June 19 - June 23
Wednesday - Day ThreeAnother fairly low-key morning. We woke up slowly, ate breakfast in, and then washed our clothes in AD's apartment's washers & driers, which are cool, computerized machines that use less soap than normal and don't cost a whole lot. Once or twice people who live in the building looked at me curiously as though wondering whether to report this strange woman who was washing her clothes in their basement but they didn't. At one o'clock we set off for Studio City to go to lunch with Cedric and Yuki. Cedric is an old friend of ours, who has lived in LA for years, and who was close friends with my father when Poppa was doing his MA at UCLA in the 1970s. He works in Hollywood doing movie productions. In 1976, when I was 13, our whole family came to LA to stay with Poppa, who was here doing coursework, and Cedric and Jackie, his wife then, hosted us, taking us to Disneyland and Marine World and Universal Studios and all sorts of other kid-friendly places. Cedric comes back to Nassau every now and then, but as I haven't been back to LA since '76 (and since Philip has only ever passed through this city) it was really nice to hear from him and we looked forward to spending some time with him, and to meeting Yuki. They live in a beautiful home on a hill overlooking the city, up a narrow winding road lined with lovely old houses with bougainvillea spilling over the walls and grand old trees shading it here and there. The road made me think of Sans Souci in Nassau, except for the fact that the hill it climbed was much bigger, and that it was a single twisting road. To enter the house we had to wait for a gate to be opened - an electronic gate a la Philip, only this one slides across and has no need for the big yellow sign 'CAUTION - AUTOMATIC GATE - STAND BACK". However the intercom principle is the same. The gate is kept closed because Cedric and Yuki have two really cool Jack Russell terriers who can open the front door when they want to but aren't that good at closing it! We had a really nice lunch of salads and sandwiches, and stayed and chatted for four hours, talking about new projects, past triumphs and the state of the Bahamas. It was very nice to meet Yuki, who is very down-to-earth, and who is learning about the Bahamas, both first-hand when she visits and through Bahamians passing through, like us. It was also really good to be able to talk with Cedric after such a long while, and to hear his stories about the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, which he attended in the 1960s, and about the Nassau he knew when he was growing up and when he was working with Theatre Workshop. We were really glad that he found us through our web page so that we were able to spend this afternoon with them! Philip and I avoided the freeway on our way home. Because I had taken the Thomas Guide with me we drove back on the edges of Bel Air, and stared at the walls and drives that led up into the kinds of places that one might see in movies or on TV shows like Columbo etc. We got back to the apartment surprisingly sleepy (there is always a period when one has to get used to heat again) and so by the time AD came home we were feeling very lazy. Adrian has gone out drumming. We were supposed to go with him but decided to stay and nap. Philip, after picking up a dinner from a very reasonably-priced Thai place, is lying on our couch-bed (a fold out couch topped with one of AD & Jos's futons) reading the Arts & Leisure section from this Sunday's New York Times. |
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