Santa Monica shakedown

We have had a great day today.

First practicing zazen with Brad, then going off for some good indian food and a discussion on Nina Hartley and scandinavian adult entertainment of the 70's. After we went for a margherita with some of the other members of the group, and then onwards to see the new Batman movie on 3rd street promenade. I though this movie was pretty darn good, by far the most mature batman interpretation so far, although Jaana found it a bit too long - and the development of the two-face character a bit silly with all that flipping of coins. I had no beef with it personally. Jaana is swearing over her home made bead bracelet and how tricky it is to put together. She was given the beads as a gift from one of Brads zen group (they picked it up in a very well stocked bead sotre down on Main), and it's keeping her distracted now so I can sneak in a Pacifico before bed. After all our holiday is nearing an end.

After Batman we went to a Pizza place, also in santa monica and had some food and a Stella before Jaana expertly and expediently chauffered my sorry as back home to this absurd luxury hotel of ours.

Tomorrow it looks like we will be going back to Ventura for a BBQ with Marty and Lotta wich will be fun.

I will be so sad to have to leave LA again to go back to eurrrrrope, but there is some comfort in thinking about our weeks in Sweden by the end of the month. It will be good to see our Swedish homies and families. And London has its own crappy kind of charm after all.

The long arm of the lawyer

We drove back to Oxnard and saw our new immigration lawyer. Hopefully he can get the ball rolling so we won't have to spend the rest of our lives stuck in Europe. We had some Tacos. We drove into downtown LA and nearly parked in a garage that was closed over the weekends. Luckily the nice girl let us know, and we got out without paying.
The hotel here is truly amazing. I have never been able to afford a place like this before. In in reality still can't.. or at least won't. You can find awesome deals if you do your homework online these days. There is everything here, it is grand and glitzy, and they will be ebringing us fresh breakfast to our room tomorrow morning before we go to Santa Monica to practice zazen with Brad.
Not sure what we will do afterwards, but i would like to go to Astroburger or some other retro place like that. Tonight we did the Daily Grill, which was as good as last time, and we had a fabulous glass of silly expensive dry white, a nice break from them margheritas and befitting the urban sophistication we're back into.
Jaana is tossing and turning in bed. Telltale sign I should get off the computer.

Palm Springs sejour summary

We have been so busy there has been little time to update this blog, so here's a quick summary of what we have been up to the last few days. I tried adding pictures to this post too, but the bungled up blogger.com wont let me do it so you'll have to make do with the boring one on your left for now. Yep thats me writing this stuff.

Tuesday:

The day starts with the earthquake. Even though we're still out in Palm Springs, the whole motel wobbles for 20 seconds as the 5.4 quake hits LA. Afterwars we go to the spa for a massage, the way I always handle an earthquake.

The massage was very nice, altough I would have liked a more brutal kind. I ordered "Swedish" because I am Swedish, but it turns out that is just the name they gave to the wimpiest massage. How fitting. Jaana also had her toenails painted turquiose before we left. At "Del Taco" (the smaller competitor of taco Bell), they have a Tuesday desert discount which gives you 3 hardshell tacos for 1 buck, which is a pretty good deal even though the tacos are on the lower end of the quality spectrum. I had 6 of them, before Jaana decisevely drove us 3 hours straight into the desert to find a special bush.

Now this particular Creosote bush is supposedly the oldest living thing on the planet, at 11,700 years of age. Interesting, and I too wanted to pay my respects and also to see if I could use a fraction of it to make a concoction out of it to prolong life. During the long desert drive I had time to reconsider, as in most stories on eternal life the potion usually brings death to everyone except someone with a Pure Heart, and I am not ready to gamble as I think the odds are turning more and more against me with each passing year.

Either way, we got to the supposed location, .6 miles off a dirt road in the middle of nowhere, with a wire-fence with signs saying "BIOLOGICAL PRESERVE" or something similar. Now, if you're like me, coming across a fenced off area in the desert with a label like this would instantly have you thinking that they are 1) Attempting to create a super-warrior through mixing human and creosote DNA, 2) Keeping a super lethal life form 2 miles under the desert floor in an isolation bunker, 3) both.

Jaana climed right in through the fence, and I quietly wondered wether the lawyers or the telekinetic mutant-king warrior would get her first.

Turns out we couldn't find the bush. There is about a bazillion of them, they all look alike. However, it is an interesting project, and if we move out here I will absolutely try to find it again if it hasn't died from old age by then.

Wednesday

We spent most of this day recovering from the Creosote hunt in the desert through hanging out at the pool. It is warm like heck, and we're pretty alone in being outside in the middle of they day. I quite like it though. After lunch we went down to Cabazon outlets and looked at a lot of junk. I got myself a pair of Nike running shoes for 49 bucks. Thats like 25 quid, which was a real bargain I thought. Now I just need to get back to running too. Jaana also got some shoes, lady Clark's. They were perfect, but when we got home she realised they were terrible, so we will be returning them on our way back into LA tomorrow.

Thursday

We wanted to fit in another hike before going urban again, so we drove down to Ansa-Borrego (passing the wierd-ass Salton sea (which I think is a crazy nude hangout spot but Jaana tells me it's not)). Ansa Borrego is a low desert park. We arrived around 2pm after a longish drive. It was seriously baking. At 112 degrees you don't just play around outside. It is HOT. Turns out the ranger station was closed, as noone comes to visit in the summer heat. Except for us.

So, we walked the .6 mile kiddie trail, which led us back to the ranger station in a loop, where we sat down in the shade, perispiration dripping from everywhere. Just as we are about to leave, a stray ranger pops out the door looking like he's ready to invade Poland, and he expertly tells us all about his park. He was a really great guy and he told us it would be humanly possible to do a short trek this time of year provided we had at least 2 litres of water per person with us for every 3 miles we intened to walk.

He suggested a short drive up to Palm Canyon trail, this is a short, 3.5 mile hike right into the desert, through a gulch ending at an oasis. The pass leads up via a plateau and that is the danger spot, as the ground is so hot you can cook on it. The ranger told us to expect around 122 degrees on the plateau, and then a cool 90 at the oasis.

Said and done, we both wanted to do it, we did it, and it was very hot indeed. Jaana struggled somewhat at the plateau, and I kept asking if she wanted us to turn back, but I love this hard-headed woman of mine, and she pressed on. I was quite surprised at how easy it was for me to deal with the heat (which was really unlike anything I have experienced before, even in Death Valley). I found it MUCH harder and more draining to walk around Edinburgh this last winter than the hike today.

The oasis was nice, Jaana covered herself in its water (I didn't like it even though the ranger had said it was good enough to drink), instead I took a leak (well what'cha gonna do when you keep rehydrating every 5 minutes?) and supported the enviroment with some much needed liquid of my own making.

We sat around for 30 minutes or so, the sun began to set, and the hike back down was much much easier, as it was both down hill and now in shade.

On the way back to Palm Springs, we took the S22 eastward out from the park, and got some great views and a reall cactus-to-palms-to-pines drive up in the mountains and a completely different eco system, to me reminiscent of the Sonoma valley of northern california. Very beautiful. Jaana expertly drove us through the Santa Rosa mountains, and back town in PS in about 2 hours, and I even managed to catch the Daily Show on TV before writing this.

Tomorrow we're going back to LA to see our lawyer, and we have managed to get cheap reservations at a luxury hotel down town through some wierd-ass auction website. How about them apples?!

Birthday hike

Today's blogger: Jaana

So we decided to celebrate my birthday today by taking the arial tramway up to the San Jaquinto mountains, 31 years old and at the top. Basically, you go from 42 degrees of desert heat to over 3000m above sea level and an alpine climate. In order to set out onto the trails, you have to fill out a registration form at the ranger station, and keep the carbon copy. When you return, you return the copy in a mailbox back at the ranger station. So when the rangers check the mailbox at the end of the day, and they do not find the copy, I guess they start a search for you on the trails that you have specified on the form. The tramway stops running at 8pm, and I would not like to spend the night up there with the mountain lions and coyotes!

The hike was quite steep, and also being unused to the sudden change of altitude, I had to make frequent breaks to sit down and rehydrate. I even noticed that my fingers swelled up a little, I guess that this was also due to the change in air pressure. Henrik seemed not to notice any difference though, and steadily continued upwards on the trail.

After a couple of hours, we reached "Wellman's divide". A quite thick haze was covering Palm Spring and the other resort locations on the desert floor, but the peaks in the distance were beautifully outlined in our view.

Another few hours, and our 7 mile hike came to an end. We remembered to leave the carbon copy with the rangers, and headed back to the tramway station to wait for the next descent. At this point, we were both quite exhausted, and as soon as we got down we took off to the nearest Mexican restaurant for dinner and a biiig margharita.

Tomorrow we will heal our beaten body parts by soaking in the natural mineral waters of Palm Springs, and maybe even have time for a treatment or two.

In heat again

We made a 3 hour drive back into Santa Paula to see John, his wife Shelley and Marty and Lotta again at Johns ranch. They had apparently just shot a rattlesnake just before we came, but not killed it so it was hiding under the cabin. Moments later John took us up to the top hill of his massive new property and I had the opportinity to do some shooting for the first time in my life. We used a .22m luger-variant and I now see that target practice is neccessary. I think I hit two bottles or so (we didn't want to try to kill anyone or thing) but Jaana was probably the best shot of us all as far as I saw.

We had a very enjoyable BBQ and it was good to see Marty and Lotta again.

Now we've just checked ourselves into Nancy Sinatras old hangout spot at the Caliente tropical spa, and we will be travelling deep into the San Jaquintos tomorrow morning for some tranquil hiking.

As some of you will know, I have been a strong defender of America in the face of biased and uninformed eurocriticism, but as one of our US friends in the UK would attest, much of the mainstream culture here is extraordinarily obnoxious. Even I cannot deny this after a couple of weeks out here. I think the key is to take on the responsibility of creating your own niche and stay well clear of the headwinds of the less savoury sides of blunt capitalism.

As far as I can tell, by now the US economy seems to be truly fucked, and I can see the dollar dropping by the day - which means we're getting some excellent value for our british pounds although I think the pound is losing out against the Euro too. I have just been in touch with my banker to set up a euro currency account so I can diversify our savings a bit. Provided the housing market develops as I have predicted, we should see a stabilization and rebound around spring 2010 which would be a good time to enter the property market. If we have our greencard taken care of by then, our passive income dollar savings might provide a decent down payment for a property and some land around here somewhere. As for the moment I would recommend only going into european government guaranteed bonds.

Who the heck reads this blog for investment advice?

Now don't get me wrong here. Money and its administration is probably one of my least favourite things in the world, but what we're really talking about here is freedom. To take on the responsibility for oneself and through hard work create a financial platform that is acceptable and flexible is a strong key factor in establishing a fullfilling work life balance: to be able to do the work that is satisfying, in the right quantity, and not have one's basic choices limited by mismanaged resources.

We have gotten some good advice on where to go around the desert, and we might celebrate Jaanas birthday at a quality spa - which will also be a good time to get back to a normal diet and lifestyle. Every single serving of food I have had out here so far has been at least twice the size of what I would need to be satisfied.

The contrast between the brash culture and its dignified landscape out here is an interesting one: it lets me be part of society in intense bursts, and then again to retreat into the calm and tranquility of the vast outdoors. The desert itself has held a special place in my heart since childhood - Jesus spent his 40 days, the majestic and hidden Luxor temple where the kings of ancient Egypt were laid to rest, Lawrence of Arabia crossed the Anvil to take Akaba and Muad'Dib faced his Shai-Hulud. This barren and relentless exterior becomes for me an externalisation of the classic Zen proverb of "sitting for a long time with no toys" which allows the mind to settle and know itself.

So there you have it, gunshots, finance and zazen. The cocktail of these last two days.

Ventura entertainment and the low desert

We spent a couple of days at Erics beachome in Oxnard and went for kidde fun: spectacular mini-golf and a laughable go-cart-ride one day and six flags Magic Mountain the next. I must confess that after I hit 30 I am finding it more and more of a struggle to go onto the big rides, and these are the biggest in the world. We started tentatively with the Revolution, which was the worlds first looping rollacoaster. Good thrills, but pretty mild by todays standards. We went on to do a bunch of flume rides which got us soaked, and then proceeded into Gotham City to do the Riddlers Revenge and the the Batman rides. Those were awesome and hit speeds over 100 mph whith the train rotating around its own axis as it went. Marty and I then decided to try the screamer, which was one of the highest rides. It gives you a remarkable view of the desert before you plummet. I think this ride has the record for number of loops per second. It was crazy.











After this one, we all went onto the Colossus, which is a classic wooden coaster which I had ridden in a Liseberg simulator before. Needless to say, the real thing was more fun. Although again, it was milder.

As the day drew to an end, Marty and I opted to enter into the queue for the newest and supposedly wildest ride, called the X2. I think the whole thing was a bit over hyped, but here is how they try to overload your senses: You strap into a reclining chair of the type that they use in space shuttles, so that your body can take the G-forces without harming you. They have speakers installed in the headrest that play crazy loud music which is synced to the ride. The ride starts by pulling you 120ft straight into the air backwards, and as you hit the top, you freefall head first, and halfway down the chaird begin to spin. They dont stop spinning as you travel through 19 loops in 3 simultaneous directions and for the climax they launch two real flamethrowers across the track and you travel right through them at 160mph with the chairs still spinning. The whole thing takes about 25 seconds to experience.



We have now left Ventura county and have headed deep into the desert, currently residing in the Lucille Ball spa resort outside of Palm Springs. I am on the laptop by the pool, and we maxed out at 106 degrees earlier today. We will be heading back into santa monica for zazen practice all day tomorrow, so how is that for contrast: Going through X2 hell one day and staring at a blank wall the next?

We are planning to go back out here after zazen to spend some more time in the desert, maybe go down to anza Borego, and see some friends in San Diego too, but time will tell.

We will be meeting our new immigration lawyer on Friday as I have fired the old one due to his lazy english ways. Hopefully the new one will be more cutting edge!

I am also glad to tell you that this blog now has over 10,000 unique visitors every day, so I have to moderate the comments section quite heavily. Please forgive me if yours doesn't make it in there!

Love,

H & J

4:20 24/7 & Mimosas for breakfast

On saturday Jaana and I went to practice Zazen with Brad in Santa Monica. It was very nice, although the christian church next door had some kind of fair with live music going right through our second practice period, which was distracting for me. Afterwards we had some mexican food (as we're eating all we can now that it is available).

Jaana drives like a demon, and manages the 6 lane superhighways into LA with no problem at all now, and even though the gas prices are pretty high by local standards, we have been getting good milage out of our trusty rental Chrysler and feel that we can get around pretty freely. With all the guys coming to our campground it is not unusual to have five or six heavy duty vehicles parked around us, and we also have both a Jeep and an explorer available. We will have to decide tomorrow if we are going to keep the rental or not.

We have been introduced both to lawyers and people working for the local congresswoman, so it looks like we have some people on our team for getting the work permits through a bit quicker.

Today we went to Acapulco up in Ventura for a fantastic brunch with a chronic top up of our mimosas, and this afternoon we will be heading out to Santa Paula for some BBQ and a Jacuzzi party.

We might be going out to shoot rattlesnakes tomorrow, as they need to be cleared of a friends newly purchased ranch and we have a tentative schedule for some guys introducing me to golf next week.

The jury is out on wether we will be going south to San Diego next week, or wether we will be heading up to San Fancisco to see some old friends and maybe go up into the wine county around Sonoma.