ok, so as i was writing and having my accounts deleted of the last few weeks laura was writing a much more comprehensible email with many bits that i missed out. so here it is. i'd also like to add though that the 'tight corner' laura so kindly refers to was actually a teenily thin, cars close on either side, barely able to even fit a car down it (worse than our street han) dead end road, with nowhere to turn or maneouvre. so much worse and more difficult than she makes out!! anyway here you are...
Thought maybe it was time for another update on mine and Fi's star spangled summer. The exciting news is we finally left LA, after being gently reminded by several sources that travelling was supposed to entail visiting more than one city a month, we packed our comedically overized suitcases and said a tearful goodbye to the walk of fame.
The thing is we had it really good in LA, firstly staying with Ali's friend Dean who refused to let us sleep on the futon or sofa and insisted we take his bed, and use the swimming pool as often as we liked, then moving on to Mike's. He's a friend of Fi's sister and an artist on King of the Hill, his house actually looks like some sort of old school Hollywood Museum, its littered with old film mermorabilia and we slept in a custom made pirate room whilst we were there. He's also a total artist by lifestyle (and by that I mean natural enemy of order, routine and sobriety) When he wasnt trying to force feed us Margarita's at 11am or educate our taste in films (he rented the entire Godfather trilogy and I suddenly understand why all men are obsessed with it - amazing and Al Pacine = sex god) then he would do stuff like cook us dinner, making little animals out of the vegtables, or after watching Shaun of the Dead take us up to his roof and make us recreate the back garden scene by throwing old LP records off the roof (Fi's and Mike flew about 20 ft, mine rebounded on a post i front of my head, shattered and nearly left me blind in one eye)
The thing was as lovely as Mikes house was, it was in a totally ropey area - the centre of female Mexican gang warfare in LA (Mike has bullet holes in his car where he was shot at) complete with a real life Godfather and THE female gang leader living next door. At first we were both a little worried we might wake up to find horses head at the foot of our beds, but Michelle was really cool and it was weirdly re-assuring having her around. Especially one memorable night when we, convinced the house was being broken into risked our lives walking into the living room - me using my phone as a torch (with 911 already dialled) and Fi threateningly wielding one of Mike's doc martins (the heaviest object we could find) to call Michelle, only to find the worlds largest racoon going through the trash...it was hardly a scene from Scarface, but racoons sound deceptively scary.
I was also in a chemist when apparently there was a hold-up, four cops burst in holding guns and ran up to the cashier who was serving me saying: 'are you the one who called in the hold up?' The cashier just looked blankly at the cop and made a monosyllabic 'I dont know whats going on and I dont care mate, I'm on minimum wage' grunt. I walked out whilst Fi was phoning me from the carpark confused as to why three more cop cars had pulled up and asked her if she had been the one to dial 911. We just drove home with our cereal but the road was cordoned off for the rest of the night with about another five copcars up the street and we have no clue what actually happened.
Anyway we finally left for Orange County and it was all going well til on the way to get some food on the first night Fi was trying to do a 3 point turn on a tight corner and after a while all these people drinking on a rooftop were laughing, i just thought (not unreasonably) that it was at Fi's driving, but after a while i wound down the window and they shouted 'you do realise you just hit our fire hydrant with your car' at which point we looked horrified and they shouted 'there's only one thing for it, you better come up here and have a few Margarita's to make it up to us'...God Bless America! Anyway the guy Tommy and his friends hung out with us for a few days and we saw them on Independence Day - which was not as crazy as the yanks would have you believe (I have come to realise that the Brits really do party the hardest) but we did get to see Kanye West...yumyumyum. The O.C. was beautiful and like the TV show just reaks of money, there's people no older than 17 driving top-of the range, brand new 4x4's everywhere you look and the beach is the quickest way to give yourself a complex - being totally full of perfectly toned, bronzed and (i like to think lipo'd) babes...ome people stand in the darkness, afraid to step into the light...
As much as i love the yanks, it was a relief to meet up with a couple of English lads we knew through friends of friends and we've travelled with them for the past couple of weeks. We met them in a bar in LA and after much sambucca, Jack Daniels, dodgy dancing and a slightly embarassing 'getting kicked out of the Church of Scientology Building for answering their phones at 3am' incident, we decided to opt for safety in numbers and travel together. We've crammed so much in with them, three towns in Mexico (where we couldnt walk three feet without the boys being offered Viagra,) camping and hiking in Joshua Tree national park, camping at the Grand Canyon and spending nerly a week in San Diego, thats its really wierd now theyve left (especially as they did all the driving, cooking, organising and planning)
So then there was two, and we're currently in Texas, which is cool, though you get pestered a lot and no one ever walks anywhere (prob why there are quite a few fattyfattybumbums) so it draws attention. No joke we were walking down the road in Pheonix 2 days ago and after being honked about 12 times (I should add we both looked hideous - the sweatiest of betty's) a truck actually slowed down and I swear to god he thought we were hookers. Needless to say we were completely freaked out and ran to the nearest shop to call a taxi. On the bright side everyone here calls you 'ma'm' which is amazing, I keep resisting the urge to tell people I'm not 'ma'm' material, that I dont deserve that much respect and that they can just address me as 'miss' or even 'OI YOU' but we're both enjoying it too much. Going to see where JFK was assasinated tomorrow, the grassy knoll, the book depositry where Lee Harvey Oswald supposedly shot him etc. sounds morbid but it should be really interesting, then onto New Orleans where we're hoping we can still spend some time, we figure the tourist industry needs all the money it can get after hurricane Katrina....
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
crickets in dallas
right well i just wrote a huge witty informative blah blah blah bit about the 'whats the worst that could happen' tour of america and the stupid computer suddenyl deleted it. which makes you feel like you really dont want to write it all again but instead throw the computer on the floor. unfortunately we are in our lovely hotel lobby so i dont think it would be too appropriate. so what i had just written and was about to...
Giant flying crickets in dallas... only made it out of the hotel for some nightlife spotting (hmmm) for about an hour before we had to return, well run and jump and scream, to the hotel because they were so horrific. cant describe how bad, people prob thinking bit pathetic but they are EVERYWHERE. and HUGE. i've decided i actually like cockroaches after enduring those for a night. shudder.
So much more need to tell from before, missed out a huge chunk... so back in time, not sure where to start... vegas, amazing, too hot, rank hot dry wind, cant go out during the day, (original casino owner is a genius) but fun in casinos, although everyone v serious about the gambling and me and laura know very little and putting bets of $20 (high rollers), go to studio 54, see hundreds of brides and wedding parties, stay at the mgm, beautiful room, unfortunately dont make our millions or see george or brad. little disappointing. see hoover dam and then back to poor mike's for a bit after im sure he thought he was rid of us for good! have bit of worrying jounrey for a bit when the 'engine transmission exhaust or sth' light comes on telling us something is wrong. decide best way to deal with it is to keep on driving as quickly as possible to get back to LA. miraculously, no idea how, the light turns itself off so the clever car sorted itself out (i think it was my excellent driving which did so).
back in LA, chill, try to sort rest of stay out for a bit. meet laura's friend's friend's friends (yes really) out in LA, go to mood bar again for some harry potter thing. all get drunk and persuade them to change their whole plans while theyre travelling around in cali for a few weeks and come south with us to san diego. so team spaz is born and road trip begins two days later! san diego, v nice, love fact big going out bit with all the bars next door to each other, more like home, called the gaslamp district and close to hostel. hiddeously drunk surprsie surprise on the first night, big game of ring of fire at the hostel, make it out about 1 when everything closes about 2! not much memory on everyones behalf (i certainly hope).. couple of days there, the world famous san diego zoo! pretty fun. felt like watching anchorman! then head down to mexico.. ensendada for fiorst couple of nights. really nice, actually feels like a mexican town, end up at this amazing salsa/samba club where they had live band and people dancing on stage. puts us to shame with our wiggling of the hips and hands in the air (yes all the cool kids dance like that)all absolutely amazing dancers, as in just the locals, not professional dancers or anything. we completely fitted in! became fluent in spanish again obvisouly. loved speaking it, determined to have lessons when get back... fi?! flea market, blow hole, margaritas.. head up the coast a bit to rosarito,also nice though more touristy, apparently is the new TJ... $10 all you can drink night. big mistake. heinously drunk yet again and this time no memory at all. same for eveyone else... i hope. am going to have to start those chris tarrant memory books when i get home. head up to Tijuana, last stop in mexico. feeling horrific/def still drunk. dont even realise i have one of my contacts in when wearing my glasses. TJ pretty horrible, feels too magaluf style, way too aimed at the tourist and people literally dragging you into their bar/restaurant offering free tequila shots at about 1pm. not too tempting/feel a bit like an alcoholic even if sober, feeling hungover then mention of the word almsot makes me gag. 'i swear im never drinking again' (i have to say actually i've kind of stuck to that so far, def havent had a night like that.. i went behind the bar of the club we were in and started making cocktails while speaking perfect mexican and jumping on the bar. oh dear.) leave mexico next day, back to hostel cat in san diego for a night. to joshua tree national park next day to camp... watch out for snakes and bees. mmm my favourite. funny night of 4 man ring of fire with wine and leftover margarita mix. am clever and start drinking water towards the end. feel slightly smug and v happy the next day when its about 90 degrees at 7am and the others are feeling pretty shocking. dont think i could handle a hangover in that heat. next day drive to flagstaff in arizona. smaaalll town, everyone feeling v tired and bit ill.. still recovering a bit from mexico, cleverly drank the tap water without even thinking... navajo indian reserve and monument valley the next day, amazing scenery. monument valley where all the western films shot. went on a horseride through it, local taking us 4 out, not matter the boys had never riden and me and laura werent exactly experts, we were galloping along (the guy had no time for strolling through, had to keep up with the wild horse he was riding bareback!) through the shrubs and sand alongside these massive red rock formations. truly spectacular. the aching thighs, layers of skin taken off of my ankle as my shoes kept almost falling off and walking like john wayne for a bit were totally all worth it. i have also decided i want to take up horseriding when i get back too. back to flagstaff for night and then grand canyon next day to camp again. beautiful and something like you've never seen before.. we are all indian jones style v brave and climb onto some outer rocks, make you feel a little sick and sweaty when you look down (even though was doing so on my belly pulling myself along!) camp, FREEZING all night, barely sleep, watch sunrise, back to flagstaff where boys drop us off and we have an emotional farewell as they leave for vegas and us for phoenix. phoenix bit crap. get overnight coach to roswell, v fun. but at least had our own seats to stretch-ish out on. shocking 'sleep' though. spend the say walking through the town... ie. walking about 15 minutes from our motel room to a parade of a couple of cafes, souvenir shops, clothes shop, v small town type stuff and EVERYTHING geared or related or have a picture of aliens. go to ufo museum, nothing like the one in the prog and im very sad to see it looks nothing like it (yes yes i know its filmed in LA) as the woman behind the gift counter at the museum says, 'they make it look a lot nicer in the programme', so she clearly thinks a lot of the town! almost dont make it out of roswell as forget to purchase our ticket from the teeny desk which shuts at 5.30 (most others open all night, although cant really expect much!) luckily bus driver gives us one (oi not like that you dirty minded people) and we have another fun overnighter to dallas, we did have to ask is this the way to amarillo as we had to change there. it was so we tried to fall asleep hugging our pillow, dreaming dreams of amarillo. got to dallas, nice and humid, feeling rank and tired from long journey and then to realise we had nowhere to stay and no number to call. A LOT of yellow paging it later and then having to make a trip to the library, which on route to, my suitcase that i bought in san diego (when we dragged the boys into target, and then where they spent $150 and we had to drag them out. what a place) after my other one broke, bloody tesco value, so felt like i was literally dragging rocks, in my smelly and hot tshirt and tracky bums in horrible humid weather. think quite a few swear words were shouted which i obvisouly cant repeat here and will never say again. which brings us here top tonight, to hotel indigo which is really beaut and really not helping with our 'we really have to tighten the purse strings' beginning. but as i said, we got cereal and milk so i am happy for brekkie, lunch and dinner. should prob get some fruit as well. anyway, tired of typing, some crazy old women in recption screeching, and we have to try and get up early to do lots of touristy stuff (jfk shooting scene mainly, little morbid but has to be done as we're here) so sorry this is a bit rambling, doesnt really flow or make sense but internet time is precious and flies by! will try update more often and less. off to austin for a day then new orleans after here, so looking forward to some jazz and blues dancing!!
Giant flying crickets in dallas... only made it out of the hotel for some nightlife spotting (hmmm) for about an hour before we had to return, well run and jump and scream, to the hotel because they were so horrific. cant describe how bad, people prob thinking bit pathetic but they are EVERYWHERE. and HUGE. i've decided i actually like cockroaches after enduring those for a night. shudder.
So much more need to tell from before, missed out a huge chunk... so back in time, not sure where to start... vegas, amazing, too hot, rank hot dry wind, cant go out during the day, (original casino owner is a genius) but fun in casinos, although everyone v serious about the gambling and me and laura know very little and putting bets of $20 (high rollers), go to studio 54, see hundreds of brides and wedding parties, stay at the mgm, beautiful room, unfortunately dont make our millions or see george or brad. little disappointing. see hoover dam and then back to poor mike's for a bit after im sure he thought he was rid of us for good! have bit of worrying jounrey for a bit when the 'engine transmission exhaust or sth' light comes on telling us something is wrong. decide best way to deal with it is to keep on driving as quickly as possible to get back to LA. miraculously, no idea how, the light turns itself off so the clever car sorted itself out (i think it was my excellent driving which did so).
back in LA, chill, try to sort rest of stay out for a bit. meet laura's friend's friend's friends (yes really) out in LA, go to mood bar again for some harry potter thing. all get drunk and persuade them to change their whole plans while theyre travelling around in cali for a few weeks and come south with us to san diego. so team spaz is born and road trip begins two days later! san diego, v nice, love fact big going out bit with all the bars next door to each other, more like home, called the gaslamp district and close to hostel. hiddeously drunk surprsie surprise on the first night, big game of ring of fire at the hostel, make it out about 1 when everything closes about 2! not much memory on everyones behalf (i certainly hope).. couple of days there, the world famous san diego zoo! pretty fun. felt like watching anchorman! then head down to mexico.. ensendada for fiorst couple of nights. really nice, actually feels like a mexican town, end up at this amazing salsa/samba club where they had live band and people dancing on stage. puts us to shame with our wiggling of the hips and hands in the air (yes all the cool kids dance like that)all absolutely amazing dancers, as in just the locals, not professional dancers or anything. we completely fitted in! became fluent in spanish again obvisouly. loved speaking it, determined to have lessons when get back... fi?! flea market, blow hole, margaritas.. head up the coast a bit to rosarito,also nice though more touristy, apparently is the new TJ... $10 all you can drink night. big mistake. heinously drunk yet again and this time no memory at all. same for eveyone else... i hope. am going to have to start those chris tarrant memory books when i get home. head up to Tijuana, last stop in mexico. feeling horrific/def still drunk. dont even realise i have one of my contacts in when wearing my glasses. TJ pretty horrible, feels too magaluf style, way too aimed at the tourist and people literally dragging you into their bar/restaurant offering free tequila shots at about 1pm. not too tempting/feel a bit like an alcoholic even if sober, feeling hungover then mention of the word almsot makes me gag. 'i swear im never drinking again' (i have to say actually i've kind of stuck to that so far, def havent had a night like that.. i went behind the bar of the club we were in and started making cocktails while speaking perfect mexican and jumping on the bar. oh dear.) leave mexico next day, back to hostel cat in san diego for a night. to joshua tree national park next day to camp... watch out for snakes and bees. mmm my favourite. funny night of 4 man ring of fire with wine and leftover margarita mix. am clever and start drinking water towards the end. feel slightly smug and v happy the next day when its about 90 degrees at 7am and the others are feeling pretty shocking. dont think i could handle a hangover in that heat. next day drive to flagstaff in arizona. smaaalll town, everyone feeling v tired and bit ill.. still recovering a bit from mexico, cleverly drank the tap water without even thinking... navajo indian reserve and monument valley the next day, amazing scenery. monument valley where all the western films shot. went on a horseride through it, local taking us 4 out, not matter the boys had never riden and me and laura werent exactly experts, we were galloping along (the guy had no time for strolling through, had to keep up with the wild horse he was riding bareback!) through the shrubs and sand alongside these massive red rock formations. truly spectacular. the aching thighs, layers of skin taken off of my ankle as my shoes kept almost falling off and walking like john wayne for a bit were totally all worth it. i have also decided i want to take up horseriding when i get back too. back to flagstaff for night and then grand canyon next day to camp again. beautiful and something like you've never seen before.. we are all indian jones style v brave and climb onto some outer rocks, make you feel a little sick and sweaty when you look down (even though was doing so on my belly pulling myself along!) camp, FREEZING all night, barely sleep, watch sunrise, back to flagstaff where boys drop us off and we have an emotional farewell as they leave for vegas and us for phoenix. phoenix bit crap. get overnight coach to roswell, v fun. but at least had our own seats to stretch-ish out on. shocking 'sleep' though. spend the say walking through the town... ie. walking about 15 minutes from our motel room to a parade of a couple of cafes, souvenir shops, clothes shop, v small town type stuff and EVERYTHING geared or related or have a picture of aliens. go to ufo museum, nothing like the one in the prog and im very sad to see it looks nothing like it (yes yes i know its filmed in LA) as the woman behind the gift counter at the museum says, 'they make it look a lot nicer in the programme', so she clearly thinks a lot of the town! almost dont make it out of roswell as forget to purchase our ticket from the teeny desk which shuts at 5.30 (most others open all night, although cant really expect much!) luckily bus driver gives us one (oi not like that you dirty minded people) and we have another fun overnighter to dallas, we did have to ask is this the way to amarillo as we had to change there. it was so we tried to fall asleep hugging our pillow, dreaming dreams of amarillo. got to dallas, nice and humid, feeling rank and tired from long journey and then to realise we had nowhere to stay and no number to call. A LOT of yellow paging it later and then having to make a trip to the library, which on route to, my suitcase that i bought in san diego (when we dragged the boys into target, and then where they spent $150 and we had to drag them out. what a place) after my other one broke, bloody tesco value, so felt like i was literally dragging rocks, in my smelly and hot tshirt and tracky bums in horrible humid weather. think quite a few swear words were shouted which i obvisouly cant repeat here and will never say again. which brings us here top tonight, to hotel indigo which is really beaut and really not helping with our 'we really have to tighten the purse strings' beginning. but as i said, we got cereal and milk so i am happy for brekkie, lunch and dinner. should prob get some fruit as well. anyway, tired of typing, some crazy old women in recption screeching, and we have to try and get up early to do lots of touristy stuff (jfk shooting scene mainly, little morbid but has to be done as we're here) so sorry this is a bit rambling, doesnt really flow or make sense but internet time is precious and flies by! will try update more often and less. off to austin for a day then new orleans after here, so looking forward to some jazz and blues dancing!!
Friday, July 6, 2007
So here I am in Laguna Beach library and unfortunately this seems to be the best thing about it (free use of internet). It's muggy and cloudy, I recognise none of the locations from the TV prog (yes, that is mainly why I came. loser schmoser han), have seen none of the people, its really expensive and the beach isnt even very nice! We're actually staying in newport, about 20 minutes north (where currently it is sunny and beautiful!), planning on staying here last night but compared to our (slightly strange and scary) $65 a night motel up there we were greeted with bargain prices of, cheapest, about $150 a night. As it is so close though figured we'd go back to newport and then drive down today so we can get a proper feel for it. Well the proper feel isn't great and its our last day of 'beach holiday' for a while! boo. ah well, we learn and grow from our mistakes.
Newport on the other hand we really like... although i think 5 days is also enough time there. There's the main pier/peninsula area with all the bars/restaurants etc... when i say all i mean there are pretty much 2 main ones - Sharkeez and District - which 'close down' at about midnight as they are full to capacity. me and laura not knowing this trundle out of our room after a nice bottle of vino about 11.30 and head into town... not even our puppy dog eyed look, english accents and lauras boobs could get past those bouncers (as someone later said to me 'yeah but theyre used to dealing with models etc everyday'. thanks.) luckily we have made friends with some of the people in town... after i backed into their fire hydrant, while they were watching from the roof, and then invited us to park in their driveway and have drinks from the fully stocked/working bar they had in the sitting room while watching the sun go down over the sea from the roof - they literally live but one house from the beach. nice. so meet them and they take us to this slightly biker-ish style bar! apparently tommy, the guy whos house it is, says that most people get into clubs at this time by doing the handshake with bill inside! classic. ooh, anyway time about to run out so will continue another time... off to vegas tomorrow baby!!
Newport on the other hand we really like... although i think 5 days is also enough time there. There's the main pier/peninsula area with all the bars/restaurants etc... when i say all i mean there are pretty much 2 main ones - Sharkeez and District - which 'close down' at about midnight as they are full to capacity. me and laura not knowing this trundle out of our room after a nice bottle of vino about 11.30 and head into town... not even our puppy dog eyed look, english accents and lauras boobs could get past those bouncers (as someone later said to me 'yeah but theyre used to dealing with models etc everyday'. thanks.) luckily we have made friends with some of the people in town... after i backed into their fire hydrant, while they were watching from the roof, and then invited us to park in their driveway and have drinks from the fully stocked/working bar they had in the sitting room while watching the sun go down over the sea from the roof - they literally live but one house from the beach. nice. so meet them and they take us to this slightly biker-ish style bar! apparently tommy, the guy whos house it is, says that most people get into clubs at this time by doing the handshake with bill inside! classic. ooh, anyway time about to run out so will continue another time... off to vegas tomorrow baby!!
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
baby you can drive my car...
ooh excitement over the pond, i drove for the first time yesterday! and only scratched 3 cars and hit two people, phew. seriously though its really quite difficult driving on the other side, i naturally move towards the right - getting the lane re-alignment is going to be tricky, but lauras having the week or two off after having done it all so far so hopefully that should give me time to work on it! it is also a dream having an automatic (although again strange using only one foot and a couple of times my hand did automatically move down to the left of me when we were changing spped) LA traffic is shocking and so stop-start/not moving at all for a few hours/swerving in and out of cars a lot that it would be a pain to have to concentrate on that too! also had a bit of a blow yesterday (metaphorically speaking, not the car) as the rental car we thought we'd just keep instead of buying (more expensive but so much easier and more reliable) is infact no longer an option as we cant drop it off in a different location, despite the fact we spoke with them about what our needs were etc etc. ugh just that feeling of despair and oh dear god no i dont have waste more time looking on the internet/magazines/ropey car lots again do i... well we're going to leave it for the time being while we're still in Cali and when we go to Vegas but then will need to sort something. boo. (but guess it wont matter then cos we can buy a beautiful amazing car with all our winnings!) anyway enough about boring car stuff....
um not really sure what there is to tell, cant remember where we got up to last time as was more of a round-up of the trip so far. hmmm ok, well went to this rooftop bar last week called 'skybar', apparently very fancy and exclusive blah blah, which really stands for pretentious, so dark you cant even see where you're walking and what people look like and bottles of (fairly crappy) wine being $65 (cheapest). luckily (as usual) we managed to chat to some guys who bought us some drinks (much to our protestations of course) and then who we quickly made like a tree with and went to a much better club, where people actually danced, called area for the rest of the night. again though, lots of uber skinny girls (we are literally obese over here) who really do spend the whole night sharking and making sure people saw how well (cough) they danced. im guessing there were a lot of important or famous people that we just had no clue who they were. ooh except for the guy from honey who came in (the one whos the mean dance director) which was obviously very exciting. we seem to be having this problem of late though that whenever we're chatting to people and they ask for our numbers we are incapable of lying and saying we don't have a phone etc so instead half the men of LA have our numbers, we have none of their names and so most of the time when our phones ring we daren't pick up with the knowledge that we have no idea who will be on the other end. and here they actually do call! a lot! oh dear. anyway not quite sure where i am now, bit of a ramble...
don't think theres actually too much more to tell (thats of interest) we have been having a lot of movie nights with the guy we're staying with, we're educating him (high school musical, buffy series - he likes the film oh dear) and he us. happily we have watched the Godfather trilogy on his request and i cannot believe i hadnt seen any of them before. serisouly serisouly best films ever seen. loved it. and LOVE al pacino. me and laura have a bit of an obsession, although at least mine stops with these films, she actually 'would' when he is in Oceans 13... hmmmm... Andy Garcia in the last one is also a new love. is definitely the sign of a good film when you cant stop thinking about it after! i was also kind of sceptical about it, cos i felt it was one of the films that you 'just have to see' but wow. hey, this is stuff that i can only do in LA!
went to see the hollywood sign on monday finally! was so good! we managed to get pretty close, although my dreams of having a picture of me lounging in the O were not to be, but we followed the very winding mountain roads past all the beautiful huge fancy houses to the top where it was just a little bit above us. very exciting. after about a billion pictures (of pretty much the same thing) we decided to call it a day. but what fun to be tourists again for the day!
not sure what plans are really over next few weeks, we have O.C - newport and laguna beaches to do - prob staying for a couple nights at each and Vegas to triple our savings and then onwards East! shall keep everyone updated as much as poss although hanging out with all the celebs does take up a lot of our time. until next time...
um not really sure what there is to tell, cant remember where we got up to last time as was more of a round-up of the trip so far. hmmm ok, well went to this rooftop bar last week called 'skybar', apparently very fancy and exclusive blah blah, which really stands for pretentious, so dark you cant even see where you're walking and what people look like and bottles of (fairly crappy) wine being $65 (cheapest). luckily (as usual) we managed to chat to some guys who bought us some drinks (much to our protestations of course) and then who we quickly made like a tree with and went to a much better club, where people actually danced, called area for the rest of the night. again though, lots of uber skinny girls (we are literally obese over here) who really do spend the whole night sharking and making sure people saw how well (cough) they danced. im guessing there were a lot of important or famous people that we just had no clue who they were. ooh except for the guy from honey who came in (the one whos the mean dance director) which was obviously very exciting. we seem to be having this problem of late though that whenever we're chatting to people and they ask for our numbers we are incapable of lying and saying we don't have a phone etc so instead half the men of LA have our numbers, we have none of their names and so most of the time when our phones ring we daren't pick up with the knowledge that we have no idea who will be on the other end. and here they actually do call! a lot! oh dear. anyway not quite sure where i am now, bit of a ramble...
don't think theres actually too much more to tell (thats of interest) we have been having a lot of movie nights with the guy we're staying with, we're educating him (high school musical, buffy series - he likes the film oh dear) and he us. happily we have watched the Godfather trilogy on his request and i cannot believe i hadnt seen any of them before. serisouly serisouly best films ever seen. loved it. and LOVE al pacino. me and laura have a bit of an obsession, although at least mine stops with these films, she actually 'would' when he is in Oceans 13... hmmmm... Andy Garcia in the last one is also a new love. is definitely the sign of a good film when you cant stop thinking about it after! i was also kind of sceptical about it, cos i felt it was one of the films that you 'just have to see' but wow. hey, this is stuff that i can only do in LA!
went to see the hollywood sign on monday finally! was so good! we managed to get pretty close, although my dreams of having a picture of me lounging in the O were not to be, but we followed the very winding mountain roads past all the beautiful huge fancy houses to the top where it was just a little bit above us. very exciting. after about a billion pictures (of pretty much the same thing) we decided to call it a day. but what fun to be tourists again for the day!
not sure what plans are really over next few weeks, we have O.C - newport and laguna beaches to do - prob staying for a couple nights at each and Vegas to triple our savings and then onwards East! shall keep everyone updated as much as poss although hanging out with all the celebs does take up a lot of our time. until next time...
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Laura: Recap cont'd
What's up? (this is american for 'how are you doing, fine people?') see i'm picking up the slang already.
Ok, so recap, the trip got off to a rocky start when my claims of 'we dont need to check in for the flight early online,' proved erroneous, and we ended up being two of the last three people to check in and therfore not able to sit together on the plane. Maybe not the biggest dilemma for anyone who's fine with being stuck in a tin-can, death trap 30,000 feet into the air, but considering me and fi both like flying even less than Paris Hilton likes driving sober, there was some pretty hysterical crying before we even moved off the runway. Things got worse when the captain, NO JOKE, said this over the louspeaker:
Captain: "Good Morning, I am Captain rahrahrah....so you may have noticed we are running a little late for our scheduled time of departure, that is because 2 of our 4 engines failed to start when we tried to initialize take off a few minutes ago. The machine normally used to test them has actually boken down so e're gonna try to track down a new and give it another go. Not to worry though, we'll take off soon anyway"
Me & Fi: "F**K, F**K, F**K" and all sorts of other potty mouth language
Luckily a kindly airhostess took pity on us and moved some people around (probably cos we were freaking the other passengers out) and 10 bum-numbing hours later we hit the beautiful, drenched beaches of San Francisco, or so we thought....
it turns out the tourist industry's best-kept secret is that San Francisco is BLOODY FREEZING. I'm genuinely thinking of suing the city that resides in California, supposedly the 'Sunshine State' under the trades description act. We had packed about 10 bikinis each, four bottle of factor 25 and only about three jumpers, so spent the entire week we were there looking like the abominable snowmen, each in about seven layers. Saying that San Fran was a really cool city, the people are crazy friendly and one time we ended up stranded in the gay district with the campest man i've ever met who just kept repeating the phrase 'I am gonna tear that shit up' whenever a moderately attractive bloke walked past, and quite a few hideous ones aswell (he meant bum them.) We walked over the Golden Gate Bridge and went to Alcatraz for the day, the US's most high profile maximum security prison which (contrary to the Sean Connery film 'The Rock's' version) had seen three people manage to escape. It was the best thing we've done so far and not only housed the Birdman of Alcatraz but also Al Capone. They let you stand alone in the solitary confinement cells and with no windows and just four tiny walls, its really eiree, especially when you see the cell where prisoners shot three of the guards they manged to capture during a botched escape attempt.
After a week in SF the weather got to us and we were ready to migrate south for the duration, we got a lift with this Austrian bloke called Marco who was living in the same hostel as us. Now i know you should never get into cars with strange men, but this guy had hippy written all over him (long white dreds, funny smell etc.) and only weighed about 8 stone so we thought if it ever came to it, we could both probably take him. We drove down through Santa Cruz then onto Monterey where we went Whale Watching (with all sorts of Free Willy style action) and to this giant Aquarium. However, after a few days we realised that whilst nice, the Austrian (as he shall henceforth be known) had a less-than-casual relationship with personal hygiene (he never washed or changed his t-shirt for the four days and nights we were with him) and was totally humourless, so I think he found me and fi quite annoying, especially when we would get back to our motel room and force him to watch late night re-runs of Dawsons Creek and Sex in the City. Then as we drove to Santa Barbara the next town along the 'Big Sur', a road which is carved out the cliff and is the only thing between the car and a 20ft drop to the ocean, he instisted on trying to map read AND drive way faster than the speed limit at the same time, and we decided it was best we cut the Austrian loose, before we killed him! Like they say two's company, threes a crowd...
We're currently in LA and loving it, its sunny and there loads to do. So far we've been to a couple of Hollywood Museums, strolled along the walk of fame, watched a late night talk show being filmed, been to a graveyard where all the famous people are buried (not as creepy as it sounds) and of course spent the day at Universal Studios. Famous celeb sightings have so far included: Max Beesley, Samuel 'motherf**king' L. Jackson, Robbie Williams, Don Rickles (old school hollywood legend) a guy from the Grinch movie, Spencer Moon from Eastenders, Johny Wilks and a couple of TV people who are big over here but I have never heard of in England. True to form Fi blagged us into the VIP area of some posh club on Hollywood Boulevard on Saturday, disappointingly there was a lack of celebs but the club is the one in that new movie 'Knocked Up' and we're currently working on the finer details of how to blag our way into more venues, using Fi posing as Kate Middleton (hey it could happen)
My favourie moment so far was when we met Spencer Moon and Fi didnt realise who it was (in her defence it was really dark) and spent about half an hour asking him cringy questions about where he lived in london, what school he went to, what he did in LA and who he knew in London. Seriously it went like this:
Fi: So where about do you hang out in Chiswick?
Spencer: I go to the Soho House (v.posh)
Fi: Ooh get you! very nice. So who do you know around Chiswick, what are their names?
Spencer: (awkward) well my mates i used to work with (from eastenders, but he was too classy to say it out loud) and Fern, Reggie (from radio 1)
Fi: haha what Fern Cotton yeah? (joking)
Spncer: er, yes actually (not joking)
It was very reminicent from that scene in Notting Hill where Bernie's taling to Julia Roberts without realisng who she is, we nearly wet ourselves when we realsied, but he was so nice so it wasnt too bad. We're gonna do a couple more studio tours, hit rodeo drive (only to shoplift cos we cant actually afford to buy stuff) and go to the doger stadium, aswell as a few other bits and pieces before we move on to Vegas (we saw Oceans 13 the other day so are now convinced we can rob the place)...
Ok, so recap, the trip got off to a rocky start when my claims of 'we dont need to check in for the flight early online,' proved erroneous, and we ended up being two of the last three people to check in and therfore not able to sit together on the plane. Maybe not the biggest dilemma for anyone who's fine with being stuck in a tin-can, death trap 30,000 feet into the air, but considering me and fi both like flying even less than Paris Hilton likes driving sober, there was some pretty hysterical crying before we even moved off the runway. Things got worse when the captain, NO JOKE, said this over the louspeaker:
Captain: "Good Morning, I am Captain rahrahrah....so you may have noticed we are running a little late for our scheduled time of departure, that is because 2 of our 4 engines failed to start when we tried to initialize take off a few minutes ago. The machine normally used to test them has actually boken down so e're gonna try to track down a new and give it another go. Not to worry though, we'll take off soon anyway"
Me & Fi: "F**K, F**K, F**K" and all sorts of other potty mouth language
Luckily a kindly airhostess took pity on us and moved some people around (probably cos we were freaking the other passengers out) and 10 bum-numbing hours later we hit the beautiful, drenched beaches of San Francisco, or so we thought....
it turns out the tourist industry's best-kept secret is that San Francisco is BLOODY FREEZING. I'm genuinely thinking of suing the city that resides in California, supposedly the 'Sunshine State' under the trades description act. We had packed about 10 bikinis each, four bottle of factor 25 and only about three jumpers, so spent the entire week we were there looking like the abominable snowmen, each in about seven layers. Saying that San Fran was a really cool city, the people are crazy friendly and one time we ended up stranded in the gay district with the campest man i've ever met who just kept repeating the phrase 'I am gonna tear that shit up' whenever a moderately attractive bloke walked past, and quite a few hideous ones aswell (he meant bum them.) We walked over the Golden Gate Bridge and went to Alcatraz for the day, the US's most high profile maximum security prison which (contrary to the Sean Connery film 'The Rock's' version) had seen three people manage to escape. It was the best thing we've done so far and not only housed the Birdman of Alcatraz but also Al Capone. They let you stand alone in the solitary confinement cells and with no windows and just four tiny walls, its really eiree, especially when you see the cell where prisoners shot three of the guards they manged to capture during a botched escape attempt.
After a week in SF the weather got to us and we were ready to migrate south for the duration, we got a lift with this Austrian bloke called Marco who was living in the same hostel as us. Now i know you should never get into cars with strange men, but this guy had hippy written all over him (long white dreds, funny smell etc.) and only weighed about 8 stone so we thought if it ever came to it, we could both probably take him. We drove down through Santa Cruz then onto Monterey where we went Whale Watching (with all sorts of Free Willy style action) and to this giant Aquarium. However, after a few days we realised that whilst nice, the Austrian (as he shall henceforth be known) had a less-than-casual relationship with personal hygiene (he never washed or changed his t-shirt for the four days and nights we were with him) and was totally humourless, so I think he found me and fi quite annoying, especially when we would get back to our motel room and force him to watch late night re-runs of Dawsons Creek and Sex in the City. Then as we drove to Santa Barbara the next town along the 'Big Sur', a road which is carved out the cliff and is the only thing between the car and a 20ft drop to the ocean, he instisted on trying to map read AND drive way faster than the speed limit at the same time, and we decided it was best we cut the Austrian loose, before we killed him! Like they say two's company, threes a crowd...
We're currently in LA and loving it, its sunny and there loads to do. So far we've been to a couple of Hollywood Museums, strolled along the walk of fame, watched a late night talk show being filmed, been to a graveyard where all the famous people are buried (not as creepy as it sounds) and of course spent the day at Universal Studios. Famous celeb sightings have so far included: Max Beesley, Samuel 'motherf**king' L. Jackson, Robbie Williams, Don Rickles (old school hollywood legend) a guy from the Grinch movie, Spencer Moon from Eastenders, Johny Wilks and a couple of TV people who are big over here but I have never heard of in England. True to form Fi blagged us into the VIP area of some posh club on Hollywood Boulevard on Saturday, disappointingly there was a lack of celebs but the club is the one in that new movie 'Knocked Up' and we're currently working on the finer details of how to blag our way into more venues, using Fi posing as Kate Middleton (hey it could happen)
My favourie moment so far was when we met Spencer Moon and Fi didnt realise who it was (in her defence it was really dark) and spent about half an hour asking him cringy questions about where he lived in london, what school he went to, what he did in LA and who he knew in London. Seriously it went like this:
Fi: So where about do you hang out in Chiswick?
Spencer: I go to the Soho House (v.posh)
Fi: Ooh get you! very nice. So who do you know around Chiswick, what are their names?
Spencer: (awkward) well my mates i used to work with (from eastenders, but he was too classy to say it out loud) and Fern, Reggie (from radio 1)
Fi: haha what Fern Cotton yeah? (joking)
Spncer: er, yes actually (not joking)
It was very reminicent from that scene in Notting Hill where Bernie's taling to Julia Roberts without realisng who she is, we nearly wet ourselves when we realsied, but he was so nice so it wasnt too bad. We're gonna do a couple more studio tours, hit rodeo drive (only to shoplift cos we cant actually afford to buy stuff) and go to the doger stadium, aswell as a few other bits and pieces before we move on to Vegas (we saw Oceans 13 the other day so are now convinced we can rob the place)...
whoops i havent added anything!
ok, so haven't written anything yet! (but seeing as hannah will prob be the only one to read this...!), will unfortunately will have to do a quick roundup of the last few weeks. can't believe its almost been a month we've been here! feel we have done so much and so feels like we've been here for ages... 4 weeks of sitting on a desk never feels like this!
so arrive in san francisco, getting dropped off by our hotel shuttle on some seedy strip joint filled road... hoping he was mistaken and then looking up to see the 'Green Tortoise hostel' sign. hurrah we were at our very own red light district esque house! anyway... literally time is about to run out, sooo
next day do a bit of shopping (obv), we're still allowed to convert the dollars into pounds as we've only just got here, so everythings like 'god thats only fifteen pounds really'. oh how i love the current conversion rate. also try to head to this place and end up in Castro, the gay district of San Fran where we meet a hysterical "almost too gay to function" guy who says to every fit guy who walks past "i'm gonna tear that shit up". seriously. i didn't think such people existed.
weds was shopping again... hey don't judge we had only just got here and trying to get over jet lag and this seemed the only way possible. the other thing i should have said is San Fran is FREEZING! apparently they have a micro climate, the warmest temp is about 18 degrees and thats not till august or sth... unfotunately we were hoping for a sun/beach type few days to relax from the stressed work days we had left behind...
okay, i'm running out of time, i'm going to let laura take over this recap so far!
so arrive in san francisco, getting dropped off by our hotel shuttle on some seedy strip joint filled road... hoping he was mistaken and then looking up to see the 'Green Tortoise hostel' sign. hurrah we were at our very own red light district esque house! anyway... literally time is about to run out, sooo
next day do a bit of shopping (obv), we're still allowed to convert the dollars into pounds as we've only just got here, so everythings like 'god thats only fifteen pounds really'. oh how i love the current conversion rate. also try to head to this place and end up in Castro, the gay district of San Fran where we meet a hysterical "almost too gay to function" guy who says to every fit guy who walks past "i'm gonna tear that shit up". seriously. i didn't think such people existed.
weds was shopping again... hey don't judge we had only just got here and trying to get over jet lag and this seemed the only way possible. the other thing i should have said is San Fran is FREEZING! apparently they have a micro climate, the warmest temp is about 18 degrees and thats not till august or sth... unfotunately we were hoping for a sun/beach type few days to relax from the stressed work days we had left behind...
okay, i'm running out of time, i'm going to let laura take over this recap so far!
Monday, May 28, 2007
airport
Mugging for the camera, you may think, but in reality Cherry's just glad to be shot of Duncan for the summer... They'd also just spent half an hour stalking Natalie Imbruglia from the comfort of the upstairs Costa Coffee, and trying to work out where the soldiers in the pub opposite were going (somewhere in Germany, apparently)
Eeeek. No turning back now...
Sunday, May 27, 2007
first post in a new blog, ta da!
1:25am and still not in bed, surprise surprise...
At least I'm all packed. That *is* a surprise.
At least I'm all packed. That *is* a surprise.
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