fairness, they have a selection of cheaper foods in their own brand range, so I might get some of that. But back to the 99c store and ralphs for the rest I think.

For those following my saga of falling over while running, in June, then on rollerblades in July, I have now fallen off my bike, finally. Not badly hurt, though it was painful, and I fell off while coming slowly to a stop, so I wasn't really moving. Classic.

In fairness, it was late, I was tired, and had a load of heavy shopping in my rucksack and lost my balance. Same thing happened on the rollerblades. No more shopping.

Maybe a car would be safest after all, as I wouldn't be in charge of balancing it.

hello LJ. Anyone know any friendly people in Palm Springs? Am looking for a couch/floor space for tonight. Happy to renumerate. Thanks!

A friend has told me that driving through Coulsdon the other day, he saw a DRIVE-THRU STARBUCKS.
Oh my lord. How ACE.

Incidentally, i discovered that starbucks here is HALF the price of the UK ones, because of the strength of the dollar. I love Tazo tea, so last week i went crazy and bought a tazo chai AND a slice of good banana cake. WOOO hardcore.

I know starbucks apparently do lousy coffee, but their tea and cakes are really good.

OK. So, that was my first earthquake. It was HORRIBLE.

For the uninitiated:

Order of events:
1) Odd rattling noise from the fridge, I thought maybe it was breaking.

2) Wobbling of floor, akin to when my landlady uses the washing machine, except I was downstairs.

3) This got stronger, like a truck passing the house, and then just didn't stop.

Not v exciting, but I'm not used to it, so it terrified me. Luckily I've read the UCLA earthquake advice, so got OUT of the house (took my laptop with me, bit daft), where my landlady was v friendly and reassuring. Apparently it's worse upstairs, thank goodness I wasn't.

Only lasted about 20, maybe 30 seconds. Am still a bit dizzy, mostly from panic. Thank goodness I ate beforehand.

5.8 at the epicentre, which is at least 40 miles away. Crumbs.

FUN BIKING:
So, I left the house to my flatmate today and cycled off to join the West La cycle club for a trip. It was great fun. 27 miles round trip, plus he 2 or so to the meeting place.
I still can't believe I made it, though we stopped a few times, and it's flat all the way. It's a lovely route - all the way along the beach to Palos Verdes. Next time, if I'm still able to move, I intend to do the uphill hard part at the end, where you go into the Palos Verdes hills.

Met some nice people, ate FAR too much pizza at the end.I have put on the 2kg I lost, though I seem to do that very often - 2kg down, 2 up. Less eating.

MORE VANITY:
On a health note, I keep sleeping for about 10 hours a night. No idea what is going on there.
Went running for the first time in a week yesterday, and, if my legs haven't died by tomorrow, intend to do it again. Barely managed a mile yesterday, which is Pants (sorry, knickers, or whatever the yanks call them).

IT'S THE BIZ:
On a business-y note, ordered some fun mini-cards from Moo.com. They are beautiful, and I hope they look as good printed. It's a London-based company, so check it out. One could easily print out designs like those on a conventional printer, so maybe one day I will.

Business question - how does one have conversaionts with dull peoplewho may or may not need a composer (indeed should one do so?) ?
Who invented these boring, unfunny people? What planet do they come from?
I have so many wonderfully interesting and witty friends. Peeps, you're all fab and I miss you lots.

FLIMFLAM:
My flatmate orders a magazine called ReadyMade. It is wonderful, if a bit content-short. I presume there are similar ones in the U of K.
In that mag there is an article about a really groovy place where you can rent a silk screen printer and make your own tshirt. At the mo it's around 40 bucks a shirt, so I might have to make do with making my own with, er, fabric paint. Yer right, I've been planning to do that for at least 10 years.


(FURTHER MAGAZINE NEWS:)

AND AND AND there is now a mag called Women's Health, apparently in the style of Men's Health. As a huge devotee of the latter for several years in several countries (until I realised I was reading the same articles on rotation), I may try out the ladeez' version for comparison.

Today I cycled to the venice Farmer's Market, which was more of a market than the Santa Monica one. Bought some lovely veg and fruit, though it's still not cheap, dammit.

Later on, once I got sick of working out tech problems with my laptop, I cycled down past the canals to the Marina. It is stunningly beautiful around there. Top place to live would be the house on the corner, on the end of the beachfront, RIGHT on the beach. Gorgeous. And yet another hummingbird, not making the chiup chiup noise this time, flitting about like a large moth.

Then the Ballona lagoon. A smallish thing that looks like a river, and is full of the most lovely birds.

Apparently there is more than what I saw, but it was great. Houses all looking onto the lagoon, some with little boats out the front.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballona_Wetlands

Next time I need to explore the Marina itself.

Just got back from the Glow Festival:
http://www.smgov.net/smarts/glow/

V interesting. Quite a lot of drunk ppl, but the beach is large enough to accommodate them all.

Had a great time in West Hollywood beforehand. Oh, and a fun day at free seminars in a music shop. Am now tempted to buy piano samples, called Italian Piano by... oh whatevertheirnameis. It's 4:30am, who cares!

Night.

And how could I forget?! I saw a pair of dolphins just offshore on Tuesday. Ace.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_White_Pelican

Saw one of those on the beach yesterday, while running.

Spot the deliberate mistake:
Every time I go running I put my key in my sock. Every time I go running I want to wade in the sea.
Yesterday I did so, and it made me very happy, till I got back home and... you can see where this is going. Miraculously (the great Pelican in the Sky was smiling down), the key was still there, part submerged in the sand. I only found it after nearly giving up, but just deciding to go a bit further to check.

Phew.


So it was nice, after feeling like a complete imbecile (plus having creative block on the soap opera music), that last night the substitute lecturer was pleased with my work. Shame the really excellent composer wasn't there, hers would have been more impressive no doubt, and most of my class didn't have the work as the lecturer didn't have internet access (our work goes on an iDisk, to be downloaded during the class). So I had an unfair advantage, but I am still over the moon about having been told I can compose, by an outsider/lecturer. It's only taken about 10 years for that to happen! Another step on the ladder to that Oscar. ;)

Exercise went much better today, going to bed earlier is defo a good idea. Managed to run to the pier and back, and discovered it was more than 2 miles, not less, so that made me feel like less of a wooss (sp?) for not being able to manage it till today.

Then did some music, and decided to cycle off in search of less windy climes, with my stravinsky to listen to. In the end I cycled right to the end of the cycle path, up by the beaches north of Santa Monica. Got insanely hungry and didn't like any of the very small selection of crap cafes, so cycled back and ate practically a whole cow with pasta. Failed to listen to Strav.

Watched A Touch of Evil for my film class, and, despite it being a bit dull every now and then, enjoyed it. It's filmed mostly where I live just now, and bits are recognisable.
Orson's flabby monster is fantastic, and the end is gripping. The script seemed really poorly written in places, though.


THE WEATHER:
Seriously, why does the wind have to be so chill? It would have been a lovely hot day if not for the icy wind. Gah. It only turned into a warm breeze far up north by the mountains, and even then only briefly. NOT impressed. Consequently I haven't really been sunbathing. My arms are very brown, but my tummy is porcelain white. Attractive combination, I think not.

Still struggling not to catch the deathly cold my flatmate has been fighting for weeks. Been sneezing today so getting paranoid and even took a paracetamol, as my mother claims you can use those preventatively. Hmmmmmmm.

Hm, wish I could work ON the beach. But I tried that with one of my directors a few weeks ago and it was a disaster. Too noisy, too windy, too bright. Gah.

COMPOSING:
So, last night I was told I write excellent Debussy. Hurrah!
My bruised ego thus recovered, I woke to find an email saying that what was apparently a great track yesterday needs electric guitar today. That would be fine, but I am very stuck for ideas and no nothing about electric guitar. Going to the beach to try to clear head. Also - paging Aug and any other guitarists... help!

BINMEN:
Had a text this morning from flatmate saying cat was in a fight in the night and not to be let out today. Wow. I heard *nothing* of this fight, and yet was awake for the entire half hour or hour that it seems to take the binmen to do their thing here. I'm sure it only took about 5 mins back home.

BOOKS:
Currently taking a Pynchon-break and reading Tales of the City. It's about San Francisco, but it's nice to read about another adrift newbie in a city of loonies. :)

Full of coconut and noodles yesterday, after managing (just) to get my assignments in on time.
Will get them done sooner next week, as in a few days before the deadline.

CLASSES:
It was nice to hear that everyone's work was quite different, apart from the english guy's stuff, which was like an upgraded version of mine, oddly. Similar background, perhaps. One girl sounded like a fully-fledged orchestral Hollywood composer already, dammit. We were all just blown away. Still, gives me something to aim for. I'm regularly getting lifts home from people who live vaguely near me, which is really helpful and kind. THe journey to UCLA takes at least an hour, and to Hollywood I have to take two buses and it takes at least 1.5 hours. On Monday I may get a lift to the class as well.
I keep offering to contribute to gas. We'll see how long their generosity lasts, they may have to cave in to my offer at some point, as gas just keeps getting more expensive here. :)


It's cloudy again. What is this cloud nonsense?!


STUFF:
Tomorrow my flatmate is taking me to Target, as she wants her blanket back. I keep forgetting that I do have a small blanket, maybe I shouldn't get another. Hers is more comfy though. Hmm.
My attempts at spartan living are not working very well, but I have nearly given up caring. Either you can live with enough stuff to fit in a suitcase, or you can actually have music equipment needed to do your work, be comfortable in bed and have something to sit on.


FOOD:
Shopping yesterday went well, I joined Ralph's supermarket, grudgingly, but now don't have to pay non-member higher prices on almost everything I buy there. Frozen edamame are good, though not as tasty as the pricey ones in the UK were. I may have overcooked them, though.

I now have FROZEN VEGETABLES. I bought brown rice without realising it would take 45 minutes to cook. Craziness! I'm sure you can get faster cooking brown rice.

I couldn't buy as much as I wanted, as a lot of the items come in HUGE containers, and the fresh vegetables are like mutants. Even the onions are grapefruit-sized. The aubergines are just enormous.
Anyhoo, tomorrow I will purchase these ginormous products, shove them in a car, then consume them all at once, in my quest to become a true American.


CYCLING:
Did I mention you can take bikes on buses? THey have a little thing at the front where you attach the bike, on the outside. This is great, though at rush hour and weekends there are sometimes no free spaces. I have yet to need to use this feature, but am very pleased. In the UK you are NOT under any circumstance allowed to take a bike on, and in some countries you have to pay.