Bad Diary Days

Well, after two full weeks we're still in Los Angeles. We're
still staying at Leon's house. Leon is awesome. He leaves for
Spain on Monday and he has told us we can stay as long as we
like, as long as we're gone when he leaves. He's been super
cool about us living here. I say living because that's what it
feels like. We're going to miss him!

He calls us his 'team members' :)


On the camper front; we bought one!! It's absolutely HUGE.
The one we had our eye on last week got sold right under
our nose. We realised that if we saw one we liked, we should
make an offer there and then to avoid losing it.

So that's what we did.

We bought it from the hood. We carried over $3000 dollars on
the bus, in the dark, into south central. We didn't get killed at
least. Actually, LA seems weirdly safe. Everyone is so friendly,
even the people who look like they'd cut ya say hello.

There's probably something dodgy about our new home,
as vehicles that size and that age normally cost about 3 times
the price we paid.

We really don't need it to be that big, so when we bought it
we intended to sell it on for a profit and buy ourselves a smaller
one. But after 3 days and about 9 hours at the DMV, it turned out
we can't sell it until all the registration documents and the pink
slip come through in about 4 weeks.

So we're stuck with the one we have! Driving it around LA's
streets is an absolute nightmare. I struggle with corners and
getting it into gas station forecourts makes me want to cry.
In fact I think I actually did once. Yeah I said gas.

We've been out a few times. Leon has taken us a few places,
out for food to bars and to an American style trivia night,
which we did respectfully in, considering only one of our 4
team members was American. Then he took us for Nachos.

We've also been out a couple of times with Will's friends Will and
Audie. We played ping pong and I drank BEER. It was a super nice
night up until Will left his bag, containing his laptop, my purse and
our passports, on the pavement outside Will's house. Drunken idiot.
So we had to go back. We were so lucky it didn't get nicked.

Oh yeah,we ended up sleeping in the RV that night because we
got ourselves locked out. Bad times.

On Sunday it was the Oscars!!!!

We wandered onto Hollywood Blvd about 3pm and couldn't get
close even at that time. So we gave up on trying to touch any
famous people and decided to watch it on the telly instead.
But we ended up missing it anyway because we were too busy
eating Indian food.

Last night we went out to a club called Skinnies and got drunk
with Will, Audie and a bunch of their friends. I drank beer again.
And actually enjoyed it! It's cheaper than girl drinks.

Will is well hungover today. God knows how, seeing as he drank
the same as me.

We ate Thai food. We're right next to Thai Town at Leon's, so
we've been eating tonnes of it. It makes me miss Thailand :(

We'll hopefully be out of here in the next couple of days. We've
learnt RVers can sleep in Walmarts for free. So we might be doing
a Walmart tour of the US. Ha.

Also, our original plan of driving into Mexico after our 3 months
here has been scrapped. Every single person we've mentioned
it to has warned us off. We've heard way too many stories about
kidnapping, rape and gangs chopping tourists hands and heads off.
So yeah, we'll avoid.

Umm I think that's about it. Although I did see the Jonas
Brothers!!! (from a distance)

Hollywood Undead

We have spent one whole week in Los Angeles! I really like it.
Especially now we have a hire car.

Everyone we speak to says LA kind of sucks without a car,
and I think now it's going to be difficult to go back to the
shitty public transport, which we will have to do tomorrow
when the car goes back! We've had a fairly hectic week.
On Monday, after three nights in the hostel off Hollywood
Boulevard, we spent two nights at Will's friend Dana's house,
off Melrose. Dana was wicked and even gave up her bed for us!
During the two days at Dana's we went to Universal studios,
and then we met Morris. Morris helps kids find vans.

That's literally what his card says. Well pretty much anyway.

He didn't help us find a van.

But he drove us round for a couple of days and we got more
of an idea what kind of camper we want/need, and also gave
us more of a clue regarding insurance etc. On Wednesday we
met a bloke called Mark who works in a car rental place.
He was from Bristol, same as Will, and helped us find somewhere
that would rent me a car. Because I'm under 25, most places
(including the place he worked) wanted to charge us zillions
for insurance. So we got a car!

Driving in LA isn't nearly as bad as I thought!
I kept drifting over to the right and I've scraped the wheels a
bit because I forget I'm sat on the left when I park. Plus today I
gave us a puncture, which I just remembered we forgot to fix.
But we're still alive, anyway!

I also bought a kickin jumper with geese on. (Will made me
say kickin.)

On Wednesday and Thursday evening we slept at Lisa's house.
We found Lisa on Couchsurfing.com. Her, and her dog Baby, live
off Sunset, and her house was super cute. It was yellow!


Lisa took us out for Korean tofu food. What's that all about.

In camper news, we saw a few. They all merge into one.

We've done a lot of internet research and tonnes of driving
around. I drove on the freeway! This morning we left Lisa's
and found another couchsurfer to stay with.

He is called Robert and/or Leon also lives off Sunset.
The three of us went out for Thai food tonight, it was super nice!
We also went to Dodger Stadium today! That was awesome.

There was a wedding on the diamond. You know, where they
run round. We chilled out this afternoon in Elyssia Park. It had nice trees.

In LA, there are humming birds! I've never seen a humming bird before,
they are SMALL.

Like, real small! Like fat moths. But the kind that you'd literally
love to have flying round your toilet light while you pee.

That's about it I think. Although I will just mention that Robert/Leon
has the best decor ever. I'll take a pic.

Los Angeles!

I made it to LA! My Friday the 13th lasted 32 hours.

Yesterday Will and I almost got put in jail. We climbed up
to the Hollywood hills sign, and behind it. And a helicoptor
started circling us and blaring it's siren at us. I'm not even
kidding.

So we like, legged it down the hill, and I was pretty much crying.

But we didn't get arrested. Today we can't walk because our
legs hurt so much! It was like a proper mountain! Have you
SEEN the hollywood hills. They're bigger than like, Snowdon.

Look, we got BEHIND the sign


How cool is that!

Seriously though, we thought we were in MAJOR trouble.

Today we walked the whole way along Sunset Boulevard, but
we saw a grand total of zero celebs. But apparently we did see
where River Phoenix died. Wow.

Gah

Heathrow, terminal 5.

Friday 13th.

Snow.

Bring it on...

Snowball Effect

On Sunday and Monday we got tonnes of snow!
I don't normally get excited about snow; it usually
turns to mush after two hours. But, for once, it
stuck around!

In true British style, the snow crippled
the country; deadlocked motorways, cancelled
flights and even the parliament building got a bit
of snow.

Obviously it made headline news across the board.
I had to turn off because it baffles me how the BBC
manages to turn everything, even snow, into a crisis.

I wanted to throw a snowball right in Huw Edwards'
face.

His tone suggested terrorism; the pictures just looked
pretty.

In fact, I wouldn't have been surprised if they'd accused
eskimos of flying over our country, scattering snow in,
probably, the most effective type of terrorism EVER.

I think I've struck gold. Forget bombs, drop snow.

Anyway, I went outside and built a snowman...

Click on him! He has hair and everything!

Fish tank toilet

I quit sugar yesterday. I have withdrawal symptoms!
I'm not even kidding.

On Wednesday I'm going for a spa day at Thoresby Hall.
My mum bought it for me and my sister for christmas,
but my sister can't make it so I'm taking Kirsten instead.
I am EXCITED.














I think we get to be smothered in mud. Score!