After a two week spell as lifestyle and documentary photographer for Aston Martin, I was joined by David for a week long holiday in the region of Catalonia where we based ourselves in the beautiful medieval village of Begur.

Begur is a stunning hilside village, it’s steep on the way in and steep on the way out and is surrounded by luscious landscape, mountains and the sea. Long gone were the Aston Martin Rapide’s and soon we were settled into the lazy days of the Catalonian way of life! Although this wouldn’t be a Notworkrealted post without some kind of activities going on.

Based on the wonderful world of Trip Advisor we found our lovely guesthouse; The Aiguaclara, which is located in the heart of Begur. Thanks to all the raving reviews we had no question as to whether this would be the right place for us to base ourselves during our stay. Straight away there was a warm welcome by the hosts Clara and Joan who rennovated this colonial-style built in 1866, and they’re personality is all over the place with vintage decor, quirky objects and antiques scattered throughout. It’s a considered design across 4 stories, with each room unique from the other.

Happy with our choice of accommodation we then went on to explore the village, which in 1 evening is easy enough to do. We ate in the restaurant at the hotel “Fet Amb Love” which basically sums this place up and then walked up to the Castle. Which at night with a full moon is very rewarding.

On our first day as tourists we ventured out on a coastal walk thanks to a walking trails map provided by the hotel. From Begur we took the downhill route to Sa Tuna, greeted by many locals enjoying the escape of the city, we explored a path off to the right and up to a viewing point at Mirador de St Josep, before turning back down to the bay and taking the coastal path along to Sas Vaques and before long Aguafreda. At this point it was a little unlcear as to where the path was leading us but we cut inland on the road and then found the path again a little higher up en-route to Sa Reira. Eventually the signs re-appeared and so it wasn’t difficult to navigate. We continued the walk to Sa Riera, at which point we stopped for lunch in a local Tavern before enjoying a quiet moment on the beach. From Sa Riera we took a pleasant forest trial leading back up to Begur by which point it was 4pm and we’d hiked about 11km. It was a lovely walk lots of steep ups and downs but on a clear day some beautiful bays to take in.

For days 2 and 3 of our time in the area we hired a car through the hotel from a local car-hire company based in Palafrugell. It cost us 101 Euros for 2 days including insurance and 2 drivers. Fuel is pretty cheap in Spain so we only spent 40 Euros in 2 days.

We drove up to Figueres once we had received our little Chevrolet Matiz which from Begur took about an hour. Once in Figueres we managed to find free parking a little away from the Dali museum and we joined the ever-growing queue to get into the museum, it took a further hour before we were paid the 12 Euro entrance fee and were inside!

We hadn’t really anticipated the Easter vacationers coming into the area from Barcelona. The Dali Theatre Museum cost 12 Euros each to get in but this is like no other museum either of us have visited before! Described as being the largest surrealist object in the world, the theatre is home to ideas, dreams, sketches, objects and just about everything Dali ever imagined brought into real life. It’s really interesting, fun and engaging. A little bit like stepping into a circus allowing for the imagination to gather and grow. The only problem for us were the hundreds of other visitors muscling their way in and out of each space, oh and not to mention those using flash on their cameras to document it all! Why?!
We were on a Dali-fueled mission and drove out to Cadaques and Portlligat, which is a lovely drive over the hills and down to the coast. Portlligat is where Dali lived and his home is now a museum, the only problem being that we didn’t have tickets to get in and it was fully booked until Easter Monday. So we wandered around the quiet bay, enjoyed some patatas bravas and then drove to Cadaques. This place is definitely worth a visit on a sunny day. Again it was packed full or visitors but it really is a stunning coastal town. Much bigger than Begur, oozing character and every corner holding a link to Dali.

We found a small gallery ran by local legend and photographer Joan Vehi who houses hundreds of photographs taken during his lifetime. Draws listing from the 1960′s through to modern day and famous reportage shots of Dali in the area. Really worth a peek if you are ever there. We finished our evening with a walk up to the castle and Paella at one of the local restaurants in the village.

On our second day with the Matiz we ventured further afield, I wanted to share a few places with Dave that I had taken in on launch with the Rapides. Although the Matiz isn’t quite up to scratch with an Aston Martin we managed to get to Besalu where lots of Easter celebrations were taking place. This is a really stunning medieval village again built up around churches and with a large characterful square in the centre. It’s a great place to explore, lots of cobbled walk-ways, cafe’s and bars as well as views across the river towards the bridge built in 1066 or there about.

We followed our sightseeing tour out towards Ripoll and after another hour of driving we landed in Fibes De Freser where lunch was booked up in Ventola at Anna’s mountain restaurant. You can’t get a better authentic Catalonian mountain hut than this for food and service. They took Dave and I under their wing and were fantastic hosts for the afternoon, only reassuring further their gratitude at being the Aston Martin lunch stop of choice for the Rapide launch. This time with no Aston’s in sight the restaurant was packed to the rim of tourists, locals, hikers and skiers all following their noses to this legendary restaurant. Owned by Anna, a former Olympic skier, and ran by her loyal staff they run up and down the stairs with hot plates of food, sweat on their brow there is never a rest at this place! We enjoyed a great lunch and vow to go back their one day. With 3 meals in one we didn’t need to eat out that night! So it was a DVD back in our Aigua Clara home and a glass of Esmeralda white wine.

On our final day in Begur it rained! It was very misty and we didn’t have a car, so we simply spent our day in and around the hotel, walked a little, read, edited some photographs and enjoyed food with friends later on. We really loved Begur as a place to base ourselves whilst exploring the depths of the Catalonian region and the comforts of the Aigua Clara Hotel meant we had a home from home to relax at in between the sight seeing.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0, Nikon D600, Nikon 50mm f1.4, processed in Lightroom 3)

First of all was a lovely sunny walk around the block with Sarah’s best friend Madison her beautiful golden retriever. This was followed by an hour and a half class with Erich Schiffmann whom Helen and Sarah had both trained with in August. It was good for Helen to be back at Exhale, although the $22 class fees are pretty high, luckily we had a free pass between us too. The class was full, although it wasn’t to Dave’s tastes, Helen was definitely in her comfort zone and enjoyed some un-interrupted yogi time, feeling much more confident with Erich’s free-form approach.

Yoga was followed with an appointed with a chiropractor to help sort out Helen’s neck problems and then lunch at Wholefoods on the edge of Venice. The healing part of the day was over, next we were ready for some less-charming enthused Hollywood action. Sarah very kindly played host and drove us around some of the famous landmarks and areas we have so far purposely missed off our list! We drove around Rodeo Drive, Sunset Boulevard and Moholland Avenue taking in some of the mansions and the Hollywood sign.

Moving onto Hollywood itself where a film premier was taking place for Leonardo DiCaprio’s new “J Edgar” film, although we were around 2 hours early for this so could only take in the hype and crowds of fans starting to form. So it’s nothing really to shout about but now we can say we went to Hollywood. We would have liked to enjoy a drink at the roof bar on top of the W Hotel, but it was closed so we had a sneak peak and then enjoyed a beer in the lobby bar.

We ate at a really good Thai restaurant down on Hollywood Boulevard called Jitlada Thai, recommended as THE best Thai in LA!! What a statement! We love our Thai food, and yes it was pretty good especially the green curry and a fish dish. But THE best?? Hmm! It has a good authenticity about the place, family run, not too fancy but the service was slow at the end.

The next day we didn’t really do much but we did get to spend a few hours working with Sarah for her yoga portfolio. Helen shot some images for Sarah’s profile on the Santa Monica beach and grassy sidewalk, involving a mixture of portrait and sequence poses with some lovely natural one’s thrown in too. Dave had already snapped Madison the day before and so we could leave Sarah with a nice series for images for her to treasure (we hope!).

It was a rainy day after a hint of sunshine and later on it cleared up. The perfect day for a film so we watched Martha Marcy May Marlene. A little of a suspense thriller, something we think takes on a Charles Manson inspired story. Then we ate at Fresh ‘n’ Easy over the road from the cinema which has recently opened and offers good salads, sandwiches, soups and so on.

On our last day in LA and after a quick Skype call home to the Roscoe’s we went to another yoga class. This time we were back at Yoga Glo, a studio that offers free yoga to people with an array of top class teachers in LA. It makes its money from the subscribers who follow the yoga classes online, so each class is filmed. We were back with Jo Tastula and she co-taught with meditation teacher Harshada Wagner. Another lovely class which was perhaps more up Dave’s path; more physical basically with guided meditation.

We then made our way to the Getty Centre, which Helen has visited before and remembers the photos she took there. It was a saturday so it was busy, the bonus is free entry but you have a $15 parking fee. It really is a must-see for visitors going to LA. The building sits on a hill overlooking downtown LA and the coast-line. It was a really clear day too so we had great views. The exhibitions were pretty good, the Bauhaus photography exhibit was not really all that good but the one exhibit that stood out for us was Crosscurrents in LA Painting and Sculpture featuring LA artists from the 50′s, 60′s and 70′s including David Hockney’s Splash. This exhibition is part of Pacific Standard Time, art taking place around central LA.

The buildings, architecture and the gardens are perhaps the best thing about the Getty, plus the views. It’s modern, tasteful and very white. Perfect against a blue sky. Lunch there is over-rated and over-priced, we saw a few people taking in a picnic and this seemed the more enjoyable option.

We didn’t have long left so we packed our bags, and after saying goodbye to Madison we went to the Bergamot Station Arts Centre to stop at an exhibition opening. One of Sarah’s colleagues was involved in the opening fettering layered photo montages and photography, this was at the Tag gallery. There is a great hub of art galleries at this location. We then enjoyed perhaps our best sushi yet, one of Sarah’s all time favourites in La. It was excellent and a steal at only $20 each! Again authentic to Japanese culture and their sashimi was fantastic we could have easily been back in Japan! After a filling of sushi Sarah dropped us off at LAX, this was our final goodbye and a little tearful. 3 months in North America, it was strange to be moving on but it also felt good. Thanks to Sarah for being the perfect host and making fantastic home-made granola! Go into business with that Sarah! ha! Oh and her aunty’s pumpkin loaf was amazing, another best seller surely!

So farewell America, for the time being. We’ll do a highlights feature soon and we already have plans of what and where we’d like to visit when we return. New Zealand awaits and we are excited about more new beginnings. We just need to embrace the 13.5 hour flight first.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

Vegas Vegas Vegas! Where to start? Well firstly if you’re on a budget, which we so definitely are this was a pretty difficult place for us to be! We’re no gamblers, smokers or heavy drinkers! We did though find much to explore and enjoy! We stayed at Circus Circus, mainly because the boys had booked to stay there and they do pretty good rooms at very low prices! For 3 nights our total was just over $100 and we didn’t spend anything other than $2 in their slot machines!

To sum up our time in Vegas we didn’t spend too much time at Circus Circus other than to sleep and we did make use of the gym one morning. We ate pizza there on the first night, but it wasn’t very good! On day two Helen made it to a yoga class taken by Cheryl Slader who was on the same Erich Schiffmann course back in August. She has a donation only yoga studio called Blue Sky Yoga at the Arts Factory closer to down town. The class was a lunchtime one and lasted 45 minutes, so Dave explored the area and got some great shots of interesting buildings and spaces. We then walked to Fremont and got some lunch there whilst taking in some of the lesser known sights of Las Vegas. Fremont is old Vegas and the main street is now under a permanent canopy. We’ve heard this place is better to explore by night. That night we explored the bigger casinos using a 24 hour bus pass that cost $7 each, it goes all the way down the strip and back and covers more routes throughout Vegas. We delved into The Venetian, The Bellagio, MGM Grand and Planet Hollywood.

On day 3 we used the gym, frequented Cheryl’s yoga class again and went to the airport via the bus to pick up our car. We had one booked for a week to take us away from Vegas and eventually land in Phoenix. We had book marked The Bellagio lunch time buffet which had been recommended as the best buffet on the strip. Parking at most casinos is free in the self park, so we parked up and got our $19.99 lunch buffet. The thing is we got in at 3.30pm and at 4pm there is a change to the evening buffet menu, so we started with the lunch time one and ended up on the dinner one! This is a good tip! They do bring out more specialist food and the puddings are fantastic! So here’s what we had – this was between the two of us!

Part 1:
Sushi, potatoe salad, salad Leaves, cous-cous and rice noodles.

Part 2:
Bok-Choi, Shrimp Pizza, fresh shrimp, mini hamburger.

Mains:
Mussels in tomato and basil sauce, potatoes, wild rice, sweet potatoe puree.
Medium rare rump steak, horseradish puree, polenta and herb mash, wild rice, asparagus.

Extras cos they looked fancy:
Crabs legs.

Desserts:
2x panacotta and strawberry top (excellent).
3x creme brûlée (excellent).
1x rocky road (not so good).
1x white chocolate parfait.
1x strawberry tart.
1x custard tart.

So the puddings were all pretty small, like shot-glass size portions! Where we managed to pack it all into we don’t know but it was very good value for money, and with soft drinks included!

After we had a rest from the food we later on met up with the boys at The Saxe Theater located at the back of Planet Hollywood where we had obtained tickets for Vegas, The Show. A friend of Cheryl’s very kindly helped us out with some very low cost tickets to the show courtesy of one of the main performers Joelle Righetti-Jenson. The show was really good fun, quite a tongue and cheek approach to Las Vegas from when it all began. This was the first musical any of the lads had been too!!

Our last night in Vegas so we ventured through a few more of the casinos, enjoyed The Bellagio water fountain show, had a couple of drinks and eventually said our goodbyes to the lads. They were leaving for LA the next day, whilst we were venturing further into National Park territory.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

We started the day with a visit to some very inspiring inspiring exhibitions housed at the SFMOMA and the Contemporary Jewish Museum. Galleries don’t open until 11am-midday in the city so we edited and wrote in a local cafe before getting the bus to the SOMA district where most of the galleries are based. SFMOMA played host to a fantastic photography exhibition called Face Of Our Time featuring 5 photographers’ work surrounding their interest in making pictures about the current condition of our world. One series that stood out for us was And Misrach’s depiction of the graffiti left behind in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

They were also hosting a private viewing of Richard Serra retrospective, closed doors for that one. But another project that definitely drew us in was The Lunch Break Times by Sharon Lockhart, it gave us quite a few ideas for our hopeful exhibition when we return to the UK. We moved on from the SFMOMA and crossed the street to the Contemporary Jewish Museum where an exhibition about the life of Houdini was taking place. This was a really cool exhibition offering us both an insight into a person we knew very little about other than the magic!

So we’d had our morning of art and then it was time to meet the boys and get ready for our Alcatraz tour. We’d booked onto an evening, sunset tour so as the boat set off and we listened to the tour guide describing the evening’s events we also got to enjoy the sun setting over Golden Gate and the Bay area. The tour was presented as an audio tour with a few rangers and guides around to help and answer any questions. There were extra activities and talks taking place throughout the evening making it different from the day tours and the hospital was open too. We learned about the prisoners, those that were famous, those that were deadly dangerous – Robert Birdman being one! And we had a really good experience of the prison as it was. By night everything seemed a little eerie and the evening ended with a description and presentation of the cell doors being slammed. The evening ended back in North Beach at an old favourite Italian bar.

The next day we had quite an easy one starting at our friend the laundrette before heading into Mission and Castro to explore the streets some more. We found a few vintage shops and independent clothing stores and waited for the boys to make an appearance (Dave’s friends that is!) and not the naked men on the streets we bumped into later on! Yes in Castro it’s legal to walk around naked in public as long as they have a flannel to sit on the bus with! So when we strolled around Castro Helen felt like she was out with her gay friends – only girl…4 men! ha ha! We had a few drinks and later on enjoyed a really good Thai meal back on Mission street.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

This was our last morning in the Olympic National Park, we really enjoyed our travels through the peninsula and drove onwards towards Astoria. En-route we stopped off at Long Beach for some more foggy beach views. We had been given an Oregon coast guide by a friendly camper and through this found the Astoria Coffee House, we drank chai and wrote blog posts swell as editing the images from Canada. This place is very cool indeed, we felt like we’d stepped into a bit of a retirement spot and yet the coffee house was really funky and quirky. We also enjoyed a good lunch here, if you’re passing through it’s worth a stop.

We decided to head straight to Portland at this point, the weather wasn’t really up to much on the coast and we felt Portland would offer a nice contrast to the coastline we’d been travelling along. In total we were driving for around 6 hours but we weren’t speeding and had a few stops as well as encountered the Portland rush hour traffic. It was tricky to find a camping spot for Portland but managed to locate one around an hours drive heading east from Portland at Oxbow State Park. We arrived pretty late and were confused as to the location of the campground but after reassurance from the park ranger we drove down into the park and set up camp in the dark, ate and got an early night. We did enjoy the showers though – the best yet!

The following morning we were up early and after another shower we set off into Portland deciding to park at the Convention centre as it was considerably cheaper than parking centrally and we were on the right side of town for getting back to Oxbow. We paid $6 for a full day of parking and walked across the Steel Bridge making our way to downtown. The light was pretty dull to start with so we were holding out for better weather later on. We  had a few things on our list of Portland sights and the first was to find a Scrumptown Coffee House, thanks to the Lonely Planet for the insight. This place is very cool indeed, it has a great atmosphere and space, and some good photography on the walls. It’s labelled the best coffee in town and Helen seemed to agree or rather it was the best coffee she’d had for some time! Helen also thought she’d spotted Alan Rickman, she was determined that it was him (we later googled and realised it so wasn’t!).

After coffee we ventured out towards the Pearl Disctrict via downtown and picked up a Portland Art Map from the Art Museum which detailed all of the smaller art galleries in town, of which there are lots! On our way we found Powells Bookstore, which is famous for being the largest independent bookshop in the world, it is huge! After some excellent street cart food costing $5 each, we started our art explorations. The gallery that stood out for us the most was the Blue Sky Gallery host to exhibits by Dana Popa, Laura Poitros and local gary Grenall. All of which were really captivating in the form of photography and video installation. A few other galleries worth mentioning are Blackfish and Laura Russo, the latter gallery had a very helpful lady front of house who wrote down hikes in the Columbia River Gorge area.

On our way back to the car we crossed over the Steel Bridge, this time the light was great and so we snapped away. It took us about 45 minutes to walk back to the car and then it was a further 45 minutes to get back to the campsite. When we did we went for a run, cooked our dinner and settled into out little tent once again.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

If you were to read ‘things to do in Seattle in one day’ we would probably have ticked nearly all of the boxes! Today was our first day of proper sightseeing fitting in with the tourists so to speak. After spending some time photographing our quirky and retro-stylish new home for the next few days with Kirsten and Danny we set off by foot, saving a few pennies and keeping us fit up and down all those hills. So with trainers on and a backpack (we really did fit in with the sightseers!) we set off toward the International District. It’s not too far from our neighborhood and before long we reached Pioneer Square via the train station. It’s a lovely square with coffee shops, bars and small galleries, naming Davidson Galleries as a nice little space to start.

As it was still fairly early we thought we’d try to Seattle Underground Tour. They are located on 608 First Avenue and will more than likely have a large queue of people making their way inside. The tour starts with an introduction with a fairly humorous guide (called Dave) who gave us some history into how Seattle became as it is. When the tour started the big group was broken down into 3 and we went off with comic Dave for ours. We were guided through the basements of Seattle’s underground, which were once the pavements of New York one story down from street level. This was made possible after a large fire in the early 20th Century, which was a blessing in disguise as the city had originally been built at sea level and wasn’t very favourable for sewage disposal. The tour was made to be fairly amusing and allowed for a story-telling method, the underground itself kind of looks like the basement of buildings though. It was pretty good in all honesty and our wrist band meant we would be able to get a few discounts after wards for food and a trip up the Smith Tower.

Following on from touristy thing number 1 we went to The Seattle Art Museum, this we would recommend. It’s a good space with lots of contemporary and classical art, enough to occupy a whole day if you had the time. It was good to see some of the American contemporary painters such as David Salle and Jasper Johns on display. Along with some interesting installations. So from the art museum to the Pike Place Market, via the sea front. This market is worth seeing, yes it’s touristy but it has a good vibe and atmosphere to the area along with Starbuck’s first coffee shop, street performers, fresh flowers and produce. It is a little like stepping back in time with original signage, cobbled streets and various restaurants and ice-cream parlors.

From Pike Market we walked back along the streets to the Smith Tower, it was now nearly 4pm. Completed in 1914 it was at the time the 4th tallest building in the world and houses an observation deck at the top. We spent around half an hour at the top and the views out to sea, to the Olympic Peninsula and over to Mount Rainer were pretty impressive. We do like a good observational tower!

After perhaps our 7th mile of waking back to our abode we decided to chill out, ate leftovers from the previous night’s Vietnamese food and caught up on the blog.

Seattle Art Museum – Suggested entry fee $15 ($2 off each with a voucher)
Underground Tour – $16 each
Smith Tower – $6.50 (with a dollar off)

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

It was a pretty quiet day for the Leica, Helen decided to take a few shots in her yoga class (blog post to come!) and Dave was getting us ready for our move to the new pad on the beach front! With a spot of Wholefoods shopping and a bit of sorting out we eventually moved out of our wonderful home that has been at Matt’s Feel Good Lounge and he ever so kindly offered to give us a lift over to the new place! So we have now moved and are in a little studio space above a garage on the row just back from the Venice boardwalk. We expect noise, skateboarders passing by and bin dumpsters keeping us awake at night. The studio itself though is very nice! Although we will miss the abyss that we had only a mile away.

Dave had found out about the Venice Art Crawl a few days earlier and so it was on our list of things to do for the evening and along with Sarah (from Helen’s class) we started off at Lilly’s on Abbot Kinney for an exhibition opening. This was one of the many venues featured in the art crawl which happens in Venice on the 3rd Thursday of each month. At Lilly’s we received some free wine and nibbles and enjoyed the atmosphere. After a brief chat with the artist Olivier Pojzman we made our way closer to the beach front to seek out some more venues in the crawl. Pretty much most bars on the front were involved, even the apartments were having little events on their rooftops. Eventually though we made our way to the Erwin Hotel where a good few hundred people were dancing, being photographed, interviewed, drinking and so on, and over the road at the no longer in use Gas Station Courtyard were even more people gathering around live performance art, people painting, selling their work, their vintage clothes, dancing to funky house and enjoying the overall vibe. This whole event was the 1st year anniversary of the art crawl and loads of people were there to enjoy it. We were impressed!!

We ended the night in the Canal club, enjoying a few more drinks and listening to a band play motown classics. We need more of this in the UK, an appreciation of local art and music and more live opportunities for people to showcase their talents.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM & Olympus PEN EP-1, 17mm f/2.8 & 100mm f/2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

We got up early and had the usual breakfast. Every Wednesday in Santa Monica they close off a small section of streets and have a Farmers Market take place. On our way along the beach walk Helen “Hung Tough” and easily beat Dave by going the distance! “Contender READY!” The Farmers Market is great for getting a variety of fresh foods from fish, vegetables, fruits, flowers and breads. It can be a little pricey for the budget traveller but even if you don’t buy anything is a nice little morning stroll. Here is a list for the events…

• Wednesday Downtown. Arizona Avenue (between 4th & Ocean). 8:30am – 1:30pm

• Saturday Downtown. Arizona Avenue (between 4th and 2nd Streets). 8:30am – 1:00pm

• Saturday Pico. 2200 Virginia Avenue (Pico Blvd. @ Cloverfield Blvd). 8:00am – 1:00pm

• Sunday Main St. 2640 Main Street (in Heritage Square). 9:30am-1:00pm.

Helen headed off with Sarah for another dose of yoga teacher training and Dave got on his bike and headed south along the beach. The path does run out shortly after Muscle Beach, but you can head east along the main road for about 0.8 miles and follow the bike path signs (Google map route). These will take you past the Marina and eventually back onto the beach path.

It’s a lovely ride on a concrete path through the sand and along the sea front. Manhattan Beach (10 miles away) has a nice pier with a mini aquarium at the bottom as well as quieter beaches than Venice and Santa Monica. Watch out for the hang gliding crossing and beginner lessons a few miles north from the pier. This looks like a great spot for learning the art of hang gliding, if only we had the time here and the additional funds!

Tonight is our last night with Matt so we took a few photos of our home for the last week and cooked ourselves a great dinner. Packing will commence tomorrow for the move closer to the beach!

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM & Olympus PEN EP-1, 17mm f/2.8 & 100mm f/2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

16th August and again we stretched out our legs first thing and went for a walk! There is a lot of that to be done in this part of LA, mainly as we only have one bike between us, and it costs $20 a day if we want to rent one! We are trying to budget afterall.

We reached the Venice Marina Del Ray, which was a little of an anti-climax, again the weather was flat but we did come across a few interesting spaces and shapes along the way that caught our eye. When 11.30 came Helen went off to her teacher training course and Dave stayed local to take in more amazing skateboarders, and Venice beach fitness fanatics. This time a TV commercial was being filmed for the new Sponge-bob square pants computer game, so two young boys were attempting half-pipes one take after the other. Meanwhile a tattooed, pierced and very eclectic looking young man was receiving applaud after applaud for his amazing height on jumps and tricks. The skateboard park is such a good place for people watching! We cannot recommend it enough. Also engaging were the many squash and hand-ball players who fill out the courts all day long.

After Helen had finished her course for the day we along with John (Helen’s cousin) went out to UCLA ,Westwood Village to visit the Hammer Museum. There was a strong Paul Thek retrospective taking up a third of the gallery and recent works by Ed Ruscha were equally intriguing. We also enjoyed sitting in the open air atrium. It’s a very nice space to sit and watch the world go by. The museum charges $10 admission fee for the exhibits but you can sit in the atrium or visit the restaurant and bookshop for free! A short walk away is the Fox Theater, a famous landmark for movie premiers. We finished the night at another sushi favourite, recommended by John, Sushi Karen in Culver City.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM & Olympus PEN EP-1, 17mm f/2.8 & 100mm f/2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

When we left Khoa-Sok our aim was to be on Koh Pha-Ngan for a week with a 5 day yoga retreat at the Yoga Retreat Koh Pha-Ngan. Unfortunately as soon as we arrived and after the mammoth and annoyingly long process of getting there with a combined bus and boat ticket, we had to make plans to come back. We had some sad news of a family emergency.

Where to begin in writing about this!? Our Notworkrelated adventure would have to be put on hold, but we will resume our travels and be in touch soon about when this will be. In the meantime enjoy a wonderful spring and summer, the weather has been pretty good to come back to all things considered and it’s great to see our family and friends again.

We wanted to leave a Spring-like photograph on here in the meantime to remember those we love and have lost.

Thank you for following our Notworkrelated adventure and we’ll be in touch soon with plans for the future journey.

David and Helen.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0, processed in Lightroom 3)