FEBRUARY 25
THERE was some kind of bike race going on today, so I snapped some pics from our balcony.
FEBRUARY 19
SO WITHOUT further ado, here's the pics I took on our run around the Angeles Crest Highway on Saturday.
And we're off. To get to the highway we pretty much had to take the route I go to work every day. Unfortunately as it was a holiday weekend the 710 was jammed, so we took the 405 south to the 605 north to the 5 then the 2 then the 210 east. Put it this way - after 35 minutes in the car we were approximately one mile north of our apartment.
The road is pretty twisty. Our original plan was for me to drive the Mini but then I wouldn't have been able to take photos while we were moving, so Ev gallantly volunteered to drive her Corolla so I could snap pics through the windscreen. Unfortunately we stopped at the ghetto petrol station in Long Beach and Ev didn't want to hang around long enough for me to clean the windscreen properly.
The first turnout we stopped at gave us a stunning view over the valley all the way to downtown LA.
As the highway's so winding it attracts a lot of motorcyclists.
A view from another turnout across to the road we'd just driven down.
I think we're at about 3,500 feet up now. Thanks to the mild winter and the wind the ever-present smog was dispersed giving great views.
More of the road.
This is Newcombe's Ranch restaurant and bar where we stopped for lunch. I can highly recommend the New York pastrami sandwich, and the coffee's great. Shame about the bloody lens flare.
This photo gives a good idea of how winding the highway is.
Speaks for itself, really.
Yes, that is snow. And there's more to come. The temperature had dropped from 89 degrees when we were on the 5 to about 55 at this point.
The flat brown stuff in the back is the desert. That's one thing I'll give California - you can from the ocean to the mountains to the desert in one day. Shame you have to take the bloody freeway system to do it.
I think this is the highest I've ever been, apart from flying to the UK and a couple of Saturday nights in Merthyr.
Told you there was more snow. Thanks to the summer temperatures in Long Beach I was just wearing a T-shirt so I was freezing my tits off at this point.
I think I've put more snow pics on this site in the last couple of weeks than I have in the last 30 months.
The ski lift. By this point the temperature was down to 42 degrees (or Nipple Factor 10 on my own personal scale) and I wanted to get back in the warm car. I must be getting acclimatised - 42 degrees in Wales is sunbathing weather.
We're heading back down now as we didn't really want to do the drive downhill in the dark.
We're back at ground level now and about to execute a sharp right turn as Ev just realised she's in the wrong lane for Long Beach.
FEBRUARY 17
WE AT PlanetMut would like to offer our sincere apologies for the cancellation of today's planned update. It was to feature photos and "witty" comments about a trip along the Angeles Crest Highway, but due to a case of severe shagged-outness has been postponed for the time being. In the meantime if you'd like to scroll down a bit there's a very entertaining video of Iestyn trying to shag Emric.
FEBRUARY 16
IT'S an Emric and Iestyn shagfest!
FEBRUARY 13
I WENT for a fag during work today and spotted some more stickers:
FEBRUARY 12
AND in the name of flogging a dead horse and doing another easy update, here's some photos of the snow around my parents' house that my dad sent over.
FEBRUARY 11
IN KEEPING with the ongoing snow theme, here's some pics my sister took of the snow outside her house in Hereford. Bear in mind she took these at 3.30am after getting home from the pub.
FEBRUARY 10
I WANTED to do an update about a load of old newspapers I found at work but my cold has returned with a vengeance. As a result my nose is a mass of red raw flesh with skin flaking off it and the arms of my jacket are encrusted with snot. And mum's ringing in six hours to wake me up for the Wales v Scotland game. Bugger.
And it's snowing like buggery in Wales, which is great as I'm on the wrong continent to get a day off work because of it. Blunty sent me this video of the weather in his back garden and I've spared every expense to work out how to put the bloody thing on this page so both of you can watch it.
FEBRUARY 5
SO THE hike on Saturday went pretty well. I have to admit I nearly kacked myself when Stephen told us we were going to Mount Baldy (there's a pun in that name somewhere) as actually hiking up that mountain would kill me deader than dead. The trail we went up is called the Icehouse Canyon Trail and it's a 7.5-mile round trip. Not that we did 7.5 miles, Christ no. We actually did about 1.5 miles and that was knackering enough (bear in mind we were about 5,000 feet above sea level).
The scenery was pretty spectacular as we made our way up the trail. It's a fairly rocky path that leads up alongside a crystal-clear stream. Every now and then we passed a ruined house which had either been destroyed by fire, flood or just abandoned.
Stephen, who hikes all the time, had to slow his pace for me and Ev as we're unused to hiking. Luckily I'd managed to dig out my Reebok boots so at least I wasn't attempting to climb the path in year-old Converse All-Stars. And like the hike last week, it showed me that I'm obviously not in half as bad a condition as I think I am. Anyway, enough yakking, here's some more photos:
Again, many thanks to Stephen for taking a couple of utter novices on the hike.
FEBRUARY 3
WE WENT for another hike today near Mount Baldy. I took loads of pics and I was going to put them up tonight but it's 1am, I'm knackered, my eyes won't stay open and my mum's ringing in five hours to wake me up for the rugby so I'll do 'em tomorrow. Or later today, to be more accurate.
FEBRUARY 1
SOME of the grafitti stickers in the alley behind our new office...
The Andre the Giant one has an interesting story behind it.
