I dream of blue water.

Wednesday the 9th of September was the greatest of days… even though it ended badly. It was the day after my birthday, usually a day that tends to be insignificant, dull, dark and depressive. However, being in San Diego, it was my second full day of the trip and, even though I had not slept well at all, I decided to take a bus to Ocean Beach. I usually take the train to old town and then a bus from there but this time I discovered the 923 bus that goes directly from the front of my hotel on North Harbour Drive to Ocean Beach. When I arrived in Ocean Beach it was around 10am, so I walked directly to the beach and sat in the shade of the lifeguard’s station and read. I recorded a reading of 99 Degrees by Charles Bukowski for my YouTube channel and then I read To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. 

                  Around 11:30, the shade was disappearing and the heat was rising, so I decided to go and have a beer. I started at OB Surf Lodge and sat at the bar. First, I had a chat with a veteran about American Football and English soccer, then a young lady sat beside me with two dogs. Between her, the barman, and me, we had a hilarious discussion about random topics as some kind of 80s power ballads radio station played as a backdrop and inspiration to the moment. The bar tender called the lady ‘love’ and so I asked why he never called me ‘love’. When he gave me my second beer, he called me ‘love’. This was just the start; I was about to enter into several hours of paradisal love. 

                  Leaving OB Surf Lodge, I merely took a few steps to the left into the Blue Water Seafood Restaurant next door. A few years ago, I had gone there and met a bar tender named Tonya, but on recent visits, she was no longer there. I had felt some kind of magnetic connection with Tonya and always hoped to see her again. As I entered… there she was… looking even more beautiful than ever in a green summer top, baggy blue jeans, and cool Vans sneakers. Her beautiful black hear was tied up loosely with strands falling down to the side of her face. I grinned like an idiot and, it seemed to me, she recognised me. The same connection began as I asked her about cocktails and San Diego and so on. Each time she had a moment of quiet, even though there were people all around the bar, she would come over to me and chat. I was beyond enchanted. She put a flower into my cocktail and teased me with a delicate smile and mischievous eyes. 

                  Sadly, I eventually had to say farewell, I was becoming too enamoured and too silly. I got a truly warm farewell and then I walked around the corner to the Ocean Beach brewery. Another place that I have to make a stop at when in OB. I bought a beer and climbed to the rooftop to gaze over the ocean as I sipped the drink. I then took the bus back to my hotel and decided to walk across the street to watch the sunset with a last cocktail at Dockside Bar.

Sadly, this is when the wheels fell off. As I was paying to leave, a lady who had been sitting to my right and talking to anyone within earshot suddenly came and sat next to me because everyone else had left. I was too slow. She was from Texas but had moved to San Diego and had been through a divorce after 16 years of marriage. She was insistent that I join her for a drink at another bar. I was instant that I go home. Anyway, to cut a long story short, we ended up having more drinks at the bar of my hotel. When I awoke the following morning, I somehow managed to walk and have breakfast before becoming violently sick and spending most of the day in bed. I later came back from the dead to take a short trip to ‘Blind Burro’, another favourite spot of mine in San Diego, before going back to my hotel for an early night. A waste of the final full day due to stupidity. 

Now I simply dream of Tonya. 


Prickle Pear Mojito, Blue Water, Ocean Beach, San Diego

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