Areas of Unrest

9 January 2000 - A Walk For the Juice

QOTD: "If you don't think too good, then don't think too much." - Ted Williams

Reading: The February 2000 issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine

Listening to: Malavoi, She She

Friday morning Mary Joan asked me if I found business travel stressful. About an hour later, I went to change my return flight on an upcoming trip and discovered that the travel agent hadn't actually confirmed the hotel. I made the reservation six weeks ago because I know that getting hotels in Sunnyvale is always a problem and, had I not changed the date of the return, I would have had no hotel reservation at all. In the end, I was able to get into the hotel I wanted, but it took a few hours to find that out. If we actually had a competent travel agent, business travel wouldn't be anywhere near so stressful. My new policy is that I am going to send email to the head of our corporate travel department for every single glitch, regardless of how trivial it is to fix. I can tolerate occasional screwups, but it seems like they get something wrong at least a third of the time.

So the weekend came as a nice break. I spent Friday evening reading, relaxing and playing trivia on TinyTim. I should have gone to bed earlier and I slept later than I'd planned to on Saturday morning. But I still dragged myself out of the house and down the 405 because I had interlinked plans.

First it was to Laguna Niguel for a Volksmarch. The 10K walk was rated a 3+ and described as "hilly, but worth the climb." (There was a flat 5K alternative, but I figured I was up to the more challenging walk. It's not like these are races - there's no significant time limit.) Hilly was an understatement as the walk started out pretty much straight up Niguel Road to the Aliso Summit Trail. The trail climbed a ways, then leveled out as it went behind some very pricy real estate. Eventually there was a viewpoint that was indeed worth the climb (almost 950 feet). This was the first significant walk I'd done in a while and it felt good to get out again. I can walk the same distances (and more) in my own neighborhood, but this way I see places I'd never get to otherwise.

Which brings me to my ulterior motive for the excursion. Like any apartment dweller, I get a certain amount of junk mail addressed to former residents. The person who lived here immediately before me gets very interesting junk mail. Instead of the catalogues of books and crafts supplies that I get, he gets cello catalogues, for example. He also got a postcard for a store in Laguna Beach. A store that sells South African groceries. I checked their web page right after I got the postcard and was tempted. But then I remembered this walk in the area was coming up and figured I could just as soon stop in myself.

So after turning in my card for the walk and getting my Volksmarch books stamped (that's how you keep track of events and get credits toward awards), I headed a few miles north to Laguna Beach. African Hut was easy enough to find since they have a South African flag in front. And I am now the very happy possessor of a goodly supply of Just Juice and Stoney and rooibos tea! I bought a few other things - a bottle of periperi sauce and 2 Nestle peppermint crisp bars (chocolate filled with crispy green mint stuff), but the beverages were the main thing. They don't sell amarula or Schweppes dry lemon, alas, but I was still quite pleased and will slowly dole out my supply. And, yes, Stoney is just as good as I remembered it, with a nice strong ginger flavor. The store is too far (over 60 miles) to get to frequently and my purchases were not cheap, but I can certainly stop in when I have other things to do in the area.

Today was devoted primarily to catching up on housework. I took a break for a while in the afternoon to knit some afghan squares. Using up scraps of yarn will help declutter quite a bit and I can always donate an afghan to Warm Up L.A.. I still have to pay a couple of bills and pack for my trip to Colorado, but first it's time for a cup of rooibos tea.