At the end of 2000, Malcolm and Brenda flew to California to see in the new year with Brenda's uncle Norman. They left England in freezing cold and wet conditions to arrive in Caifornia in warm sunshine of 70 degrees. At Los Angeles they caught a local flight to Santa Barbara then found their way to Norman's home in time for the arrival of New Year which they watched on television.

They stayed in Norman's house with his carer Dominic present during daytime. Dominic proved to be quite a character, a typical Italian New Yorker, and very capable. He cooked excellent meals and shepherded everyone around the locality on top of seeing to Norman's needs. He produced voluminous three course breakfasts comprising porridge, kippers then a full English. He was also proud of his horseradish sauce which he declared was the strongest but Malcolm wished he could return him with some fresh homemade wich would have been many times stronger. He had made a heavily fruited cake to his mother's recipe which was fully to Brenda's taste.

Norman's assistant Sheila Harker visited to say hello also joined them ona trip to the house that Norman had built in Melrose Avenue. It was on the side of an extremely steep slope and Norman had largely built it himself. The current owner was most welcoming and said that they should look round freely whilst she continued with her work on the telephone. Whilst they were there, a neighbour opposite recognised Norman and came out to greet him.

One trip out was to the harbour at Santa Barbara where pelicans were an attraction. Another day, Norman loaned Malcolm his Lexus car to take Brenda to visit Los Angeles. Malcolm was quite comfortable driving the car as he had used it on his first visit, but was still slightly apprehensive about his knowledge of the highway code. All went well and he and Brenda looked around and stopped for a cup of tea in a café. It was not up to English standards as they were given cups of hot water and tea bags.

Their few days with Norman being over, they caught the train from Goleta to Los Angeles to be met by Brenda's brother Mike. Malcolm had selected Burbank station as he anticipated that it would be busy and interesting. How wrong he was. It was stark and quiet with no facilites and unfortunately they had qute a long wait for Mike to arrive as it was out of his way. He arrived in a tipper lorry as he was working and had a load of soil to deliver. They next called in at a building site in Hollywood where Chris Parsons had a contract to reinforce an old preserved cinema against possible esrthquake damage. Eventually they arrived at Chris' home in West Hills. They sat and rested a bit until the children had come hoe from school and Chris' wife Katie was back from work. Later they went out to a restaraunt for dinner.

The next day they all piled into Chris' 4x4 pickup and drove to his holiday house at Big Bear in the Rockies. Having settled in, Mike drove Malcolm and Brenda around the area to show them what it was like. Later, he went off skiing so Malcolm and Brenda went to the local cinema to pass the time. Activity in the house was rather erratic and there seemed to be no planned timed to eat so they were never sure what was to come and there was nothing in the cupboards or fridge to snack on.

The nigh twas equally difficult as it was warm and the air conditioning was very noisy so sleep was virtually impossible. The lack of any formaliyu for breakfast added to the stress and Malcolm said to Brenda that he was seriously thinking of going into town and finding a bus that would take them back to Santa Barbara. However, they persevered and were taken on a trip to a local petting zoo for the children's entertainment. They were driven back to West Hills late that night.

The next day, Mike took Malcolm and Brenda to Venice Beach and showed them the apartment building that Chris had remodelled into four apartments which he rented out. Whilst walking around the area with the little canals, Brenda tripped and fell but luckily was not injured. She was allowed to recover and they continued looking around.

The finally it was time to leave, so off to the airport and the flight home to the cold English winter which came as quite a shock to the system.