2012: A year in travel - part 1

This title reminds me of the Twilight films - The Celia saga: Places I've been in 2012, part 1. No? Just me? Oh well.*

Anyway. The whole point of this here blog was to help me remember where I've been, what I did there and why I wanted to go in the first place. So. Here's a handy little summary to save me (and you, if for some reason you were ever interested enough in the first place) scrolling through a shit-ton of old posts to remember where I happened to be in April 2012...

January:

I kicked off the year in south London with a raging hangover (first meal of 2012? Brixton Burger King. S, I hold you firmly responsible for this...) and spent my last few days in England catching up with the beautiful Miss M, hanging out with London people and shivering under a pile of blankets before heading back to LA, sunshine and a January of general busyness and hard work.

It's possible my definition of 'hard work' is a little skewed...

In the name of work, I also flew up to San Francisco for the briefest of overnight stays. As I haven't been back since, there's very little I can tell you about it, apart from that I stayed in a really rather lovely hotel.

February:

I spent my birthday in Arizona on yet another overnight work trip. Yet again, while I can vouch for the general awesomeness of mashed potato bars and show you more pictures of pretty hotels, I can tell you absolutely sod all about Phoenix...

March: 

This is where things get a little bit more exciting, because my awesome friend B decided to fly over and hang out with me for a couple of weeks, and, as well as touring the sights (In n' Out is a sight, right?) of LA, we took a little jaunt down to San Diego, stopping en route in Temecula for a spot of wine tasting and more than a spot of cheese consumption:

Oh cheese. And other yummy things. How I love thee

We ambled and ate and drank our way around San Diego in beautiful sunshine.

And even crossed the border into Tijuana for a few hours, where, instead of spending a wild night drinking $1 margaritas and getting crazy on prescription meds (which is apparently what you're SUPPOSED to do in Tijuana) we wandered around in the middle of the afternoon, enjoyed a glass of beer and took photos of Mexican-looking things. Because we're wild like that.

April:

Of all the trips I took this year, I have to admit that my absolute favourite is probably one of the least exciting from an outside perspective. I flew back to England over Easter for my friend Jo's wedding, and went back to Cornwall for the first time in 15 years, with my family (sans brother) and two dogs in tow.

South Cornwall (and specifically the Fowey estuary) is, and always will be, one of my favourite places in the world, and it felt so special to be back there after such a long time, hang with my family, get to know my sister's boyfriend better and spend my days traipsing through the countryside and eating far too many scones.

The view from the car park. The CAR PARK, people.

Then I got to head back to Suffolk for a few days, spend a little bit of time with my favourite ladies and witness the incredible nuptials of these guys:

Next up: Part 2, in which I have a huge row with my mother while surrounded by giant trees, go to two more weddings and stay in a hotel with a TV in the bathroom mirror. I bet you can't wait...

*Not that I'm likening my year in any way to the antics of abstemious yellow-eyed vampires battling the wrath of Michael Sheen. Um.

The Happiest Place on Earth

This week I ticked off one of the goals of my Californian bucket list, and made my first trip to Disneyland.

I'd dropped my sister and her friend off there last summer, and then proceeded to spend the day covering a fan expo in Anaheim while they rode roller coasters and  posed with Mickey, but I'd never actually found the time to go myself.

Then (I am very lucky) I acquired a couple of free tickets, so I rounded up my friend E and headed south for a day of Minnie ears, kids' rides and giggling fits.

There are two things you should know:

1. The first thing we did on arriving at the park was buy said Minnie Mouse ears. They stayed on all day.

2. We are both absolute and total cowards when it comes to scary rides. We define 'scary rides' as anything that takes place in the dark, anything fast, anything with sharp corners, anything involving a simulator, and, well, anything with a height limit of over about 3ft.

There will be no detailed descriptions here of Space Mountain, the Star Wars simulator thingy, or anything else even faintly adventurous. Because we never went anywhere near them.

So. Are you ready to see us tackling a bunch of rides generally considered lame by anyone who's hit nursery school age?

Excellent!

Up first: It's a Small World. Sing it with me: 'It's a small world after all, it's a small world after all....'

Beefeaters and belly dancers, men riding cartoon-y tigers, clog-wearing Dutch, and Flamenco-dancing Spanish, all represented in beautiful living colour. E may have had a giggling fit halfway through. We may have enjoyed this around 600% more than anyone else we saw.

The Haunted Mansion: I love a good haunted house ride. And, because it's Halloween season at Disney, this one had been well and truly pimped out. Tim Burton-style.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Historically speaking, my favourite theme-park ride in the world. On my first ever Disneyland adventure, to Euro Disney (I was 10 or 11. My mother still fondly remembers it as the day I found a squashed slug in my trainer. Ahem), my sister and I fell completely in love with all things piratical, and didn't say much except 'Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum' and 'It's a Pirates Life for Me' for the rest of the holiday.

What can I say? I was a very cool child.

You get the picture, right? We went on Mr Toad's Wild Ride, we criticised the Snow White ride for its lack of narrative arc (you can't go straight from the scary witch/evil queen carrying out her plan to 'and they lived happily ever after'!). We rode the carousel, and we visited pretty much every single gift shop in the park. 

Disneyland isn't as big as Disney World, and it doesn't have as many flashy rides as Universal Studios. But it's the original, it's cute and a manageable size and as long as you hang up all pretence at adulthood when you put your Minnie ears on, it makes for an awesome day out.

The Great Californian bucket list

I've tried to make the most of living in California over the past year and a bit. From Palm Springs to Yosemite, San Diego to Santa Barbara, I've been on little weekend adventures, I've been a California tour-guide for various visitors, and I've explored lots of LA.

But there are still a few more things I'd like to do while I'm living here, so I can feel like a proper west coast girl. These are mainly LA based, purely and simply because I'm running very low on holiday allowance!

So without further ado, here's my list of the 10 Californian experiences I'm planning on working through:

1. Go to Disneyland

2. Take a surfing lesson

3. Go to Coachella

4. Eat tacos at Yuca's

5. Visit Catalina

6. Do a Man vs Food challenge (this is my sister's masterplan. If I'm doing it, she's going down with me!)

7. Go to a drive-in movie

8. Attend a Super Bowl party

9. Go to a concert at the Hollywood Bowl

10. Go to a baseball game

Actually I will have ticked at least one of these off within the next 24 hours, I hope. More to come!

*Image credits for these seem to have fallen into a Pinterest black hole. I'd be happy to add them if anyone can illuminate me...

Yosemite

I've been a nomad for most of August, and will be again for much of September, as I'm heading back up to Toronto for a couple of weeks of intense work and hopefully some most excellent showbiz spots.

But while my September travels will be purely in the name of work and sleep deprivation, this month was all about fun. As well as my trip back to England to see beautiful new babies and watch lovely friends get hitched, I did a little California exploring.

A huge chunk of my holiday allowance gets used up on my visits home, but since I've been living here I've tried to make as many little jaunts as possible - to Vegas and the Hoover Dam, to Palm Springs, to San Diego and Santa Barbara - well, you get the picture.

My parents came out to see me at the end of July, and I managed to scrape together enough days off to head north to Yosemite with them. (Incidentally, my mother is the worst back-seat driver known to mankind. I was tempted to leave her in the crazy Swedish town where we stopped to eat smoked salmon open sandwiches a la Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. She loved that town so much I think it probably would have taken a couple of days of cooing over the giant Swedish crackers and the jars of pickled fish before she even noticed I'd gone.)

But yeah. I digress. Yosemite.

We saw A Bear.

In a Tree.

A BEAR IN A TREE.

A black bear, to be precise. In an apple tree. I would regale you with pictures right now, but sadly my camera doesn't have a zoom lense just yet, and my pictures are basically of a big tree, quite far away, with a brown blob in it.

So instead, I shall regale you with facts.

Did you know that:

 - Black bears can actually be any colour from dark brown/black through to blonde?

 - They have a sense of smell multiple times better than that of a bloodhound?

 - They're really freaking good at climbing trees?

We also hired bikes to expore Yosemite Valley.

We all enjoyed that. Some of us more so than others.

 I have about a thousand more pictures I could share - Yosemite is absolutely stunning. We saw amazing wildlife (rattlesnake eating a mouse, anyone?), incredible rock formations and what would, in any other season, be mightily impressive waterfalls.

We swam in the river, hung out with some stoned Dutch dudes (my parents really clicked with them, it was both surreal and hilarious), visited some extremely large trees, and basically had a rather nice few days.

Good times

It's been a good week - so good, in fact, that I've been off having fun in the sunshine rather than thinking about blogness.

I've had a friend from London, and her friend, who I'd never met before but is awesome, staying with me for a few days. And it's been oddly lovely to have my apartment filled with nail varnish, and hair straighteners, and hundreds of shoes - I didn't realise how much I missed girliness.

Plus, they've hired a convertible. On Saturday we went on a little jaunt to Malibu in the sunshine.

Let's just say it wasn't an unpleasant afternoon... we even braved the sea!

My friend Phoebe is actually in this photo, I promise!

Sometimes I seriously ♥ LA.

Well travelled?

I just got back from San Francisco. Would you like to see the highlights of my trip?

Of course you would. Right?

Well, here goes:

There was the airport. It did have a remarkably good bookshop, of which more in another post.

There was my hotel. It really was rather delightful, plus it offered early evening free wine, nibbles and neck massages.

There were some very hilly streets.

And there was the Golden Gate Bridge. It was very scenic. This was about as close to it as I got.

And... that's pretty much all I can tell you about San Francisco. I guess what I'm trying to say is that while travelling for work is pretty interesting in itself, and I do love a chance to say in a fancy hotel, it can be unbelievably frustrating to be in a city you've always wanted to visit, and have no chance to explore.

Ah well - I'll just have to go back another time for fun. And definitely stay in the hotel with the free wine/massage combo again!

Beside the seaside

I have rediscovered the joys of the seaside.

To be more specific, I have rediscovered the joys of the pier. Candyfloss, arcade games, ferris wheels and skeeball. What more could you want?

I also rediscovered my peculiar sensitivity to food colourings. To anyone who spotted a manic-looking redhead scampering through Santa Monica last week giggling hysterically and clutching a bag of candyfloss, followed by a slightly embarrassed-looking brunette - my apologies.

The only problem is that now I also have a fierce craving for proper English fish and chips - I think a trip to the English seaside might be in order over Christmas...

Hello there.

Oh, hi. Long time no see.

Sorry about that -  I've been a busy lady, you know. Time for a catch-up? Oh, ok, if you insist.

First of all, there was Thankgiving. It involved a bit of hiking here:

Joshua Tree in all its glory.

There was a considerable amount of this:

Soggy Weekend magazine. I may have dropped one corner of it in the hot-tub...

There was seriously too much of this:


Pecan pie: before and after.

And of course, there was a little lounging (and marshmallow toasting) next to this:

Fireplace and toasty feet.

All in all, it was quite satisfactory. By which I mean BLOODY AMAZING. I want to live in Palm Springs, drink yummy cocktails and eat Thanksgiving dinner every day, if you please.

November awesomeness

This is where I will be spending Thanksgiving:

Photo from here

Not only will I be taking actual. time. off. work.

But I will be leaving LA behind for a few days in search of, well, more palm trees and swimming pools. But vintage, super-cool palm trees and swimming pools.



And, most importantly/mind-bogglingly excitingly of all, I'll be spending that time with one of my most favourite people in the entire world.

To say I can't wait would be a serious understatement.

There will be marshmallow toasting, and poolside lounging, and reading, and chatting, and consumption of alcoholic sno-cones.

Bring on Thanksgiving!

Central coast

Time to upload a few more photos from my August adventures, methinks. I managed to get away for a couple of days while my parents were here - we based ourselves in San Luis Obispo and ventured out for a bit of exploring and some wine tasting. It was so nice to get out of the city for a while.

Big sky

Grapes

We managed to squeeze a lot of things in - the SLO weekly food market, a little jaunt along the Big Sur, a trip to Hearst Castle and some seriously cool elephant seals.

Seals!

Awesomeness.

Amaaazing rib stall

It was awesome to see a bit more of California, and to get a chance to hang out with my parents. And it looks like September is set to bring a smattering of international travel, so no chance to sink back into my settled (read lazy) ways just yet...