La la land

Fabulous place. We arrived yesterday afternoon , picked up by Graham in the Prius they are using at the moment, lovely silent hybrid - and you get nice subsidies for driving them here - if only we had that at home! Would love one. After lunch at G and G's we wandered down to Santa Monica - the Pacific Palisades (towards Malibu) end where Conrad spent literally an hour doing what seemed like very rugged ocean swimming - he was in heaven. Even Bella went in while Hen happily made big holes and castles. On the way here we went down the steepest and longest stairs I've ever been down - the fourth street steps, there were lots of scantily clad sweaty people coming up, then I realised they were going up and down for fun - or exercise, which seems to be a major source of fun here. People all look so fit this part of town - I guess it's not like they have bad weather excuses.

Having not been here for 17 years I have been struck by the friendliness of people here, from the lifeguard at the beach to the people packing groceries ( who had to translate "help to your car?" for me - they offered help with my THREE BAGS! I had no idea what they meant - embarrassing). Today we're off to a farmers market in Venice, we've all slept well (in fact Bella is still sleeping) so all set for a big day out. Conrad is going hiking in Topanga Canyon rather than shop with us - probably a wise choice. Wee niece Honor is such a delight, Bella is so happy to have a real, live baby to play with. Not many photos yet, but many to come, I'm sure - just need to get back in the habit. Will set up a flickr thingie.