Debi van Zyl

It has taken me about ten years to fall in love with Los Angeles. I have always loved certain aspects of the city, but to be honest I've been planning my escape for about 9 years. Lately, I've had many days like today, and therefore it's a good example why this place can be so frustrating and refreshing at the same time. Hence the love. Of course I sat in traffic for what seemed like an inhumane amount of time, but I also got to experience the softer, more ironic side of the city.

Bear with me; it's not a long story, but it's a story. Our studio is in some serious need of more storage space. As five designer individuals we certainly have collected some pretty stuff along the way and we need to store/display these things, only to be fair to said collections. However, we also need to be efficient working people, so things like filing cabinets are handy yet not-so-pretty. Our solution? Instead of Ikea (which we tried but felt so empty afterwards) we opted for an educational-furniture-salvage place right the street from the studio.

Tomorrow we are having some lovely wooden cubbies delivered which will be perfect for various paper and material samples. Also, some extremely utilitarian but perfectly lovely old filing cabinets will be delivered. Storage problem solved. If we could have afforded the lockers we bought them.


But what was so perfect about the walk up the street to this strange little warehouse perched on the side of the highway, was the fact that it was a salvage yard/store as well as an oasis/farm.

Los Angeles is full of these dichotomies. I took the photo of the stacked plastic chairs, and literally turned around and took a picture of the chickens and urban garden. I'm sure all other cities are this two-faced; I say that in the nicest way possible, because cities can't just be one thing to all people. Los Angeles has many faces, not just two: underneath all of this is a fascinating place full of social and architectural strangeness, diversity and surprises that have nothing to do with that face it puts on to the rest of the world. This is the LA I love. The one that you have to sit if traffic for.

And, no joke, 45 minutes later, I was sitting mind-numbing traffic for an hour to go a mere 15 miles. An utter waste of time. This is how it goes. At least I got to see real live chickens living in downtown LA. That's a first for me.

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On an entirely different note, I'm happy to report that my knitting is back up to speed. And this is Octavio. He likes lamb chops, as do I.


Have a great weekend everyone! I'm celebrating my birthday this weekend with two other fabulous Sagittarians whose birthdays are days apart from mine, so the party usually lasts a little longer :)