City of Angels

Stop #1 of our US road trip is done and dusted!

Can you spot the Hollywood sign in the above photo taken from our hotel room? Do you want me to pass you the binoculars? Or possibly a small plane?

We spent four days in Los Angeles before turning the wheel in the direction of Las Vegas, where I am finding all excuses to never leave. How much fun can one person have before it starts to become illegal/debaucherous/ridiculous?

But more on that later.

Here's my top ten Los Angeles highlights, in no particular order:

1. Clear blue skies, every day. Are these people serious? The ultimate aphrodisiac.

2. The Mummy ride at Universal Studios. Anyone tried it? It's possibly you didn't live to tell the tale. So good!

3. No. Chinese. Food. Let me say that again. NO. Chinese. Food.

4. Hamburrrrrgers, mmmmm. See above point.

5. I don't think the city of Los Angeles knows that I'm a university student or that I have my own business. It didn't come up.

6. Long dinners with B at places like Sunset Strip and Citywalk at Universal City. Every one felt like an early date; I was in the comfortable stage but a little in awe of him and his extreme cuteness.

7. Catching up with my lovely family friends at a vintage Hollywood diner - the same bloke that gave me some very wise words one day.

8. Star spotting: Tim Curry and Fred Willard in the same restaurant! Ok I didn't know who Fred Willard was either. But B was thrilled.

9. Laying my eyes upon the very house where Michael Jackson last lived and died. Like him, it seemed so much smaller in person.

10. People speaking English instead of Cantonese. Buying band aids is, simply, buying band aids and not a game of Charades. I miss that ease.

p.s. Excuse the somewhat underwhelming quality of our photos - we have had some bad camera luck on this trip. First B dropped and smashed the camera of a poor Japanese couple who asked him to take their photo outside Universal Studios. I still don't think he's quite over it. Then we realised we left our digital camera charger in Hong Kong and our brand is not stocked in the US.

So we are using a cheap, disposable digital camera. I feel like I'm twelve years old again taking shaky snaps of my sister diving into our pool.

Santa Monica beach. It's on steroids, like everything in the US.

My two boys.

What happens when B takes over the camera.

They don't got this sorta thang in Hong Kong. My thighs thank you.

Yikes, this meal is currently in a graveyard somewhere on my waistline.

I had to catch up with a few old friends in Hollywood...

...and my most special friend of all.

Meanwhile, B had his own catching up to do.