Think I'm Turning Japanese...

After the untimely demise of my last car I needed a new one, fast. So it was off round the car showrooms on Saturday weighing up the pros and cons of different cars and I ended up with a shiny silver Honda Civic that has less miles per year than my old car, is a diesel (essential for the amount of miles I do), has a huge boot, spacious interior and 5 doors and is costing less than my old monthly payments.

All in all I was quite chuffed so decided to celebrate on Sunday evening by going to Ichiban - Japanese car = Japanese food, obviously. I'd been told it was the same deal as Wagamama but better and they weren't wrong. We shared a sushi platter and salmon teriyaki, each had a chilli chicken ramen and a couple of drinks all for less than £40 plus the sushi platter was £12 which you wouldn't necessarily have each time so it turns into a bargain night out. Plus Alasdair lost his chopstick virginity and it has to be said he did really well - everything in his mouth and nothing on his lap!

Anyway we're leaving Japan (and Scotland) and heading to The Netherlands this weekend. Forecast for Amsterdam is 20-22 degrees all weekend so I'll be spending today frantically de-fuzzing and fake-tanning the legs so I can wear an array of summer dresses and feel all sunny.

Lovely.

Playing Hide'n'Seek with LAX

You'd think a major international airport with 8 terminals would be clearly signposted from a variety of roads leading into LA. You'd think that but you'd be wrong. It's not until you're about 10 miles away that there are signposts. What's the point in that? By the time you're 10 miles away you can follow the planes in. I spent a very frustrating hour driving round LA today trying to find some sort of indication that I was heading in the right direction and ended up pulling in to a communications firm to ask the receptionist for directions. She very kindly printed out a mapquest page and as it turned out I was only 20 minutes away but without her help I doubt I'd have got any closer on my own. LAX needs to spend some cash on new road signs.

Cruising with the Top Down

Yep, I am officially loving having the wind in my hair and the sun on my shoulders, although I am having to make extra stops to re-apply sun cream. Yesterday, 19 Aug, I drove from SF to Monterey stopping in at a few places on the way mainly to see how the other half lives. Serious money in this area.

Monterey doesn't have much to offer apart from it's fishing trade. There are a few piers, some working and some touristy where you can buy anything as long as it's fish or fish-related. I tried clam chowder but it was a bit heavy so I decided to catch my dinner instead, ok that was luck instead of planning but it worked.

I also found a British gift shop (why?!?) so went in to have a nosey at what British things people could buy from Monterey. As well as the usual china and dishtowels they had a British grocery store selling... IRN BRU!! As soon as I saw it I knew I couldn't wait another week to have it. The man behind the counter thought I was hilarious getting so excited about it but I knew that it meant I'd be having a fish supper and a bottle of Bru for dinner.

Today (Monday 20 Aug) I drove the majority of the Pacific Highway, Route 1. Most of the journey is coastal covering the 90 miles of Big Sur. A beautiful, dramatic coastline formed by ancient mountaintops protruding from the ocean. I'd been told that a lot of the coastline looked like Scotland and they weren't wrong. The only real difference was the colours. While our trees are much greener I've never seen such blue sea in Scotland. It actually reminded me what's on my doorstep and made me more determined to see Scotland properly and not just motorways and the insides of gym halls. I can feel a camping trip coming on.

After Big Sur, the highway leads to San Luis Obispo, a small beach town exactly halfway between SF and LA. I'd been planning on staying there for the night but there was no room at the inn, ok hostel, and other than that I had no real option. Motels are a lot more expensive than I expected them to be - $80 and up compared to $25 average for a hostel.

So I decided to bite the bullet and drove the extra 100 miles to Santa Barbara where I am now. I checked with the hostel here before leaving San Luis Obispo and booked in for tonight and tomorrow night. The hostel seems ok, a lot of young people but in a residential area so quite quiet as well but the kitchen is ridiculously small. I've had bigger kitchens in flats I've lived in. It wasn't helped by the fact that there were 5 girls 'helping' (ie flirting with) and Italian guy who was using pretty much every pot in the kitchen to make pasta with a tomato and pepper sauce. It looked quite nice until he added a cup full of oil after it had been cooking for 20 minutes and put 3 handfuls of salt into the pasta. I could've waited but I'd had nothing since breakfast and all the driving and sea air had really had an effect on my appetite. My pasta and pesto was so much better than his oil slick and salt effort anyway.

Tired and cranky? Yep!

Must be my Lucky Day!

I'm paying for this internet so I'll skip yesterday's events (Beef head, The Mission and Liz the Lesbian) and just tell you about today, my lucky day. When I was packing my bag to leave SF this morning I noticed my iPod was missing. I'd had it in the lounge a few days ago and couldn't remember having it since then. Thought I'd lost it and was physically sick at the thought of it. On the off chance I asked at reception and some wonderful person had handed it in.

Next I went to pick up my hire car to drive to LA and the man serving me didn't recongise my booking and was about to turn me away. He then checked bookings in a different way (technical stuff) and found me. To apologise for the inconvience (I was standing there for a whole 5 minutes) he upgraded me to a convertible. I am now cruising down the 101 with the wind in my hair and the sun on my shoulders.

Then, when I arrived in Monterey, a fishing town, 2 men in their 60s/70s thought I looked lucky and they'd been having a bad day so they handed me their rod. Within 20 minutes I'd caught dinner. Wow!

Everything before this sentence was written yesterday, the secoong I typed the exclamation mark my session timed out. Luckily I had auto-save set and I didn't lose anything. My lucky day was Sunday 19 Aug, it's now Monday 20 Aug.

Go and buy a Scion now

Yesterday (15 Aug) Clare and I met at the far end of Haight Street outside Amoeba Records so we could have a wander round Twin Peaks. Whilst waiting for her I was approached by a PR girl asking if I wanted $15 to spend in Amoeba. All I had to do was test drive the new Scion xD and fill out a 1 page survey about it. Realising that even if she was going to try and sell me something I wouldn't be able to afford it or get it out the country I thought I'd go for it.

When Clare arrived we headed into the car park they'd taken over and signed up for our test drive. A quick once round the block later - I was driving - and we'd almost earned our $15. The survey was aimed at American customers so we left most of it blank and collected our cash AND free t-shirt. To be honest I'd have done it for the free t-shirt alone but I wasn't telling them that.

After our little Scion adventure we tried and failed to go to Twin Peaks. Twin Peaks is just a hill, yes a hill in San Fran, shocking but apparently you can see a 360 degree view of San Fran and the bay. We were on 3 different buses heading in 2 different directions and although we kept going up we didn't seem to get any closer so when the 37 got back to the Castro we cut our losses, had a wander round there instead and went back to the hostel for free dinner. The Castro is the original and still the main gay area in SF, very vibrant with lots of cafes, bars restaurants and 'specialist' boutiques. There are rainbow flags everywhere and I think even Dad would realise he was in a gay bar in this place.

Free dinner was burritos with bean chilli and salad - lovely. The bean chilli was quite surprising actually, a lot nicer than I expected it to be, might give it a try when I get home.

After dinner Clare and I hung around the ballroom with Paul (English guy from the Beer Pong night), Dave (from Colorado) and Bora (Turkish guy) and spent the night having a chat and a laugh. Yet again my limited Turkish came in handy and apparently I'm the first person Bora's ever met to have learnt some Turkish. Don't worry Dad, I got his email address so you can impress him with your Turkish too.