I’m writing this entry at 6:37 am after a second jet lag night in California. This morning I woke up around 3 am and dozed and slept until 5:50 and then gave up the sleep struggle and accepted I was fully awake.
Today will be our third day at Alex’s time share in Oalm Desert. The place has hived to its reputation for warm and pleasant conditions in December. Sun has shown all the time and temperature around the mid twenties. Very easy to get sun burnt.
The journey
Our trip across the pond with BA held no surprises. Our little cubicle in business class feels a little cramped, but you can stretch out and lie flat. I watched two terrible movies, listened to a book on BBC Sounds and started to read 38 Londres St by Philippe Sands. So far I’m not finding the book as fascinating as his previous writings.
We stayed at the Los Angeles Airport Marriott and basically checked in around 4 pm and never left the room until we checked out at 8 am the next morning.
On the drive to Palm Desert we stopped off in Anaheim at Tom/Perry’s Place a breakfast joint fully staffed by Latinos and serving a mixture of poor Americans. I had a plate of ham and eggs with a mass of potato a couple of pieces of toast and jam. By any standards the restaurant offered good value.
Palm Desert
Shopping, our first duty on arrival meant a trip to Whole Foods, the upmarket Waitrose of America. We managed to spend $262 on our evening meal with a few extras thrown in.
Having spent over an hour in the store we drove up to our accommodation and managed to decipher the codes that allowed us entry. We made ourselves at home chose the same bedroom as we had before and even indulged in a short swim.
The sun disappears from the garden around 3:30, and sets at 4:30. Mostly Maggi made the evening meal and I helped out a bit.
Everyone arrived at 7 pm and we sat down for a chatty and pleasant meal. Sadie had brought a friend called Mimi. We hadn’t seen the girls since the summer and Carrie in particular has grown quite a lot. She’s as skinny as a broom handle and affectionate enough to give an old foggy like me a real good hug.
Maggi and I crashed out around 9 and woke up early in the morning.
Friday 12th
Alex said that she uses the place to chill out so nobody proposed anything other than a lazy day reading etc around the pool until after lunch. At this point I found out that the girls had planned a trip to the local nail bar.
In contrast Greg suggested we climb up to the cross on the other side of the road which I’ve walked to before. Of course Greg walks much faster than I do and so I’m always a couple of steps behind him as we mount this mini mountain.
As we ascend the sun sets, we can see clearly but I’m nervous that if we go to the cross at the very top we will be descending the scree ground in the dark. We therefore turn around when we have achieved the majority of the climb and then head back. It is full dark when we arrive home.
Greg acts as tonight’s chef and barbecued salmon, sausages, lamb chops and sweet corn. With the barbecue he also added a salad.
When we had cleared away the four adults watched the 1980s film Airplane and laughed a lot. Times have changed and you would never be allowed to say or film much of the content today.