Home at last.

I have made it safely back to my home in Scotland.

I shed a little tear as my plane took off and flew out over the west coast of the continental United States.  There was something very final about crossing that threshold and scooting off into the dusky clouds.

The man sat next to me was very interesting.  He was probably an old man full of boring war veteran stories to some people, however he had joined the US Navy in 1942 and volounteered to become a submariner, and he was happy to regail me with all sorts of tales from his youth and military service and to me was rather more interesting than Cowboys and Aliens starring Daniel Craig. 

My in-flight entertainment system had travelled and lived through WW2, had gone on to travel as a submariner and in other capacities since then had witnessed and taken an interest in the development of all sorts of technologies I have only ever read about.

He had a robust, humourous, and forthright view on lots of things.  He told me about growing up, getting his first firearm (aged 10), shooting rabbits and selling them to the local Butcher, and bits and bobs from his life.  He retired aged 72.  I think he was a bit gutted to have retired so early.

At one point during a tale he stopped, and said hello to in what I think was Punjabi, to a passing Sikh man who was on his way to the toilets.  The Sikh man gave him a very warm greeting back.  Turns out that my in-flight entertainment system had lived in India for a while.

Turns out he lives a few miles from my sister in California.

I was entertained by this gentleman until a lady sitting a few seats away asked us to be quiet, presumably so she could get some sleep a couple of hours into the flight, or around 7pm Pacific Time.  Not really bedtime, but we obliged.  This flight from LAX is 11 hours and arrives mid-morning.  It's probably a good idea to sleep a bit.

The part of the plane we were in was quite noisy so we had to speak loudly to make ourselves understood so that put a bit of a dampener on things, however we still did exchange a couple of jokes at feeding times.

Transfer in Terminal 5 at Heathrow was rather less interesting than on my outbound journey, however it did appear to have been snowing a little in the last few days which I know does cause some considerable problems in that part of the world.

After disembarking, I had my picture taken, my passport perused and my boarding pass scrutinised many, many times.

Gavin came to pick me up in Aberdeen and gave me a very welcome lift back to my house.

Back to work on Thursday.

There are about 300 people in this departure lounge. 20 or 30 of them are literally clamouring for the 3 or 4 electrical outlets which will enable them to charge their laptops. If I thought the plane had free broadband on board, I guess I might be too.

This is my plane. I am going home )c:

All checked in and securitisationed. I had to take off my shoes and then walk into a body X-ray. Bet it can't tell I am wearing yesterday's socks but would have revealed my Prince Albert. If I had one.

Goodbye California...

Yesterday, after a leisurely breakfast and lunch we set off to co-incide with nap time to go to the Getty Center, which is a big fancy museum set up by oil billionaire J Paul Getty.

The 4th floor of a 7-storey underground car park

The car park is just off the main road, and the museum is at the top of the hill.  There is a train that takes you in air-conditioned comfort to the top of the hill.

The setting for the museum buildings is obviously designed to make an impression.  It is absolutely amazing.

The building is also designed to make an impression.

It is filled with priceless antiquities and works of art by artists even I have heard of.

Everything is meticulously tied down to stop it falling over and smashing when there is an earthquake.  I just imagined my Grandma with a couple of tubes of Araldite when I thought about it.

They used to write books and colour in the pictures by hand back in the day.

There was an exhibition on art in California in the mid 20th century.  There was a lot of censure at that time and people were outraged by explicit photographs and painitings.  This one, and others feature lots of nakedness and boobies and were painted hundreds of years ago.  Perhaps people were outraged then too.

I could have taken a couple of days to see everything.  It's a fantastic place, with some really special pieces of art inside.

My brother in law noticed on the way out that comments slips in art galleries (especially ones with no entrance fee) normally have forms you can fill out to join up for newsletters and make charitable, tax-deductible donations to the upkeep of the facilities.  However, if you fill in a comments form here, the Getty Foundation gives $10 of its own money to stimulate arts projects.

After we got home and had some dinner, Mike had to go to away on work, so I gave him a lift to a little airport about 20 minutes drive away in the Camry.  Final Douglas/Camry mileage is 3922 miles.  Camry is amazing.

The moon was out and there was some moisture in the air making this funny halo effect.

This morning, my sister went to work and took my Niece to daycare so I have the morning to pack and get ready.  My lift to the airport should arrive around midday.

I have had rather a good time in the colonies.

Culture...

Off to the Getty Museum.

Another grand day out.

Camry basking in the California sun.  Free from the tyranny of things like rain, and salt on the road.  I hope it enjoys its new life here.  Fingers crossed for the perils of of the Smog Test.  If it can't pass the California equivelant of an MOT, it's unfortunately toast.

Today's transport is a Nissan Sentra, and I am not driving.  For the first time in 2 weeks!

Nearby is the home of Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.  "It's not rocket science."

A photo of JPL from the road.

In the car park of this bank was an old Porsche.  There are quite a lot of interesting cars around.  They don't rust and rich people live here.

This morning's activity was a farmer's market.  This is the Tomato stall.

Fit Like?  This car is called 'Jazz' at home.

After the playpark and crepes in the park, we went to the Huntington Library.  They have gardens.

This is Rowan, my Neice.  She will be 2 this week.

The finest picture of a Hummingbird I will probably ever take.

Sunset tonight in Glendale.