Another week in LA

Well it's been another week of shopping and Starbucks... just waiting for my Euromillions numbers to come up so I can live like this all year round ;)

Last Saturday we went to a house party in Hollywood, where I sat on the roof drinking rum with people dressed up as characters from Peter Pan. Luckily nobody attempted to fly off the roof. Next weekend there's talk of a Halloween party, now the big question... what to dress up as! People over here take Halloween very seriously and go all-out when it comes to costumes (unless you're my brother, who went as 'someone who'd been to a play' last year as he'd just been to a play) so your typical witches and werewolves just won't do. Any ideas? The more random the better!

Halloween plates, so cute!

Soooo many pumpkins

Creepy...

This week I've alternated between being lazy and laying around watching game shows and music documentaries on TV, and shopping around my favourite parts of the city. I never bother with the high end places like Beverly Hills as it's too pricey and pretentious, although I do like the Beverly Center mall as they have a huge Forever 21 \o/

Beverly Center!

Hollywood and Highland is another of my favourite places to shop, as it's easy to get to and it's a fun place to hang out... if you don't mind pushing your way through tourists and Sesame St characters along Hollywood Blvd...

Hey Big Bird... no I'm not giving you $10 to pose for a photo!

View from Hollywood & Highland mall as I had my morning (well, 1pm) Starbucks :)

Then there's Los Feliz, which is a bit too hipster for me - you need ironic facial hair and a 2nd hand plaid shirt to look the part - but there are lots of great vintage shops and brunch places there... and a restaurant which should open a chain in the Staines area as the name is so fitting ;)

El Chavo... OK, it made me laugh

The Grove is probably where I shop the most, mainly as Amanda works there so we pick her up most days. Right in the middle of Hollywood, it's great for celeb spotting, although the only time I ever spot stars there is when Amanda's shop has book signings. Last weekend we went in there to meet her, but were pushed out the way by Ozzy Osbourne's bodyguards who were walking him back from the toilets...

Tonight I'm going to a Robyn gig at the Hollywood Bowl and tomorrow we're thinking of going to Venice Beach. I've got a trip planned next week, which will involve zoos, cacti... and more shopping! Can you guess where???

Hello LA

Hello from LA!

Well, its been HOT - almost 100F - the last couple of days, although thankfully it's cooling down a bit now to a more managable temperature. The autumn average tends to be around 20-25C, which is my ideal temperature as it's warm enough to walk around in a T shirt without it being unbearably hot. Anyway, enough about the weather, I sound so terribly stereotypically British..!

On my first full day here (Wednesday) I managed to escape the heat by spending most of the time in air conditioned buildings, although waiting for the bus in the afternoon sun with no shade I was *melting*! The bus over here is quite an interesting experience. In LA, everyone drives. LA is such a spread-out, spralling city it's pretty difficult to get by without a car. Luckily, where Paul and Amanda live is very central for both downtown and Hollywood, both easily accessible on the Metro or bus. Anyway, so the bus is limited to mainly Mexicans and crazy old people. You get a lot of crazy people on the bus in Brighton, but the people on the LA buses are even crazier, if that's possible. Like on Wednesday, I saw an elderly gentleman wearing a comedy nose/glasses ensemble you'd find in a joke shop, along with a puppet thing tied to his zimmer frame, to which he was happily chatting away too. And then later on the bus back I saw an old lady with a bamboo cane with a lightbulb type thing attached to the top. Anyway, it certainly makes the ride more interesting, as does the passing sceney; TV studios, Hollywood sign, blue skies and palm trees.

Yesterday, Amanda and I went for lunch in Silver Lake - my salad was delicious but soooo big, I couldn't quite eat it all. Defeated by a *salad*. On the way back we passed some cool street art. I love LA street art, one day soon I'll spend a whole day walking around the city photographing it and do a whole blog about it. I'm also going to write a whole blog soon on another of my passions - game shows. Watch this space...

Three cheese salad - soooo big

Funky graffiti

And more... WALL-E's LA cousin??

This weekend we have some friends visiting, as well as a house party in Hollywood tonight. This morning we had a delicious brunch then went to buy record in Hollywood and got my favvvvvvourite drink on the way home (boba tea, no less) We're currently trying to set up an extremely complex board game, I hope playing it isn't as complex!

Flashback #3 - LA trip 2010

Two more days! I've had a lovely weekend back in Ashford visiting friends and family - yesterday I had an early birthday party with the 'gang', although it felt weird celebrating it in October, I'm not a Libra!! (...although I do have Venus in Libra in my chart) We took lots of silly photos (...to be posted on Facebook soon), did our tradition quizzes (I won!) and ate too much food. Good times. And today I met up with the lovely Anna, Etty and Angelina at Westfield for brunch, which turned into a 7-hour chat topped off with dinner as we were in the restaurant so long. Tomorrow and visiting the grandparents, then Tuesday I'm off!!

And now for my final flashback – Summer 2010! I had a super-long summer that year, because I left my job at the start of May, had 2 months in LA then had the rest of the summer off when I got back as I didn’t start my next job until September... if only every summer could be like that! My trip was pretty last-minute, as I always go away when I’m in-between contracts yet my kind of work is quite unpredictable and hard to plan. On this occasion, I was working on the ill-fated FiReControl Government IT project (Google it... major fail, Government!) which was cut the week after the Elections, so once I found out I was straight on the phone to Virgin Atlantic booking my flights for the following week. ;)

Most of my 2-month stay was spent out and about in LA doing my usual shopping and general walking-around in Hollywood and Silver Lake, but I also spent a week on the East Coast on what must have been both the most tiring and exciting week ever, gallivanting around NYC, mega-casinos in the middle of the Connecticut forest and tacky Atlantic City to attend certain concerts and parties... but what happens on tour stays on tour I’m afraid..!

Biscuit! The cute neighbourhood cat that likes to come into the apartment and hide behind the TV/oven

Dodgers game... I still don’t understand the rules of baseball, but I like singing along to Don’t Stop Believin’ at the end of the game

The 101

Cool street art in Silver Lake

Cool view of the city from Griffiths Park... cool place to have a rave in the middle of the night ;)

Walking through Griffiths Park

Me and my mate Einstein in Griffiths Observatory

NYC was HOT!

OK, so I was walking through Times Sq wondering to myself how England were getting on in the World Cup, then I look up and see this massive screen... funniest thing I saw on my whole trip hahahaha

MGM Grand Foxwoods, biggest casino in the world when it was built. Fun times were had here...

Getting ready to glam up

Night out in Atlantic City, New Jersey’s tacky answer to Vegas

Unicorn!!!

Flashback #2 - LA trip 2009

Flashback time again... this time my 2009 trip to tie-in with my birthday, Thanksgiving and various 'events' ;)

Welcome to Hollywood!

Lucy's Laundrette

Echo Park on my birthday

Shopping mall in Glendale - look what movie they're playing ;)

When I did a tour of the Kodak Theatre

Spent too much money in Hollywood & Highland mall $$$

Me and Paul look like extras out of The Breakfast Club in our lumberjacket shirts - Clockwork Orange 80s night, Hollywood \o/

Christmas in West Hollywood

Runyon Canyon... beautiful views <3

Venice Beach

Gaslamp Quarter, San Diego

Funky building in San Diego

...the alien cactus in San Diego again, yay!!!

Four days and counting until my next trip!! Over the weekend I'll post a final flashback to my 2-month trip last year, which also included a week on the East Coast... good times :DDD

Flashback #1 - LA trip 2008

With one week to go until my next trip, here's a quick trip back down memory lane to my first trip three years ago:

// Link to my old blog //

Singing with Elvis down Hollywood Blvd

Vegas at night - celebrating my 25th birthday

Sunset on Laguna Beach

Night out in LA

My favourite 'alien cactus' in San Diego (...the gateway to Planet Fierce ;) )

San Diego city skyline

Trip to Seattle - the first ever Starbucks

Space Needle

Seagulls on Vancouver's Granville Island

Trip to San Francisco - Sealions at Pier 39

Puma cuddling up with me watching Game Show Network <3 <3 <3

Newport Beach Christmas lights - a bit more impressive than Staines

Hollywood Hills

King Kong, Elmo and Big Bird hassling tourists on Hollywood Blvd

You could see *anything* on Hollywood Blvd

...I'll post flashback #2 in a couple of days with my 2009 trip, which included:

- Hunting down billboards down Sunset Blvd

- Birthday in Hollywood

- 2012... the end of the world!

- Hiking up Runyon Canyon

- Clockwork Orange 80s night :DDDD

- Eating lots of Korean BBQ and drinking lots of boba tea

- THE AMAS (...most stressful 4 minutes of my life!)

- Spending $$$ in Forever 21

- More cacti-photos in San Diego (including the return of the alien cactus)

- Eating wayyyy too much on Thanksgiving

- Palm reading by The Wizard on Venice Beach

...What will my next trip bring...???