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Monday

Good breakfast then bought tickets to the zoo - the plan for today.  Been wanting to visit this particular zoo for many years now, ever since the birth of a baby panda back in 1999.  I remember reading about it and then finding that the website had some 'panda-cams', so some colleagues and I would check on the progress most days, it was lovely to see.  Anyway, there is free parking at the zoo and that would help with other plans.

Bought deluxe tickets as these also gave access to the skyrail stations which take you from the bottom to the top of zoo and back again.  We took the rail to the top end of the zoo to see the polar bear exhibit - another fantastic animal to see and this was a great environment for them with a deep pool and glass all round so you can see them under the water.  We were most interested in seeing the animals we hadn't seen in the wild, so the polar bears really count. We were treated to two polar bears, with the biggest paws I've ever seen, playing and fighting in the water.  They were right up against the glass and put on a real show.

We walked down to the giant panda exhibit, the main reason for coming here.  We saw the second youngest munching away on bamboo and a new baby fast asleep in a tree hammock.  The mother was also asleep as it seems these days that she only really wakes up to eat.  These are magnificent creatures and you really are very close to them which meant that R could get some great shots.

Took a walk down to the main entrance via the bear canyon as these are other animals we'd not really seen.  After taking a safari as part of our 10-year anniversary trip, 5 years ago, we've had the opportunity to see the big 5 and several others up close and in the wild on that trip and because of where we are living.  After that, it's hard to see some animals in captivity, even if they have been born there and don't really know any different.

We then took the zoo bus tour, which was included in the ticket price, which was very interesting as you get a real insight into the animals and the history of the place from the driver and guide.  Of course, one thing about being at the zoo is that there are a lot of school parties and that is probably the case during term-time all year around.  The kids are all suitably impressed by things though, lots of 'oohs' and 'aahs' all the way around.

We left the zoo and went into Balboa Park as r wanted to see the Model Railroad Museum but unfortunately we discovered it is closed on a Monday!  So we made plans to come back tomorrow after taking the trolley bus tour around the city.  We walked around the beautiful park, went to visit the Automotive Museum which was cool with a special motorbike exhibition plus, I bought a rather nice Coca-Cola handbag.

Off to Fashion Valley mall for a bit of retail therapy and decided to go to the movies, Forbidden Kingdom, which was worth seeing - a westernised oriental story with a good cast and interesting nods to legends and stories that you may already know about.  It was escapism for a while which is always nice when you're on holiday.  Dinner at California Pizza Kitchen, with 10% off due to a promotion from our last visit, another look around the shops but didn't buy much.  Spending money isn't always necessary, window shopping can be fun and anyway, sometimes, you just can't find anything to buy.

Sunday

Driving down to San Diego was going to be a leisurely affair as there is no rush to get anywhere - holiday mode!

We decided to stop in a mall in Orange County - we do like a bit of retail therapy and we've been 'so' deprived for the past few years - but it didn't open until 11am so we had to wait around until it opened.  We had to go to the Apple Store to sort out a small problem that we were having the the iTouch, it didn't want to connect to any wi-fi spots.  This caused some confusion in store, puzzled looks and it took a while but it was sorted.  Good job too, I can't imagine someone back in SA being able to figure it out (some of the technology is very behind and having checked, the 32MB version of the iTouch isn't even available over there) and even if they could fathom what was wrong with it, chances are I'd lose the will to live before it was sorted out... okay, I'm a bitch and I admit it.

Carried on down to San Diego, via a branch of Michaels where I had to get some necessary threads and also managed to do a bit of stitching in the car.  I've managed to get a bit done what with long distance drives (well, passenger rides) and plane journeys but I really want to get this sampler finished as I'm seeing S when we are in the UK so I want to give it to her then.

We got to the hotel/motel, which very much reminded us of one of the places we stayed in Orlando when we were on honeymoon - all those years ago!  The Garmin had a few problems getting there, it was confused by the parallel roads, roads above each other and things like that, but all in all, it's been extremely useful and I can see why some people swear by them.  I can also see why some people swear at them, because if you don't pay attention, notice the map on the machine and work it out according to the roade layout you can see, you can end up taking multiple wrong turns or worse!

A bit of housekeeping to be done here - washing and drying to re-extend the wardrobe and took some time to write some postcards.  Also took some time to do some more stitching, a very pleasant environment all around - good facilities with a pool and a spa but rather a lot of kids we thought for the time of year!  Worked out what we would do for the next couple of days, sorted out dinner and chilled out.

Distance: 118 miles

Wednesday

Today was the start of our drive down to San Diego.  We collected the car, checked out of the hotel and set off.  We hired a Garmin with the car as it saved the whole map thing so we started off towards route 1 working out the quirks on the system along the way.  The plan was to drive down route 1, past Santa Cruz, Monterey, Big Sur, San Simeon and Hearst Castle where we were going in a couple of days, then turn off just after Cambria towards Paso Robles.  All in all, without stopping for pictures etc it was going to take over five and a half hours but hey, we were on holiday and that's what this was all about.  We had the iPod on shuffle, bottles of water, sunglasses and basically a happy air around us.

We stopped quite often to take in the view and take pictures as it was really lovely.  I kept thinking about the Red Hot Chili Peppers track, Road Trippin.  It reminds me a lot of the road from where we live in Strand, up to Kleinmond, but the surroundings on route 1 are more green.  That said, I think the SA road is more breathtaking, especially as you have mountains on one side and the ocean on the other.  It's certainly a trip I take all of our visitors on and one that we do quite a lot at all times of year, especially in the right season if you carry on to Hermanus and go whale watching.

All was going well, we were about 5 miles from San Simeon when we spotted smoke further up the road.  We soon found the source of the smoke - there was a fire along the road and it was closed!  We had a choice, stay there and wait and hope the fire would be dealt with quite quickly (though we were told it was likely to be several hours) or we could go back the way we came - all the way back down the road we had been on for most of the day!  This was a massive detour, to head all the way back towards Monterey, take the road to Salinas, then take the 101 down to Paso Robles.  It was going to take us a couple of hours to get back to Monterey and then almost the same again to get down to Paso Robles - it's a long time to be in the car!  Plus, we were starving by this time as we'd planned to eat when we got off route 1 which would have been another 45 minutes at the most.

So there was nothing to do but head back to Monterey as we had no idea how long we would be stuck on route 1 otherwise.  Stopped in Monterery for a very late lunch or slightly early dinner at California Pizza Kitchen, nice place, nice atmosphere, great food - the crab cakes were fantastic!  Then we headed down the 101 to Paso Robles and crashed at the hotel.  Very basic but hey, we're only sleeping here as we have quite a long day tomorrow, so leaving fairly early and getting back quite late.  R did all the driving today and will probably do most of it tomorrow, not because I don't like to drive (I love it) but, well, he's a guy and can be a bit of a car hog LOL!

Distance: 256 miles but actually 426 miles with the detours - no wonder R was tired!

Well truly, the title and feeling are not quite right for now but it's the main reason for this post.  Thanks to Telkom (bunch of w@%$ers) I've pretty much been offline since the afternoon of 27 Feb - today was my first day back with access because it's a new month and everything 'resets'.  Starting from the beginning, ADSL here is expensive mainly because Telkom have a monopoly on the telephone things and they charge what they want.  Several people don't even bother with landlines because of that and rely solely on mobile phones.  It is also slow (though they don't think so) and very unreliable at times.  Facts to back this up are... it costs us per month here what we were paying per quarter in the UK for a 10th of the access (3GB as opposed to 30GB) plus they charge you for your phone line and the ADSL line, even though it's only one line!; they can barely manage 1MB here when were were on 4MB in the UK and heading to 8MB speed; even though you are supposed to be connected all the time with ADSL, there are times you just cannot get on.

Anyway, we reached our monthly limit on the afternoon of 27 Feb.  As there were a couple more days to go in the month, I decided we needed to buy a top up gig which you can do online... well, you could if it was working - which it wasn't.  So, had to buy it on the phone which meant I was given a new user name and password temporarily to access this extra space but the person on the phone couldn't tell me how to do this, I had to speak to someone in the technical department.  Hmm, I wondered, are those the same technical experts who run the site and can't make sure that you can top up online towards the end of a month?

To cut a long story short... a very long time on hold, several phone calls, cut off a couple of times, technical not being able to make this user name and password work, sales being unhelpful again, someone else in technical giving us instructions that screwed with our machine... in total FIVE HOURS on the phone and the upshot was we couldn't get the new user name and password to work - and now the old one wasn't working either.  R had some very interesting things to say to the technical 'expert' on the phone!  I finally got our proper user name and password to be accepted and we've been holding our breath until this morning, hoping that everything would reset, which thankfully it has.  To add insult to injury, we had to remember to call them yesterday to tell them to cancel the extra gig for next month or we'd automatically be allocated it and charged! Grrr.

So, I've not been a happy bunny.  One of the things we checked before moving here was broadband/ADSL access - R actually asked my dad about it and said, "if you don't, she won't move!"  There were other things that we should have really checked out before moving here but that's another post for another time.  Not having access to the real internet (ie sites outside of South Africa) has just been horrible.  Not only could I not go to my favourite places, I couldn't talk to my friends on messenger, couldn't call them on Skype, couldn't access my email on Gmail and couldn't do anything for our hobby business or other bits of work as they need to be accessed online!  Add to that the fact that we wanted to book bits for the holiday but couldn't and the things just pile up on you.  All of this may seem very melodramatic but it brought so many frustrations and disappointments to the fore that I have to say that it was some of the worst time we've had here.  Decisions are going to have to be made and I'm sure they will appear in here as and when.  I said in the last entry that things would wear me down soon enough though I'd rather have been proved wrong about that...

Film:  haven't really watched anything recently.  Have to admit though, two of my favourite tv programmes are back on this weekend - Supernatural and Dexter.  I'm going to try not to miss those so I don't end up with loads of them on tape and having to catch up... or trying to catch up and just not succeeding!  So much to do, so little time!

Books:  Finished Velocity.  Hmm.  Not much to say really, disappointed, all a bit pat for my liking, tried for the twist ending but I'd seen that coming and the 'ordinary hero', well, he despatched the baddies far too easily for me.  Sorry, Mr Koontz, not your best but that's just my opinion.  Now I have a confession... I have read a lot, R built me a library in the attic of our old house to take the books that I had read - some of which didn't look read because I'm so careful with them (the main reason why I won't lend out my books) - and downstairs I had a bookshelf filled with those I had yet to read.  I'm an avid book buyer as well as reader, so there are a lot of things on that shelf but the stack is going down because books are so damned expensive over here that I just don't buy that many anymore and that's another frustration over here!  Things that we like - books, games, films/dvds are really expensive.  Books, well, it works out cheaper to buy from Amazon UK, pay for the shipping and duty into the country than to buy books over here!  There are exceptions as there are some good cut price bookshops but they don't always have what I want or need.  So, the confession is that I have stacks to read and what I read isn't necessarily that new but rather what grabs me at the time I choose my new tome.  So, my current pick is The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.  I bought it ages ago, when it first appeared in paperback, from Amazon actually and it's sat on the shelf waiting to be chosen.  Okay, I admit, one reason I'm reading it now is before the film comes out because sometimes I like to see what they get right, what they get wrong and what they just change (eg Neil Gaiman's Stardust).  I'll leave commenting about it until I'm a bit further in...

Stitching: finishing the RR piece and then moving on to finish the two birth samplers. I'm also sorting out patterns and materials for my really good friend L who visited me recently and who I taught to stitch when she was here.  I actually stitched her a piece as a gift a few years back before we left the UK as a little something to remember me by before we moved.  I can't believe that she's stitching now and actually enjoying it, which is great.  I've actually taught half a dozen people to stitch since I moved here which is nice and eventually I'd like to have a stitching group here as I did back in the UK.  People are always surprised when they find out I stitch.  They tell me that I don't look like 'the type', though when questioned, they can't actually tell me what 'the type' is.

Music:  been sorting out my iTunes categories and looking at putting some of my vinyl onto CD, then onto iTunes and ultimately my iPod - especially for the California road trip... next month, oh my, it will be next month!  Wow!  The only vinyl album I've put onto iTunes at the moment is Colourbox by Colourbox and I transferred this ages ago but I've listened to it a few times over the past few days while I've been working and I still love it, still believe it was ahead of its time - a true classic of the 80s.

Holiday: so far we've booked flights there and back with our stop in London on the way back to catch up with people; booked the flight from San Diego to Las Vegas; the hotel in Vegas; and the Grand Canyon trip.  Now that the internet is back at our fingertips, we can book the rest soon!

Well, time to end another long entry...