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Published: December 5th 2007
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Approaching tunnel
Heading into the tunnel on Las Virgenesse (pron. virgin-ess) Canyon Rd. One of only 3 ways into and out of Malibu. Spectacular drive. Saturday, December 1st - Hello again!
We took some beautiful photos of plant life in the yard. It is hard to choose the best for the blog! Saturday night David took me to the Mary Pickford Theatre in Hollywood, to see the VERY FIRST screening of Will Smith in "I Am Legend". It was only "out of the can" for 36 hours! We were third row from the front - the special effects in the movie - the "creatures" were so incredible - I jumped out of my skin several times! At the end of the movie, Will Smith came out to talk with the audience and get their opinion of the movie. He was brilliant! Good looking, young - and so great with people. He was very good with the audience, answered a question from David as well, and stayed much longer than planned for, just chatting about his career and life - and the movie of course - and I was truly impressed! He comes across as an extremely intelligent guy, with his family life and values very important. It was a great evening!!! I now love Verne and Will Smith!
Sunday, December 2nd
Off on an amazing drive
to Malibu to meet with Howie and Rebecca and children for lunch. Howie and David went to Loyalist together - and have followed each other from London, to Vancouver, Howie went back to Toronto - and now the both of them are here in L.A. The Malibu Canyon drive is incredible. Mountains of sand coloured "decomposing granite" covers most of the terrain in this area. Huge rocks, not too much growth in places, rather barren and desert looking at times. When we got closer to the area of Malibu, everything was black and burned, saw some houses that were burned, a church - the fire jumped right across the highway - the road which we traveled was closed for a long time. At one point before reaching our destination, the highway winds through a tunnel - and David asked if I recognized it - apparently the tunnel appears in loads of movies, as well as commercials. I'll watch for it next time! We arrived at "Malibu Market". In the middle is a playground for the children, around the outside are outdoor eating places, picnic tables, etc. and all around the "courtyard", many expensive and unusual shops. We ordered our lunch,
looking back towards santa Monica from above Malibu
Notice in the foreground the brown leaves. This was caused by the fires recently. Houses all around burned to the ground and directly behind this is a church/daycare completely burned to the ground the children had a great time playing, and then Howie said "Oh oh, the paparazzi are here....and there were these guys with huge cameras with extra huge lenses, taking photos of a young woman in a big hat and dark glasses, with a little one about 6-8 months old trying to relax and eat lunch. I didn't recognize her - Maria and I walked by her, and we even got in the way of a photographer at one point. The photographers were terrible!! The security would make them leave, and they would quickly return, camera ready, through another entrance. It is really quite awful to see - now I'll know what the famous go through when I see their photos in People or Star magazine! Other than all that - we had a great afternoon with Howie, Rebecca and children Mason, Brooke and Ashleigh, - and we never did find out who the "famous" one was. I guess we have to wait till the "gossip" magazines come out!
Monday December 3
We spent the day shopping!!! Spencer had the day off school, so we started out at an outlet mall, then continued to the Burbank Galleria Mall, I got into
a Mervyn's store where everything was 50% off. What fun! We had more great hamburgers at "Johnny Rocketts" - a 50's style eatery with juke boxes and all - real hamburgers the old fashioned way! Yum!! We arrived home near 6 p.m.
David has DVD's of every new movie out - we had 4 new movies come today. As I said before, he will see as many as he can, before voting in two weeks. The screenings at the theaters are best - as you always get to see and ask questions of the people who appear in the movie. David says it has been a great introduction to "Hollywood"! For me too!! I have only seen 2 here at home - Margo at the Wedding - not recommended - and The Brave One with Jody Foster - good movie - vicious, but good!
Wednesday....temperature in the 80's - beautiful day. Lazy day, after all that shopping yesterday! David told me that he is taking me to the Los Angeles Art Gallery on Thursday night for an "introduction" to the art of Salvador Dali - not one of my favourites, that's for sure - but David being a member -
17 million dollar castle..burned !!!!
Above the market where we had a great afternoon. High above this multi-million dollar castle home was completely destroyed by the fires ! All you can see really is the fireplace stack. we are having a "special' tour of the exhibition! I'm sure I will enjoy it immensely - Avril - look out - my style of painting could change!! Ha!
The neighborhood here is great - On the 16th, we are going to a neighbourhood Christmas Party. I was outside enjoying the view, the flowering trees, plants, etc, when a little lady (Margaret) walked by - she stopped to chat and told me she was so happy to see more Canadians in the neighbourhood - she is from Hamilton - but has lived here since the 40's! But goes back to Ontario every fall to see the leaves. Another fellow down the street is French Canadian - he is great - in his 80's and has taken David under his wing! Lady next door was born in Vancouver, etc. etc. So it's just like home!
Tonight the Santa Ana winds are expected - we saw the waves on TV today - 15 footers are expected and David was hoping to go down to the ocean to see them tomorrow - but probably not - as he has a busy day!
Yesterday, the "Holiday Lighting Guys" were working putting up lights down
Maria and I
Enjoying the sun at the Malibu Market. This is pretty much where the 'you-know-who's' enjoy the sun too. Great little restaurants and shops. Lots of stars hang around here as well as the darned paparazzi ! the street - so of course David stopped - and next thing we knew the guys (not Santa) were on the roof. So we have lights around the front of the house and a big star on the chimney. Santa can't miss us! I made two nice wreaths for the front doors - our Christmas decorating day was put off from last weekend to this coming weekend - too busy!! We must be ready when the rest of the crew arrive - we are looking forward to being all together in California for Christmas!
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