Prose for Thought | First Touch of the Pacific

It’s been just over a week since we landed in L.A. We are settling in, doing all the usual necessities of any new expat; setting up bank accounts, getting ourselves some wheels, getting to know the money, the shops, the food and become accustomed to the climate (which, as we already anticipated, is very favourable).

We’ve only been in Santa Barbara for four days. It will be a few weeks before we move into our rented accommodation for a year. In the meantime we are staying in temporary accommodation. This week we are staying in an incredible home. It feels so much more than a holiday home. The shelves are filled with books. The tables are weighed down with appealing ‘coffee table’, highly illustrative, hardbacks. There are ornate candle holders all over the house, complete with pillar candles and a handy lighter to bath the rooms in a soft light of evening. There is every utensil I could imagine needing in the kitchen, televisions with cable aplenty and a swimming pool and spa in the gorgeous garden (green thanks to irrigation – it is clearly evident here where the land is and isn’t irrigated!).

This week, without wheels of my own to get around (and hubbie out at work) I have been ‘house bound’. Though this occasionally frustrates me (with three children to attend to), it really is the best place I could imagine spending a week with my children. Their skin is already turning olive in the sun and I practically expect them to grow fins, given the hours they are spending in water. My youngest, at three, isn’t yet safe unsupervised in the pool – so I am spending a large portion of my day in the water too!

The only time I’ve been out of the house is a brief visit to see the sunset by the beach.

I am used to living within walking distance to the sea and was desperate to hear the waves. This poem is about my love of the ocean and how it connects me to the places and people I love. My thoughts are very much with central New Zealand this weekend, after they have been experiencing yet more earthquakes xx

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