New Continents!

At last - what I have been waiting for - a couple of readers in Africa. Now I have a reader in every continent, well ok, not the arctic cos the penguins don't have pc's, but everywhere else!
I feel complete....it would be cool to know where you are all reading from - send me a comment and let me know.

Friend of Taronga Zoo

I got back from St.Louis yesterday morning. Both flights on time and all luggage present and corect, lovely. To counter act the extended sitting on my bum we spent yesterday walking to Cremorne Point and today at the Zoo (we became members so we can go any time we like, cool. we only live ten minutes walk from the zoo). Here are a few pictures of our walks. No chat today - too much of late!

Meet me in .....

St.Louis, that's St.Lewis and definitely not St.Looey or else you get odd looks (is it just me or was this place named by a French person....?) however. Lesson 1) St.Lewis. The second lesson is if you haven't got a car forget trying to go anywhere. I am based in Chesterfield, just 20 miles from Downtown St.Louis and it took me 45mins on a bus and then a transfer to a train and a further 25mins to get to "The Arch" (down by the Mississippi). Or within 5 mins walk of it anyway - this is certainly not a pedestrian friendly part of the US.

I headed down there on Saturday and after looking at the arch - which is pretty spectacularly huge - I headed up towards the main part of town to try and find some stuff to do, something, anything, where is everything? Where are the shops, where are the people (the street scene was taken at 2pm on a Saturday)? Did someone do an evacuation of St.Louis when I wasn't looking? I have come to the conclusion that everyone lives and plays outside the city - in strip malls (that made me giggle) and out of town shopping villages. There was signs of this being reversed though, dozens of warehouses were being converted to chic apartments and bars and restaurants were coming back to service them - in a few years it could have a bit of a buzz back.

I strolled around, heading back in the direction of "home" and came across Union Station. Once a huge, heavily used rail station (it shifted a lot of the troops leaving for WWII) it is now an indoor shopping mall, but they have saved the basic architecture including the highly impressive Great Hall (photo) which was truly stunning. It also now houses the Hyatt Hotel inside the old station and it looks great sitting on an artificial lake with one heck of a lot of fish in it.

There didn't seem much else to see so I caught the metro rail and bus back and ended up going all the way to Chesterfield mall. Its a big mall about 20 mins walk from the hotel (ok, yes I could walk there) and it has a Macy's, Gap, Old Navy, cinema all the usual shops and entertainment. This trip all I bought was baseball boots for Keith but so far I have been stocking up on Gap (you can"t get it in Oz, amazing, eh), Mac makeup, Earth shoes and other goodies that are either cheaper here or you just can't get back down under.

An example of the huge differences in cost comes from simple stuff - I bought some John Frieda Frizz Ease hair gunk today. In the UK it would have cost me equivalent $8.37 US or ($9.95 AUD). In Australia the same stuff would cost me the equivalent of $11.79 US ($13.50 AUD). Here it cost me $4.60 US ($5.28 AUD) - do I feel I am getting ripped of in Australia - yup, I do, no way you can justify that with shipping costs. I think the problem is a lack of competition - might look into that when I get back.

Anyway , back to St.Louis. Everything here is big, the cars, the houses, the portions and no surprise, the people. Half a sandwich is enough for any mere mortal and an area who fries ice cream, cheesecake, ravioli and pickles (gherkins) could perhaps even teach the Scots a thing or two about poor diets. Having said that the fruit and veg on offer in the supermarket is tasty and well priced, the seasonal fruit (peaches at the moment) look amazing. Its so cheap to buy food here - both out and in the shops that I am not surprised portions are big. Put it this way - I am not going to starve in the near future!

Its a different mix of people from LA here. There are more black people and less hispanic (I have no idea of the current pc terms for non-Caucasians so sorry if that's not right). Noticeably on the bus all my fellow passengers were black or elderly white people. Is it a social or class thing? Not really sure. I guess it really doesn't make a difference more of an observation.

I am heading back off now to watch some more of the Olympics, its the woman's gymnastics and the laws of physics are once again being destroyed by young ladies in leotards. Interestingly per the American TV the US of A are leading in the medal tables - cos they just use how many instead of weighting for colour. So everyone else in the world thinks China is winning and the US thinks they are....I think there is a metaphor in there somewhere...

LA la la la

Well i decided that the best way to see the most of LA was a tour. I took a "VIP Tour" grand tour of LA. We started of at Marina Del Wray - the largest man made boat harbour in the world - not all that exciting but lots of people were cycling which was an odd sight in LA. Next Venice Beach passing the restaurant John Wayne owned on the way. Venice actually does have canals I never knew that - in fact it has six. Both Angelica Houston and Julia Roberts live there and I guess it was quite nice. I had a look at Venice Beach and was disappointed to see that there was no-one at Muscle Beach - must have been too early. The beach was lovely - perfect California, but we had to be back on the bus in 20 mins and push on to Santica Monica. This was a very much posher area than Venice and has a very nice looking pier. We didn't stop though and drove onto Westwood, passing the building that was the Makatomi Tower in Die Hard 1. Westwood has the Veterans of Foreign Wars cemetery and also the Pierre Brothers Westwood Cemetery where Roy Orbison and Frank Zappa are buried. From there it was onto Beverly Hills which is actually a private city with its own laws, street signs etc. Certainly people didn't seem to want to hang about on the streets there - there was no-one and I mean no-one walking about - it was like 28 days later, weird. We drove down Rodeo Drive and saw all the high end stores, then down to Sunset Strip passing Marilyn Monroes last house.

On Sunset boulevard we saw the Viper Room and "Carneys" where Elvis ate his burgers as well as Chateux Marmont where the stars hang out (apparently).

For lunch we stopped at a "Farmers Market" which was really a outdoor food court - but I got some nice shrimp (prawns) and some cucumber salad and a beer. Which was a pretty yummy lunch. They had the craziest place there - a bakery for dogs! It sold pupcakes and doggy donughts - I have never seen anything like it - I thought the dog deli in Mosman was crazy.

We headed onto Hollywood, saw the sign, the Chinese Theatre, the pavement stars, the hand prints and the Kodak theatre. It was very busy down there and there was a lot of people dressed as movie stars looking for cash for photos. It wasn't great.

Next was Olivera Street - where LA started as a Spanish town. It had lovely little spanish style buildings, a lovely old firestation with an antique horse drawn fire engine and lots of stalls selling souvenirs and cactus candy - some of which I got for Keith. It had a lovely party atmosphere and although it was small there was lots of stuff to look at. We pressed onto Chinatown and Little Tokyo past the Walt Disney concert hall (big, shiny) and eventually got dropped back at my hotel.

After I dumped some stuff I walked back to Olivera Street and then onto Little Tokyo where I got Tempura (prawns and veg), rice, salad, salmon and eel nigri and tea all for $13US. Which is just mad. I also sampled some green tea and plum wine ice cream and maybe a couple of things in the Hello Kitty store....

Sunday I went back to Santa Monica beach and enjoyed the sunshine (and played with the new panoramic setting on my camera!

I got the bus there and the driver was really friendly I stood beside him and chatted almost all the way (its nearly a half hour journey). I think people really take to you when they found out you are Scottish...

Finally I headed back to the airport and caught my flight, with no delays, to St.Louis. Arriving at my hotel around 1am - and I guess now the work actually starts....lol.

Downtown LA

Well I am here - at last. I left the house at 7am on Friday morning for the flight at 10:20am. Way to early but checked in and then headed to duty free to buy a camera (waterproof, shockproof, iceproof, la, la, la) and then through security. Only to discover we were boarding late. Finally got on (3 changes of seat on the way) and then proceeded to sit there until 1:30pm because a little light was on in the cockpit. By this time I had made friends with a girl called Renee (Zoologist from WA) and when we got chucked off again we stuck together and moaned over our Pot Noodle (yes, that was what they provided me with for lunch, yum).
Finally we got back on and the flight took off at 3pm, nearly 5 hours late.

The flight was fine, watched Iron Man (V good), Lars and the Real Girl (V sweet) and St.Trinians (v crap) and got a few hours sleep. Food was as cack as BAs but staff were nicer - I even got to assist in the safety demo, lol.

Flying in over LA is mad, its huge, but very low, apart from a small spike in the CBD, which is were I was heading. The love a q here in America. We got off the plane and then waited an hour to get through "Homeland Security" and then got our bags and q'd for someone to take a customs form and then q'd for a taxi. Finally underway I realised I could not use either phone to let Keith know I had arrived ok - never mind use t'internet I thought.

My room wasn't ready (I was dying by this time, bearing in mind I had been in the air 17 hours and had landed before I left) so I minced around, looked in Macy's, generally sussed a few blocks out. By the time I had had a $6 burger at Carlos Jnr (that's 3 pounds for the Poms and about $7.50 for the ozzies) which was the size of my head, my room was ready.

I tried to hook up the net but discovered the arse computer work had given me had no disc drive - so couldn't. Great - so that's how I find myself paying through the nose in the business centre....thanks, guys. Apart from that room is fine - bed, shower, windows, TV, what can I say its a hotel room.

I then ducked back out to Radio Shack to get an international adaptor (the hotel don't have any, how grim) and also stocked up on the much cheapness toiletries. Mostly hair stuff and sun tan lotion (its hot here, about 27C) and also got stuff for Keith as so much cheaper than Oz. On the way back I stopped at an Irish Bar for a beer but it was all guys and I felt weird and despite the bouncers being friendly I didn't hang about - felt odd - need my fella with me!

After plugging in my camera and stocking my mini fridge (complimentary) with water I headed down to the reception to book a Grand Tour of LA tomorrow - I will be heading to Hollywood, Mann's Chinese & Kodak Theatre, Walk of Fame, Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive (pretty woman time), Olvera St, where LA started, China Town, Venice Beach and Fisherman's village amongst others. It lasts all day so it means I don't have to think to hard to amuse myself and I see everything in the short time I have - see why I needed to charge my camera?

I walked round to the cinema (sorry, movie theatre) but there was nothing on I wanted to see (The Mummy 4 anyone???) but what I did notice was the contrasts of this place. People eating out of bins and people driving Maserati's. Loads of Gyms and joggers matched with a load of fatties and fast food joints. Steps up a hill, escalators too.
Its a very soulless place, Downtown LA, all concrete and glass. Nothing of architectural merit. The Westin Bonaventure Hotel wouldn't have looked out of place at Normandy circa WWII - awful.
The streets are wide, the cars are huge, the people aren't particularly friendly (and the majority of them are Hispanic (not that that is a problem, just an observation)) and the only white people walking are tourists (its the cameras that give them away). Its making my pine for Sydney - and that isn't exactly an architectural masterpiece. Of course whose there might have something to do with it too - travelling on your own is no fun really......

Flat Hunting Sydney style

Going to go back a step and do the story of how we got our apartment/ flat, place. Its all a bit backwards but until now never had time to sit down and write anything.
Basically we had heard many horror stories about renting in Sydney. Demand is high and so competition is fierce and rents are scary. We had set ourselves a cap and went looking for things in or under that price in the areas we liked. Quite often flats are open for viewing from say 2pm - 2:15pm on a Tuesday - and if you are late forget it.
After we had ruled out Glebe we made a list of Mosman places and set of on a Saturday morning to see the one that were available. The first looked great on the net but really wasn't all that when we got there. We drudged back up the hill and went to find our second place - which was right down the other end of Raglan Road near the ferry. It was a nice old place with a lovely sun room of the main bedroom but it had a really pokey back yard and it was shared as well. We sort of held it in reserve in our head - which can be dangerous cos if someone offers then it will go no messing about here. We had though seen another one we fancied, right down at the point almost hanging in the water - it was really cool, but the access was awful and no viewings had been scheduled (we were just snooping in the garden!). So that was Saturday done in . No success.
The following Tuesday Keith went off to view some on his own. I was coming up in the afternoon to meet him to view an AMAZING looking place at Chinaman's Beach (very high end posh) well out of our price range but it looked so good on the net we had to go see it. We met just outside and the view was amazing, right over the sea, boats, sand, glistening waves, we had managed to get a sneak first peak at it - or so we thought. A few mins later some borish yank turned up "are you here for the viewing? you are to wait downstairs". We both just looked at each other - thinking we ere the only people to see it - and then another couple turned up. We were a bit miffed, but never mind we headed in. What a bloody disappointment. The view was amazing but that was it - the balcony was tiny, so was the kitchen and the living/ dining area was just one big lump of space.
So we decided to go back and out in an application for the one Keith had seen - bit of a gamble but I trusted his judgement. We got together all the paperwork and sent it over - we were assured a decision that evening.....next morning we heard that someone had gazumped us (if that's what you call it) and had gone straight to the owner - what a tosser. So we were back to square one. But here is were we struck lucky. Because all our paperwork was up to date and very positive the agent said she would be happy to have us as tenants and so we could have the pick of her stock. She had two places, not even on the market yet to how us - score!
For the last time we headed over to Mosman to go flat hunting. first stop Mosman street and a lovely bright flat with a nice gas (shock !) kitchen and balcony. Very positive. Then he said she had another super new one to show us, so we headed up to Prince Albert Street and saw this place, and we both said "Yes!" perfect, but there was one more so we headed up there just in case it was a little gem.
It was an open viewing so there was about 15 other interested parties and it was vile. It was dark, small, dirty, there was junk everywhere and to top it all off there was dog poo on the carpet! Eeeew. We made a sharp exit and hung around outside, ready to swoop on the agent and grab flat number 2. We headed straight up to her office and signed the paperwork. That night the flat was ours - how lucky was that.
So hear I sit - after a trip to Target today on my new bean bag lounger watching the tv we got yesterday at our spree at Rhodes shopping centre (did IKEA and Bunnings warehouse too). So now we have a table and chairs in the kitchen, beanbags, tv and dvd in the lounge and flowers on the balcony. I just thank god I have somewhere to sit now!