Dropped
taipeiflyer’s mate off at LAX after that, saw many Qantas A380 promos. Had my one of many Rants of the Day w/r/t the Sydney-centric nature of the ads. The Arts Centre or the MCG or the trams of Melbourne might not be as internationally recognisable as the visual clichés of Sydney Harbour, the Harbour Bridge or the Opera House – but I do feel that given the inaugural route is MEL-LAX (with SYD-LAX only following 4 days later) Qantas could’ve put up some Melbourne icons along with the Sydney Harbour. The Spirit of Australia ought to be doing its bit to promote tourism to all parts of Australia shouldn’t it?
Decided to stop via
Baseball Central to muck around with some softball and baseball. I sucked terribly at these things (though am surprisingly decent at cricket) but was much better when I was shown the proper techniques.
Shopping top of the agenda today, I was going to make a decision and pick a pair of sunnies by hook or by crook. We drove to
Robertson Boulevard, Beverly Hills. Walked around for a bit trying to track down a fave sunnies store of mine
C by Karina but to no avail and only to discover later that it no longer exists on Robertson and has either shut or moved. Saw a new Chanel store which looked kinda out of place. If I wanted to shop at Chanel I’d have gone to Rodeo Dr. We chanced upon a moving sale featuring discounts of up to 75% at
Agnes B and went wild in there, though again with sizing an issue I emerged with only 1 top. Bargain value – paid only $47, down from the original price of over $180. Pity the rest didn’t fit (am a size 2).
Spotted some paparazzi outside
News Room Cafe where we went to have some juices. It sure is big business, they were communicating with each other via 2 way radios and sharing tips on the locales of several big stars. We wound up sitting near Taylor Handley (who played Oliver Trask in season 1 of
The OC – the psycho who had a crush on Marisa; and more recently
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), though I thought his pal sitting opposite him was actually way better looking. Overall, not much luck with the star spotting this trip.
cousinoftaipeiflyer had a rant about how he’s so over celebrities as he sees them all the time doing ordinary things in LA and can’t understand why other people he meets overseas get all flustered about them.
Finally picked up my pair of sunnies at
Optz. Was torn between a pair of 70s inspired Paul Smith’s or an aviator style Robert Marc’s. In the end I went with the former, being slightly cheaper meant I’d feel slightly less guilty breaking or losing it.
More shopping at
The Grove, which reminds me a bit of Bal Harbour Shops in Miami except a fair bit bigger and less old school.
Went back home for a hard earned rest after a hard day of shopping.
HUGE AL arrived in LA at about 10pm and drove us out for a late night snack and some drinks at the
Peninsula Hotel. Given how tired he was after a long week that must have taken some effort – cheers mate!The bar at the Pen serves v yummy beef burgers served with Mac&Cheese with truffles, all for an insane value price and washed down v nicely with Veuve and some red wine. On the way out we saw a v nice car and posed for pics with it – I’ve no idea what sort of car it was but went with it anyway.
Finished the night with partying in
WeHo! We were supposed to go to
The Abbey but it looked pretty dead and
HUGE AL dragged us to the club next door <insert name when I remember> which looked more happening. The cover charge included free raspberry vodka shots, pretty cute server in Speedos sitting in a jacuzzi pours it into your mouths. The others all declined their shots and so I was ‘forced’ to take them. I'm advised that
HUGE AL has rather incriminating pics of this. :shock: I don’t normally do shots and now I know why – 3 consecutive shots is a killer (not in a standard shot glass either, straight from a bottle :/). The server was cute though and v friendly – so all good. Had some coughtails and wandered around mingling with the rather good looking crowd. Mr Speedos insisted on pouring 2 more shots down my throat and said I didn’t even have to tip him (i did of course) – now THAT finished me off for the night. Club closed promptly at 2am with bright spotlights turned on and the v aggressive bouncers ushered everyone out of the place.
Had to be careful not to puke in
cousinoftaipeiflyer’s car on the way home, and he had to pull over a few times as I was feeling so fragile.
Day 4
Helped
taipeiflyer with some errands, otherwise generally a lazy day recovering from the excesses of the previous days. Had some
Domino’s Pizza which tasted much nicer than the one we have back home in Australia. Prepared for my departure to VIE via LHR. And so another visit to LA had come to an end – as always I’m missing it terribly and can’t wait to be back. A true Mecca of shopping, fashion, glamour and all round indulgence.
Next: AA136 LAX-LHR J; BA704 LHR-VIE whY; Le Meridien Wien
