Monalia's World

I spent the month of September in Los Angeles visiting my mother, family and old friends. Mark stayed home to hold down the fort with his dog Haka, and I set out to USA with my dog Quixote as carry-on baggage.

I haven’t blogged in awhile and am way behind. This will be a quick blog with a few photos…

Quixote, the world traveler goes to USA…

Quixote is now officially a world traveler.

I arrived in Santa Monica on a Thursday and that night my brother took me and my nephew Buckley to a free concert on the Pier by Dr. John:

1) Reunion with my brother at Santa Monica Pier 2) Me and my nephew Buckley at his home in Malibu.

Here I insert a couple of photos of my mom, who will be 83 in April:

1) My mom certainly does not look 82 – this photo is of her with her best friend Michela, who is *my* age. 2) Quixote decided my mom was a better bed mate than I, and spent every night while in USA curled up with my mom.

While in L.A. I was able to meet up with old friends as well as family, but my Monalia.com blog is meant to focus on travel and (expat) life in Spain, so I won’t write a lengthy narrative about my trip home.

In fact, let me cut to the chase – a highlight was hiking in Malibu plus visiting old haunts, so I will share a few photos and then on to my next “catch-up” blog, which will be about our recent trip to Morocco.

1) My brother with his new love, Kar Kar. They are expecting a baby boy sometime in April. 2) Quixote made best friends with my brother’s dog, Duke, who has the looks, temperament, hair color and size of Haka.

Mark and I used to live in this cabaña in Paradise Cove, back in the early to mid 90’s. It is now a luxury cabaña, bought by the billionaire who owns the house above, up the canyon.

My girlfriend Michelle still lives in Paradise Cove, in the trailer park. Since the days when I lived in Paradise Cove, a handful of stars have bought trailers there, so celebrity sightings are very common in what was formerly an affordable, working class neighborhood mostly inhabited by surfers, waitresses, UPS employees, etc. Michelle and her husband Dwight are among the handful of my old friends still living there. Although I can´t imagine Michelle living anywhere else, she says if “one of those big stars” makes her and Dwight an offer they can’t refuse, they will inevitably move on, though she doesn’t see that happening anytime soon. There is only one big star living on her little lower gulch strip (Jacob Dylan). She rarely sees him, though she does see lots of hoodlum teenagers hanging out there…

Mark and I lived on the beach in Paradise Cove over 15 years ago, in the days when my former dog Pukka was a puppy. As tempting as it is, I will not digress and tell stories of long ago, nor will I share all the wonderful photos I took on my Malibu hikes on this trip, for I have another blog to do after this one, which should almost catch me up to here and now…

Michelle lives near the gully. This is part 1 of the drive from her trailer to Hutt Beach (below Barbara Streisand’s estate)

The drive to Hutt Beach takes us past the home (trailer) of Pamela Anderson. We pass her home on the right, just after the bend, (at 0:13) undergoing some garden work. Evidently Pam changes her plants, trees and shrubs a lot; it is her hobby. Walter Mathau is often seen hanging out on the porch across the street, with his very young mistress. Another star living nearby is Minnie Driver.

a bumpy but scenic drive to the beach.

We finally arrive at Hutt Beach in Malibu, the designated Trailer Park beach, which is below the homes of many famous stars like Barbara Streisand and Woody Harrelson. There’s actually a golf cart parking bluff for trailer park residents with golf carts. Quixote enjoyed the ride too; we had been hiking the canyone of Malibu all morning, so it was nice to hitch a ride to the beach…

I took so may fantastic photos while in California for the month, but I really just want to move this blog forward. My photo albums are all viewable on facebook… But I leave you with a couple parting photos:

1) These surfing guidelines weren’t here in the 90’s when we lived on this beach. 2) Quixote loves California, especially Malibu.

Quixote poses above Santa Monica Pier. 2) Shot of Santa Monica beach taken from the pier.

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¥¥¥ Right here, right now…
it is now mid January, my life here at the beach in Barcelona has been sunny and event filled. I will eventually blog about my new neighborhood and the characters, sounds, images that people it. Since my last blog I bought my own little music studio which is separate from the big, fancy Partners in Rhyme studio. I am now able to live, create, breathe music without leaving home.
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Here I share a couple “catch up” photos; one of my new studio and one of the tennis trophy I won a few months ago but haven’t had time to blog about:

1) My new music studio 2) my tennis trophy.

At the moment I’m just collecting images and sounds as well as writing music.

I returned to Spain with the lasting impression of my mother, the “82 year old swinger.” It was inspiring to spend time with her and someday I may write a book about it.