Day two, not a great night sleep but I wake up late which is nice - no dogs to walk :-)
Weather has been wonderful around 75/25 degrees but I am looking forward to Mexico in the 30s.
I pick up my car and head towards a post office to send a hard drive that needs service. Postage here is so cheap compared to Australia and the service is quite good as well.
A breakfast of raspberries and blackberries which are great at this time of the year and off to a Columbia shop in somewhere called Commerce - 20km which isn't much with freeways. I must have driven through some rougher areas as in some places every second store was a Bail Bond shop - hmmm!
It turns out that the Citadel Shopping Centre, where Columbia is located, is the only Outlet Mall in Los Angeles. How life changes! When I used to see Outlet Malls I would think great clothes, shoes electronics. Now I think "hope they have good selection of baby clothes."
And as expected the Columbia shop don't have what I want and yes lots of baby clothes and that's all I end up buying. The nice thing is that I can leave my shopping in Los Angeles and collect it on the way home.
I get back to the hotel mid afternoon and have a relax heading out to dinner around 19:00. I meet David and we have a GREAT dinner at Chaya, a wonderful Eurasian restaurant I discovered last visit. Spicy Prawn Soup, Tuna Tartare, Poached Oysters (amazing) and a beautifully cooked coconut half lobster age-tofu with prawns and scallops. I even had a sake but only one this time.
Using a GPS is fantastic EXCEPT when the entrance to the freeway is closed. I knew my way back anyway so not too bad.
Lucky I chose to stay in LA and not go to Phoenix. Temperatures have been 46 degrees and now there is flooding.
Saturday and I met David for lunch where he was having his haircut - 40 kilometres away WTF but in LA that's only about 35 minutes. While there I met a leading LA radio Personality Bill Handel. He is Jewish and was telling me how his father was born in Poland and lived from a young age in what was then Yugoslavia. He and his two sister were smuggled by the Vatican underground (never knew that one existed) and he was in hiding for 18 months as a Jesuit Priest and his sisters were in a convent.
My favourite lunch at Wholefoods where they make 10 fresh soups daily and have the biggest selection of salads imaginable.
Back to the hotel via an electronics shop and a bit of relaxing. I find a nice buzzy restaurant for dinner on Saturday night FishBar at Manhattan Beach. Imagine the busiest sports bar you know and quadruple it with around 150 people and you have this gem of a seafood restaurant. I never knew cracking crab claws which had been cooked and were soft could be so hard.
Return the car after hours, sleep and off to the airport the next morning for my flight to Cancun. I have been upgraded to Business Class so one small plus for the previously maligned United Airlines.
All very breezy till I get to the Budget Car Rental Desk. I rented a small car for $10 a day including taxes. What they didn't tell you:
I head to the supermarket for some soft drinks etc and go for a swim in the private (this apartment only) and finally get to sleep around 02:00 with the upside of waking at 09:30.
There was a warning on the advert for the apartment that it is noisy at night from the nearby nightclubs - and it was - but not enough to stop me sleeping and well!
Pictures should start with the next post now that I am in Mexico. Not much to photograph in LA except.....
D
[PS Sybil doing well and high spirited about it all]
Weather has been wonderful around 75/25 degrees but I am looking forward to Mexico in the 30s.
I pick up my car and head towards a post office to send a hard drive that needs service. Postage here is so cheap compared to Australia and the service is quite good as well.
A breakfast of raspberries and blackberries which are great at this time of the year and off to a Columbia shop in somewhere called Commerce - 20km which isn't much with freeways. I must have driven through some rougher areas as in some places every second store was a Bail Bond shop - hmmm!
It turns out that the Citadel Shopping Centre, where Columbia is located, is the only Outlet Mall in Los Angeles. How life changes! When I used to see Outlet Malls I would think great clothes, shoes electronics. Now I think "hope they have good selection of baby clothes."
And as expected the Columbia shop don't have what I want and yes lots of baby clothes and that's all I end up buying. The nice thing is that I can leave my shopping in Los Angeles and collect it on the way home.
I get back to the hotel mid afternoon and have a relax heading out to dinner around 19:00. I meet David and we have a GREAT dinner at Chaya, a wonderful Eurasian restaurant I discovered last visit. Spicy Prawn Soup, Tuna Tartare, Poached Oysters (amazing) and a beautifully cooked coconut half lobster age-tofu with prawns and scallops. I even had a sake but only one this time.
Using a GPS is fantastic EXCEPT when the entrance to the freeway is closed. I knew my way back anyway so not too bad.
Lucky I chose to stay in LA and not go to Phoenix. Temperatures have been 46 degrees and now there is flooding.
Saturday and I met David for lunch where he was having his haircut - 40 kilometres away WTF but in LA that's only about 35 minutes. While there I met a leading LA radio Personality Bill Handel. He is Jewish and was telling me how his father was born in Poland and lived from a young age in what was then Yugoslavia. He and his two sister were smuggled by the Vatican underground (never knew that one existed) and he was in hiding for 18 months as a Jesuit Priest and his sisters were in a convent.
My favourite lunch at Wholefoods where they make 10 fresh soups daily and have the biggest selection of salads imaginable.
Back to the hotel via an electronics shop and a bit of relaxing. I find a nice buzzy restaurant for dinner on Saturday night FishBar at Manhattan Beach. Imagine the busiest sports bar you know and quadruple it with around 150 people and you have this gem of a seafood restaurant. I never knew cracking crab claws which had been cooked and were soft could be so hard.
Return the car after hours, sleep and off to the airport the next morning for my flight to Cancun. I have been upgraded to Business Class so one small plus for the previously maligned United Airlines.
All very breezy till I get to the Budget Car Rental Desk. I rented a small car for $10 a day including taxes. What they didn't tell you:
- there is a compulsory insurance $20 a day which is just for other car and persons
- they make you sign blank Amex vouchers and when I wrote signed in blank on them he tore them up
- they quote in US dollars but bill you in Mexican Pesos (at a reasonable rate) and if you use a $A credit card you convert back to that again.
- the "new" car which he claimed when I upgraded to one larger size had done 40,000kms
I head to the supermarket for some soft drinks etc and go for a swim in the private (this apartment only) and finally get to sleep around 02:00 with the upside of waking at 09:30.
There was a warning on the advert for the apartment that it is noisy at night from the nearby nightclubs - and it was - but not enough to stop me sleeping and well!
Pictures should start with the next post now that I am in Mexico. Not much to photograph in LA except.....
Love to all and catch you soonD
[PS Sybil doing well and high spirited about it all]
