Day 259 (Sunday 29th) - Hanging Out
After the previous post, we somehow minced for ages and went to Silvergreens for dinner, and had an enormous crispy Thai chicken salad, by the end of which it was somehow half 10. We headed round to Ivan's friend Gilli's place for a few hours, and hung out with Chris Otte, Hayley, Gilli, Sam & Ivan for a while, listening to James Brown and generally mumbling at each other due to exhaustion.
Day 260 (Monday 30th) - A Day At Sand's
We went to Bagel Cafe, apparently an Isla Vista instution, and I had a Super Deluxe - a cheese and herb bagel with cream cheese, tomato, onion, and swiss cheese melted over the top of it all. It was enormous feed, yet again. We spent most of the day just sort of hanging around, bumped into Otte on the street, and then we three and Sam went down to the beach, lay around in the baking sun (with plenty of suncream this time), watched the surfers trying to catch the barely existent waves, then went dune jumping. Gilli and Alyssa joined us for a while each. We wandered round town some more, popped by Rod's place, then Gilli's again, then went to Naan Stop Indian for an awesome, and massive, dinner. On the way home we bumped into a fellow named Dan Justice (yes that's his real name, he lives in Hollywood and got a Limo to and from EDC, what a hero), then decided to go and get a keg of beer for the evening's festivities. It was quite impressive, just by mentioning to a couple of people that there was a keg, we somehow amassed a reasonable sized party. I was introduced to the amazing game of Beer Pong, in which one throws ping pong balls into cups of beer, 10 of which are arranged in a triangle at either end of the table, in those red cups that all American college students use, for some reason. There are a few rules, but basically the aim is to get rid of all their cups - when you get a ball in one, they have to drink it. Ivan and I won two games masterfully, and I got the last ball in the final remaining cup in each, which made me feel pretty cool. During the course of the evening quite a few people came and went, including some really incredible girls. Dan Justice and I walked into the house to have a dance and chat to them, whereupon they all immediately walked outside - a coincidence, Ivan claimed. Coincidence or not, the tables were turned later on when I put some Vitalic on, and a wierd situation occurred. Dan, Ivan, myself and possibly Sam walked inside and shut the sliding doors, effectively excluding the girls from the party, and shutting them outside. They sort of wandered off, while we had an awesome time indoors. Sam, Ivan and I spent far too long chatting nonsense, some of which was concerned with me introducing Ben Bruce to the guys. All in all, a very fun evening.
Day 261 (Tuesday 1st) - Red Rock & Beer Pong Again
I was awoken by Ivan telling me we were going to "bounce in 10", implying our imminent departure. He also informed me of an Isla Vista tradition - that of the morning kegstand. Ivan managed 20 seconds, myself a meagre 11. Alyssa and Coop (two of the girls who went to EDC) came and picked Ivan, Sam, Ottie and me up and we went to Albertson's supermarket to collect provisions. These provisions were a load of Sam Adams summer ale, and a chicken express meal each - tons of chicken, tons of salad, delicious. We then proceeded to get rather lost, as we had taken the freeway in the wrong direction, and had to keep going until it linked up with the road we should have been on. It was an entertaining drive though, and it involved a detour though Solvang, a sweet and somewhat inexplicable Danish town. We eventually arrived at Red Rock, via four or five fords across the river, which we went thought at maximum speed, achieving maximum wetness - we were screaming like we were on a log flume, it was awesome. Red Rock itself is, well, a big red rock surrounded by a really still & clear pool. We all jumped off the little rock in the middle of the pool, which was still at least 5 metres up, then sat in the sun enjoying the incredible scenery of arid southern California. We had to leave to get Coop back in time for work, and the journey took about an hour less than the way out. While we were walking back from El's house we spotted a dumpster gem - a house a few doors down was throwing out a really sturdy beer pong table, with a nice paint job too. The chap who was getting rid of it encouraged us to take it, as he was just waiting for a truck to come and pick it up. It weighed a ton, but was worth the effort of getting it back. We spent ages scraping the tacky veneer off the bevelled edges - this table was quite an achievement - then noticed that we were all far more tired than should have been the case, so we spent a while just hanging out at the house, then went for dinner at the Delimart, while picking up our cans of Extenze for our Extenze party. There were two skunks wandering around in the park in a somewhat threatening manner while we were eating, which made the meal more dangerous than usual. We headed back and hung out until a party just sort of erupted, as more and more people turned up.
We were told by bald Mike (one of Ivan's housemates, who shaved his head totally bald after a clipper mishap) that we couldn't party in the house, as he was feeling ill and wanted to get some rest. This was agreed on, so instead we played a few games of pong outside, trying out the new table (which is awesome, by the way). I gained a new partner, a slightly creepy looking fellow named Mike, again. Confusingly, there were four Mikes around, but luckily they were all sufficiently different that it wasn't an issue (bald, long haired, tall and the one who was attached to the Hookah all night). I continued my winning streak - I have now played 6 games of beer pong, two with Ivan as my partner, three with tall Mike and one with Rod, and I have won every one. Also, I have got the final cup on every one, which is, in my humble opinion, incredible. I have been told I am a natural, which is quite an accolade from these veterans. Anyway, after all these shenanigans we moved inside, and I realised that there were 10 people in the living room, all laughing and shouting - while there was no music, in accordance with bald Mike's wishes, I'm pretty sure the noise level was barely reduced.We moved on to our original destination soon after the last game, which was Alba's leaving party, complete with hot tub. When we arrived, Alba ran over, chatted excitedly about getting a ticket for excessive noise, and about how she wasn't going to pay and was leaving the country tomorrow anyway, and possibly wouldn't be allowed back. She then immediately requested a kegstand, which she did for 20 seconds. What an incredible girl. Unfortunately the hot tub was closed by this point, but there was a cooler full of Sangria which made up for it. The other guys left a little before me, as I was chatting to some strangers in the house. I managed to find my way back solo, and en route I encountered a solid looking table in a bush, and after a somewhat epic struggle I succeeded in fishing it out and bringing it home. This morning this was the cause of some consternation, as Ivan and Sam couldn't figure out where it had come from - they had also spotted it, and tried to get it out, resulting in the crushing of Ivan's finger and a considerable amount of pain. Sam just walked in and told me he heard me coming in, and banging around a lot - I had thought I was being particularly stealthy, but clearly this was not the case.
Day 262 (Wednesday 2nd) - A Perfect Day
Today we went to an incredible place - Montecito, a rich suburb of Santa Barbara. Elena is housesitting for a rich family out there, so after a breakfast burrito (a genius concept) we got picked up in the family's $90,000 Mercedes-Benz, along with Hayley, Gilli, Ivan, Ottie. It was an amazing house, with a warm saltwater pool and a spa with a waterfall. They had a dog called Radar, who was a lurcher-cross-splodgey dog. We spent ages in the pool, had some chicken fights, recreated the Pink Floyd poster with the four girls (Morgan, another friend of theirs, turned up), picked and ate fresh oranges and tangerines from their orchard, along with fresh licorice. The enormous forest fire that has been rolling across the mountains has spread further (2,400 acres as I write this), blanketing the sky with smoke, covering things in ash, causing Big Sur to be evacuated, and causing blackouts. We were quite pleased that we actually didn't notice the power cut for ages. We left in the ridiculous car (DVD screens in the headrests!) and headed to Gilli's for the evening - it was dark by the time we got there, and really eerie. There were bonfires in front yards, candles everywhere, and guitar floating around. We sat around in the living room and listened to Ivan, Ottie and Dashyl (real name, from upstairs) playing some awesome songs. Gilli cooked me some Broccoli and garlic, which was delicious. At one point we heard a cheer, went out to investigate and saw that the power was back on. Moments later, to a far larger cheer, it went out again, and everyone returned to their caveman debauchery. At one point a car came by when we were all outside watching the stars, and we jumped and screamed in a simian fashion until they were out of sight. When the power came on on a more permanent basis, we tried to find some ultra American TV for my benefit. We ended up with the Dana Carvey show, then the Daily Show, and finally the Colbert Report, all of which were awesome. I should mention something else, by the way. This evening I received my Ben Bruce T-shirt (from here), which I shall wear proudly on the 4th of July. Also Sam & Tommy, two of Ivan's housemates, have been producing some awesome shirts, one of which I am sporting as we speak, all themed on Isla Vista. You can get those, and should do so now, here.
Day 263 (Thursday 3rd) - California Is On Fire
Today began with another breakfast burrito, this time from La Cantina. Ivan had to run some errands, so I stayed in and wrote up the last few days. Later on we remembered that we had actually had a plan for the day - to attend a lecture on Genetics and Religion on campus, which was at 1530. Ivan remembered this, we ran out and jumped in the car, asked him what time it was, to which he replied "about 4:15". B-Roth and I burst out laughing, contemplated the futility of our mission, and decided to go on a campus tour, and have our own discussion on the lecture topic. We bumped into Alana on the way, and persuaded her to come with us. Their campus is pretty awesome, it reminded me of University of Sussex for some reason. It's huge, but all pretty low lying, and comes right up to the ocean - the idea of a beachside Uni is pretty innovative, I'm very impressed. We sat up on the Brenn Hall balcony and watched the clouds of doom rolling in for a while - the ash from the fires up in the hills was moving in at a worrying rate, a huge black shadow moving across the sky, darkening it and causing a rain of ash to start. We also had that talk about religion and genetics, for which I got to trot out some of the Dawkins book I just finished. When we got back we were informed of more power outs from 7-10, so we swiftly ran to get beer and wood for the bonfire. sat round the fire, met loads of new people round the fire, then had a singing session, played a few games, and consequently did not make it to downtown Santa Barbara, which was our original plan. Later on a few of us rolled up the road to Gilli's place. I must say I'm not exactly sure of the order of events, but a pretty awesome time was had - at one point we were running shirtless through the sprinklers in the park, at another we were singing the chorus to Hey Jude repeatedly and raucously, and I'm sure a lot of other shenanigans took place as well. I was the last one there, and found myself walking down the street without either my shoes or my shirt, soaking wet, literally singing with joy. A foolish image, but I was extremely happy, so I make no apologies. Incidentally, I had entirely forgotten all of Thursday when I started writing this, but thanks to the collaborative efforts of B-Roth, Mike, Ivan, Emerald and Max, we got it done. Good work team.
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