Santa Barbara, chill out capital of the world

I've finally got off my lazy backside and have been to the mac shop to get my mac fixed and so i have now added some pictures on to the blog......you may need to scroll onto the next page to see all of them as i have added quite a few.....i will add more when i get a minute.

Santa barbara is the most chilled out relaxing place on the face of the planet! it's brilliant here and it's just as you'd expect.....two lane pavements for pedestrians and cycles which go along the road side of the beach and Californian women on roller skates (seriously they all own a pair from what i've seen!).... also, everyone in here is a fitness fanatic....even the fat people are out jogging down the beach! talking about the beach, there have been people playing volleyball all day and have only just stopped..... even the new mothers (and there seem to be a lot of young mums here) are out running with their pushchairs/buggies.....3 wheel buggies and they are all (without exception) running along the beach pavement with them! If there's anywhere I've ever been to that has guilted (is that even a word?) me into doing excercise it is this place! I even ate cereal for breakfast today!.... i promptly borrowed one of the hotel bikes and have been cycling around the town all day and must have cycled about 6 miles in total....it's a proper old fashioned push bike with big handles...i look like an old woman on it but when have i ever cared how i look (see the picture of my yellow GoCar!). But NoCal and SoCal (Californian slang for northern california and southern california) are very different from each other in that down the south coast everything seems more laid back but maybe that's just here.....

I met a new barman friend last night when i popped out to watch the football (Steelers vs Bengals.... the Steelers just nicked it and were lucky in the end!)......my man behind the ramp informed me that i was in luck as it was 'happy hour' (happy two hours actually) and suggested I try the 'house beer'..... 6 or 7 pints later we were in a deep conversation about life and music (and turns out we both like similar music)...as you can tell this was a sports bar and not many women about although the barman's mrs turned up later.

He wanted to know what i was doing travelling alone and he so desperately wanted to be the bartender that you 'can tell your troubles to' that i almost ordered a 'scotch on the rocks' and told the piano player to "play it again sam".....although there was no piano player....or piano! and before anyone comments that he never actually said "play it again sam" in casablanca....I know, but it worked for this sentence ok! The barman did actually say "I'm a bartender, it's my job to listen".....which i thought was pretty cool!!

So I'm excited that i now have my mac back working and i can add on random pictures. I'ts my second and final night in santa barbara tonight and i will be sorry to leave here so soon as i could easily spend a week here chilling out but i'm off to Beverly Hills tomorrow and will be leaving around 10am Cal time

I was going to rent out a jet ski today but they wanted $250 for an hour and i thought that was a bit much be fair....got better things to spend $250 0n than chancing my arm (and legs) in the shark infested pacific!

Oh yeah, i forgot to say, i seem to be everybody's 'Buddy' here in Santa Barbara..... "hey buddy" and " how ya doing buddy" seem to be the norm here....I even witnessed a car get a bit too close to a cyclist earlier and the cyclist (in the angriest tone he could muster) said to the bloke driving the car "hey watch out buddy!" In england that may have ended in a stabbing but this is Santa Barbara and everyone is happy or so it seems so far....