Wintry loveliesWinter here means crisp blue skies, hummingbirds, sunshine, and strelitzia. Lovely!
:: I don't rave about it enough, but here's a completely irrelevant shot of part of the interior of our San Diego restaurant, the Bondi, so you can see how absolutely bloody gorgeous it is! Proudly Australian, with jarrah and steel and Sydney bluestone and iron-ore rock. You beauty!
:: David is making a very big deal of the fact that on the FedEx website he can track the journey of the Christmas present he has bought for me.
It started its journey in Kunshan, in China, at 7.23pm last Saturday and went from there to Subic Bay in the Philippines, then to Anchorage Alaska.
And right now he's chortling as he tells me that it left Anchorage last night.
What can it be? He's still laughing ... (he's getting three pairs of socks from me). (And some very daggy, saggy, baggy Y-fronts.)
:: I ought to be doing housework. But then, why is this so? And why is this so for me and not for David? Hmmm?
I'm going to quilt instead. So ya boo sucks to Mr Dyson (have I ever told you how much I loathe my Dyson vacuum cleaner?).
:: I've posted lots and lots of family pics on my facebook page, and you can have a look — even if you are not a facebook frequenter — by clicking on this link— and then clicking on each of the photos to read the captions. Only if you're interested, though!

Turkey!
It's Thanksgiving today — so happy turkey day to my American friends!
:: It's been a week since my last post ...... and I've been productive. I've got Christmas well under control, with parcels ready to go, and Christmas cards all written and ready to post.
Lily was home for a few days, and we had family dinners at the Bondi on two nights. I'm happy to report it was jumping both times, and the new winter menu is just sensational. If I do say so myself!
At home, David got cooking and I got baking, and Lily and I got stuck into her quilt and have finished piecing the top. Yay! So now I can relax and get it layered and quilted.Lily has planned a post-Christmas road-trip with friends of hers from Perth, tying in with our visit from Dace, Max and Halina. She still has the cast on her leg, and we're all hoping she'll be in good shape for her trip, which takes in the Grand Canyon and Oklahoma City for the Flaming Lips' New Year's Eve concert.
I was devastated when she flew off back up north: I'll see her just a couple more times over Christmas and the New Year and then David, Will and I will be off home to Perth.
It's been raining — oh the very sound of it dripping on the big leaves outside our bedroom window at night ... soooooothing!
We've been to the movies — last week we saw the wonderful and widely acclaimed British film, Happy Go Lucky, which I heartily recommend. Last night, we saw Australia, which was a truly entertaining three hours if a little dodgy on dialogue and music. And with a week and a good pair of scissors, I'd be more than capable of cutting a good twenty minutes out of it. But definitely worth seeing. The first Baz movie I've liked. But why the grandiose, all-encompassing title? A great film to see at an early session so you've time for lots of talk about it afterwards.
I've been sorting out my 10,000 photos stored in iPhoto, and updating my visual diary, which is definitely one of those jobs best done when there's no rush ...
... and I've been making a few bits and bobs out of papier mache for Christmas. These have turned out strange. I have doubts. They are weird and very spooky, and eventually they will get wings and then be weird and very spooky angels. The jury is out until then!
There are a few less subversive-looking birds made with the same technique, but I neglected to photograph them. Next time.
:: Horrible, horrible reports from Mumbai. And an Air New Zealand training plane down in the Mediterranean. And an Australian killed in Afghanistan. Grim times.

SundayImagine my poor dogs flying home to Australia in these little boxes, and then, when the nightmare journey does end, having to spend weeks in quarantine.
I worry particularly about Nipper, who is very much My Dog. He sits as near to me as possible wherever I am, usually touching my feet, or leaning up against my legs. Follows me up and down stairs. Waits outside the loo for me. Sleeps at the foot of my bed. He will pine in quarantine, so I hope he at least gets to bunk up with Yoshi.
I've been put in touch with a guy in LA who will help organise their trip home. The quarantine regulations are very complicated, so I feel better to have someone who knows the ropes helping me get them home.
:: Just got back from a wonderful chatty Sunday session-style arvo at the Bondi. There were quite a few of us — the drinks and nibbles were our prize for being the top table at last year's season of quiz nights. Sounds a bit weird, I know, to have won the series when we own the place, but I assure you it was all above board!
There was lots of talk about the new Baz whatsisname movie, Australia, which opens here the night before Thanksgiving. A few weeks ago, David and I saw a short trailer for the movie and were a bit worried about it. But on Friday night, we went to see Happy Go Lucky (really really wonderful English film) at the local cinema and there was a longer trailer for Australia, and I must say it looked a lot better. So we'll see.
:: How's your Christmas shopping? These are pics of FAO Schwarz, the fabulous, enormous, magical toyshop in New York on Fifth Avenue, right next door to the big glass-cube Apple store.There are whole wings dedicated to animals, books, Lego, and Playmobil and Barbie. Then there's a huge Harry Potter section — including these 'life-size' (or what you imagine life size to be) dragons.The one in the window was half -price — a snip at $2300. The unicorn, which was, frankly, a little grubby about the hoof, was a mere $800.
:: It's been hot and sunny ever since we got back from New York. There have been terrible fires in Los Angeles, with flames whipped up by fierce 96 mph Santa Ana winds — about 800 homes lost. Ghastly.
:: We bought tickets home to Perth this morning. So I feel I have a date to work to, and can now structure the time I have left and organise the things I have to do to get home. Also, this weekend, we booked a return trip to Santa Fe for when Dace is with us — fantastic! We'll be in Santa Fe for New Year's, which is bound to be spectacular.
:: Lily has had a second opinion on her foot, and will now not need surgery — thank heavens. She has a better cast, which has already made a difference to how she gets about, and has been told that the reason her ankles give out on her so frequently is that she has short, tight hamstrings and calf muscles, which she needs to stretch, strengthen and lengthen by exercise. Then she'll stop stressing her ankles by no longer walking on the sides of her feet.

Anzac DayWhen we went to bed last night, it was around the time for Australians to get up and go to the dawn service on the other side of the world. And we thought of you all down there, in the cool of the autumn morning, and wished we could be there for this day of days.
David and I both had grandfathers at Gallipoli, and in Perth, David has worn his grandad's medals on the day.
In San Diego, the Royal Australian Navy observes Anzac Day with a well-attended service on the USS Midway. This is a de-commissioned aircraft carrier that is now permanently docked in the bay at San Diego. It's so enormous that standing on the foredeck for this service was like being four or five storeys up.It was a short but moving ceremony, with all the traditional components, attended by lots of US and Australian military and brass, and the odd New Zealander. We even had a highly-decorated US rear admiral, who gave the reading.
By coincidence, two huge (and loud) US Navy helicopters provided the fly-past, just at the perfect moment after the Last Post. We sang along to recordings of the national anthems of Australia, New Zealand and the US, and I was a little sad that our recording of Advance Australia Fair was the same maudlin Julie Anthony version that gets trotted out and played in at the MCG every September for the footy Grand Final. Honest.
But that's by the by. After the ceremony, everyone retired to the Bondi where we put on a barbecue lunch — with real pavlova for dessert — that's still going strong at almost 6pm, David tells me!

Back to work
So this is the scene here at Schloss Zed, now that our lovely week-and-a-bit of family visits is over. Sunny but sad!First to arrive last week, from Australia, were David's brother and sister, Jeff and Heather, and Heather's husband, Peter.Then Lily flew in on Saturday night, so for the first time in a while, most of the Zeds were all together, for brekkie at the Hotel Del Coronado, above and below ... ... dinner at the Bondi (of course!), walks along the Mission Beach boardwalk ... ... and with the dogs on the beach at Del Mar ...... cricket at the park (hard to believe they're brothers, isn't it?)... and lots of family yarning.
Then, just a couple of hours before Lily left, my cousin, Duncan, and his partner Amy — below — arrived from British Columbia on their way to New Mexico. Here they are in the weird and wonderful desert garden at Balboa Park in San Diego yesterday.
It was only the second time we'd ever met — and the first time was over sixteen years ago — so it was great to meet this branch of my family and discover such similar interests in music, art, books and lots more. They were such easy, enthusiastic guests, and needed just time and sunshine to thaw out after their Canadian winter, and a chance to unwind after busy jobs and the stress of packing up and driving south down the interstate-5 for a couple of days to get to us.
Now Lily's back at college in Olympia up north, Jeff's back in Perth, Heather and Peter are in New York on their way to Hong Kong, and Duncan and Amy are on the interstate-8 heading east for Arizona.
But it was so wonderful to see so much of our family!

Big night at the Bondi
Just have to brag a little about what a great few days we've had the Bondi. The popular ASR (Action Sports Retail — surf shops, skate shops, etc) convention started on Thursday, and while Thursday night was good for us, by Friday night, Bondi was definitely the place to be. Especially as we had an LA band, HyperCrush, performing.
We had 500 people inside, and a queue of about the same waiting to get in. So popular were we that we were also visited by the police, the fire department, Vice and Health, all of whom left reasonably happy after issuing the odd warning, noticeably about overcrowding. It turns out that people were jumping our front porch balustrade to get in. Astounding.
The convention finishes tomorrow, but we don't think tonight will be quite as frenzied.
After the doldrums of December and early January, it's such a relief to pull a crowd again.

Red-carpet ready
I have bought the perfect outfit. I'd have loved colour, but I don't wear a lot of black by day, so what the hey.
I chose an elegant evening skirt in overlapping layers of satin. I'm trying hard to describe it without mentioning scales but, ultimately, that's what comes to mind. But not frills or flounces, heaven forbid. It's narrow, flares gently out from beneath the knee and, viewed from the side, fits neatly under the backside and then sweeps out in a sort of subtly Edwardian profile. Very me.
With it I've chosen a neat velvet camisole with quite a low neck, which is worn under a fitted devore velvet evening jacket in much the same style as Helen's (see post a couple below this) but with velvet revere lapels and cuffs. One velvet button under the bust.
No alterations needed at all.

:: I had a great day out shopping, with Amanda, one of our managers at the Bondi, who is coming to the galah with us. She's perfectly gorgeous and snapped up an exquisite Calvin Klein gown in a ridiculous size (2), and I have spent the morning shortening it for her by a whopping 13 cm — including train and lining.
This is Amanda's apartment block downtown in the early morning sunshine — i just love that part of the city.
This is the view across the road from her building ...
:: In Macy's, I was looking at one of the make-up stands, wondering why the manufacturer made only two colors of nail polish — brown and pink — when I realised these were, in fact, cosmetics for dogs. Honest ...
... I suppose the picture should have alerted me, but I just wasn't expecting this in among all the scents and cosmetics!
Then, at the end of the handbag section, there's this neat little contraption ...
... an iPod vending machine! God, I love this crazy place!

:: Dave and I have been working our way through the entire series of The West Wing, on DVD from Netflix, interspersed with lots of MSNBC coverage of the (real) presidential election — it's riveting now we are into the primaries and caucuses! I feel I am at last getting some inkling of the way it all happens — and it's fascinating watching the candidates' debates.
All of which has been useful in these long, slow weeks of the screenwriters' strike (over royalties from online distribution). The strike has meant there have been no new episodes of a lot of popular and high-rating series, like Grey's Anatomy (which I love but Dave can't stand), and even the late-night talk shows. So TV has been more or less at a standstill, apart from re-runs of old episodes of House, which my TV is programmed automatically to record whenever it shows, and on whatever channel. Suits me down to the ground!
The strike has also had an effect on this year's season of American Idol, which started this week. So huge is this show that, with prime-time advertising time at a premium because of the writers' strike, a thirty-second ad slot on the show costs $1 million. Imagine!

Cor! We — as in the Bondi — have made it into The Age, in Melbourne.
Click here to read the story ... though what's with the 'Australian-themed restaurant'? You wouldn't call a French restaurant 'French-themed', would you? Even if it was in Widgiemooltha!
There weren't any pics with the story, so I've picked a few to go with it, just in case you haven't seen them before (!).
We'll be celebrating our first birthday on January 25 — which is January 26 at home ... Australia Day.

Sea-legging it
Last night, David and I were invited to a reception on board the Australian Navy ship, HMAS Sydney (pic above pinched from the RAN website - sorry, guys!). It was a fab little affair, with drinks and canapes and a great and very funny welcoming speech by the commanding officer in whch he equated his ship - a 134-metre-long guided missile frigate with a crew of about 220 - to a sort of blokey souped-up ute with a great big engine and some really fun weaponry.
The officers were all in their formal blues, having left their hats here ...

... which fascinated me. I guess that left both hands free to hold their beers! There were lots of women officers, which was good to see, and the CO explained that the ship was supposed to come with two helicopters, and he'd asked for them, but the navy had given them a band instead. So they put on a special ceremony just for us ...

... with swords, marching, drumrolls and a gun salute, to strike the White Ensign and announce sunset. Then we all sang Advance Australia Fair, with tears in our eyes, followed by the US anthem. The diminutive woman standing at the microphone on the far right of the pic above is the Sydney's gunnery officer - you can just see (if you click for a bigger image) all the gold on the end of her sleeves.
I found a young officer to show me where the loo was, and he took me halfway to the pointy end of the ship, led me inside the washroom and showed me the actual cubicle. I almost expected him to put the seat down for me. Then, once I emerged, he cheerfully led me back to the party. Such a gent!

:: It was all over at 8pm, so David and I hastened back to the Bondi to join our regular team, the Space Bars, for the quiz night. And one of our team members was a very polite young lad from Ohio, Daniel, who is a enlisted man on the USS Princeton ...

... (pic pinched from the US Navy website - sorry guys!). This is a slightly bigger (40 m or so) ship than the Sydney, a guided missile cruiser with about 600 on board. Daniel has been with our team for two weeks, but the Princeton sails soon, so we'll have to wait for him to get back to San Diego.

:: Thanksgiving tomorrow!

My NaNo word count ...

... is a little over 18,400. And I'm sprinting - which involves writing in bursts of 20 minutes or so, interspersed with other activities. The 'plot' — and I use the term loosely! — is all over the place as a consequence, but hey! Quantity over quality.
I lost a half-day yesterday because David asked me to copy-edit some Bondi material. It was a pack for presenting to people wanting to book functions. Some of the dishes on the menu were a scream: grilled pork lion, chili muscles, and our favourite, snoked trout.
And you know what's weird? Do ya, huh? I've started to read The Historian (having abandoned the trashy Diana Gabaldon potboiler, Outlander, because it was so offensive and naff), and on about page 50 two Italian characters were introduced: Massimo and Giulia. And they live in Siena! Spooky kind of cosmic, huh?
I'm sounding so Californian all of a sudden ...

Fortuny socks



At least, I have it in my head that these are Fortuny colours. This is the first sock of a pair for my dad, who has a pair I knitted for him and has worn no other socks since, so I thought he'd better have some more. This is lovely wool from Australia, and very fine, so these should be okay for summer, and not too hot.

:: Feeling a bit cloistered at the moment: writing my novel (!) is taking a lot of my thinking time (hence the knitting) and a lot of my other time as well. So everything else is on hold. But it's coming along. As soon as I finish this I shall be back to it and the churning will begin.

:: Now that I am a novelist (!), my day has completely changed. In the morning, I walk the dogs, tidy the kitchen and then settle down at the computer. In the afternoon, when Will is home, I do all the domestic stuff. Well, when I say, 'all the domestic stuff', I sort of mean tidying up and maybe vacuuming, or folding the washing. Nothing too strenuous! I do so hate housework. Hate it.

:: Off to the Bondi tonight for another of our famous quiz nights. Dave had a call from someone connected to the Australian Navy last week, saying HMAS Sydney was on its way to San Diego and to be prepared for 50 to 70 Australian seamen who were all dead keen on taking part in a true blue Aussie quiz night. So much fun!

(Disneyland jack-o'-lanterns)

One more sleep!

:: All the fabulous kids young people who work at the Bondi have really got into the mood of the week, with no-holds-barred decorations ...

... and lots of worrying about costumes, and tongues wedged firmly in cheeks.

:: I, meanwhile, have been concentrating on knitting for all the Bondi babies. The first to appear was the very beautiful Aivry (I think that's how she spells it), who is the daughter of two very good friends of the Bondi, though they don't actually work there. Kirsten and Andy are both surfers, and both Australians who call San Diego home. But I'm counting Aivry as a Bondi baby anyway, and this is one of her socks:


:: Eric Clapton's autobiography is number one in the LA Times' non-fiction best seller list, and number two in the NY Times'. And there's an audio book of it, read by the lovely Bill Nighy, whom I've loved since seeing him play the ageing pop star in Love Actually.

It's so tempting to explore the whole audio book universe - especially as I'm such a slow reader. Will is listening to George Orwell's 1984 before he goes to sleep, and, not much of a reader, he said he really enjoyed reading the book along with the CD. I'm so ecstatic that he's doing this, and almost off his own bat, too - I think he said a lot of Radiohead lyrics were inspired by 1984. L-o-v-e that band. We are now gently suggesting he go on to read Animal Farm, a copy of which we just happen to have quietly put in the bookcase. Ssssh.
Following the text while class members took it in turns to read out loud was always the way we read the books we had to spoil study in Eng. lit. back in school, though that was in the dim, dim past and may no longer be acceptable.

(More pumpkins at Disneyland)

:: The power of Oprah indeed: since she named Love in the Time of Cholera as her book club pick for October, it has been on sale everywhere, even in the supermarket, alongside all the Nora Robertses and whatsisname Grishams. And last weekend, I saw it was number one in the NY Times' (paperback trade) fiction best seller list and the LA Times' as well.

Greens are good for you
These are a couple of shots from last week, of the magnificent campus of the University of Washington, in Seattle.
Lily had been here before with her friend, Nick, who brought her to this spot when the big old cherry trees were in bloom and the lawn beneath them was white with petals.

It's an enormous, spreading campus, littered with Victorian-style buildings that, with its city-side location, give some indication of its wealth and prestige, despite its being a 'public' college. I think it has more than 30,000 students.
I so enjoyed the gardens! Greens everywhere: big broad canopies of leaves, grassy open spaces and, in the dappled shade - which I can't get enough of, and yearn for in Southern California - these drifts of Cyclamen coums ...

:: What a wonderful weekend we're having. It started on Friday night with dinner at the Bondi and then the baseball game at Petco Park, between the Padres (our home side) and the Colorado Rockies.
Saturday began with rain, the first here since April, though it feels much longer. Will was off downtown to see the Red Bull Air Race, which will be in Perth next, so David and I spent a quiet morning shopping, walking the dogs, making coffee, reading the paper and generally enjoying ourselves.
In the mid-afternoon we went to the Bondi to meet friends for a beer. It was full of people - Bondi really looks its best on these sunny, relaxed afternoons - I loved it!
And I heard you gasp at the mention of my drinking beer! Yes! It's a treat I have recently discovered. An icy-cold Little Creatures, all the way from North Freo ... yum. Just the one, Captain Peacock ...

:: Off to Hollywood this arvo. We've a 'super-deluxe-swisho-exclusive-king-bed suite' booked at the historic Roosevelt Hotel on Hollywood Boulevard, and tickets to see Rufus Wainwright doing his acclaimed Judy Garland show at the Hollywood Bowl. I can't wait.
And to think that all those years ago, in the early 1970s, we used to listen to Loudon Wainwright III singing 'Be Careful There's a Baby in the House', all about this little baby boy ...
Tomorrow we'll have a few errands to do in LA and then we see Rufus's sister Martha's show at the much smaller and equally historic Hotel Cafe.
I do so love living in California.

A few crowded hours ...

On Thursday night, some hotel group had bought out the whole of Bondi for a private function, and as this was our first buy-out, Dave felt he had to stay to see how it all went.
At nine o'clock, he saw some people outside wondering what was happening, so he went out to tell them about the private party ... and then he recognised them.
It is SO good to have a husband with a razor-sharp rock and roll mind! They were Crowded House, in town for a concert, and they had walked several blocks from their hotel to check out the Bondi, as they'd heard so much about it. Can you believe this?
Anyway, Dave pulled himself together, grinning from ear to ear, and with okays all round from private party people, he and Michelle, our marketing wiz, installed them in a gleaming boab in the restaurant area at the back of the venue, which was not being used.
Needless to say, Bondi had another party going on that night! The result was that Dave got home at 3 am, completely legless (so was Nick Seymour, the bass player, who was still hungover when the band started playing), and we had 10 tickets to last night's show, plus ...

... invitations to party on afterwards!

The concert was incredible. What a band. So polished and accomplished. All but the bass player and the drummer played several instruments and sang, which must be why they can achieve such a rich, layered sound. How many wonderful songs have they put out?
And the audience, like all American audiences I have been in, was just fantastic. They knew all the words, they hollered and whistled and cheered and sang along, and thoroughly partied. It was SO much fun!

Neil Finn's son, Liam, was the support act and played along with the band in the main part of the concert. Very happy to report he seems to have the full complement of the Finn musical and cuteness genes (... but he should lose the beard!)

Afterwards, we joined a very sedate and privileged little group who waited for the band to emerge. Not my sort of thing, in all honesty - but we really wanted to thank them for the tickets; the show had been a sell-out, so it was no small thing to get freebies.

And yeah - I did the daggy thing and got Neil to autograph my sticker so I can send it home to my brother, who is a huge, huge fan.
So ... wonder who else will come a-knocking at our door? Ain't it grand?

Floracolora

I hate to blog without pics - maybe it's my newspaper history: no story worth its salt should be without a pic!
Anyway, these glorious six-foot cannas are rioting in my front garden. I didn't plant them - must have been a previous tenant - but I love them, especially as they stand in front of a huge bougainvillaea, and the colours really zing.

We have a rabbit living in the front garden (can you believe it? I mean, this is the epitome of Cookie-cutterville suburbia) and every now and then I find one of the cannas is lying across the lawn because the bunny's had a nibble at the stem.

:: We went out last night, with our chef, Chris, and his lovely wife, Amanda (baby due late October - so exciting!). The excursion was the result of a visit to Bondi by the English band, Squeeze. Now, not having ever been a fan of Brit-pop, I wouldn't know them from a bar of soap, but David has long been a huge huge fan, ever since seeing them in England in the early '80s, when I think they were called UK Squeeze and had Jools Holland on keyboard.
Anyway, being the big bold groupie that he is, he went straight up to them at the bar and introduced himself, and I think he actually put his hand on his heart and said: "You guys are my heroes!"
So-oh, we had tickets to the best seats in the house for their concert. It was at a town in the mountains about an hour east of downtown, called Alpine. The government allows Native American people to build and run casinos on their reservations, and at Alpine the Viejas people of the Kumeyaay Indian nation have a huge complex, called Viejas, with a casino and a massive outlet shopping centre, in the middle of which is an amphitheatre-style concert arena.
The architectural theme is sort of, ummm, pueblo-moderne, with waterfalls and fountains and palm trees wrapped in fairylights.
The support band was a pretty cool set-up from NY, the Fountain of Wayne. And when Squeeze came on, I realised I did know a couple of their songs, but the concert sound was SO bad that it was a bit of a fizzer really. It was incredibly loud - which you can tolerate if the mix is good. But it was truly awful; painful even. I was quite relieved when it was all over - though it was a great disappointment for their Number-One Fan next to me!

:: Fab Sunday dinner coming up. Squeeze's Number-One Fan has spent all arvo in the kitchen making one of his amazing slow-cooked lamb casseroles, with red beans and potatoes in the pot. Yum-oh. Seeya!