Louise Gardiner

I sitting in a reasonably comfy guest lodge with large rectangular modern windows and a neatly placed but colourful cushions, a piano, various paraphernalia around, about lighthouses mainly and pictures of dolphins on the warm yellow walls. I can smell fried chicken from the kitchen behind me and through the window I can see a lone bench surrounded with fog.

There is an intensely irritating teenage couple on the sofa opposite. He, with his goofy teeth and overgrown frizzy fringe, did not want to give me the time of day when I asked him some questions about the internet , I thought he was about 15, but now that his very sweet girlfriend, who I thought was about 21, has entered the equation, he keeps pinching and poking her whilst she tries to check her email, not giving her a moments peace and moaning at her all the time. He has this awful, grating winey voice that a lot of Americans put on when being 'CUTE', Ii drives me insane. It is high pitched and has scratching blackboard appeal. How on earth she could fratanize with him, I have no idea.

For the first time this trip I feel a bit lonely and I have just drunk two plastic cups of red wine. NOBODY BLOODY PANIC!

I am fine and writing makes me feel a whole lot better.

I hired my cat today which is a 'fabulous' white Toyota Corolla with a CD payer which I can play the wonderful and lovely compilations a few very dear friends made for me for my big trip. I just noticed I wrote CAT. Obviously it is not a large Japanese white cat with a CD player but a car. Shame.

'Ashton' the man I loved, from 'superdooper cheeper car' turned out to be a wet weekend and when I called 'SUPERCHEAPCAR DEAL THING BLA…..' they had no record of me arriving today to collect. I had emailed to confirm and I had rung this morning to double check but until I got to the airport to collect and met the lovely Steve who told me I WAS VERY VERY LUCKY as Ashton wins vagueness of the year contest and luckily a spare car had arrived from LA this morning otherwise I would have ben SUPERCHEAPCARLESS! Anyway, after alot of titting around despite confirmation emails and phonecalls, a long wait and a near miss, its all good and has cost me an arm and a leg but an arm and a leg less than it would have done with anyone else.

Having driven about 30 miles south of San Francisco and sussed out the weird American signage, left hand drive on the right side of the road etc etc I am now at Pigeon Point which is a redundant light house on the edge of a cliff outlooking the massive and powerful Pacific. So you might not be surprised that what with the ceaseless fog thing, the redundancy of the lighthouse, the lack of communication with my family and close friends and the fact that I have to eat sodding tinned sardines and salad for tea when what I really want is fried chicken and mashed potato makes me feel a bit fucking fed up of being on my own.

:(

Poor Lou.

Boo hoo.