‘Anything is Possible’ is a recurring answer when we ask our featured ‘Meet A Member’ the question ‘What is the biggest difference between living in Los Angeles and your home town?’.
When I first arrived here in 1997 that was also one of my first observations, (in a youthful wide-eyed, not-quite-sure-what-I-mean-by-that kind of way). Nearly two decades later it still continues to resonate with me, and by the looks of things, with a lot of you too.
One of the first things I get asked is what brought me here and how long I have been here. And as you probably know there is rarely a straight answer to that question. Over the years that I have lived in LA I have dipped my toes in various waters. I first arrived here as an au pair for a family friend, assuming I would have the (almost) obligatory gap year and then return to London with the stereotypical British attitude of settling down and getting a ‘proper’ job. However, after a year in California all those plans went right out of the window – the family friend that invited me here is now my best friend, and we continue to work together to this day. And as mentioned before I have dabbled in many other fields along the way, from working in the costume department on commercials and films, plus a little set decorating, experimenting with matrimony, hosting podcasts in the early days when there were only a few hundred of them (check out the DayLee Show or DawnsWorld…or perhaps not!) , produced photo shoots, presented live webcasts (or Webovision as one of my be’Lee’ers comedian Tom Green likes to call it) and not to mention getting harassed by 4chan trolls (4chan is an image-based online bulletin board, for the uninitiated) babysitting, flash-mobbing, sky diving or dog walking, oh and I even co-founded a social network for 10,000+ expats!
These are all things that when living in London I didn’t think were possible…or even necessary – but as soon as the Californian sun shone in my eyes I turned into the Catherine Tate character, Helen Marsh and said ‘I can do that’! Most people back home often ask ‘why?’, whereas people here reply ‘tell me more’. I think the key to this city is to take great pleasure in what you do – I saw a prime example of that when at a restaurant last week – a joyous group were sitting at a table close by and obviously celebrating something special. We got into conversation and I asked one of them what the special occasion was, and one of the group proudly explained they had made a film which had just opened and was received quite well. Which turned out to be a very modest understatement, as the headline in variety.com read ‘The Martian Rockets to $18 Million Opening Day’ – in case you haven’t guessed, I was chatting to the legendary Sir Ridley Scott! As we all know the Brits love to downplay their achievements; however, the moral I took from this brief encounter was, if you love what you do it never gets old! And even if you grew up in South Shields during the Second World War ‘Anything is Possible’!
Which reminds me – from October 22nd the British Consulate will have British Legion poppies for sale by donation. We will also make them available at our Breakfast Club and Pub Quiz. For all those who are not familiar with this annual collection, the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal is a charity with roots in the First World War. All proceeds go toward British ex-servicemen in need.
I also want to thank our dear friend and colleague Bernard Skibben, aka Mayor of Breakfast Club. He is always so warm and welcoming but this week he went out of his way to make a huge fuss of our very own Birthday Boy, Craig Young. So thank you Bernard and Happy Birthday Craig!!
If you have any questions or comments please visit us at www.Britsin.LA or drop us a line at BritsinLA@gmail.com.
Cheers!
Eileen
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