Local House Sitting

Most people’s perception of House Sitting is that you need to travel to distant lands, but house sitting opportunities can happen locally too. So when one came up on our doorstep we jumped at the chance.

We live in the west side of LA about a couple of miles from Venice Beach, but you would need all of my toes and a couple of my fingers to count how many years it’s been since we put our bare feet in Californian sand or taken a dip in the Pacific.

My commute to work takes me further inland so it’s easy to forget there’s an ocean just down the road. A simple case of familiarity breeds contempt. But spending this time in Hermosa Beach has refueled my intent to spend more time enjoying the beaches of California.

Manhattan Beach

The thought of house sitting in nearby Hermosa Beach, where the pretty (and affluent) people live, was very appealing, so a week ago we traveled ten miles south and moved to our “new beach house”.

House Sitting is like trying somebody’s life on for size — and I have to say, in this case, it was a perfect fit!

Ernest Hemingway

In honor of the occasion I took a couple of days off from the day job to immerse myself in some serious creative writing, blogging and podcasting.

I felt like Ernest Hemingway setting up home in the Florida keys, writing up a storm with a view of palm trees out of the window and the sound of surf lapping onto the sand. But unlike Ernest, my sojourn as a full-time writer had less alcohol involved.

Although I did spend a lot of time at the bar…. it really did have the best view in the house (except of course the roof deck terrace!)

Triple the fun

If you were in any doubt that I may be technology-dependent, this photo will fuel the perception.

I had my trio of laptops lined up like shots, and gave each of them a chug of attention as I multi-tasked between recording my new Podcast Episode; Splitting my iPhoto libraries into multiple smaller libraries to migrate them to my new Mac, and writing a new Travel Guide for my favourite area on the Bodrum Peninsula, Gumusluk.

I did make sure to walk away from the technology long enough to dig my toes in the Hermosa Beach sand, but I have to admit that the view of the ocean was a great creative motivator, and I found myself rushing back to my “new beach house” to continue in the creative zone.

What a great way to end the summer.

Painting Inspired by India

And while I was busy flitting between beach and technology, Red was busy downstairs with a paintbrush in his hand. The homeowners asked him to paint a bedroom, and had used an indian-designed bed cover as the colour inspiration.

The finished room looked fabulous. I forgot to take a photo, but here’s the room in progress. Not a colour combination for the feint of heart — but it’s definitely a signature-room, and the home owners loved the end result.