The Lone Pedestrian

Today I tried to get to know the area a bit, but I guess most people do that by car here. I walked for an hour and a quarter and passed one person on foot, a jogger. I believe I saw a couple I could class as pedestrians, but they were in the distance and turned into a housing estate before I could get a good idea of the walk they had taken. I guess I was in a quiet area and it was a saturday, but the lack of foot traffic seemed sad. It certainly made the walk lonelier. Such nice pavements (probably thanks to the lack of walker), such lovely weather (I guess it gets pretty old after a while in California - at 26°C they say there's a touch of autumn in the air) goes unappreciated by people whizzing past in shiny cars, some disgustingly huge. Ach well, more pavement for me.

On my venture I had a doughnut. I have, in the past, complained about shrinking fudge doughnuts and their growing price which, if challenged, could always be claimed to be part of the bakery's health promoting scheme. I stand by the price complaint, but understand the reasons for it, but retract my complaints about size. A filled doughnut should be small, it's a heavy, rich, sweet, sticky treat. The one I bought today was all those things, at least double the size of any self respecting modern British doughnut, and $1. Plus the lovely lady behind the till threw in a few free sugar and cinnamon coated doughnut holes. A buck. 55 pence. Crazy. After such a steal I felt things needed to even out, so I headed for the nearest Starbucks. Fourbucks, as I have heard it is called by the wit stricken Americans, promptly relieved me of the change of my $5 note I had used in the doughnut shop (open 4am-1pm, clearly doughnuts are a morning thing). The 'tall' size was, thankfully, the same size as I am accustomed to in Britain. It was a Pumpkin Spice Coffee Frappuccino. They really need to get into pumpkin in the UK. Or just Scotland, I don't mind. It was like pumpkin pie, Starbucks style, and a much needed cooler during my walk in the dry heat.

My trip to the nearest supermarket (a short one, just to lessen the shock and depression) saw me buying a handful of necessities which turned out to be exactly the same brand and packaging as my equivalent goods back home. Unusual, but a growing trend, no doubt. Why bother to redesign packaging in every country? I know the consumers change but what people look for in a razor never changes and I'm sure people all round the world can be fooled by the same shiny packaging.

A drive around local industrial parks for job inspiration and a relaxing cruise on the lake behind the house rounded off my afternoon. I'll take some photos soon now that I have batteries - I know you readers don't want text heavy posts like this, just pretty, captioned pictures. As such, I'll just shut up and go sort my camera...