Regina Rubino was developing businesses throughout Asia. So I decided to travel with my new love. We puddle-jumped through Southeast Asia, one plane after another. On one leg of the trip we arrived in Thailand at 5 a.m. What an experience. The air you breathe is quite different from chilly England. Even at that early hour it was muggy and hot and there was no air conditioning. The air was filled with scents of the jungle.
Traveling with Regina brought to life the geography and history that I had loved studying while a student in Venezuela. I was actually spending time in the exotic places I had read about. I was no longer staring at pictures in books; I was standing before gorgeous landscapes. The wonders of the world.
Eventually we arrived in Hong Kong. I loved it there. Things get done in Hong Kong. There are so many fascinating artists and business people. Regina was in the process of opening a new bar-restaurant-lounge there. They needed music. What timing. Things were winding down in London. To make a living I was playing in four bands, sometimes three gigs a day. Hong Kong sounded good to me.
For a couple years it went well. Then Regina’s mother collapsed, and we learned that she had some serious health problems. Regina looked at me and said, “You only have one mother. We need to move to Los Angeles to be with her.”
Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would be living in Los Angeles. In America.
Of course I’d have to start all over again. When we arrived in 2003, I had no friends or contacts in Los Angeles.
But by the time we arrived in Los Angeles I had traveled a bit and developed a different approach to life. I adapted quicker. It was a nice life. Much like living in a movie set with the skaters being pulled by their dog—leash in one hand, coffee in the other. The surfers who looked like seals in their wetsuits, changing in the street in the early morning after walking past our house from the Pacific Ocean, and then hopping on their bikes with boards under their arms.
I learned to love the wonderful, easy way of life in Los Angeles. Sun almost every day (unlike the mostly short, dark, cold and damp days in London). Abundance and choices, and lots of enterprise happening all around us. Driving was a new challenge, though. Empowering and surprisingly liberating. In London and Hong Kong public transportation is the way of everyday life.
But everything is like music. It starts and stops. It celebrates and grieves. It is a never-ending path followed by many travelers who cannot resist its improbable promises of passion and pure joy.
Traveling has helped me put it all into perspective. Sure, I’ve known hardship and still experience challenges. Don’t we all? Yes. Seeing the world is living proof that people are people wherever you go.
It’s comforting.
I now reside in the City of Angels. Surely that’s a blessing.
~ Roberto Blandin
