Bernard is a legend.
The one and only…
A living embodiment of what a Brit in LA is – he has been out here for 37 years and still has a firm Leeds accent (recently utilised in a Yorkshire tea advert). He initially came over to build houses and was in partnership with a guy. They decided to offer Americans something that had not been seen before, houses that were newly-built that looked old. A gamble in anyone’s books, not least for Bernard’s friends back in England who thought he was mad for attempting to do something like this when no-one else was. More fool them as Bernard built a business up and still now drives past places, points and says’ that’s one of mine, that’s one of mine’. Haha, classic.
Not only has he housed some of LA’s great and the good, he also in his spare time looks to help out others by passing on his help, knowledge and wisdom to all through a concern called UKares (a play on ‘UK’ and ‘who cares’) – https://www.facebook.com/UKares
They look to help individuals and families living abroad and his help was invaluable at the first Brits in LA breakfast, dispensing gems about where to get a good Earl Grey teabag, where’s better for shopping, introducing me to others and making a lonely and disorientated Brit feel most at home.
Thank you Bernard! (He’s not dead or anything, I just want to publicly say he’s a legend).
On a similar note, Liz (no photo, sorry) is also another wonder of the Brits in LA breakfast. Liz told me her story over some cracking ricotta pancakes and a cup or two of tea, also at the first Brits breakfast. She was the illegitimate child of a Lord, back in the day and when he decided not to have anything to do with her or her ill mother, she was made a ward of the Court (I didn’t ask too many details about what the exact reasons were) but this was when she was around 7. The Court decided to place Liz under the guardianship of a couple who owned a school and so Liz found herself as the kid who never left school in the holidays. Ever. She became friends with all who worked there and when the couple decided to sell the school when Liz was 17, she was faced with a decision (as the couple thought she could cope on her own – the legal age for Liz to be self-sufficient was 18), so she asked the new owners if she could live in a small room by the kitchens and stay on until she finished school, the next year. As no-one was really covering her school fees or anything like that, Liz was also the kid who had to ask the kitchen staff for leftover food when school was out or she would have starved during the holidays!
Anyway, when school finished, Liz took a nursing course and then promptly left the UK looking for adventure, travelling to places on a whim and staying as long as she wanted to, sometimes a day, a week or years. At one stage, she found herself modelling in Australia and staying for a good while (she has amazing bone structure and is still stunning now) and eventually came out to the West Coast of the States and settling here.
And each week, both her and Bernard and others pitch up to hear the British accent, swap stories of their weeks and ‘enjoy a little slice of back home’. Also amazingly, both Liz and Bernard have kept their British accents, there’s not a hint of an US twang in either of them, which is strange when you consider that some people who are over for a week or a few months come back sounds incedibly American…
So Liz and Bernard, I salute you and thank you for making such an impact on me and for bringing a good old fashinoned bit of British generosity to me.
More Use Than A Chocolate Teapot 