A Simple Travelogue (For Those Without a Dictionary)

The body, my body at least, adjusts quite quickly to the time change but less quickly to different climate. My enthusiasm for activity was muted by the rising heat, partly because it is unfamiliar and partly because it was exceptionally hot. On Wednesday the temperature rose into the 90s after being forecast for the 80s. In the morning it was pleasant although the brightness of the sun means sunglasses for blue eyes. I had some banking to do and a mercifully straightforward visit to Desert Regional Medical Center to square things away with Billing. I still was not pleased with the charges but I have the paperwork to prove I have paid. It had been wonderful as usual to have breakfast in the garden and was wonderful much later to sit under the stars in my pyjamas, without so much as a shiver, while Greg finished his jacuzzi. In Palm Springs there is still light pollution but much less so that unaccustomed stars fill the night sky.

My main activity for the day had been to photograph sculpture in El Paseo, Palm Desert. There is so much on public display and outside galleries that it is hard to know where to begin or, indeed, end. The end for today was brought about by near heat exhaustion and an urgent need to rehydrate which we did at Il Sogno. A little part of me was feeling mild desperation that I would never have time to process all the photographs and another part of me wanted not to be stuck on the sculptures. I was pleased when I came across an amazing fire truck and a few Chinese restaurants. In the desert (cities) you tend not to see modest shopfront takeaways as are prolific in England but large restaurants on large plots.

In the Valley, Borders has survived the book trade cull which claimed 200 of its branches and had magazines Barnes & Noble did not. In the latter (visited first), my frustration rose again with the style of stocking common in the US. The trade makes extensive use of new covers and misleading advertising to publish a given book over and over. I am certain that a significant number of people are bamboozled into buying something they have already read especially when a new cover is often placed under 'New in Fiction'. In the UK, I would take this to Trading Standards.

Today (Thursday) we plan to return to Borrego Springs. This may prove unwise not because I expect another one-sided cactus encounter but because the temperatures are again due in the high 90s. In the event that my bones are being bleached this time tomorrow, I leave Stephanie my dictionary and Simon my sense of humour.