I have been here for one month now, and I have yet to grasp the vastness of this country. It has just taken me the entire day to get from Newport, California, to New York, New York. I left John Wayne airport this morning on a flight at 10.40 to Dallas, then Dallas to New York with barely 40 minutes waiting time. I landed at La Guardia at around 9.10pm. That was a strange airport, there was no information at all available as to what baggage reclaim belt I was supposed to go to to collect my bag. I just followed the crowd, waited hopefully at Belt B until Belt A started moving. I drifted over to Belt A and asked a silvery haired couple where these bags where coming from. They recognised the airport code on the tag and told me Dallas, Fort Worth. My bag came through just moments later and I went off to find the AirTrain, which I had looked up on the internet and found that it would take me from LaGuardia to Newark Airport, where I had booked a room for the night at a nearby hotel. I followed the directions for ground transport, but could see no evidence of the AirTrain. I checked with one of the red coated assistants, and, sure enough, there was no AirTrain. I dont know how I managed to mess that one up, but there you have it. I did. So, instead I had to get a minibus, and had to wait 45 minutes for the next one to Newark. It arrived on time and the transport assistant who had helped me kindly asked the driver to drop me off at the hotel, so I wouldnt have to wait for the airport shuttle at Newark Airport. And so, I finally arrived at my hotel at 11.10pm. There is a 3 hour time difference between CA and NY, so that made the trip feel quite a lot longer.

So, here I am, in my swanky hotel, taking advantage of a last night of luxury before having to start getting serious again about my life, and drinking a delicious smooth cup of coffee, catching up on my blog.

Four days ago I was picked up by Areck, Ani's Husband, on his way home from work so that I could spend the evening and the next day with Ani. We didnt have too much trouble with the dreadful Californian traffic and soon arrived at Ani's cousin's house where everyone was cooling down in the pool. The weather in California had been quite cool for this time of year, and certainly for my mediterranean blood, but on our return from Vegas we found that it had finally warmed up. I declined to go in the pool. My long walk down to the peninsula the day before had resulted in yet another touch of sun to the face and another interesting tee shirt mark on my arms and neck! I stayed in the shade and feasted on the delicious fruits that Ani's cousin brought out. I met quite a lot of Ani's family, and in particular her cousin Sophie from France.

I was invited to join Areck's family for their evening meal, so we gathered our things together and made our way back to his house. Areck's mum had prepared a delicious meal of tender breaded chicken breasts, vegetables and a lovely salad with balsamic, oil, lemon and crushed garlic in it too, which I had never had before.

After dinner, thinking of things to do, we came up with a trip to the local bowling alley. I also requested a stop at Cherry On Top for a yummy frozen yogurt with my favourite toppings. We called Sophie and another cousin of Ani's and made an evening of it. I was a bit more generous with my helping of frozen yogurt and added a few more toppings as well. It's probably a good thing I am not going to be here for much longer, I have definately gotten used to the bagels and cheese, frozen yogurts, burgers and coca cola!!! Time to leave I think!!!

We then headed over to the bowling alley where we ordered some drinks for the evening. I, for some strange reason, had forgotten to bring my ID with me, so when I was ID'd I couldnt produce anything. Ani's cousin thought very quickly and thickened up her french accent (she had a very good american/english accent in actual fact) and said "Dont you remember, you gave me your FRENCH ID earlier, I have it here in my purse". She had handed over her American ID, so handed me her French ID to hand in. I did so, not thinking it would work, and the waitress did look a bit dubious, but, after some discussion with her manager, decided that it covered what they needed it for and allowed me to order a drink. Sophie and I both ordered Mango Mojitos and when they came over they were the size of fish bowls!

The first round of games were terrible. Most people didnt score more than 50 points and most of the balls went in the gutter. However, strangely, after drinking our rather strong mojitos and trying a variety of methods of getting the ball down the lane, our second game produced much better results. We decided against a third game, bowling is only fun for a certain amount of time, and we called it a night, heading home for the evening.

The next day Ani and I took our time getting ready, and then headed into downtown LA, picking up Sophie along the way. I had mentioned to Sophie the night before that I spoke French, and that came in quite handy that day. We were sitting on the metro and we all happened to notice an extremely attractive woman sitting opposite us, applying make up. All three of us commented that we couldnt apply make up that well sitting carefully in front of our mirrors in our bedroom, never mind on a metro, with the mascara wand in one hand, mirror in the other and phone tucked under her ear. Of course, we didnt really want the woman to know we were talking about her, so Ani and Sophie commented to each other in Armenian, Sophie and I in French and Ani and I in Greek. It was pretty cool!

After quickly scoping out how I would get back to Santa Ana later on that afternoon from Union Station, we made our way to China Town. Ani had her amazing iphone with her and managed to direct us without any trouble to Santee Alley, using the bus network. We wondered around China Town for a bit, then got the bus taking us down Broadway to 9th street where we got out. We walked past a car park that was sectioned off for filming of a Sony advert and then rounded the corner of the street to reveal Santee Alley, a dream of markets and alleys selling any kind of clothing you could possibly wish for as well as anything else you might want to buy.

We had a wonderful time, walking up and down, browsing this and that. Ani was on a bit of a shopping spree, and by the end of the day she had Sophie and I hooked as well. I picked up a new carry on, to fit all the little bits and pieces that I have picked up along the way, little gifts of tee shirts and books, meaning that I needed just a little bit more space. And, seeing as I now had all this extra space, I picked up a rather snazzy belt that I saw.

Tired from the hard work of shopping, we headed back to Union station on the bus to get the train home. On the bus a local saw us trying to take photos and offered to take our photo for us. He was extremely chatty and was telling us all about LA, places we should see and places we really couldnt afford to miss. He wanted to know where we were from. Unfortunately I was slightly suspicious - was he going to ask us for some money for handing over this information, or follow us into the metro and accost us? I said to Sophie in French that there were three of us and one of him, so we could take him if we needed to (brave words from me, lol) and repeated the same to Ani. In the end it turned out that he was just a very pleasant man who happend to love the city that he lived in and wanted to make sure we did to. He helped us to the station and left with a wave and a smile, after showing us photos of his children that he was just getting on a train to go and see.

We arrived home and I had time for a lovely cup of tea before getting back on the train to catch my train from Union Station to Santa Ana. Spencer had been in San Francisco working for the day and his flight arrived back at about 7.30, the same time that my train was due back at Santa Ana. In the end my train was slightly delayed and so I only had to wait a few minutes before he swung into the train station to pick me up.

I have been suffering from allergies since being in Kansas, and the allergies seemed to be a lot worse in Spencer's neighbourhood. As I couldnt pin point what it was, I had suggested that I find a hotel or something nearby for my last couple of days in Newport. Spencer thought it might be a nice idea to check out Long Beach and so had booked a motel over the internet that had received some reasonable reviews.

We plugged in the address into the GPS and were on our way. Driving along I noticed some nodding donkeys randomly scattered about the place, in bunches of two to five at a time in areas the size of parking lots. Spencer informed me that yes, they were nodding donkeys sucking the oil out of the ground. I had no idea that you could get them in tiny spaces like this, imagining that they only had them in massive fields in the middle of nowhere. Some people even have them in their back garden! As we drew closer and closer to the address of the Motel, the area became seedier and more run down and dangerous looking. We pulled into the Motel and I had to stifle my nervous laughter. It looked like the kind of place that you see in the movies, when good people are running away from bad people, but the bad people usually find them and the good people have to take a flying leap out of the back window. Except this place didnt have a back window! Still, on the plus side, I didnt have an allergic reaction when I entered the room. We unloaded our cases (keeping the laptops in the car with us, just in case) and headed for the brighter side of Long Beach.

We found it quite quickly, parked the car for an eyewatering 8 dollars and headed off in the direction of the bright lights. Spencer had identified a piano duelling bar and I was really keen to repeat my Kansas experience so we headed there. This time Spencer had forgotten to bring his ID with him, but I showed mine and they let Spencer through. The bar had a great atmosphere and we ordered drinks and I ordered something to eat. This bar had a slighly different tone to it though and most of the songs had a rude side to them, bawdy songs with lyrics and words rhyming with various body parts that the whole bar could shout out and have a good laugh at. The painist kept calling out that he was running out of requests so we gamely filled in a couple of slips and sent them up with 5 dollars attached to each one. I was enjoying myself until I heard the pianist sniff disdainfully into the mike. "Five dollars says I have to play the next song - who wants to hear a bit of country?" A boo filled the room and I sank a little into my chair. He had to sing it anyway because I had given him five dollars, so off he went into "Friends in Low Places". I guess country just isnt as well received in cool California as it is in much cooler (in my opinion) Kansas and Georgia. He finished the song and sang another couple of requests before singing Spencers much more acceptable request of Aha's Take on Me.

We left soon after that as I was a little disgruntled at my song choice having been ridiculed, and the waiting staff were quite poor too. We headed back to our suspicous looking Motel and fell into a nervous sleep.

We decided not to stay another night in that Motel and decided instead on a pleasant looking B&B not far away. We wouldnt be able to check in until noon, so we decided to go and check out Santa Monica instead, and Venice beach and Muscle beach. It took us about 40 minutes to get there but it was worth the trip. This was yet another side to California that I hadnt seen. There was a pier with arcades and rides and fast food stalls. It was more down market than Balboa Island, with sooooo many children running around. We grabbed a bite to eat then headed along the sea front towards Venice Beach. I still havent gotten over the trauma of my bicycle incident and so I decided against renting bikes and walked instead. We soon entered the mouth of Venice Beach and it was something to behold. It was very alternative, with artists of all kinds displaying their talent and their goods for sale. Some people were just plain begging, and most of the artists didnt seem too bothered about whether they sold anything or not, they seemed to simply want to hang about, being alternative and having a good time.

My mouth hit the floor when I saw the signs drawing people to see the doctor to get their legal, medicinal marijuana. You can make an appointment to see a doctor, give him a list of symptoms that you may have (the list that qualifies you is very, very long) or simply 100 dollars, and he will give you a perfectly legal prescription for you to take to any dispensary to get your legal dope!

I prefered to go for my slighly less contencious drug of choice, that being Ice Cream, and enjoyed my chocolate brownie ice cream while walking the remainder of the route. We finally came apon Muscle beach and I was most pleased with what I saw. A very nice view indeed. Well done to those men who work out like that and then go and pose down at the beach. Bravo!!

Spencer dragged me away from Muscle beach and we made our way back to the Pier, marvelling at the various people out on their bikes, skateboards, roller blades and so on. One elderly couple was about to cross the streets laid out for bicycles when one chap barreling along on his bike yelled out STOP! They stopped just in time to let him whizz past. It was good timing of the biker, had he not yelled out there may have been a very nasty collision.

We made it back to the car without any bother and made our way back to Long Beach and our B&B. The traffic was atrocious and it took us twice as long to go back as it had to come. I dont think there is any way you can win in this part of California. Public transport is rubbish and the roads are super clogged with cars.

We finally made it and identified our B&B but unfortunately nobody was in. We decided a drink might be in order, so we made our way back the the 'Brit Pub' that we had seen on our drive in. As soon as we walked in Spencer leaned over to me and said "Hm, this is a gay pub" "is it?" I responded, nonplussed. We ordered a couple of beers and found a table, where I asked Spencer to explain to me why he thought it was a gay pub. First he pointed out the gay couple in the corner making out, then all the solitary men at the bar with interesting facial hair situations going on and finally the rainbows scattered liberally about the place. The gay music was great and I found myself singing along at full volume. Tiffany, Shania Twain, Pussycat dolls - they played it all! I ordered a 'not strong' G&T and after drinking my incredibly strong G&T I was definately in party mood.

We went back to the B&B to try to check in, and the person that I had identified as a homeless man opened the door for us to let us in. He was clutching an apple that I was pretty sure I had seen him holding three hours earlier when we had done our first pass of the B&B and he was talking very slowly. I suspected that he had broken in to the B&B and was pretending that he was supposed to be there, so Spencer and I thanked him for his time and said we would go for dinner and wait for Pat (the person that S had booked the B&B through) to return from her errands.

We had spotted a Greek restuarant earlier that also did Veggie and Vegan food, so this is where we headed for dinner. The food came and the combination of good food with my previous high from the gay bar had me crashing quite quickly so we headed back to the B&B where I embarrased myself and rather spoiled Spencers evening of planned entertainment by falling asleep by 8.30!!

The next morning I woke early and gathered my things together for almost the last time to head to John Wayne airport and catch my flight to New York.

And so this particular part of my journey is coming to an end. I have had an amazing time over here in America and I am so very glad that I have done it. I have visited 9 states in total: New Jersey (quite legitimately, staying in a hotel here tonight), New York, Indiana, Georgia, Missouri, Kansas, California, Nevada and Arizona and I have met up with old friends that I havent seen for a long time, and made a whole host of new friends. It has been a life changing experience, that is for sure, and I am very blessed and thankful to have had the opportunity to do it.

Now I have to turn my thoughts to the next part in my life adventure, seeking a new career and trying to fulfill all those other dreams that I have for my life.

I hope you have all enjoyed reading about my travels, I will miss updating you all!

Enjoy the last photos and my final video of my song for California, infront of Muscle beach!

England, here I come!

Yesterday was a fairly calm day in the morning. I took a walk down to the Peninsula and left Spencer in peace to do some work. It's about a 20 minute walk to the ocean front and I had forgotten to put on any sun cream. When I got down there I browsed some shops, looking for a hoodie to buy to wear for my return trip to the UK. Something tells me I am going to be extremely cold as soon as I step foot back in England.

I selected my jumper, and also got a cute longsleeved thermal tee shirt that declares I am a Newport Life Guard! That will help to keep me warm too.

There was no shade at the beach, so I headed back home. My mind was wondering and I wasnt really concentrating on my path, so I ended up going a really long way home, resulting in a super bright red face by the time I made it home.

I dozed on the balcony in the afternoon, and when Spencer wrapped up his work for the day we jumped in the car and headed to Crystal Cove. It is a nature reserve and they have renovated a number of beach cottages which were built in the 40s. They are very beautiful, quaint little cottages. You can stay in either a cottage by yourself, or in one of the dorm-style cottages. They are usually booked up well in advance but we had managed to get a last minute cancellation for the night in one of the dorm style cottages.

We checked in and the receptionist, Brent, was very helpful and pleasant. We unloaded our stuff into our dorm and then took a lovely walk along the beach. It had been a very warm day, much warmer than it has been in California since I arrived, and so the sand was still hot underfoot, but the sea was surprisingly fresh. I opted out of a swim and instead enjoyed the sand between my toes and looked at the various birds loitering around.

It was time for dinner, and I had been co-erced into cooking some Greek food for Spencer. A lot of Cypriot food could almost be vegan, if we didnt stick a chicken stock cube into everything that we eat, so I had said I would cook fasolaki (Green beans and potatoes) for Spencer, replacing the chicken stock with a veggie stock.

We got back to the cottage and said a sociable good evening to everyone we saw. I started preparing the beans and potatoes and when the pot was full and the dinner on the cook I made a Greek salad with our traditional Oil and Lemon dressing. We tucked into that and Spencer was appreciative of the salad. So far, so good.

I had overbudgeted on the food quantities and so there was plenty in the pot. I explained to Spencer the Cypriot concept of cooking enough food for everyone plus one portion for Jesus. In Greek families you never know who is going to come knocking on the door at lunch time, when it would be rude not to offer that person something to eat. Usually at home that person is me knocking on my sister or mum's door!!

We ate our salad and then served up our delicious dinner. As we finished serving our plates one of our fellow cottage dwellers came up for a sniff, declaring that it smelt good. We quickly offered her a plate, which she greatfully accepted, calling the rest of her family over. Spencer and I sat outside and ate while the family of four tucked into Jesus' portion of my Fasolaki. It felt so funny that I was feeding all of these people in a cottage on the beach in California!

I was growing sleepy, but still had enough energy for a quick search for some ice cream. We went off down to the beach again as I had spotted a sign for ice cream down there earlier. The ice cream place was shut, but the restaurant was open and they soon had me convinced to go in for a quick desert. They had cheesecake so I lost no time at all in ordering that and a lovely cup of earl gray. The cheesecake as fantastic, just the right thing to finish off my evening meal. Full and fat we took a gentle stroll along the beach in the moonlight before I declared that I was too tired for anything else and made our way back to the cottage.

I may have mentioned to one or two passers bye in the cottage that I had been going in search of ice cream, because on my return everyone was quite keen to find out how I had gotten on. I told them about my delicious cheesecake but that didnt seem to satisfy them and so offered me a yummy oreo cookie ice cream. I think I could get used to eating lots of cheescakes and ice creams. Maybe I might pop out for a burger too????

Definately full and happy I craweled into my little bed and fell asleep as soon as my head touched the pillow.

I had a ridiculously early start to my day yesterday. I set the alarm for 5.30 so that I had time for quick morning ablutions before meeting my bus at 6.20.

I felt like I took ages to get ready and left the room in a hurry before checking my phone for the time. 05.40! So, I went downstairs and waited bleary eyed with all the other tourists waiting for their coach trip to the Grand Canyon to begin.

A chatty Australian woman ignored the obvious signs of me not being a morning person, droopy eyes and barely stifled yawns, and came over to me to ask if I was going to the Grand Canyon. I confirmed that I was and then she chatted away to me, moaning about her poor put upon husband who was standing right next to her. They have obviously been married for centuries and he completely ignored her moaning and digs at him. She managed in the space of ten minutes to tell me all about her son (he's not married, but has a child with his girlfriend who he lives with) before she hurried off to her coach.

My mini bus arrived a few minutes later and took me to the Planet Hollywood hotel again where we had to register for the day and I had to pay my fee. As we were getting off the mini bus a chap behind me asked "hablas espanol?" Before thinking I replied "si" and quickly realised that I could hardly remember any of my spanish, it has just been so long. He asked what we were doing and where we had to go, so I reached through the depths of my brain to pull out a fuddled "hay que pagar" - you have to pay, before running to the other end of the room so that I could be alone in my misery at not remembering a language I spoke so well only 5 years ago. I suppose it was only 6.30 in the morning, not when I am at my best by any means!

I paid my fee and recieved my coupon for 'breakfast' and a bright pink sticker that I was to stick on my tee shirt so that I could be easily identified as belonging to my group. 'Breakfast' was a nutri-grain bar and a cup of tea with no milk, but the cup of tea went a long way at that time of the morning.

We then boarded our coach, and I tried to hide my irritation as an extremely annoying loud woman boarded the coach with her family group of about 20 and quickly went about ordering them all what to do, shouting down the whole bus in the process, just in case any of us were interested in what she was saying. It was so early and this woman was intruding on my morning thoughts, it took me all my strength not to stand up and tell her to shut up! but somehow my other part of my brain managed to tell me to calm down, you will be on the coach with this woman for the entire day, so just ignore it and maybe she will be quiet once the coach sets off.

Eventually at about 7.15 we reversed out of our parking spot and were on our way! The coach driver, Lucious, was very good and talked all the way to the Hoover Dam (a ride of about one hour). I had thought that as soon as the bus left I would try to get some sleep, but it was too interesting and I kept on looking left and right as Lucious explained what we were seeing on either side. Just before getting to the Hoover Dam we had to go through a security check point, put in place after 9/11, where security guards boarded the bus for a cursory look through our bags. It didnt take long and soon we were driving over the Hoover Dam, and wound our way up the mountain to our stopping point for a view of the Dam and 10 minutes to take pictures.

As I disembarked, the spanish speaker from earlier on tapped me on the shoulder and asked "where are we?" I didnt know how to say Hoover Dam in Spanish, so i took him to show him the sign. He nodded, still not really understanding, and promptly asked me to take his photo in front of the sign. I complied and he asked if I wanted one. He was surprised when I said no, and left him to go and take photos of the actual dam.

Our ten minutes were soon up and we were back on the bus for the next part of our journey. We had a 300 mile drive ahead of us, with two rest stops included, one of them being for lunch. Lucious put a video about the Hoover Dam on the TV for us, and with this sound in my ears and the gentle bounce of the coach on the road, I drifted off to sleep.

About an hour later I was woken when the coach started to slow down dramatically and came to a stop by the side of the road, which was on a slant, leading to the coach leaning scarily at an angle. There was muttering from Lucious and he left the bus to check something. He came back on the bus and with more muttering started the bus up and drove off very very slowly, until he came to a straight part by the side of the road and stopped again. He then got on his microphone to let us know that unfortunately the coach had blown a hose and the engine was overheating. This particular bus would not, infact, be taking us to the Grand Canyon today. He called HQ and they luckily had another driver and coach available and set about getting it ready to send to us, with a mechanic on board to try to fix our coach.

Lucious coaxed the coach into action and drove it a painstaking 5 miles up the road to where there was a small road side cafe, parked the coach in front of the cafe, and there we stayed for the next three hours as we waited for our replacement coach.

Luckily I had taken my book with me, so I stayed on the coach and alternatively read and snoozed. The annoying woman had taken her group outside so I stayed inside for as long as possible to stay away from them, until it got too hot in the coach and I finally abandoned it.

Finally, after 3 hours, our replacement coach arrived and Lucious loaded his herd up and we were soon on our way again.

Annoying bossy lady had taken the opportunity to re-arrange things again, so I couldnt sit in the same position I had held on the previous bus. I had found a seat further down the bus, which put me directly in front of the Spanish speaker. Lucious informed us that our rest stop for lunch would be cancelled, so that we could make up some time, and instead he would take us to a subway about half an hour up the road where we were to order one 6inch sub each and a drink, which would be paid for by him. I thought that the Spanish speaker might not understand what was going on, so I reached into my filing system of a brain, re-ordered my languages so that Spanish once again took third place behind English and Greek and French was pushed to fourth position. I mentally dusted off the file and opened it up to delve into my memory and the vocab section. Having prepared fully, I turned to my co-coach rider and explained to him what was happening. The error was fatal. From that moment on he was glued to my side and I became his interpreter and pal for the day.

His name was Orlando and he was a lawyer from Columbia. He had been travelling for nearly two months and had visited many countries and cities in the world, which I was surprised at as he spoke so little English and seemed to be so clueless as to what was going on.

We stopped at Subway, and thanks to the training I had received from Heather in Indiana I was able to confidently choose my sandwich, and helped Orlando choose his too.

We re-boarded the bus and ate on the go, as the driver too us the remaining three or four hours to the Grand Canyon.

I managed to ignore Orlando while we were on the bus and took an interest in the country side, pleased to see that it turned fairly lush and green as we approached Williams, Arizona, the town around one hour away from the Grand Canyon. Eventually we arrived at our destination, and Lucious explained the 30 minute and 1 and a half hour walk along the south rim, and asked us to let him know if we intended to do the walk or if we would be using the coach to take us along the south rim! Imagine that!!

I explained to Orlando what was going on, and he happily anounced that he would be doing whatever I chose to do, and when I told him, he told me he advised that yes, he would do the 90 minute walk with me and so, map in hand, and with strict instructions from Lucious to meet him at the pick up point at 6.15, we were on our way.

The view that we had of the Grand Canyon from Mather Point was just breathtaking. I tried to wrap my head around the fact that what I was looking at had taken nearly 2 BILLION years to form!! 2 Billion years??? How do you begin to imagine 2 Billion Years???

The sun was starting to head westwards and although it would be another couple of hours until sunset, the clouds were throwing their shadows across the canyon, bringing depth into the scenery that we might have lost if we had been there in the sunbleached noontime.

I could see some of the different colours in the layers of rock, and as I was gazing out at the view I became aware of this annoying buzzing sound in my ear. The buzzing sound turned out to be Orlando. He wanted a picture of the sign that said "Welcome to the Grand Canyon", and then talked constantly about the placed that he had been to, what he had been up to in Vegas (I picked up that he was probably gay when he told me that one of those things was a night out at the Chippendales' show) and asking me where I had travelled to, what was my favourite place and letting me know if I ever wanted to explore south america then he had a whole separate apartment that he kept for his visiting friends and I must come and stay with him!

He was asking me about where I lived as I was trying to enjoy my view when I finally said in my best spanish "I'm sorry, but I really dont want to talk about that, I just want to appreciate where we are and look at this wonderful thing here.... in silence" He took it well and was a lot less chatty for the rest of the walk.

I was very happy that I had taken this trip, although I dissappointed that I would only get to spend 90 minutes there. This is the kind of place, if any, that I can imagine that camping out would be a good thing. Being able to take the time to really soak up the meaning and the history behind this place, and appreciate that I am just a small tiny speck on this planet and my time on this earth is but a mere heart beat in the body of this amazing world that we live in. As it was I contented myself with drinking in as much of what was surrounding me as possible, and taking a few woefully inadequate photographs that would in no way capture the beauty of the place, but go some way to reminding me that I had been there once.

While Orlando popped off to buy an icecream and I dutifully waited for him, I saw something scurrying through the undergrowth. It was a chipmunk and I followed it, feeling something of a wildlife explorer - David Attenborough like, if you will. I whipped out my trusty camera and snapped away, hoping to capture this cute little creature completely in the wild. I managed to get a couple of shots and walked on with Orlando as he slurped happily at his rapidly melting Mr. Softy.

We got to our pick up point much faster than the alleged hour and a half that we were told, I guess the hour and a half allows for photo taking and perhaps folk who have eaten more burgers than really they ought to have done.

Our pick up area was right next to a gift shop and a small restaurant and snack shop. We had 20 minutes till our pick up time, unfortunately not enough time for me to be able to pick up something substatial, so I chose a Pretzel, which I have not had the opportunity to eat yet and seemed to be one more of those traditional american food stuffs that I should try, and a lovely crunchy green apple. I stepped outside, having managed to shake Orlando off as he queued up for yet another ice cream, and I was happily tucking into my apple having set my Pretzel to one side. Anyone who has made this trip to the Grand Canyon will be gasping at my silly rookie error as no sooner had I set my Pretzel down then one of those cheeky chipmonks ran, almost flying, towards me and sank it's teeth into my Pretzel quicker than I could say "so it's not as cute as I thought it was, more like a fluffy rat really".

I ran, shreiking, from the chipmonk, and hurridly threw the remainder of my pretzel in the bin, lest I be accused of feeding the wildlife - signs against which were displayed liberally in the area, and quickly found my bus and boarded to safety.

Everyone was on time, and at 6.15 we headed off for our five our drive back to Las Vegas, stopping at just one of the scheduled rest stops on the way, the driver - in his wisdom - choosing the exact same rest stop that he had taken us to earlier, meaning that it was another 6 inch sub for dinner (I chose a meatball sub this time - it seemed to be quite popular with my group and thought is was another experience that I should try - and again deemed it not really worth it) which we again ate on the hoof. Lucious kept us entertained with a couple of movies as far related to the Grand Canyon as possible and finally, eventually, thankfully we arrived back in Las Vegas.

Orlando insisted on giving me his email address, as he excitedly told me that he had tickets to see the Miss Universe competition the next day, and I promised faithfully to add him on Facebook (NOT!!).

I greatfully left the bus, met up with Spencer who had spent the day in the Library catching up on work, and got in the car for the four and a half hour trip back to Newport.

I tried my best to keep awake, helped along by wonderful bands such as Black Flag and System of a Down, I joined in with the songs occasionally with an "Aaaaaarrrrrrggghhhhh, I'M SO ANGRY AND RUBBISH AT SINGING THAT I AM JUST GOING TO SHOOOOUUUUUUTTTT" and then just removed myself from the whole thing by nodding off (quite literally with my head bobbing about all over the place and snapping back into place when I felt that my neck thought it had reached it's limit. Thankfully I didnt dribble - always a worry). I fought hard to keep myself awake and amused Spencer greatly with my occasional outbursts. I scared myself a couple of times opening my eyes and thinking that we were re-entering Vegas only to realise once my eyes had re-focussed that the lights that I was seeing was actually the back of a large lorry.

We finally arrived home at 4.30 in the morning, I collapsed into bed and woke at 12.30 this afternoon, poor old Spencer had been at work since 7.30!

I'm afraid that I have let you all down, and did not manage to fit a song for Arizona in my little trip to that particular state. I will make it up to you over the next couple of days, when I have to at some point, fit in my song for California.

Another fabulous day in Las Vegas. We woke late and managed to stumble downstairs by about noon time. We headed straight outdoors and north, in the direction of the stratosphere, a big complex which holds gambling tables and slot machines of course, but also an indoor mall selling cheaper clothes than further down the strip, cheap food and housing four very exciting amusement thrill rides.

I played my first slot machine, and found the experience less than inspiring, so moved on after I had waved my one dollar goodbye.

Wasting no further time we ascended the tower to the thrill rides. There were two rides on the lower deck, both hanging you precariously over the edge of the building with a long drop down, providing and excellent and terrifying view of Las Vegas, and the third ride was up the spindle on top of the building, called a sling shot. Spencer and I opted for this one and one of the other rides, and scared ourselves silly, screaming like small children!

The fourth ride was a free fall type thing down the entire side of the building, obviously with a controlled landing. It cost 100 dollars or more for the pleasure of riding this ride, so Spencer and I gave it a miss and happily took to solid ground once more.

As we had woken quite late and the rides had taken some time, we didnt have much time until we needed to get into the queue to pick up our tickets for the show that we had booked to see. We had chosen a show about Las Vegas and its history, being a cheaper option than many of the other shows that were all selling for around 100 dollars each, and seeing as Tom Jones was sold out.

We made our way down the strip, which was a very, very, very long way in the insane intense heat of Las Vegas. It took us a fair bit of time, and by the time we got to Planet Hollywood, where the theatre was, we had just enough time to collect our tickets, find a bar for a quick drink and then return to the theatre to queue up as it was first come first serve.

We got into the queue and were a bit concerned as to the kind of show we had booked ourselves to see as the average age of the crowd was about 68. But, I guess we were going to see a show at 7pm and all the young folk were still out partying at this time. Anyway, we eventually were let into the theatre and got pretty good seats quite near the front. The show started and I enjoyed myself from start to finish. The show was infact loosely based on the history of Vegas, but really a jolly good excuse to sing lots of great songs by Sonny and Cher, Tom Jones, Elvis, Elton John, Tina Turner and so on and so forth. There were sexy dancing girls wearing very little, they even did a Can Can which Spencer was very pleased about. I believe I was the most vociferous audience member, I have just been on a bit of a high since we stepped foot in Vegas yesterday. I was rewarded for my exuberance with a bit of Tom Jones hip gyration directed straight at me and a bit of a wink from the singer. That made my day I can tell you!!

I was inspired after the show to sing my song for Nevada, so see the bottom of this blog for my song of the day. Let me tell you that there is NOWHERE in Vegas that you can be alone (apart from say in my hotel room, or in a lift - but where would the fun be in that?) so I sang my song on the bridge between Planet Hollywood and the Bellagio side of the road. There were many people passing, but this is Vegas baby, everyone is mad here. I even got a small round of applause and a whistle - which you can hear on the video.

That done, we walked back towards our hotel. We have been very lucky to catch various shows just by happening to turn up at the right time. Yesterday we caught the Pirate ship show with the Sexy sirens outside Treasure Island, today we caught the INDOOR THUNDER STORM in the shopping mall, and on our way home we caught the fountain show set to music outside the Bellagio. It was very beautiful.

We made our way through the streets, passing the mexicans slapping their hands with business cards for prostitutes and trying to hand them out to every passer by. They have this little technique for slapping the card on their wrists or flicking the cards with their fingers so they make a noise and then make a swooshing passing gesture to you. Spencer amused me with his britishness offering a polite 'no thank you' every time we passed.

We stopped in a 7 Eleven so I could pick up some snacks for my trip tomorrow. It is currently about 1am and I am due to wake up in about four hours to catch a very early bus so that I can do my day in the Grand Canyon.

The 7 Eleven was just across the road from our hotel so we crossed and entered the casino, searching for a 5 dollar table to try our luck on the black jack. I exchanged 50 dollars for chips and saw my pile dwindle to just a few chips before my luck changed and before I knew it I had doubled my money. That was quite enough for me, so I changed up my chips and I had my very own black 100 dollar chip!

Spencer of course did even better than me and once he was finished and he collected his black chip as well as a couple of green ones and a few pink ones, we went in to exchange our tips back into cash.

I did a spot of souvenir buying and then headed upstairs to pack and get myself ready for a very long day with many hours in a coach tomorrow, with hopefully about 3 hours at the Grand Canyon. I am hoping it will be worth it, I will let you know after I get back to Newport.

Enjoy the photos and movie!

I have had an amazing couple of days! It started yesterday afternoon, Spencer rode his bicycle to the car hire place to pick up our rental car. After considering our options, hiring a car for an alleged 4 hour trip won out over the 6 hour trip with Greyhound and the 300 dollar flight per person which would only take an hour, but cost four times as much as the hire car.

He brought the car back to his apartment and we loaded it up with our cases and some nibbles for the journey and set off on our ROAD TRIP baby!!! I was so excited to be taking a road trip in the states and imagined wide open roads with hardly a car to be seen for miles. I was slightly mistaken in this imagining. In fact, the road was packed from Spencer's house all the way to Las Vegas. It took us an hour and a half to drive 32 miles, and the total journey was 300 miles long!!!! However, after that first hour and a half traffic did die down a bit, but we certainly were by no means alone on the road. The road was always busy. The whole journey took us 5 and a half hours in the end, and we kept ourselves entertained on the way with regular CD changes, a mixture of Punk, Indie and New Wave - a random selection from Spencer's CD collection. I had sneakily stolen his apparant joke gift that someone had given him and put it into the CD player before he could see what it was. His face as he heard the dulcet tones of Jessica Simpson wailing away to 'Angels' when he was expecting to hear something like the Sex Pistols was priceless.

Our hire car was quite snazzy and had a various buttons all over the place that looked interesting. We resisted the temptation of pushing them.... until we were about an hour away from Vegas. Then, the button with the red cross on it was just singing out to it and I was so curious as to what it would do.... so I pushed it... From out of nowhere we heard a ringing sound, and we both scrambled to try to push any button that might shut it off. Eventually after several rings we pushed some button that turned it off and all was calm again in the car and we giggled nervously wondering what on earth we had been ringing. We found out moments later when the nice gentleman at the other end of the emergency line called us back!!! We were looking all around us trying to figure out how on earth this man knew who we were and how he was calling us back. We considered not answering but the service automatically kicked in and he asked us - what is your emergency. I was so freaked out by the whole thing that I just covered my mouth in surprise and Spencer leaned in to explain - sorry, we pressed the wrong button. I have been banned from pressing any other buttons of which we are not sure of the function.

Shortly after that, and after four hours of bland desert landscapes, we passed the county line of California and entered Nevada. As soon as we entered the state of Nevada we saw a huge hotel casino and lots of flashing neon lights. The town that this hotel was in was tiny, total population of the town without tourists: 300 people. We drove on by and an hour later we were entering the craziness that is Las Vegas!

It was about 9pm when we arrived. We checked in and headed to our room, crossing the mezzanine level of fun on our way. A steward caught us as we were walking past and asked us if we had just checked in, advising that she had offers available to people who were just checking in today. We said yes, indeed we had just checked in, so she showed us to the counter and passed us to another steward. She took us through the whole spiel, keeping us there for about ten minutes before stating - you guys are married right? Spencer and I looked at each other and laughed - er, no, not actually. Oh, she said, but you live together, right? Er, no. she lives in England and I live in America. Oh, right, she said, well, in that case I cant help you. And that was it, we didnt hear a peep from her after that. So, we took our queue and from then on when someone offered us something for free we quickly let them know that we werent married so they could let us know if the offer was still valid or not.

We dumped our bags in our room and after our long trip we just about had enough energy to find something for eat for dinner and drink a jug of margaritas before turning in for the night in preparation for the next day.

We woke ourselves up at about 9.30 to give us time to get ready and downstairs for the 10.30 class on Black Jack. It was a very useful class which explained the odds to us and what we should be considering when placing our bets. After the black jack lesson I went to a deli to get some breakfast and saw Mr and Mrs Fat with their family of Fat kids ordering a foot long chilli dog with cheese each for breakfast. I havent seen as many fat people over here as I thought I would from everything that i have read, but sinve I have come here I have seen them all. I ordered my bagel and cup of tea, and Spencer and I sat there in awe as the Fat family ate their way through the chilli dog, and then went up to order a second!

At 11.30 it was time for our lesson in Roulette and 12.30 the lesson in Craps. Maybe we had had information overload, but we really couldnt understand the craps rules, and in a bit of a fuddle we decided to try to escape the insanity of Circus Circus, our hotel/casino and make it down the strip.

I have to mention that Circus Circus was absolutely packed. There are piles apon piles of people everywhere. Its like what I imagine Glastonbury would be like at festival time. People EVERYWHERE. And that was just our hotel/casino. And there are a thousand of them in the strip area, most of them even bigger and better that Circus Circus.

We left the hotel and found some space to ourselves. It seemed that we had hit the streets a bit earlier than most other people in Vegas.

We made our way slowly down the strip. This place bombards your senses. It is overwhelming, amazing, gaudy, classy, fun, exciting, embarrasing, the best place ever, the worst place ever!!

We stopped in places that I had heard of and read of and seen on TV, Ceasars Palace, Flamingo, MGM Grand, New York New York, Casino Royal, and places I didnt really know about, like the Venetian, Palazzo and so on, the list is endless.

We spent the first few hours just taking in the whole place, had a couple of drinks at a bar and played the electronic 25cents per hand version of Black Jack, to practice what we had learned this morning.

We had lunch in Planet Hollywood (although we didnt realise that is where we had been until later on as we were looking back to where we had come from) in their Chinese restaurant, and as we were leaving the music was so good I started dancing, and then got accosted by one of the stewards who started dancing a bit of salsa with me.

I was totally in the party mood by now and boogeyed my way down the street and accross the road as we headed to New York New York. It must be a thing in Las Vegas but many of the Casinos are named twice, rather than just the once.

Spencer wanted to have a drink at the Irish pub Nine Fine Irishmen, where we drank the worst pint of Guiness in our lives and I did a spot of Irish dancing, but Spencer couldnt work the camera properly so failed to get it on video. But, to make up for it, he let me go on the rollercoaster in New York New York. It was, as they say here, awsome!!!

Fighting a little to keep our lunches and beers in our stomachs after the loop de loops of the roller coaster, we carried on through New York New York and on to the Bellagio, full of designer label shops and extremely wealthy people. We felt very out of place so left there quite quickly and headed back across the street to the cheaper hotels in search of O'Shea's irish casino which seemed to be quite grubby and might have the 5 dollar tables that we fancied taking a bash at. There were no suitable tables in O'Shea's so we kept going. We walked past a sign for Karaoke and I was really in the mood for a bit of singing so we followed the signs for that. When we found the poor desolate Karaoke Bar it was empty, all the lights were off and nobody was home. Looks like the excitement of Karaoke pales in comparison to some good old fashioned gambling!

From the Karaoke bar we saw some signs to the main Casino room and entered Imperial Palace, where we found the tables that we were looking for. 5 dollar Black Jack tables. We hovered for a bit and then very nervously sat down at a table and changed 50 dollars each into chips. The first 5 to ten minutes of the game were quite nerve wracking. Spencer kept on checking with me to see if I was alright. Apparantly i was frowning quite a lot and not really looking like I was having much of a good time. It was time to put my lessons into practice and I felt the pressure heavily. We ordered a beer and after a couple of glugs of that I felt a bit better, and soon enough our first time nerves passed and we settled into the game like old pros. Spencer did a pretty good job of keeping track of what was going on. I was distracted from time to time by the various entertainment items that were going on around us. Spencer started stacking up his growing pile of chips and my pile started dwindling. We ordered a gin and tonic each, and my chips diminished to a small little pile of one. Spencer slipped me a couple of his chips and I built my pile up again only to lose it once again 20 minutes later. Once again Spencer helped me out, but the third time I lost all of my chips I was on my own, there would be no saving me this time. Despite a third G&T I kept my wits about me and won back enough chips to where i was finally ten dollars up on what I had bought in the first place, and Spencer was rocking along having doubled his money. I decided this was the time for us to take our chips and leave.

We exchanged our chips for cash and made our way back along the strip. By the time we got back to Circus Circus it was 1am and we had been going for more than 15 hours!! I think we managed to eek out as much as we could from Las Vegas today, although we have decided against going to a club. We have a huge list of things that we want to do tomorrow, so fingers crossed we get it all done!

After a day of recovery, Spencer took me to the train station early in the morning to catch the 7.58 service to Union Station in LA. I was to meet up with Ani from Cyprus as she has recently moved to LA. The train arrived just 10 minutes late and I boarded with a wave from Spencer and made my way to the top deck of the train. The ride was quite comfortable and I dozed gently as the train slowly made its way.

I arrived at around 10 past 9 and located the main entrance where I had agreed to meet Ani, and we found each other without any problems. We headed straight for the red line to take us to Hollywood and I bought a one way ticket.

In no time at all we had reached our destination, and we spent a few minutes looking at the Kodak theatre, where the Oscars are held every year, and the Chinese theatre next door. There was some filming going on in the front of the Chinese theatre, so we watched that for a bit. We were on the hunt for some bagels for breakfast when we walked past one of the tour guides offering a tour of the stars' homes. We bought a couple of tickets and headed off in the direction pointed out to us by the guide to find a cafe for breakfast. Stomachs filled with bagels and cream cheese we headed back to the meeting point for our tour.

The tour lasted about an hour and a half and took us around the extravagant mansions of Beverly Hills and Bel Air. I lost track of the number of houses that we saw and actually who they currently, or used to, belong to, but the tour also allowed us a 20 minute walk up and down Rodeo Drive, which was fun, with Ani and me stopping every so often to pose for trouristy pictures.

Our tour of the stars' homes came to and end and we wandered around the area, taking in the length of the Walk of Fame, where I was surprised to see that they have already earmarked a star for little old me, as they know I am going to be a big star someday soon. They did a mock up for me to see if I would be happy with it and I advised them that yes, that would do nicely please, and could I have my start near to Fred Astaire's please?

The celebrities were out in force, all clamouring to have their photographs with myself and Ani, two obviously extremely well known members of the Premiere Group. But Ani and I brushed off their requests, letting them know that we were far to busy and famous and popular to have our photos taken with them. Brad was quite upset about not being able to pose for a piccy with me, but his mate George consoled him and the went off with Angie for a drink in the Viper room to cheer themselves up.

Ani and I dodged and darted through the streets until we finally lost the now mob-like crowd of celebrity fans and found a small joint to have a plate of nachos in, before heading back on the metro to go to Ani's house in Pasadena.

It was a short walk from the train station to Ani's house, and once we were there I drank a glass of delicious lemonade and had a little nap on Ani's bed.

Soon enough Ani's husband came home from work, and Ani lent me a pair of sky scraper heel shoes and we went off for dinner. Dinner was at a Japanese Gyu Kaku restaurant where you grill your own food. We started off with a japanese beer, and a bit of banter with one of the rather friendly locals called Tony, and then we moved to our table where Ani and I ordered a bottle of hot Sake and Areck took care of the cooking of the food. The food was great, with the meats being marinated in delicious sauces and coming off the grill very tender and tasty. We took our time over dinner and filled ourselves almost to the brim on the all you can eat menu, but leaving just enough room for some 'smores'. Ani and Areck explained to me the concept of 'smores'. It stands for 'some more' as in, 'I want some more' because they are so tasty. They are melted marshmallows that you get a special fork to melt them with over the fire (the fork is extendable - very clever to avoid burnt fingers) and then placing the melted marshmallow in between to buiscuits (crackers in american) and a slice of chocolate (hersheys). I am not a fan of marshmallow or hersheys chocolate, but I thought it would only be proper to give it a go. I chickened out on the marshmallow melting and didnt get mine to the gooey golden consistency that the others did, but it did melt the chocolate to a certain extent and I got the overall idea.

I only had one bite though and set the rest down. Ani had been promising to take me to a place called 'cherry on top' for desert so I was kinda holding out for that anyway.

We left the restaurant and took the short car drive down to 'cherry on top'. Cherry on top is a great place wher you serve your own frozen yogurt into a cup (I had some taster pots so I could choose which flavour I wanted - I chose belgian chocolate) and then in the middle of the place was a huge table full of bits and pieces that you could add to your frozen yogurt. They had strawberries and blueberries, and raspberries and any berry you could imagine. Mango, pineapple, banana, peanuts, walnuts, any other kind of nut you could want, chocolate sprinkles, hundreds and thousands, sauces, cream..... anything your heart could desire. I chose a combo of strawberries, mango and nuts, and then went to pay for the yogurt, which is charged by weight. It was great, a delicious end to the evening meal.

We then went home and chilled in front of rubbish American TV - but we did get to see the amazing ten year old opera singer on America's got talent. If you havent you tubed it yet, you should, it is quite unbelievable!

Areck's family had kindly set up a sofa bed in one of the rooms for me, so I crawled in to bed and drifted off to sleep.

The next day Ani and I woke after all the working people of the house had left and pottered around the house eating breakfast and I had a lovely cup of tea.

We quickly showered and dressed and got in the car for a drive from Pasadena back to Newport. Ani had GPS on her phone and had a pretty good idea of how to get to Newport anyway so we got there after about an hour. We dropped off my things at Spencer's house and got directions from him on how to get to the Peninsula so we could have a bit of lunch. Unfortunately I mis-interpreted the information (we turned left where he had said to turn right) and we ended up going the wrong way. This didnt turn into a huge disaster though, as the direction we were actually headed was for Balboa island, which I had loved on our first trip there and was quite keen for Ani to see. We found a parking space quite easily and I took Ani on the walk through the island to get the ferry over to the Peninsula. Luckily it was warming up a little, although it was still fairly cool in the breeze. We walked all along the pier and had a delicious burger at Ruby's diner at the end of the pier.

Ani had to get back on the road to try to beat the end of work traffic, so we walked back to the ferry, and Ani dropped me off at Spencer's before heading home. It had been pretty cool to see my friend from Cyprus, who I had just seen four weeks before actually in Cyprus, and then spend a couple of days with her on the other side of the world!

Spencer finished off some work bits and pieces that he had and then we headed out again to go to the Orange County Performing Arts Center. We went to watch In the Heights, which is a fairly new broadway musical. The dancing was excellent and the singing was fabulous. The story line was a bit thin and slow moving, so that was a down side, but it was still a very enjoyable experience.

We headed back home and set the world to rights over a bottle of red wine, before heading for bed to get some sleep ready for our big day today to go to Las Vegas!!

My last day in Kansas was, in fact, spent in Missouri. After packing up all of my things and checking and double checking that I hadnt left any chargers in sockets or my toothbrush at the sink, we got in the car and headed to Kansas City.

Our first stop for the day was for a round of Golf. Drew and his friend were meeting up for a rare day of golf at a very nice course and I was in charge of driving the buggy and cheering (occasionally jeering) the boys on. The quality of golf that was played was not that that you might see on the television, but it was a very pleasant day indeed. We got to play with a lot of sand and water, and I had fun driving the buggy. I havent driven for around four weeks now and was always a little wary to do so anyway over here where they drive on the wrong side of the road. And, sure enough, I even managed to confuse some other buggy drivers who were coming towards me. I pulled over to let them past, but pulled over onto the left, and then, realising my mistake, veered wildly to the other side of the path. It was a near miss but no-one was hurt and it made a good excuse for the americans to have a lot of laughs and jibes at my expense.

We got to hole 14 and the golf, which had been pretty bad all day, got worse and worse (possibly affected by the number of beers that had been consumed along the way) and we decided it was time to give up and go and find our hotel. We were staying in a hotel in downtown Kansas City, near the Power and Light district, a fabulous open area surrounded on two level by different bars and clubs so that you can pick and chose the kind of music that you want to listen to, get a drink, take it outside with a friend so you can have chat and calm down, then choose another bar.

First we showered after a long day in the hot sun, and I put on the LBD that I had borrowed for the evening. One of the girls of the group happened to be the same size as me and even the same shoe size as me and she had no restrictions on the number of outfits that she could bring along in her bags as she could throw it all into the boot of her car. She had several dresses and shoes to chose from, so I got all dressed up for the first time in a month.

We got into a taxi and headed back to the Plaza area as there was reputedly one of the top ten steak houses in the whole of America there. However, on the way we realised that eating at a top ten restaurant would mean paying top ten prices, so instead we chose another near by italian restaurant that served steaks and pasta. We ordered our steaks, which were by no means top ten, but were very good, and finished it off with a nice bottle of Malbeck.

We had taken such a long time in getting ready and finding our restaurant that by the time we finished it was nearly midnight. The girl with the extensive wardrobe was turning 27 at midnight, so we went to a nearby irish pub to celebrate. The pub was packed and after a drink and many happy birthday congratulations we jumped into a taxi to head back to the Power and Light district.

The vibe at P&L is fantastic. Or should I say Awsome. There is music to suit every taste and we quickly found a piano duelling bar. The extremely talented musicians played every kind of song you could imagine with every one of them able to play the piano, drums, guitar, and even the saxophone! They were incredible and we had a wonderful time. The hours passed by and eventually we left the bar, had a quick dance in the communal area below and walked back to the hotel, stopping for a little bit of salsa dancing in a latin bar along the way.

The next day I woke lateish and went downstairs for an extremely dissapointing hotel breakfast, before repacking all of my stuff and heading off to the airport. Kansas City airport is possibly the smallest airport I have been to in a while, and Drew told me that it had once been a very busy international airport, but now only serviced regional airlines.

I boarded my flight with no fuss and headed off for John Wayne airport in Santa Ana - California, via Denver.

The trip passed with no problem at all, and I landed at the airport and took the short walk to collect my bag. My friend Spencer turned up just before my bag came onto the belt and we jumped in the car to head to his apartment. He lives in Newport, Orange County. His apartment is tiny (the whole thing is smaller than my living room) in a gated complex and he pays three times the price of the tennant living in my apartment! It is insane!

We dropped my bag off, and, with a wicked gleam in his eye, he announced that we were going to the peninsula - by BIKE!!! Spencer is a friend of a friend that I had met at Sarah's wedding in October and whose friendship I am thoroughly abusing by kipping on his couch for my trip to California. Before my arrival in the US we had exchanged various emails about what I liked to do with my time, Kayaking? Hiking? Swimming with sharks? I wrote back explaining that I enjoy eating and drinking very much, and while I tried to keep myself fit with the occasional jog along the sea front and bit of yoga now and then, I wasnt much of a sports person. Spencer read the email, deleted it and took no regard to what I had said. So, this is how I found myself on a bicycle for the first time since I was about 12, riding around the streets of Newport.

Each time we set off I wobbled my way, the front wheel veering dangerously from left to right until I had it under control. I was concentrating solely on staying upright on the bike, and vaguely looking around me at the traffic, but silently praying that nothing would be coming my way as I shot off into the middle of the road. Finally, thankfully, we arrived at the peninsula, and absolutely bustling place full of people enjoying the evening sun. We walked along the jetty, past all of the fishermen catching their dinner (we wondered how the fishing lines didnt get tangled up with each other) around the american diner at the end of the jetty and back to the bustling strip. We stopped in Blackies, the most unpretentious bar in the area, for a drink and chomped our way through a bag of peanuts. One white wine spritzer and a glass of dark beer later and it was time to ride the bike home. I boarded my bike and pushed off with gusto and before long we were home.

We walked back into the apartment and I noticed for the first time that there was no bed in the studio, and no sofa. Where, I asked Spencer, exactly will I be sleeping? Aha said he and tugged at the large mirror in between two cupboards on a unit at the side. Pulling the mirror down he revealed a bed!! Cool, I have only ever seen those in the movies! Spencer gallantly offered me the bed and he slept on a futon on the floor. Being a bit of an eco-warrior this is nothing new for Spencer, so I quickly drifted off into an undisturbed sleep.

The next morning we arose very early indeed - 7am!!! We had made a pact the night before to rise early and go for a morning run. I may not have explained the extent of my running abilities very well, because as we embarked on our run he explained to me that the whole course was 3 miles long!!!! We employed my technique of running for ten minutes, then walking for ten minutes, but it soon turned into running for 3 minutes and walking for ten minutes and shortly after that I gave up with the running totally and we just walked the rest of the way. The run/walk was very picturesque and I enjoyed gawping at all of the large houses along the way, and enjoying the view accross the national park and the ocean.

We arrived home, pleased with ourselves for being very active so early on a Sunday morning. we breakfasted on cereal, soya milk, strawberries and blue berries (Spencer is a vegan), and, rested and refreshed we got back on the bikes and headed down to the national park / water reserve to rent a couple of kayaks. Spencer gave me general instructions for handling the kayak and the paddle and off I went. I was rather pleased with myself that I didnt immediatley end up in the water and as we were cruising along I glanced over at Spencer. He seemed suspiciously calm and it wasnt costing him as much effort to move his kayak along. I asked him if he was used to going this slowly and he admitted that indeed, he was not! However, we had a great time, making our way slowly up the waterways and closer to the ocean. I was dumbstruck by the sheer size of some of the residences along the way, each with their own private jetties and magnificent yachts in berth. We rode past one old boat that a seal had claimed as a perfect resting spot, lounging on the deck in the sunshine. We had been paddling for about an hour, and I was concious of the fact that i would have to have some energy for the return journey, so I convinced Spencer to turn around and head back to the centre. On our return some other people in Kayaks came our way, and I tried to steer myself out of their path. I ended up close to one of the jetties, and in my wisdom decided to push against it with my paddle to try to launch myself off again. My grasp of physics is clearly not great, otherwise I might have been able to calculate that this would be an excellent way of sending me off balance. It was touch and go for a moment whether I would end up in the water or not, and thankfully I didnt. But my kayak did seem to be taking on an extraordinary amount of water. I was trying so hard to make the kayak go faster and digging my oars deeper into the water, and each time I raised an oar water would trickle down the handle and onto my hands, my face, my legs, my feet - everywhere.

When we finally made it back to the kayak centre, I was wet from head to toe and Spencer was dumbfounded about how I had managed to get so much water all over me. I squelched out of the kayak and rinsed it down, returning my oar and life jacket to their position. I squelched out to where our bikes were waiting for us, and painfully mounted it for the ride home. We made it home and I thankfully got into the shower to wash all of the sea water off me, and put my trainers, shorts and socks out onto the balcony to dry.

I was already tired. The night before coming to California had been a late one, and my first night had also been a late one, going to sleep at 1am and waking at 7 for our run. My legs hurt from the running, my bottom hurt from the uncomfortable bicyle and now my arms hurt from the kayaking. But, I was having an adventure in California, so, when Spencer suggested a trip on a whale watching boat I was very keen, although slighly worried that it might involve a bike ride to catch the boat. I was right, and after a spot of lunch we left the apartment once again on our bikes.

I still hadnt mastered the initial setting off stage on the bike and I was still a bit wobbly. It all went horribly wrong when we had to cross the road. Spencer looked right and left, the way was clear and off he went confidently, leaving me for dust. I couldnt tell if there was a car coming from behind me as it was on my deaf side, so couldnt hear anything. I could, however, see the car coming in front of me, so I tried to slow down, wobbled dangerously, couldnt find my feet to place on the floor and then, BANG! I fell smack on the pavement, banging my knee painfully, splayed out on the california tarmac. And what does every 12 year old do when they fall off their bike? Burst into tears of course! I folded my arms around myself and cried like a baby, from the pain, and the embarrassment! Spencer finally realised that I was not behind him and came back and found me on the pavement. I'm sure it took him all his strength not to laugh, and take a picture at the pathetic sight, but to his credit he didnt, and helped me to my feet and suggested that we might take the bikes home. I nodded tearfully and limped my way back to the apartment and greatfully left the bikes behind.

I perked up quite quickly, and we set off for the second time to go to see the whale watching. What Spencer didnt tell me, was that the walk to the harbour was about three miles long. We walked and walked and walked and my spirits started sinking further and further. I rallied a little when we walked accross the Island of Balboa, the most twee place I have ever seen. The houses looked the colour of candy floss and all of the shops sold expensive classy tat. Their was an air of extreme wealth about the place, it was a fascinating place to be. We got to the ferry, a tiny tub that could hold 3 cars and about 20 people. The line for the cars wound its way along the street, but we walked past them all and got on the ferry for the short 3 minute trip accross the harbour, costing just one dollar.

We then got to Balboa, another very beautiful place, with a 'fun area' full of arcades, carosels etc. Spencer told me that this was the birthplace of the frozen banana, so I thought it would be only proper to try one. I did, it was definately frozen, but covered in chocolate and chocolate sprinkles so I couldnt eat it all. The idea of frozen banana is a good one though, definately worth trying out all you guys in Cyprus!

We walked around the arcades for a bit then turned up at the shop to buy our tickets for the whale watching trip. The trip was actually sold out, but one guy was trying to sell on his tickets as his wife couldnt find any parking. I grudgingly admitted to myself that Spencer had made the right choice in walking rather than bringing the car, and we took two of the tickets that they guy was selling. We got onto the boat and headed off on our two and a half our journey. It was lovely on the boat and again we got a good look at the incredibly ostentatious dwellings along the harbour.

Before long we found a pod of Dolphins, who played cheekily with the boat and in the surrounding sea. I tried to take photographs, but it was very difficult. I managed to get one dodgy one, and a bit of film, and then switched the camera off so that I could just enjoy it.

We watched the dolphins for about ten minutes and then it was time to get going again, further out to try to find the whales. Eventually the captain announced that there were two whales ahead that they had seen. He described their location as we headed out there and I searched and searched to see what he had seen without any luck. He slowed the boat and explained that the whales had gone on a deep dive, and this could last about 15 minutes and we would just wait. We all held our breath in anticipation, some clowns started speaking like Dory in Finding Nemo, trying to entice the whales to come up for breath.

Finally, they did, and I was very relieved to see what everyone else was seeing. We saw two beautiful, enormous blue whales. I didn't even bother with my camera, I just watched these creatures in awe and amazement. I felt so lucky to be in that specific spot at that specific time and witnessing something so wonderful.

We were all extremely happy with what we had seen, and finally, regretfully, the captain announced that we had to turn back to shore. He had had to go quite far out to find the whales and we were running late for the return trip. No-body minded though and we gave him and the crew a round of applause as he turned the boat around and headed back.

Spencer and I headed inside for a drink, and I took the opportunity to finally have a hot dog. I was almost not going to have one when the barman advised me that they had run out of ketchup and announced that I wasnt sure if I wanted one as I wanted to have an authentic american experience hot dog. There was a busy body in the line next to me and he advised me that they dont put ketchup on their hot dogs anyway, just mustard and sweet pickle. So I said ok, and had my hot dog with mustard and sweet pickle. I had been right not to have eaten a hot dog all of this time. It wasnt that great, and just like any other hot dog I had ever eaten. But, at least I had had a hot dog in the states.

Eventually we made it back to dry land, and Spencer and I stopped in a very nice bar for a drink before the trip home. I had made Spencer promise that we could take a taxi home, and I was so tired already from such a long day and a bit touched by the sun that all I had was a water. He decided that we would have more luck finding a taxi on the Island of Balboa rather than on the peninsula so we got back on the ferry for our return trip. We decided to walk in the direction of home and stop a taxi on the way, but, of course, we could find no taxi to take us. We did pass one, but by that point Spencer said we were almost home anyway so we let it pass. He was lying. We walked for another half an hour, and by then I was in full wimpering mode. My knee hurts, my feet hurt, my thighs hurt, I need to go to the toilet and I have a stitch. We finally got home and I pulled the bed from it's hidy hole and collapsed on it greatfully. I dosed myself up with antihistamines as my sneezing had returned, and eventually climbed under the covers in a bid to warm up. I think I had a touch of sun stroke as I was shivering, sneezing, in pain and generally feeling very sorry for myself.

I had originally arranged to meet up with my friend Ani the next morning, but that would mean getting up in the morning at about 6 am in order to get a lift with Spencer on his way to work so that he could drop me off at the metro. I called Ani and postponed our meeting until Tuesday and declared that I would have a lie in.

I closed my eyes and fell asleep more quickly than I ever remember without the involvement of alcohol.

This morning I awoke at 12 o clock. I had to get up to go to the chemist to get some more antihistamines, so I dragged myself into the shower, gingerly washed my knee, which is now beginning to scab over, and limped accross the road. I bought my antihistamines, and lots of other lovely stuff that you just cant resist when you are in a pharmacy, a quick sandwich from subway and a chocolate bar to replenish my drained energy and then returned to the apartment.

I ate my sandwich on the balcony in the glorious sunshine, having moved my trainers into the sunshine as they were still a little wet from my adventures yesterday. I have had a lovely day recouperating in the sun and I am ready for a gentle adventure tonight, perhaps the cinema or something like that. But if Spencer suggests that we cycle or walk I might have to kill him. Watch this space!