Hitting the road
Travel certainly rates as one of the most pleasant surprises of my job: before joining Dennis as a Staff Writer I had no idea that magazine work would ever require a passport. As it is, I've done plenty of mundane travel around the UK – exploring the glamour of Sutton Coldfield, for example – but I've also been lucky enough to visit China, Korea, Singapore, the US and most of Western Europe over the past six or so years.
The downside of travelling for work is that, no matter how wonderful it is to get to places that I could never otherwise afford to visit, these trips are never holidays. For one thing, Helen's not there. And of course there's work to be done – never fun when jet lag is scrambling your brain backwards, for example, and you're trying desperately to plug credit card details into a completely incomprehensible foreign website to buy wireless internet access to send your emails.
And of course there's seldom any free time. Sometimes we get half a day or so off if the job runs for several days, and in Singapore our six-day schedule allowed a whole day to roam the city, but I flew in and out of China in 24 hours – there wasn't a free minute to look beyond the hotel, let alone explore the town. I'm still glad of the opportunity to see new places, but I can see why someone might want to pack it in for a year and travel the world properly.
And so tomorrow, if all goes to plan, I'm off to California. The first three days should be as usual: about 16 hours of travel to get there then two days of press conferences, interviews and, hopefully, some interesting news to write up. Rather than starting my fourth day in a mad dash to the airport, though, I'm picking up a hire car – I've delayed my return for a few days in the hope of actually seeing the America that lurks beyond the city limits, and which to date I've entirely missed out on (although having just read this I'll be sticking religiously to the speed limit, so who knows how far I'll get). Past performance is no guarantee of future results, but I'd expect a deluge of shoddily taken Flickr photos in a week or so.
Tags: California, San Diego, SoCal, travel, USA
September 16th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
TRAVEL COMMENT – SOCAL, SAN DIEGO: Dual citizen, retired and living in Lincs now. Grew up in OC and San Diego. Next time in OC, if you want a trip back to the 1960s (genuine, not a tourist restoration) go to the City of Orange and stay in the "Sky Palm International Motel" on Tustin Avenue. You may not like the ambiance, but their rooms are really the way it was back in the sixties. On a brighter note, same city, north on Tustin to Orange-Olive (Lincoln) Avenue, take a left and look out (on your left) for Troy's. It's a relic that survives from the late 1960s, owned by the same people. Fantastic menu, not much room to sit…inside or out, but if you want to taste what a real 'drive-in' was like, you still can. Finally, if sit down is your style, try Conca d'Oro, Yen Ching, or El Conejo…family run joints…holdover from the 1960s. On to San Diego…not much left that was around 40-50 years ago. Point Loma is your best bet…try Casa de Loma or Boll Weevil or South China (across from the Post Office). I used to live in Ocean Beach and agree with all your comments, but there's a small diner there on Cape May Street that serves great breakfasts…I'm still homesick for them…just can't remember its name…the fishermen all hung out there so it was too tough for the druggies! Another nice place to hang out near SD is Torrey Pines State Park/Beach. Not many tourists (they can't find it) and beautiful uncrowded quiet scenery. Have courage! The REAL socal is out there, but you need natives, or former natives like me to point it out . . . 'cause the tourist traps will never let you see the genuine article!