Sherran, Obama, Boxer, Lovitz, Holland and Zendaya

I am travelling back from the UK after a wonderful Christmas visit despite the rain and cold and reminiscing on 2023, looking back to fun times and visits, re-living things I could have done differently, and making plans for 2024, including the usual New Year’s resolutions, which seem to repeat themselves each year….but this year I really mean it! It was a year of exciting times again, including my nephew’s wedding, my Dad’s 80th Birthday celebrations, a fantastic Ed Sherran concert, the Obama Musical on Hollywood Blvd, seeing Jon Lovitz at Vibrato Grill and actually talking to him (though I did embarrassingly say I loved him in the Wedding Singer – where he did a 5 min bit part) and arriving a day after Tom Holland and Zendaya visited my pottery studio and took a lesson with Derek, who amazingly wasnt fazed at all.

My travels to Oz, Singapore and Asia were wonderful, but also a time for internal reflection as I spent a lot of time on my own, which for those who know me, was a little lonely at times. When I am on my own in the USA its fine because my ‘go to’ is speaking to strangers and generally, they chat back, but in Singapore and Tokyo that didn’t really happen, unless I happened to be with other tourists, which did happen on more than one occasion.

I always find that coming back from a long trip involves jet lag recovery of course and no, I’m afraid I don’t have a magic wand even after all my trips….just lots of hydration and sleep when you can….it also involves getting back into some sort of routine, walking my doggies, housework, washing, ironing, art studies and pottery days. I do like a good routine and its good for my mental health I think, to get back some sort of control to my days, though I always go through feeling that I have early onset dementia – I am a hypochondriac!!

In July, beautiful Harriet was born, which was amazing, and we feel so lucky to be blessed with another grandchild. After the UK visit, we had Mark’s brothers’ family to stay for a month, during which they visited San Fransico, Las Vegas and San Diego for a few days each time. I did my usual tour guide of LA routine in between.

Mark and I squeezed in a Las Vegas weekend during their visit where he took his top sellers to a concert of Greta Van Fleet, which we had been told were like Led Zepplin but were more like hairless teenagers giving long solos in the middle of songs we had never heard of before and actually didn’t like very much– it was fun for the first ½ hour, but then became torture…. We are defiantly not fans….. still, it was an experience, and we did see the new sphere – although it wasn’t open and was a big black blob on the landscape :-D

I managed to catch up with my college friend Max after many years, it was like old times, and we fell back into chatting like we used to. Breakfast with my school mates was also a tonic for my soul and I always love laughing with them, they haven’t changed one bit– I miss that!!!

We also travelled back in Oct for my Dad’s 80th and went to the IOW where family came together and ate and drank  in excess – such great times!!!

Other highlights included my dearest friends Sue and Alison coming to visit within a week of each other and although I visited the same places, it’s a joy to experience them with friends who are discovering them for the first time. One of the new visits was to the Griffith Observatory (which has got to be a highlight and around the 10th visit) but for the first time we went there at night). My pottery studio has taken on a lovely new assistant, Natalie and she is the daughter of Joe Boxer, of ‘Boxer Beat’ and ‘Just Got Lucky’. She was very chuffed that I remembered the songs and I bet that after youve read this you'll be humming Boxer Beat! :-)

My knees have been painful this year and Ive been popping ibuprofen like they are sweets. Its probably due to walking 16K steps instead of my usual 5k on my trips and it turns out that I have bone on bone on my inner knee – I thought it hurt! My primary care doctor sent me to a specialist knee doctor and he suggested replacement robotic knees - Mark has said he wants the remote (like the Wallace and Gromit’s Wrong Trousers) 😊 I decided to do physio for a while instead and have fallen in love with Pilates. We have bought a cheap Pilates machine and have installed it in my garage – I also know that weight plays a part….so I just have to get on with it and take control of my eating!!! 

Also signed up for free diet coach with linked in free scales and a Fitbit in late November, but it seems to double my steps and the scales are scary as my coach can see it – crazy to do it just before Christmas!! – I’ve put on 5lbs since I started – still here comes 2024 – I can do this!!! Maybe…..

Ive made a new friend in Boofie (Margory), who is the wife of one of Marks colleagues. She is an artist and is excited to do arty things with me, so we’ve visited the Getty and Santa Monica Art galleries – all very lovely.

USA news wise….Trump has been indicted so many times, he is in court more times that out of it but is using this as part of his fund raising and campaign – with the most ludicrous mug shots – how anyone can vote for him is beyond me! Civil War is mentioned in news here which is somewhat frightening and I am not looking forward to the 2024 campaign….is Biden too old?….. will Trump actually get on the ballot?….will the rightwing Supreme Court let the 14th amendment stand, where anyone who has been involved in a coup cannot be president?….will there be a continuation of rightwing and fundamental christians (with a small ‘c’ as they aren’t really Christian at all!) enforcing their ideals on the population in a land where its supposed to be ‘the land of the free’.

THOUGHTS FROM THIS YEAR…

• MOST UK POLITICIANS ARE CORRUPT AND SELF SERVING

• MOST USA POLITICIANS ARE CORRUPT AND SELF SERVING

• 2024 will be ‘interesting times’ (as Terry Pratchett once said), due to the USA, UK and Russia elections, although 2 of those are fore gone conclusions, I think…

• The war in Ukraine still rumbles on and its scary to think that next year could determine Ukraine’s fate as money dries up

• The conflict in Gaza has many people questioning what it means to be in support of Israel or Palestine and is it right to be polarized to support one or the other? In fact… are you antisemitic if you don’t agree with the bombing of Palestine despite agreeing that Hamas is evil? Though if you subjugate and put a people under siege for years, what do you expect to happen?... Terrorist groups are born from that….it’s like we’ve learnt nothing from history!....but what do I know...?

• 2024 marks the year of the massive Midwest cicada brood, where they come out from underground and take flight in their thousands….. (it’s a 13 and 17 year cycle)….hope its nowhere near me!

• There are new tarot and psychic reading signs up around Woodland Hills so they must be successful, in fact Fox News had a Tarot reader (British by the way) to give predictions about how Trump would do in the election and hilariously it wasn’t good! Maybe I should go in 2024.

• Tumbleweed does exist and making a journey through Chatsworth last month was quite hair-raising as they rolled across the road.

• Slow Horses TV show gets better and better

• Doctor Who is back, and I love the new Doctor

• Since the Crown has its last series, Americans keep telling me they know more about the Royal family than me – even questioning facts as they’ve watched the TV show!

2024 will need us to keep calm and carry on, holding our loved ones closely.