7am came careering towards me as I persevered on the dancefloor as a sea of bodies desperately held onto the delusion that it was still Tuesday night. In itself this sounds pretty dreadful seeing as it is mid-week, but behold, Wednesday 4th July is a public holiday in America! Some of you may be aware of this?! The crowd was still jumping to the crashing riot of repetitive sound that is trance music... and there I was... faced with the pain of finding my way home without the aid of a pair of sunglasses. Mind you, at least I had managed to find my t-shirt. On the other hand I had apparently lost Don and Mark.
I decided to hold on and wait for my new best friends for a few more minutes. Something told me that they would not have left without me. Sure, I had only met them the night before, but I had instantly felt comfortable with them and I trusted them. They had been so considerate in looking after me and making sure that I was having a good time... if one puts aside their disappearance later on! Or perhaps they just couldn't get rid of me, like a fly.... "I'm still here you know!"
Of course have no doubt that my instinct was spot on... for the two boys reappeared and insisted on giving me a lift. I say insisted... I certainly didn't put up too much of a fight and merely played the polite English boy....
"Thank you so much... only if you are sure that it is not a hassle for you?"!
Once in the Dodge (it is a car) Don suggested that I could go back to their villa and chill out with them around the pool and they would give me a lift back to my beloved hostel in the evening. How sensible I seemed to be when I replied....
"Oh thank you so much.... I would love to.... but I ought to be getting back to the hostel as I need to book another night there and my bags are there".
STOP RIGHT THERE. What was I thinking? Am I crazy?! Surely the whole point of my going travelling is to take opportunities and be a little bit foot-loose and fancy-free (so thrilled that I got that gem of a phrase into my blog!)? An imaginary slap across the face and I had re-considered my answer....
"Actually boys.... why the hell not! I would love to come back to your place... if that is ok?"
So there it was.... Don drove the car North onto Route 14 towards Antelope Valley and we left LA behind, exchanging the low level white villas and palms for rolling, weather worn, desert mountains. The sun was barely peeping over the peeks when we arrived at their villa, just next to Acton in a stunning valley. The Star Ranch Estate reaches up into the reddish dusty mountains, with neatly designed villas and white ranch fencing marking out every boundary. The car sweeps up the hillside and in the final turn Don swings the Dodge into a drive before sliding it into a garage slot between a white Lexus and a red Mercedes SL convertible. The metal door slides down with a rattle and a crunch behind us.
The villa is big. There is a two story atrium over the open plan breakfast area and sitting room, with glass windows all around. Outside there is a large plot of red dust that is the garden... with a large concrete pit full of debris and building materials... hang on.... I suspected that this was the pool that they mentioned?! My lack of a pair of swimming trunks was suddenly not an issue. All around the plot is a stunning vista of sun-baked mountains. Two crazy looking dogs sat eagerly at the sliding glass doors, bodies pressed against each other as though joined at the hips, heads tilted to one side as they stared intently at me with their tongues pressed up against the glass in anticipation of a good face licking. Any guesses for their names?
Priceless..... Lexus..... and..... Mercedes!!
And what a great time I had with my new buddies. We collapsed upstairs in another sitting room, galleried and overlooking the atrium, put some music on and chatted for hours. We talked about everything from the value of the pound, to walking into mirrors, to mass murderers (I was only slightly nervous when we came onto this merry subject!), to riding horses side-saddle.... and there was no getting me to sleep. The three of us got on so well, and I knew I had really made some friends for life.
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