UnorthodoxY Archive It's wasn't what you thought

So got to California OK, got to the place I’m staying at and I’ve had a look around. No major hitches apart from it briefly looking like I’d have to reclaim and recheck my bags at Heathrow as I was flying BA and then Virgin. After some to-and-fro they managed to check my bags all the way through, and I managed to get through immigration, get my bags, get through customs and get out of the airport in under an hour. Something of a record I’m told.

Of course it couldn’t continue to go so well and yesterday the back of my throat swelled up impressively making it difficult to talk or even move without triggering my own gag reflex. Which is as pleasant as it sounds. A combination of that, jet-lag, and the heat led me to sleep from almost half of the last twenty-four hours. So having lost a day I’m rejigging my schedule a bit, hopefully it’ll all make more sense as things move on although it may mean that I’ll have to skip spending any time in Tijuana.

My throats feeling a bit more normal today, so I’m off into LA to do the tourist thing.

Well, I’m off tomorrow. And it’s been a busy couple of weeks, I’m actually quite looking forward having a ‘travel’ day where I’ll not really have to do very much but sit around and read. I was getting pretty frazzled on the lead up to this trip but doing the final packing last night everything just kinda ‘fell into place’. It reminds me that I’m always a bit stressed before a holiday, however once I’m away I can pretty much deal with whatever crops up, because by that point I’ve no other choice.

And it looks like a few things might crop up, considering a fair bit of the area along the route I’m following for the first week is pretty much on fire and places I’m going through for the last two weeks are frequently hit by hurricanes. When you think about it it kinda puts my concerns about my bathroom into perspective, at least I don’t need to worry about my home being flattened, flooded or fried by forces of nature while I’m away.

Anyway, expect updates as and when I can get them up. I’m going out tonight and I’m leaving early tomorrow so I’m not even going to bother checking my e-mail before I leave, if I there’s something I haven’t done then it’s not getting done. It can wait a month.

… doesn’t mean you’re wrong.

Sigh.

Maybe I spoke too soon yesterday. Today I went home for lunch, partly because it’s easier to do shopping at lunchtime and partly because I’m paranoid about the bathroom.

Apparently I’ve good cause to be. Just as I was leaving to go back to work I heard the dreaded sound of dripping. Yup, my bathroom ceiling slowly getting damper. Again.

I couldn’t get anyone to answer the door upstairs until after work, and we looked under their bath and it was depressingly dry. Running a bath and emptying it showed no leaks, but there had clearly been a fair amount of water run down my wall.

Throughout my continuing bathroom fiasco I’ve been fairly upbeat, annoyingly finding the positive spin on everything, but it’s starting to wear on me now. For the first time I’ve had to consider what I’d do if I can’t get everything sorted by the time I’m due to go away. I’m not seriously considering changing my holiday plans but the idea of having to has moved from the not-a-chance box to the almost-certainly-not-going-to-happen box.

I’ve had to wonder what would I do if I wake up on the morning of my flights and there’s water cascading down my walls, how much would changing my flights cost, would that be covered by my insurance.

However, things are looking up. Upstairs dude found another potential source of the water that ties with everything (a leak in the bath that would only show up if water was left sitting in the bath) and I’ve had myself a nice steak and chips (the benefit of shopping at lunchtime is decent steak). My do-before-I-leave list is almost done, as is the bottle of wine I opened to go with the steak.

Back to the positive upbeat outlook then.

Six days until I’m on holiday.