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(On the pavement that is!)
We arrived in LA on Sunday morning, it was like groundhog day, considering less that 24 hours before we arrived in Auckland airport from Fiji. The hostel that we had booked didn't have any space for us for the first night as we had moved our flight forward, so we checked in to the Venice Beach hotel which, contrary to it's name, it was no where near the beach! The hostel was ok, it was a large house, with a few rooms, it was a bit old! The next day it took us nearly 2 hours to get to our new hostel- we had to get a bus to the airport and a super shuttle to the hostel to qualify for our free transfer. The hostel was in a good location, literally walk to the end of the street and we saw the stars on the pavement, walk up a few blocks and there was the Kodak Theatre (where the Oscars are held).
Hollywood is certainly a city of contrasts, a row of homeless people on one block and the Kodak Theatre on the other.
We couldn't come to Hollywood without star spotting,
Star spotting at the airport
The guy from American's Next Top Model. He was a bit grumpy from the front so I had to snap him from back! we went to a lovely Italian Restaurant Cucino Bella Italiano, on Hollywood Blvd, unfortunately, Nick Lachey wasn't present ( this is his local apparently). Then we went to a bar called Tokyo, apparently Robbie Williams was in there a few weeks ago with his band- unfortunately we didn't see any celebs, only a few wannabes who looked like they were trying to get into the Playboy mansion!
The next day we went to the Infamous Rodeo Drive, to check out the seriously overpriced shops and see if we could spot some celebs again. Our first Celeb was T-Boz from TLC who we saw shopping in Saks Fifth Avenue on Wilshire Blvd-we whipped out the camera but she was already halfway down the road so we followed her but she went into another dept store, we had to take a reality check and walk away as we were on the verge of stalkerish behaviour! We headed off to find Kitson, the Beverly Hills shop where all the starlets go. It took us a while as the US street system is not the easiest to understand, one road has a North and the South, North has exactly the same numbers as
the South- and in the case of Robertson Avenue, South was in Beverly Hills and North was in LA- soo confusing! But we got there in the end and I tried on a seriously over-priced dress in the fitting room that Victoria Beckham used. Then we pondered round the shop, see what we could afford- Nothing! Then we walked up a bit more and got to what I think is the Beverly Hills version on the Ivy, lots of Hollywood types seemed to be dining there with chauffer driven cars waiting outside, I took a few snaps but I'm am not sure I caught anyone important! Oh yes, I almost forgot we got invited out to dinner at the Luxe on Rodeo Drive by a guy in Bally, his treat he said, he looked old enough to be my Dad, not sure what he wanted from us but we decided to give it a miss- you never know it could have been a star studded evening but Kay and I weren't willing to find out!
Wednesday we went to Universal studios, I wasn't too keen at first, then I found out that Wisteria Lane is there!!!! Fortunately they were
not filming on the street so we got to drive down it - it was soo exciting but soo quick, I took a video of it. We went on the set for War of the Worlds, the Shrek 4D show and Termintor 2 3D, plus many more, I turned into a big kid and enjoyed every minute of it! We spent 6 hours there, soo exhuasting, especially having to compete with all the little kids!
On the way back, the Red carpet was out at the Kodak theatre, it was the night of the final for American Idol. We saw Simon, Paula and Randy, plus Joey from N-Sync and David Hasslehoff. I think all of the real stars went in earlier! Our last night in LA we went out for our last bit of celeb spotting to Mood, also on Hollywood Blvd. This is Guest List Club, where you have to be absolultely gorgeous to get in, we didn't really fancy our chances but after poping into Tokyo again which was as dead as a doorknob we didn't really have much of choice! In the queue we saw Judi ( from Celebrity Love Island and Eastenders) and the girl
( dont know her name) from As If. The bouncer impressed with our little entourage (we met Kelly from Ireland and Johan from Denmark on the way there and started chatting), he let us in! Inside was nice, very nice- they drinks of course were ridiculously expensive so I had one rum and coke for $12 and the rest of the night was spent on tap water! We met a Basketball star, who played for the LA Lakers ( not sure of his name) and we met Sean Stuart, Rod Stewart's son who is apparently embarking on a career as a rock star (surprise, surprise), but who was pretty pleasant to us, he was with a girl who looked a lot like Linsey Lohans sister. Clubs close at 2pm in the US, unless it is a private party, we were a bit disappointed as we had hoped to party the night away!
So again, our brief love affair with LA is over, not as Glitzy as I imagined it, but I have not intention of giving up my day job and seeing if I can make it as an Actress, Singer or Dancer in Hollywood so you guys have
nothing to worry about, the world will be saved from my lack of talent!
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