So yesterday Chris and I took the speedy car up to LA to collect Dedan from his British Airways flight that started in Nairobi with a stop over in London Heathrow and finally landing in LA...way too many hours sitting in a plane!! It was quite the circus at Terminal B - (Tom Bradley International) as they are in the middle of renovations and to make matters worse, four flights all arrived at once. One from Emirates (India), one from Cathay Pacific (Asia), one from Mexicana (Mexico) - they were the tanned passengers and Dedan's British Airways flight - pale Brits and others.
The usual flow of passengers all in various stages of jetlag came wandering through, no Dedan. The next wave were people in wheel chairs, I knew not to look there as Dedan only rides a bike not a chair, next came the hotties in hardly any clothes who had obviously been somewhere warm and sunny as they had fabulous tans - ah still no Dedan. At about an hour later I see an LAX staff member briskly pushing a trolley with one suitcase on it and ahead of him was Dedan - grinning from ear to ear moving his crutches so fast that the guy pushing the trolley was working to keep up with him.That's our boy!!!
Too funny. Anyway, we introduced Dedan to LA by immediately heading south to San Diego via the Interstate 5 Freeway - six lanes of traffic in both directions. Welcome to America!!!It was busy for a Sunday and the huge selection of cars and random acts of driving LA style kept him awake and helped him fight off the heavy eyelids.
Once we got to Encinitas, we made him a good strong cup of tea, then took him to our studio to show him what we had put up on our white board. He was pleasantly surprised.
We then showed him where he was going to be staying for the next three months,a great guest house 30 seconds from our studio and 5 mins walk from our house then took him down to Moonlight Beach our local surf beach (which he just loved)and then we went to the Chart House a local restaurant which sits on the ocean for an early dinner and to watch the sunset.
Our goal was to keep him awake for as long as possible and so after dinner we stopped in at the local supermarket to get supplies. By 8.00pm it was time for him to crash.
This morning he was up with the birds and bright eyed. I had a client in the studio at 10.00am and Dedan observed while he waited for Chris to finish some paperwork. No sooner had I turned my back to pass dumb bells to my client when I spied out of the corner of my eye Dedan doing pullups and then skipping with a skipping rope. Before I knew it he was heading for the BOSU - half ball with a hard surface and used for balance and stability training. As my client said to me...you have to love his drive and energy....you betcha!!!
This afternoon Chris sorted out a bike for Dedan to use for the next couple of days as the new one isn't going to be here until next week. Dedan thankfully is the same size as me in terms of bike frame size and so Chris was able to make my Principia fit him like a glove. Chris and Dedan are off on an early ride in the morning so I lent him my Colnago jacket to wear to ward off the 6.30am chill. Them Kenyan eyes were shining I tell ya !!!
Cheers and thanks for your support...we have one very happy Paralympic Kenyan Cyclist in our midst....
Janet
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