Life and Times in SoCal

Hello and welcome back to our blog. Well summer is most defiantly here in SoCal, we have temperatures hovering around 37c (98f) for most of the last few weeks and sadly the annual wild fires are back again, although not as many as previous years, just yet. 

As I mentioned previously we have had family here from Mid May to mid July. Chris, Wendy and their friend Lisa on their way back from Hawaii followed by Carys towards the end of June and Jordan and Steph and the kiddos from early July.

We had a wonderful meal at The Hobbit restaurant with C&W. It is probably one of the best dining places around here and when you consider how close we are to LA and Las Vegas that’s a big deal. We also got complimentary tickets to see the Anaheim Angels Major League Baseball. A good time was had by all!

During Carys’ visit we went whale watching, as I mentioned before this is awesome adventure. We were on a small, fast boat very close to the water and were lucky enough to see large pods of dolphin, both common and bottle nose and 3 fin whales. We were out for around 2 hours, although you are not guaranteed to see anything, it really is spectacular when the giants of the ocean are so close to you.

Jordan arrived at the very end of Carys’ stay. so they had her final weekend as overlap and we had a pool party on the Sunday to celebrate America’s birthday. Together with co-workers and their families and other friends we had a great time. This was the first time we have actually had a proper cook out for 4th July so it made it even more fun and Jordan won almost $100 playing left, right & center!

When I last wrote we were due to see Ringo Starr at a local casino. We did and he was very good. It was Ringo Starr and his All Star Band. The band is made up of other famous musicians from the 70’s through to the 90’s this iteration included: Colin Hay from Men at Work, James Stuart from Average White Band, Steven Lukather from Toto. He has also toured with Bruce Springsteen, Slash and Stevie Nicks to name just a few. The gig was very good, Ringo is clearly more comfortable behind the drums but he also led the band on a few numbers and fan favorites. 

Julie’s youngest daughter Abbie is coming out to see us at the end of August with her husband Brock and their 2 kiddos, so we are looking forward to having a fun time with them also. It will be Abbie and Brock’s first visit to us since 2016 when we lived near Seattle

Both Jordan and Abbie are very brave travelers in my opinion, they both have very young children and are willing to sit in economy for a 10 hour flight with children under 1 year old. I know Julie struggles traveling with me and I’m 60 !

While Jordan and Co were with us Koby spent a lot of his time in the pool and is now a fairly confident swimmer. we bought a floaty for Milo and he really enjoyed being in the pool also, although it was very difficult getting him in and out of the floaty. So we are looking forward to Pip & Otto spending time in the pool, Pip is confident in the water already so hopefully he will start to swim better while he’s with us.

We have just come back from another weekend (Aug 6) in Las Vegas, we were there for another concert. This time Maroon 5 at the Dolby Live theater in the Park MGM (originally The Monte Carlo Resort). The concert was very good and totally sold out on the Saturday night. As regular readers will know Julie and I have been to a few concerts in the passed few years but I can honestly say this started out as the loudest opening I have ever heard! The opening was that loud you could feel the building vibrating! I’m surprised my ears were’t bleeding! Adam Levine is a great showman and really kept the audience engaged. 

Our next concert should be fun in a totally different way, we are going to the Hollywood Bowl - probably my favorite venue - to see Boy George and Culture Club. I’m not sure what sort of gig this is going to be, but I’m sure it will be lots of fun!

On the work front we have just successfully opened a new production room to make more salad dressings! These dressings are going into small cups for salad lunch bowls, we have the capacity to make around 2,000,000 cups per week. However, I have been tasked with expanding again to more than double the overall capacity to around 15,000,000 units per week. It’s going to be a busy few years, and here am I looking to retire! Salad dressing is a growing business! Taylor Farms has also invested in a salad company in Europe so who knows where we will end up sending and making dressings?

My cousin Nicola and her partner Billy are coming out in mid September it will be there first visit to SoCal as over 21's so the world is their oyster, we are also going to Vegas for 3 days so let's PARTY. Julie’s cousin Ian his son and his parents are coming out at the end of October, the weather won’t be as hot as now but i’m sure they will have a great time regardless. we also have one of my oldest friend looking to come out in early November, he is planning to get married while he’s here so that will be great fun. 

We are planning on being back in the UK in mid to late November this time we are flying direct with Delta, this may be the last time we fly back from LAX to Heathrow as from next year Virgin Atlantic will start to fly Las Vegas to Manchester. the flight from our local airport to Vegas only takes 37 minutes gate to gate and Southwest Airlines let you have 2 bags for free, so a quick flight to Vegas and then on to Manchester. should be a whole lot less stress. 

Well that’s all for now

Stay safe and play safe!

Ciao 

Paul & Julie

August 2023.