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No job for 6 months and then I get offered one within two days of arriving in California. Ok, so being a drug mule for some space cadet I met on a beach near Santa Monica may not be the best career path, but even so, it was nice to be asked. The dude in question seemed genuine enough and didn’t take offense at my declining his kind offer. On the drive along the Pacific Highway I had previosuly successfully managed to avoid trouble and I had only stopped for a quick pit stop, but it seems the usual drugs routes to the UK for his Marijuana were fully filled and he did say he only needed 10 kilos taking.

Later I was thinking what if I had negotiated a price, taken the dope and then fucked off back to San Francisco to sell it? Was he really going to track me down and find me? Silly ideas aside, I have a job for January so won’t be jeopardising that for a few quid that might land me up in jail for a long time. And lets be honest, with a pretty face like mine, I’d not be able to bend over in the showers for a long time.

The scenery along the coast roads is stunning and I am itching whenever I see a bike, though to be honest, the speed limits are so slow, I'd never be able to ride properly whilst staying within the law. I'd happily ride them at twice the speed limit which isn't going to go down well the local plod. I've seen a few bikers including 9 polish bikers all on Goldwings yesterday, but an open top car does have it's advantages, namely the ability to use the boot for whatever takes your fancy.

I broke the journey up today by stopping on the beach in Santa Barbara and joining other Londonbikers in lighting a candle in memory of Martin. Although not at the Blackheath teahut in person, I spoke to a couple of guys on the phone and was told over 80 bikers had gone to the teahut and lit candles before holding a minutes silence. A few days have passed since I heard the news of his death and it still seems like a terrible waste. Still, I won’t go on about it here as I am sure those who want to, know where to read various tributes to a guy who seemed to have made many friends in the biking world.

But I should share an example of my numpty tendancies, starting with my incredible good fortune last night when I had spotted a Candles shop on my home from a bite to eat. So up I get this morning, happy that I'd found such a shop and down I wonder to the shops only to discover it was a Candies store!

Morning yowl...Where’s the Candles?

What Candles?... The ones you sell…being a Candles store and all.

Nah, we sell Candies...What the feck is a Candies when it’s at home? If that is supposed to be the plural of Candy, why would you call it a Candies store and not a Candy store? Like a Drug store or a Liquor store. You don’t see those in the plural do you?

Eh...Besides, your “i” is way too big, looks like a an “l”. Thought you were customer focused in these parts?

You want a Candy or not?...I’m a candle buying customer and no I am not going to buy any sodding Candies. I got a suggestion though, you should rename your shop, the “Candies (not Candles) shop.” That way you would avoid the next candle buying tourist wasting his morning waiting for you to open up only to find you are not as advertised on the sign.

None of the above actually happened of course, but it would have been good to enjoy some American baiting. Instead, having spotted the Candies shop wasn’t as I’d hoped, I rather meakly popped in to some hippy shop down the road that amongst all sorts of trendy stuff, did indeed sell candles – the smelly posh sort that people use to improve the ambiance of their living rooms.

Anyhow, enough of the Candies/Candles mishap, I finally made it as far as Los Angeles today which is as expected, a bit crap to be honest. I have never yet met anyone with a good word to say about the place, but hey ho, it is near lots of other nice places so can’t really be avoided. Just booked 3 nights in San Diego so will be sampling the nightlife down there for the weekend. San Diego does come recommended so am looking forward to it and to a couple of lazy days.

San Diego has some seaworld thing to take in which I am going to try, having avoided Disneyworld and the Universal Studios as they are not really my thing. If they do any Whale watching I will do doubt ask if the trips come with fully loaded harpoons and then feign disgust at the lack of Whale hunting opportunities these days. Winding up Americans is a bit cruel, but then they bombed the feck out of Iraq for 5 years, so I see it is as a small payback, though clearly not nearly enough for all their misdemeanors of the Bush years!