Life and Times in SoCal

Hello, as the old saying goes: “times flies when you’re having fun” as I sit starting this new blog I remember that it is over a year ago since Julie, mum and I went to Australia, where does the time go? 

Well we survived another Christmas, mum came out to see us again. This time we went to Las Vegas. We took mum to see a concert in what is arguably the best venue in the world for concerts, Sphere Las Vegas. We saw my brothers favorite band, Zac Brown band, they were great. Mum loved being in the Sphere, the experience is amazing, it defies your senses to believe that you are actually inside a venue.

In the middle of February Julie and mum went back to the UK, mum home and Julie to look after her mum and dad for a couple of weeks. This as usual gave me the time to get various little jobs done around the house and in the garden, these things never stop, if its not replacing lawn sprinklers its cleaning the outside areas and generally keeping the house up to par. 

Our favorite granddaughter, Taylor celebrated her 18th birthday in mid March. It only seems like 5 minutes since she was born, time is flying. She had a party and by all accounts it was a great evening, we would like her to come out here so we can celebrate with her again!

On the business front my company, Taylor Farms have just launched in to the US market a range of salads with added protein in the dressing, this is a direct result of people being on GLP-1’s, you may know them as fat jabs and their need for added protein in their diet, we Taylor Farms Southern California developed a range of protein enhanced salad dressings to give your salad a protein boost and help you on your weight loss journey. So far this is going very well with most of the big US retailers clamoring for the new salads. The business also acquired a salad company in the UK late last year. Natures Way Foods became a whole owned part of Taylor Fresh Foods. NWF supply all the UK retailers and they have asked NWF/TFF to supply similar products that are very popular in the US market namely chopped salads kits, so you may soon have some TFSC dressings available in the UK. 

I had been planning something for Julie’s birthday and our delayed wedding anniversary celebrations. Julie and I were just going to stay someplace local and relax. However, my friend Andreas told me he will be in Manhattan in early April and would we be able to meet up? So we went! We arrived on April 10th, the day before Julies birthday and staying in Manhattan’s Upper West Side. I booked a table at “Essential by Christophe” Christophe Bellanca is a Michelin Started French Chef. We started the evening with cocktails then on to mousse bouche followed by a 7 course tasting menu paired with 9 different type of wine. The food, the ambiance, the location and of course the company was exquisite. I think is one of the best birthday meals we’ve had in a long time.

Andreas and his girlfriend Gwendolyn arrived late on Saturday afternoon so Julie and I had the bulk of her birthday to slowly strolling around the Upper West Side. We stopped for lunch in a bar called Stout, this is near Bryant Park, for those who know NY, you know this is long walk from the Upper West Side. We had a great lunch then got wrapped up watching the Annual Tartan Week. This s celebration of all things Scottish in the Big Apple, like everything else in the city that never sleeps it was full on, hundreds of pipes and drums with Scottish expats and Scottish Americans in the crowd and the procession. 

We had a great Chinese meal on the Saturday, followed by another meal on the Sunday evening 60 stories up on Liberty Street in the Financial district. 

I love being in NY there is so much more choice than probably anywhere else in the world, I know I live a few miles from LA but NY has it all. 

We are looking forward to all the celebrations this summer as our country celebrates 250 years. However, we will not be having our now annual 4th July party, we have decided our pool needs a refresh so have contracted a contractor to redo the floor and walls. This will be started when in late June so we will be out of the pool for around 4 weeks! I’ll post pictures of before, during and after through the summer. 

We only have one set of visitors scheduled thus far this year, my niece and her husband - Lizzie & Jay - are due here at the beginning of June for 2 weeks. They will be spending a couple of nights (and days) at the mouse house in Anaheim and then would like to do some of the usual activities all the other visitors do, so it should be fun as they haven’t done it or seen it before. 

We will also be back in the UK at the end of November, as is the norm now, Julie first and me following on later. We are also discussing what to do for Christmas, my brother and his wife have asked if they can come out at Christmas New Year so it looks like we will have to plan a suitable New Years eve party. 

Thanks for reading 

Ciao

Paul & Julie

May 2026