The Good, The Bad, The Scary

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The Good: Shopping in LA @ the Citadel which is a factory outlet shopping centre. Calvin Klein was $160 for pair of work pants, work shirt, work belt, awesome new bag. Considering the price in Australia for a single one of these items would be close to that I'm stoked. I also got a leather jacket that actually fits me from Wilson's Leather which was having a huge clearance sales - plus we had coupons thanks to the nice man at the map we pointed us around and hinted if we asked reception for a coupon book we'd get one. We did. It saved us around 10-15% per place we shopped at. Another good thing, I drove in LA traffic, on the huge multi-lane highway system they have here and made it in one piece. Used a handy GPS. Car was awesome Toyota Corolla.

The Bad: I'm pissed off that I can't trust the hotel I'm staying at; feel like everybody is an opportunist. The so-called "guest services" desk is nothing more than a team of salespeople that take the first thing you say and run with it. When I asked about Rental Cars they were on the phone to some unknown mob booking a car! I sheepishly let it run it's course and it sounded ok, within 5 mins I had the car. The car was great - but i can't trust these people frankly. Can't wait to see the hidden charges I will no doubt receive. It was quoted at $55 and will now see how close that comes. Yes hrm....be interesting.

The Scary: Driving on these huge highways. I haven't driven even in Australia for 2 years....I totally freaked as my natural instinct is to stay left or right or whatever.. hehe it's all so confusing now....

Just worried about this rental car bill but whatever it is, it can't offset the huge discount we received today at Citadel.

So far America rules but afew little things to remember. Don't be over-confident while driving ever. Plan ahead so you have the confidence to say no to everything you need but the bare essentials. If I could turn back time - No travel agent, no "guest services" get a cheap rental from avis or some other trusted company. Shop at Citadel and don't buy pizza here as it is expensive as hell.

Ta-ta!

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