Island

I giggled to myself when Emma first floated the idea that a potential move to the States was a possibility . I didn’t really think it would happen , it was just a long shot . It was only wishful thinking . The 2016 presidential election race was on . The consensus was America was about to have their first female president , although Trump was doing better than expected . I laughed aloud when SEN radio host Mark Allen said Trump would win . He based his confidence on the fact he lived in the US and believed the rust belt were crazy enough to vote him in . “ Surely not “ , I thought . They can’t be that crazy . Trump did go onto win and that long shot became a reality 5 months later . We were going to live in the United States with the boss of “ the Apprentice “ running the show ….crazy .

I was actually three quarters through writing a blog with a completely different storyline . By Friday I realised I might have to put it on hold .The mood had changed with the George Floyd killing . A sense of foreboding of what the next few days would bring was well founded . The shock and then the anger was only natural . Things were going to go down . To all those that had wondered and expressed their fears for our safety ? Don’t worry . We appreciate the sentiment but we are very fortunate to live in a coastal town that is just far enough away from the trouble . We are about 25 km south of Santa Monica where a lot of the protesting and looting occurred yesterday . I wouldn’t declare that this wouldn’t happen here but it’s very unlikely , although the local corner store had its front window shattered and was broken into . There’s also been a few Facebook posts inciting people to hit the area and create chaos . The next few days will tell if I’m just a bit naive, or not . Emma tells me that our little town is boarding up all its shopfront windows as a precaution . Can you imagine having to do this in Mornington ,Mt.Marta or Mt.Eliza ? We live in a very white , privileged beachside area south of LA that is well known as a great area for families and schools . It’s known as “The Bubble “ . Hopefully it won’t be pricked . I think we’ll be ok .

Our phones sent off a buzz at 334 pm today . An alert is sent to every mobile phone declaring that a curfew is in place from 5 pm until 6 am .Yesterday it was 6pm -6am . It’s time to stay inside . It’s not real hard as we’ve been doing it for 10 weeks now with the covid 19 pandemic . There’s another one . Who’dve thought we’d even be in a pandemic ,no less be in the country with the worst toll . 3 years down , we’ve seen a bit .We know the US is diverse . It’s wealthy but gee it has a bloody big underclass . Add a pandemic , racial divide and economic uncertainty and you’ve got a powder keg . In reality I know not a lot more about the US than the average Aussie . We’ve barely seen anything of LA outside of “The Bubble “ ,but what I do see on the daily news tells me that I know a bloody big island on the other side of the world has got things pretty good . We live in the US and we may have just landed in one of the most interesting times in recent history We’ll leave here one day and look back in time and say “we were there “ . Don’t worry hound dogs , we are safe . We are healthy and we are pretty optimistic . For now pups ….. keep watching the news .