Blogs from Westwood Village, Los Angeles, California, United States, North America

Well, I'm already on the flight back now, and it's only three and a half hours to go now. As with most vacations, it all seems to be both short and long, regarding the time since I was on the plane the other way around. But this time the variation was really outstanding. I sort of feel I had about six different vacations since hanging around with friends in Boston was very much unlike the family oriented vacation in Chicago, which in turn bore no resemblance to the desert holiday for two in Palm Springs (which I didn’t have time to tell you about). Even the first long leg of travel, from Boston to Chicago, going through frozen Cleveland and the Great Lakes area felt very different from the second and longer from Chicago to Las ... read more

Up for an early breakfast and then downstairs right on time to meet the shuttle at 9:15 to take us to the airport to pick up our car. 9:35 and it still hadn't arrived, so we rang. "3 miles away" I as told. 9:45 and it still hadn't arrived. Talking to the girl at reception - she mentioned that they'd already been! At 9:15. We weren't there, so they left! No waiting. No calling the room. Just left. And we were there at 9:14 by our watch. Not impressed to say the least, we were advised that we could catch the metro to the airport. Turns out we needed a $1.25 train and a $6 bus. Then a complimentary shuttle to the car hire. After all that, we arrived about 12pm - 2 hours later than ... read more

Throughout my 5 days in NY I was lucky enough not to have any of the predicted rain, it actually only started raining just as I was boarding my airport transfer, how lucky was I. However I wasn't lucky when the bogey man got me.. I don't know how I managed to catch a cold but I bought some strong cold and flu tablets and took the maximum dose just before boarding my 6 hour flight to LA which knocked me out completely...I didn't even get to have my flight meal.. not sure that that's such a big loss. Anyway, once I got off the plane I thought I better wash my face and wake myself up before meeting my friend Nicola whom I know from the performing arts school Italia Conti. Just as I was ... read more

The Travelodge I stayed in (Denise had already returned to London) was just round the corner from Westwood Village, not a quaint little village as we would understand it in Britain, but built-up, commercialised and with 6-lane highways running through it! Nevertheless it has a lot of character with palm tree-lined avenues, lots of little restaurants, and Mexican-influenced architecture. The houses in the residential sector are all unique, ranging from the small hacienda-style to mock classical collonaded mansions. There's a large Iranian community here, which surprised me (for no good reason other than the effect of listening to George Bush's anti-Iranian vitriol) and there's one main street which is full of Iranian restaurants and shops, interspersed, bizarrely enough, by Jewish artefact shops. The 'village' is also home to some cool art deco cinemas, often with only ... read more