Cars and blues

Saturday. Alas, no Richard Simmons this weekend, but considerable time devoted to the urgent matter of Car Shopping. For the hell of it, I went to check out a sporty-looking 2-door cherry red Chevy at a nearby dealership. Online reviews of this model were numerous and glowing, it was in my price range with quite low miles for its 8 years so why not? Happy to report that the used car salesman did not fit the stereotype; no sleaze, no oily charm, no overworked smile. Since I don’t yet have a Californian driver’s licence (I’m working on it, okay! Had to wait two weeks for an appointment, written test on Thursday, shut up already!) I wasn’t allowed to test drive on my own. However, Mike took me for a drive around some backstreets and – don’t tell anyone – let me get behind the steering wheel for some of it. Gotta say, I was underwhelmed. The car sure looked pretty, but it was a heavy, lugubrious iron box. “Tell me what you think about it, honestly,” said Mike. I told him. “I could tell you weren’t really feeling it,” he said. What I want is something small, economical and reliable, for under $4000. He recommended the Ford Focus ZX3, which is the 2-door hatchback version. Perfect! So that’s what I’ve been searching for on craigslist ever since. I took a look at a promising one today. I’ll get a mechanic to check it over tomorrow, so if all is well, I may be the proud owner by the end of the week.

Ooh, dark chocolate-covered cranberries; gooood.

But back to Saturday. In the evening, Janeen and I headed to Santa Monica for happy hour. After enjoying a few delightful beverages and tasty Japanese delicacies for half price, we headed to a nearby blues club for some tasty tunes. Harvelles is a dark’n’divey joint which attracts a mixed crowd; black, white, old, young. The music was GREAT. A group called The Boneshakers played, fronted by a cool black dude in white hat, suit and red shirt. We found ourselves seated at a table with another cool black dude in a suit. His name was Moses, he had to be at least 60, and he was quite taken with Janeen. Sadly for him, he had no idea how not her type he is. A few months shy of fabulous 50, Janeen is a lively woman of the world who prefers her men – how can I put this? – fresh. Untarnished. She has a devoted 22 year old waiting for her in Melbourne. Moses, however, was remarkably persistent. He declared he wanted to marry Janeen. After she told him in no uncertain terms that she wasn’t interested. Then he demonstrated his kung fu moves with an enthusiasm belying his age. Perhaps some men never grow up. Certainly some never know when to give up. Eventually, we did, and left. Outside the club we got chatting with a merry young man called Tim, an actor/financial advisor. He was much more fun than Moses, who really took himself too seriously. Turns out he was older than he looked (although considerably younger than Moses) and doesn’t drink (although still has wine in his house, leftover from his ex-girlfriend??). He gave me his card, seems I’ve made a new friend.