Getting close to the three month mark now! The weather is still up and down (relative to what’s normal here. We still rarely have rain and it rarely goes below 10 degrees so I can’t complain too much). It’s so changeable here! One day it will be grey, cloudy and foggy at about 13 degrees, the next bright sunshine at 25 degrees, then back to cloud again! And sometimes it will switch between the two on one day, so you have to carry suncream and sunglasses at all times to ‘be prepared’ (like the Girl Guide that I am)! We’ve got a few more friends lined up to visit us over the remaining two months of my stay, and we’ve just booked a weekend away in Las Vegas at the end of May – we managed to get a room at ‘Caesar’s Palace’ at a good price, which makes me very excited as there are a couple of episodes of ‘Friends’ set there!
Last Thursday I went back to the cat cafe – they’ve had quite a turnover of cats since I last went. A few familiar faces, but lots of new, nervous kitties as well. One sweet little girl called Sandwich (Sammy for short) had only arrived the day before and was still checking out her environment. She came to me for a little fuss but then tunnelled under some of the blankets to create herself a hiding spot – some cat behaviour is consistent the world over! It was nice to see another little fellow, Blink, again though – he was the new cat on the block last time I visited and spent almost the whole of my previous visit howling from the back room, but he’s settled in now and found his favourite cat tree to snooze in. I also finally tried out ‘hot pilates’ and confirmed my instincts that it’s not for me (yet). Pilates is physical enough as it is, let alone combined with a room heated to 36 degrees! I’m not saying I’ll never do it again, but I need some more practice at regular pilates without the heat first!
I’ve so nearly finished making my dress now! I’ve followed all the steps in the pattern but the fit isn’t quite right. Not sure whether I got confused when tracing out the pattern pieces and got the measurements wrong, or if the garment measurements just aren’t quite right for my body; it fits perfectly across the hips, waist and bust, but is then far too big above the bust. I think I know what I need to do though – adding a couple of darts at the side seams from top tapering down to the waist should do the trick. I’ve pinned it in place, just need to sew it now (initially hand stitching to check my intentions are correct, then to secure it with machine stitching). It won’t be as neat as if I’d put the darts in at the beginning, but I think it will do the trick, and it’s just one to be aware of next time I make something. When I’ve finished these adjustments, I think that will take me up to the 50 hours required for my Queen’s Guide Award Challenge – hooray!
After sewing for most of the day on Friday, I went back to Runyon Canyon to hike with a few book club friends. It was lovely to get to know them a bit better outside book club meetings, and they showed me some trails in the park that I haven’t been on before – I thought the views before were amazing but this time they were even more spectacular as we went high enough up to see across the ridge to Burbank!
Chris and I had a quiet but lovely weekend – catching up on some rest after he had a couple of busy weeks juggling work and his parents’ visit. We went back to our favourite cafe (the one with the massive chocolate cake and cinnamon rolls at the weekend, although we haven’t arrived early enough to try those yet). We also went to Playa del Rey which is the stretch of beach closest to Los Angeles International Airport. It’s quieter than the more well known Santa Monica and Venice beaches, but still as beautiful, and we found a nice Mexican cafe for lunch – carnitas (pulled pork) tacos – yum yum! Then we went back to Venice beach for sunset – this was my first time back there since the day I arrived in LA and this time it was beautifully sunny so I got to actually see the beach and sea, rather than just the six inches in front of my face because the fog was so thick!
My fellow Guide leader Frankie arrives this evening and we’ve got some fun activities planned for the week ahead – I won’t reveal our itinerary though as that will be next week’s blog content! We are going to see a baseball game on Saturday with a couple of Chris’s colleagues though. I know very little about baseball, other than the games last on average 3 hours so plenty of time for us to become experts over the course of the match. Now I just need to get myself a baseball cap!
Signing off now from across the pond,
Rachel x
Adventures in the USA: Rachel's Travel Diary 
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