Holidaying Alone

Monday 28th December

I always knew it was going to be tough being out here alone, especially during Christmas and New Year. So before I came out I thought things through and decided that this was only going to work if I knew in advance and gave myself permission, as it were, to feel lonely and that it would be fine for me to do very little, if that is what I felt like at any particular point.

What is interesting is that we do not have to do much to still have a holiday, that we can still have a good time and feel alone. The two are not mutually exclusive.

Today, I did very little and hardly talked to anyone, but I still had a good time.

I did not get up till midday, because I was getting over being ill and I was tired. I then spent about 3-4 hours in a coffee shop with my laptop and a book. After that I went to see Sherlock Holmes at Gaumann’s Chinese Theatre.

That was about it.

Most of this I could have done back in London, it is true. I might have done. But I probably would not have.

Perhaps it is the fact that we tend not to have a day when we only do exactly what we want, rather than respond to the demands of other people and responsibilities (such as getting the washing done etc.).

It was bound to happen

Sunday 27th December

Getting ill, that is.

It may have been the cold at the Grand Canyon, or the chicken I ate there, or just a combination of tiredness and end of term catching up with me, but I arrived in Los Angeles accompanied by diarrhoea and cold.

I am staying in a hotel in Hollywood. It has air-conditioning. The only problem is that the remote control makes no sense to me. I can find my way around central heating but not a/c.

I thought the air conditioning was not working as I could not get it to do more than blow more cold air at me. However, after getting a hotel assistant to look at it (who is now my new amigo), the problem is not the a/c; it is me being British.