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Published: April 26th 2007
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Pimpmobile
Check out the wheels - this is what I carried my hos in down to the 'hood (Gareth please translate) Bry speaking: Had a few boxes to tick in LA and a whole two month's unspent budget...
- go behind the scenes at a movie studio
- do a little shopping on Rodeo Drive - check
- spot some celebs - check
- walk Hollywood Boulevard - check
- lunch on Malibu Beach - check
- hit the malls to make the best of the 2$:1£ rate - check
- have a 'wicked' night out - check
All in all we packed a lot in to our last 3 days. Tom had found a great hotel for the (relative) bargain of £50p/n we stayed in a the Millenium Biltmore Hotel. In its heyday the venue for the Oscars amongst other glittering events. Still a stunning building. Less popular because it's a little out of town in the business area. Their Jazz bar was recommended by the LA visitor centre as amongst the top 100 most romantic drinks venues in the city... not at all bad.
First full day and we went on the Warner Bros VIP tour. Started well with Eggs Benedict for £2.50 in the staff canteen... I can see why people struggle to control their weight
Warner Bros lot
Famous water tower thingy here. Then onto the tour. We were golf buggied around the site, checking in at various stages. Highlight was the props department... miles upon miles of everything you can imagine from every era. One corridor of phones from the 20s to noughties, betamax to futuristic home ent systems. Basically, anything you can imagine to set a scene from any era. Some real famous bits we saw included temple settings from Indiana Jones, the jewel encrusted blood bottle from Lost Boys and... the complete set from Central Perk. The Central Perk stuff was all set up ahead of being moved to the museum. Our tour guide was definitely being naughty in letting us sit on the sofa and play with the props... I even got to play with Pheobe's guitar!!
Studio tour over with and we headed to Hollywood Boulevard for a bit of a stroll. It's a complete dump, but quite cool to see the Chinese Theater and the stars on the pavement. Then, onto Rodeo Drive for a few hours goggling at £700 shoes et al. I managed to control myself and only spend a little (really, less than in Vietnam). We finished the stroll with a champagne
cocktail outside Tiffany's. Whilst there we're pretty sure Reese Witherspoon (plus the obligatory big black bodyguards) passed by on her way into a restaurant opposite.
The evening's entertainment was not yet at an end... we hot footed it back to Hollywood Boulevard for a night at the theatre at the musical 'Wicked'... which was indeed wicked. The set was something to behold. Tired and happy we headed back to the hotel bar for a night cap. We were happily enjoying our drinks and a little live Jazz next to a roudy group around our age and who should walk in and join them but Jason Biggs. Who? I hear you ask. I assure you, you do know who he is... the apple pie lurving kid from American Pie. It seems they were there for a wedding at the hotel.
Next day and we had a little more of a lie in before heading to Malibu beach for some brunch. It was seriously busy and a little sandy for my liking... but hey, when in Rome. A quick wander around Santa Monica and we headed back to the hotel tired and happy.
Our last day and shopping was
Friends set
Yes the actual cups & saucers used for filming the order of the day. Macy's did us proud... and then we went to the Apple shop. We've been resisiting the iPod revolution, but we gave in and got one each and a pair of Bose noise cancelling head phones. All a complete bargain. A couple of hours playing Scrabble at the airport before getting totally trollied on British Airways finest free booze and we hit home soil.
As my Dad said in a recent email, time is a strange concept. I'm sure you've all experienced the 'it's gone so quickly, but seems so long ago' feeling... well boy is that the feeling. We've packed so much in and now it all seems slightly dreamlike. I'm glad we've done this Blog, I look forward to rereading it to refresh my memory and hope you've all enjoyed reading along!!
Tom speaking: Some final observations on our LA sojourn...
As you can see from the photo, Thrifty had a special that week on Ford Mustang soft-tops, which I plummed for as the weather was great. So it was hood down on my pimpmobile and out onto the freeway. I do feel a tad guilty though after calculating (and I was driving carefully) that the consumption on this baby was a disgraceful 18 mpg. When you put your foot down you can almost see the fuel gauge needle move...
Celeb spotting:
1. We were having a drink on Via Rodeo and we saw a blonde flanked by two big heavies, plus others on look-out. She had dark glasses on , but given here frame and amount of security, we're pretty sure it was Reece Witherspoon.
2. There was a wedding going on in our hotel, and the night before we noticed a couple of security guys doing security sweeps. Anyway, we went down to the bar for a nightcap and there was a group of twenty-somethings next to us, and coming up to join them (no heavies this time) was Jason Biggs, he of willy-in-the-apple-pie fame. I was waiting for Steve Stifler to pop his head up out of somewhere...
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Gareth
non-member comment
Just to keep Tom happy.......
bit late replying but...... checkitout - dem rims is off da chain dog ! you be eyeballed f'sure rollin wif ya crew in dat tricked out blinged up ride !