Where have you been?

Wow. The deep red lounge. Stuffed with chairs, a coffee table, a sofa, and at one point a TV, this was anything but comfortable. Notice the sliding glass door that leads to...


...another poorly painted inside room. Our teal "dining room" was the old patio between the house and the garage. You can also see the entire kitchen which was, again, surprisingly clean. Although you can't see it there is another sliding glass door opposite the one pictured that leads to what used to be the garage but what was now...


...my bedroom. With the sliding glass door hidden by my closet the room didn't much feel like a garage. It was large but had two different height beds which could not be pushed together. I was separate from the rest of the house by the kitchen/dining room/lounge areas so I could pretty much do what I want and not disturb or be disturbed by anyone in the main part of the house.

My Latvian roommate owned and lived off of a deep fryer. French fries, fish sticks, anything. Some times his dinner would consist of french fries, mayo, and a few pieces of cucumber. Very healthy.


Another roommate had the habit of cooking food and storing it in the pan/pot she used to prepare it. Sometimes the items would go into the fridge, sometimes they would stay out in the open, but never would they be put into some time of storage device - the pan was good enough. Never mind the fact we had limited cookware, it didn't bother her in the least that anyone was inconvenienced by her actions.

By far the most interesting place I have ever lived was at Chapman Court in the Arbury area of Cambridge. Just down the street from the infamous Ship pub, we lived in the heart of chav and gypsy country. The first week I was there some of the local lads torched a car in the parking area. The police came to investigate but there was nothing they could really do. I eventually learned that the car was found by a friend of a friend of a friend "abandoned" and eventually ended up in the hands of one of the neighborhood 14 year olds. They played with the car until it stopped working at which point they decided it was a fantastic idea to just burn the car. I assume they thought it would simply burn down to dust and disappear.

Pictured above is my Latvian roommate and our disgusting kitchen which is actually pretty clean in this photo.

As I was saying we only lived at Tillyard Way for a few months so I have limited photography of the place. I did spend one evening doing some night photography which is what you see here. Aside from the Citroen we also had bicycles and access to the infrequent city busses.

1 Tillyard Way in Cambridge was not the first place I stayed but the first place I stayed that was mine. (The first week in England we stayed with friends.) We were only there for a few months but it was a clean apartment. This is not our flat but one exactly like it across the street. This fine automobile is also our Citroen AX 1.1L diesel. Quite the road machine.


The living room had a lovely breakfast nook looking out over the green.


There was also a decorative fireplace which basically means "just for looks".

Any one have some good tips for getting Picasa to work well with Blogger?

Polish Tatra Mountains

Here is a brief description of the elements, new and old, of my Where have you been? (Whyb?) blog. I hope to eventually have a complete help file but for now I will update this as needed. You will always be able to find help by clicking the "Help" link above in the navigation bar.

Navigation Bar
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This is an easy way to navigate around Whyb? that will always be available. The names are pretty self explanatory but if you simply move your mouse over one of the words you will find a more detailed description. I hope to vastly improve the gallery and showcase sections but that will have to wait for now.

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If you like this blog please subscribe by selecting the method of your choice. Chose to be notified when I post or when anyone adds a comment.

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If every you want to find a post or photo about a specific topic use this search tool. Simply type your search word and push the button. The results will appear as a box within the blog and you can point and click to see the various hits. If you no longer need the search results box simply close it by hitting the "X" inthe top right corner.

Blog Archive
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Interested in looking at past posts? Pick you month and view all of my post from that month. The number indicates how many post were made in that month.

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Labels are a way for me to organize my posts which are unfortunately pretty unorganized. I have made this available in case you want to see pictures relating to a specific topic. For example if you want to see all of my photos/posts concerning the California beaches click "CaBeach".

Sorry it has taken me so long to get up to speed with respect to posting again. There have been some difficulties within my family not to mention finding a job. Things are okay in general but I have simply had other things to do than post on my blog.



With that said I wanted to show you our first American apartment. It is a studio apartment located in downtown Long Beach. We are a few blocks from the beach, within walking distance to stores, restaurants, and pubs plus we have our own parking spot - something needed in crowded beach communities.



The top photo shows the view from the front of our apartment building. The beach is just on the far side of the large building with the green roof. The next is of the pool area, very nice. Our apartment is up to the left on the second floor. This bottom one is of the inside of our place. It is not much, just a studio, but it is home for us!

KCAL 9 Report

A few weeks back we were interviewed by Mark Coogen of KCAL 9. It was the fist time either of us had been interviewed and we became quite stars in our little community. In fact, a lady with the Garnica surname contacted me out of the blue to ask if we were distant relatives.

Okay, I am gettin' back in the saddle. We moved to Long Beach and things are progressing nicely. So, time to start blogging again. Over the next few months I am going to be testing some new elements so everyone is going to have to bear with me while I sort things out. I hope to add photo galleries, facebook connectivity, as well a few other interesting elements. We'll see...