So, after our longest time apart ever, dear D has returned from the UK looking after my dear mother, who I’m glad to say is doing well, and managed to navigate the craziness of LAX and bypass Fri eve LA traffic by taking the train part way to where I picked her up so she was able to sleep till we got back to the apartment.

We had a lovely hike the next morning to Black‘s Beach, despite the unusual cloudy weather, followed by a great dim sum at Jasmine restaurant with the dragon dancers for Chinese New Year of the Rat  !

We dropped by Pure Project anniversary bash but it was too busy for us non-hipsters, and came back to the apartment, where Nathaniel and Jane came to visit and gives us some pure project beer in exchange for chicken biryani!

Off to Black‘s Beach again The next day, via the glider port, where the golf caused traffic delays. The beach was fantastic as always, even though cloudy, with lovely bird activity. Then back to The apartment via Beerfish (where I found a couple of beers i had been keen to try) and then to a talk on finding alien civilizations by the skeptical society, where D started nodding off….so we escaped!

Then off to the Gregorian chant at the church in North Park, which was reasonably interesting for first 15 minutes, but not like the hit record!