California Dreamin'

Having spent the past 3 weeks in California, I must admit to being slightly shell-shocked on my return to the UK. My body clock is all over the place which, combined with the mini-heatwave we appear to be having, is causing me no end of sleeping problems. It's about 6:45 am here on Sunday morning, a time which I never knew existed, and I must have been awake since 4 am. I'm also trying to adjust my body's expectation with regards to being fed ... no more huge american breakfasts for a while, but somehow a bowl of Cornflakes is not the same.

I do love visiting the US, and San Francisco in particular which, along with Boston, are the only 2 places I have ever visited outside the UK where I could seriously consider moving to. For our first week we hired a mountain cottage in a place called Midpines near Mariposa. Temperatures reached 100 degrees most days, which meant that we had to get up early to do any form of serious walking in the Yosemite Valley. Our second week took us to a house about 10 miles from Santa Cruz, in a place called Aptos. The weather here was considerably cooler, with refreshing sea mists most mornings. Our final week was spent in San Francisco where we had an appartment in the Castro district. Needless to say I have 100's of photographs which I could share, 10's of descriptions of fantastic day trips, restaurants, etc., but for now I'll stick to the briefest of summaries and 3 of my favourite pictures, 1 from each of the 3 weeks.

 Half Dome, Yosemite, California

Santa Cruz beach

 Golden Gate Bridge, looking back across to San Francisco

I now have to face up to the reality that I return to work tomorrow. Although many of my team and colleagues have also been on leave, I am sure my email count will be in the hundreds. I also need to do some exercise and the Californian cuisine has taken its toll on my waistline.

Having said I won't go into any more detail about my trip, I will however relate the visit I paid to what I consider to be the world's best record shop Amoeba on the Haight in San Francisco. I visited it on a business trip several years ago and was a bit concerned that it may no longer be there, or may be a scaled down version, but I was not disappointed and it was still there in all its glory. I didn't have a great deal of time to browse but was very leased to pick up a copy of Dr Strangely Strange - Kips of the Serene which I'd been looking for for a while, plus a few CDs by the Charalambides.

    

More holiday tales, and various other musings in my Search for Space will follow.

414 to Putney Bridge

Unfortunately this blog has been a bit neglected recently. It's been financial year end which has caused all sorts of madness at work, we've had a big family wedding, I've been out in the vegetable patch, and I've also been trying to fit in as many bikes rides as possible in the mild weather. I did manage to find some Space the week before last when, during my lunch break, I managed to escape to Hyde Park. I always find it incredible that this park is in the middle of London ... given this particular shot it could be anywhere.

Hyde Park, London, March 2011

As far as finding new spaces is concerned, I embarked on another of my bizarre pat times, random bus hopping. This week it was the 414 to Putney Bridge, as the recorded announcement rather annoyingly reminded me every 2 minutes. Sat in the front seat of the top deck of a London double-decker, this was an interesting bus journey passing Harrod's, the Victoria and Albert museum, and several other places I'd need to look up on the A-Z to remember. The bus stopped just before Putney Bridge, where I got off (sorry, that should be alighted or disembarked) and strolled across Putney Bridge. I had intended to take some photos but unfortunately I only had my blackberry and it was a bit hazy. I've made a note to revisit later in the year, armed with camera.

Music wise I am still tracking down CDs mentioned in Rob Young's excellent Electric Eden, and on the current playlist are Mr Fox and Bridget St John.

Here's a link to a few of my current favourite books and CDs

Lunchtime spaces

As mentioned previously, 'In Search of Space' is not a blog about intergalactic exploration, but more about my quest for the new, whether it be new music, new books or new places ... or just the space to do things. This week has been a bit of a blur again as work is manic, but I did manage two lunchtime strolls around London. The first was to one of my favourite areas, Marylebone High Street, which makes a great place to window shop in the independent retailers. I usually pop into the Oxfam book shop there which is always stocked high with great second hand books. The day was fairly gery as I made my way there but on the return trip, the clouds parted briefly and I managed to take the picture below of St. Mary's Church in Bryanston Square. What's always struck me about this church is that it looks impressive enough to be a well know London landmark yet it lurks, almost unknown to the east of the bustling Edware Road and south of the A40.

 

St. Mary's Church, Bryanston Square, London

The second walk I did was in to Hyde Park and along to the Hyde Park Lido café for an excellent lunch of a salmon foccacia and a pot of tea, overlooking the Serpentine. The weather was very grey so I didn't take any pictures but will do next time if it's bright enough. Just getting out of the office for an hour at lunchtime really does seem to breath new life into me - I must make an effort to do it on a more regular basis, and avoid just grabbing a quick sandwich and eat it whilst working.

As well as lunch time excursions, I also managed an evening trip to Berwick Street, to search through the various record shops to feed my new passion for folk music. I was delighted to pick up a further 3 albums by The Incredible String Band, a couple by Pentangle, a couple by Fairport Convention, and the one I'm looking forward to listening to the most, 'The Garden of Jane Delawney' by Trees.

Trees - The Garden of Jane Delawney, c.1970

What I've heard by this band on lastfm has all been excellent so am hoping the album lives up to expectations.