Welcome to my Blog!

Hello and thank you for stopping by! I probably should have started one of these new-fangled blog things several years ago, but I am extremely lazy and terrified of new technology. For those of you who don't know me, here are the past 32 years in a nutshell: I grew up, married a guy from Philly, moved to a little redneck town on the east coast of the US (name omitted to protect the unfortunate people who still have to live there), adopted a dog, and was coasting along in life, neither particularly happy nor completely miserable. Except in winter, when I was completely miserable. To give you an idea of what the weather was like, here is the view from our front door on a typical day in February:

Then, in 2010, I received a life-changing phone call from my school friend in the UK. Her brother and his wife were looking for a writer at their company in California. Would I be interested in relocating? Well, let's just say they didn't have to ask me twice. Having established that they would also be able to find my husband a position at the company, we put the house on the rental market, packed our bags, and drove across the country in search of year-round sunshine. Here is a typical view in California in February:

We have now been here for 18 months, and couldn't be happier. Even though the company we moved out here for closed down over Christmas (that's the risk you take with an Internet start-up), we wouldn't change a thing. Before this starts to sound like an unpaid advertisement for the California Tourist Board, let me assure you that life here is not all sunsets and palm trees. The traffic is horrendous, the taxes are crippling, and the cost of living beggars belief. All of which I will discuss at length in later posts; for now I just want to welcome you all to my blog. Thanks for reading and feel free to ask me any questions about life as a Brit in LA!