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...
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
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!
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