Yesterday I went back to Fullerton to have my final session at Meridian sports club; the gym I`ve been a member of for the previous 2 years.

Is it really that long?

Yep, for over 2 years I`ve been showing the weeds of southern California how to mash it up big time, how to get in the gym and show everyone how its done.

Its been good.

So yesterday after completing my most awesome of chest workouts I headed on over to Brians bar for a few cheeky beers.

I took half of the people in the gym with me.

Its always quite odd to see people from the gym outside of that environment. A bit like meeting people from work on a night out.

It was great fun though. Plus it gave me another chance to chat to Victor. Victor was the first person to talk to me in Meridian when I first joined, and I have to say I didn’t think much of him on that first meeting. The first thing he told me was that I was lifting the weights all wrong. Well actually, he told me that I was wasting energy from picking up the dumbbells I was about to use and carrying them over to the bench - wasting energy he said. I should move the bench to right in front of the dumbbells, let the tools do the dirty work for me.

I ignored him.

After all, who on earth was this guy to tell me how to lift weights?

Then when he left I gave it a go.

I`ve been taking his advice ever since.

And for good reason. It turns out that Victor was was in the Russian Olympic ski team from 1962 - 1970.

After that they made him the coach of the whole national team.

So last night was my last chance to squeeze a few last drops of wisdom from the man himself.

He was not about to disappoint.

After first telling me that at home he drinks a cocktail of wine and PURE ALCOHOL. - which he buys from the chemist, he leaned over to me and said:

“I`ll tell you something, the best drink in the whole world that we used to drink in Russia”

I was all ears.

“A pint of beer, with a little bit of vodka, mixed in with 2 eggs".

I just about stopped my own gag reflex.

But then the best bit.

He leaned a bit closer.

“It makes you go like a bunny rabbit in bed".

Wow.

Victor certainly seems to know his stuff.

And having casually disregarded his advice on a previous occasion and regretted it. I doubt I`ll be doing the same this time around.

If there are no posts for the next few days you should know why.

I`m just back from watching Terminator Salvation. It was amazing.

The Terminator, the first one, is my favourite film of all time. The 2nd was good, but the third (which I try and forget about) was the most disappointing film I`ve ever seen. Notice even that this latest Terminator film refused to call itself Terminator 4 - trying to make people forget T3 happened at all.

I`d heard good things about Salvation, and had tried to avoid internet spoilers so I could go and watch this one without knowing much about what was to happen.

I`m glad I did.

For someone going to watch the film with no background knowledge of the Terminator franchise then you`ll have no problems. The film is good to watch for Terminator newbies and hardcore fans alike.

For those hardcore fans such as myself there are awesome back references to the first 2 movies, and thankfully just one to the ‘other’. My favourites include (some very very mild spoilers follow)

The opening scene where John Connor is chased by and T600 torso in reference back to the first film when Sarah was also being chased and managed to trap the cyborg in a hydraulic press.

John Connor saying Arnie’s most famous line - “I`ll be back” - in reference back to the first film again which is the first time Arnie said that line.

Playing the T2 soundtrack by Guns and Roses on the stereo.

‘Tech Com’ used to describe John’s military squad.

Pretty much everything from the final fight scene.

I`ll leave it there.

I`m even thinking of going back this afternoon to watch it all again.

At least now they`ve managed to set the record straight.

And now there are 2 Terminator sequels which can be enjoyed, if not quite as much as the original….

…. which in my mind is still a cinematic masterpiece.

Its been 4 days and I`m only just up to the task of looking back through the photos I took at Lobsterfest.

I nearly disgraced myself. Walking through the main gate just as the dinner had started loaded up with 2 bottles of wine I`d bought on the road trip in Cayucos I began to focus on the job at hand. Trying to eat as much lobster in the following 3 hours as possible.

I`d done some background research into this one and found that a lobster dinner at a restaurant would set you back 39.95 dollars plus tax and tip - or in my case, just tax. The ticket had set me back 75 dollars so I had to eat 2 of the marine lobster monsters to make a deal of it.

I managed with ease.

Well, ease probably is not the right word. I certainly got my money’s worth - getting through a full 5 lobster

and corn

and bread

oh, and the small matter of 3 tri-tip steak.

I decided to walk the 5 mile journey back home to try and aid digestion - plus I think if I`d gotten into a taxi I would have been sick immediately.

I was so full I didnt each a thing on Saturday and barely managed my evening meal on Sunday.

I had a great time though. Thing is that some people there took it very seriously indeed.

The girl next to me took her own thermos flask full of garlic butter - and very own lobster crushing tools. Which is a good thing, because the one they gave me to use broke when I tried to open one of the lobster claws - snapped in half. Tough to crack some of those crustaceans.

I`m not going to be outdone though.

Next year I`m going dressed as Dr Zoidberg

I`m just about recovering from the 5 whole marine lobster and 3 steaks I ate at Lobsterfest 2009 on Friday. I`ll be talking more about that in a couple of days when I can actually contemplate the thoughts of looking at pictures of lobster again.

Today’s lesson is more important.

Remember a few weeks ago when I was up in Cayucos at the beach house and stumbled across Mr Blue Shark on the beach just 100 foot from the entrance to where I was staying?

I have to admit I was a bit shocked to find Fergal (Sharky) sat there, but thought it was just a one off. Just a bit of excitement in an otherwise quiet small beach town in mid California.

I was wrong.

I`ve spend the best part of the previous 2 weeks in the same beach house and dead sharks are not the only things to have been washed up on my door step.

Day 1 - I spotted 2 dead seals.

Day 2 - A dead sea lion

Day 3 - No less than 7 dead birds along the sea front.

What was going to be on day 4?

A human body?

Yes

A human body washed up just a mile down the shore of the beach house in central Cayucos. I was chatting to one of the locals in a coffee house and they seemed non impressed by it all.

“ah, thats the third we`ve had in the past year”

Blimey!

So there you go. Small quiet beach town? In my mind it started to seem more like the beach town from the film ‘The Lost Boys’.

Next time I go I`m stocking up on garlic and holy water.

One thing is for certain though,

I wont be going in that water.

I find myself sitting in a bar in Visalia called Brewbakers. I`m happy. This place is an old brewery converted into a bar where they only serve the beer they make here on the premises. They also sell great muffins.

They also have a free wifi connection.

The past 2 weeks have been awesome. We left San Diego and headed north up to Santa Barbara for a night, did one of the local wine tours then headed up to the beach house in Cayucos again for a week taking in the local sights, such as Hearst castle and sampling the local seafood.

The last 2 nights have been here in Visalia staying in Ben Maddox house, the place I stayed at for a night in November 2007.

Later we`re heading back to the beach house until Friday.

Then its back to Fullerton.

For Lobsterfest

Currently 4400 lbs of lobster are being flown over from Boston to LA ready for the ‘all you can eat lobster’ party.

So as of tonight I`m not eating a single thing.

The tickets cost 75 dollars each.

I intend to get my money’s worth.

I`ve just gotten back to my hotel room in Santa Barbara after going on Captain Jack’s Santa Barbara wine tour where I visited 4 wineries and sampled 26 different wines in 6 hours.

Now I`m going out to the Santa Barbara brewery.

For the next week or so posts will be slow for 1 of 2 reasons:

1 - I`ll be drunk
2 - I`m off to Cayucos again to the beach house for 8 days.

Most likely though is option 1.

Being stuck in Belgium last weekend, with the rain lashing, the wind howling, being unable to eat or drink due to the fast I was undertaking prior to my medical exam, its fair to say there was not much to do.

I watched a lot of crap TV.

Most of it BBC news feeds telling me it would be a terrible idea to return to California and face the swine flu.

They did find 2 minutes however, to stop their frenzied panic and talk about something else.

The sale of a rare blue diamond. At six million quid a go its unlikely that even with my new job I could afford such a thing. It was however rather interesting and crossed my mind when I arrived at Brussels airport.

Passing through security I spied a jewellery counter and thought I`d go over and see if they had any of these said blue diamonds - yes I know unlikely, but you`ve got to pass the time somehow.

As I got closer, it became obvious that this was in fact not a jewellery counter at all:

Yes indeed, only in Belgium would they raise up chocolate to such a level that it needs to be incased in glass displays.

As I`ve said before, the Belgians take their chocolate very seriously indeed.

I`d tell you how they tasted but this this little fella:

Would have cost me 40 euros alone.

Might as well go out and buy a blue diamond instead.