First week State-side

This time last week we had just arrived at our temporary apartment, after a very long day. We’d had a near-disastrous experience at London Heathrow where we thought we might not be able to take the cats because the carriers we’d brought weren’t the right size or type – thankfully we were rescued by some kind people at their animal health centre who brought us some huge carriers in exchange for a donation to their charity for abandoned animals. This part of the adventure was filmed by a cameraman who was following the animal health people round for a documentary for the Discovery channel, so we may yet get to see how the cats fared after they were taken from us to be transferred between carriers! After the delay this had caused we very nearly missed the flight itself and had to run to the gate. Happily, though, the Los Angeles airport experience was comparatively a delight, and we were probably driving away from the airport less than half an hour after we landed.

So we’ve been here a week now and it still feels quite a lot like we’re on holiday (probably not least because I haven’t started work yet). We’ve hired a car and driven to Laguna Beach, which was a lovely drive through some pretty hills and valleys. Driving on the right isn’t nearly as bad as I’d thought, but driving a left-hand drive car is still very odd – particularly where the rear-view mirror is. That’ll take a while to get used to. Laguna Beach was lovely, particularly if you’re an art lover – there are a lot of art galleries. As well as that we’ve spent a fair amount of time by one of the local pools, and last night we had a barbecue by the pool, which was lovely. The weather has been lovely the whole time. All of these things combined seem like the sort of thing you do on holiday – odd to think that should we choose it, this could be where we live for the rest of our lives!

We’ve had a huge amount of help and guidance from Chris and Caroline. Chris is someone I used to work with back at Lionhead and having someone here I already knew (and someone so generous and patient!) has been amazing. These lovely people have made our first week so much easier than it could have been and we’re so grateful for their kindness. Thank you both!