Is it getting hotter? I think it's been getting hotter. The midday sun is to be avoided at all costs and the heat beams up from the pavement, warming my feet from the inside out. No wonder people don't walk much here.
I'm still hanging out in San Diego and am staying with a friend I met in Egypt for a couple of nights. This is great. There is a dog named Norm and lots of stringed instruments. We watched The Daily Show and the speech of the Republican nominee for vice-president, Sarah Palin. We made nasty comments about her and felt slightly better.
It is nice to see the city outside of downtown. It makes me feel less like a tourist. San Diego is actually America's 6th largest city, or something, but it's spread out. So the center has big shiny buildings and impressive fountains but feels sleepy. They also have a park, Balboa Park, which is kind of like heaven, in that it is very pretty and has lots of plants and water features. I think when they coined the phrase 'a walk in the park' they were probably talking about Balboa Park, not somewhere like Golden Gate Park where you are enveloped by drug pushers and fog, or Central Park in NY where you risk your life and limbs (I hear). The Zoo is also in this most marvelous park (and they have a kauri tree - odd) but I have been too lazy to go. And if I went by myself I would just start talking to the animals and then people might look at me funny; actually, maybe not, this is America. Everybody talks to themselves.
Tomorrow I have to go to Mexico. One thing about San Diego that I did not pick up from Veronica Mars is that Tijuana is right next to it, kind of squashed up against the border like a rotten tomato. So all I have to do is catch a tram to the border, walk across, find the bus station and fight off anyone who tries to steal my kidneys. I read that Tijuana has become more dangerous recently because rival narcotics gangs keep shooting each other. Ha! Fun!
America is kind of great but a little hard to get used to. The paper is a different size. I'm not kidding! They don't have A4! And the light switches go the other way. But the hardest thing is the driving on the right side of the road. Everywhere I walk, I have to mutter, 'Left, then right. Left, then right.' It sort of feels like waking up one day where the world is almost normal, but just a little bit wrong. Maybe like being schizophrenic. Or having your brain tapped by aliens.
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3 comments:
Good to hear you're having fun. I was just speculating to a friend as to whether Sarah Palin is any relation to Michael Palin, or even whether they're the same person; MP did do a fair bit of drag during his years as a Python after all.
The driving-on-the-right thing is a bit odd at first, as I found during visits to the Continent, but I got used to it soon enough.
Josy
Hello d'izz,
missed your phone call, I was at Le Chateau. Bad heating there, was forced to cuddle a hot water bottle all night! But we have Peacocks, two males and one female! Where did they come from? Also lambs skipping around. Today I gave money to a Mexican who was busking in Lambton Quay with an enormous hat. It was my way of connecting with you, if you know what I mean.
Re comment by simple-epiphany - I think Michael P is a lot more intelligent and interesting than Sarah P, but the same thought had occurred to me that they might be connected.
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