Diary
Another cloudy day in California. Checked out and walked up and down Venice Beach again and spent a while in the Santa Monica shopping area. Down at Muscle Beach they were filming a video for a song that was Mel & Kim meets Ice-T meets salsa. Crap. I shot a few baskets with someone who had all the coordination of a drunken JT and a smart-ass kid who never missed.
Sunbathed on the beach when yet again the sun came out in late afternoon. Went to the local pizza place and then caught the bus to the airport. We weren't allowed to check our bags in for the following morning so we couldn't get into the departure lounge. Kipped down under a bench and waited for the morning.
2011
JT - an old flatmate from University. Best not to say too much but he had two big left feet and was unbalanced by the chip on his shoulder. Noted for owning one LP - The Carpenters - supplying potatoes and being almost as poor at general knowledge as Phil. Though he did seem to know a lot about electronics - not that his fellow Electronic Engineering flatmates cared.
Diary
Today was the day when we would mix with the stars. The day when Cubby Broccoli would sign up Oz as the next James Bond and Julia Roberts would whisk me off my feet and move me in to her Beverley Hills home. Yet again our luck was out. We picked the best sunbathing day to do our sightseeing. On the 3 bus, 1 hour+ journey to Hollywood we encountered yet another Londoner. This time he was the bus driver. You can't get away from them.
We went to the Chinese Theatre and looked at all the hand prints. Marilyn Monroe's were particularly popular but where were James Dean's and Elvis' ? We walked along the pavement of stars, a lot of which appeared more than once. Shari Lewis but no Lamb Chop. Fleetwood Mac but no Beatles. Climbed towards the big HOLLYWOOD in the hills but didn't get too close.
Walked all the way to Sunset Boulevard to do our "coolest man on...." impressions. We were so cool we didn't really have to try. I wasn't too cool when I realised I'd left the Q I'd just bought back on the counter in the shop. Still, I got it in the end. Walked up to Sunset Strip but not a sign of a Gun or a Rose. Walked through Beverley Hills without meeting Eddie Murphy then caught the bus to Santa Monica. Got off in the posh part of town - all designer and trendy. Back in the Cotel we met a young lady who was all "dude..." and seemed to be living at the hostel. Time for bed said Zebedee.
2011
Have been back to LA a few times. It's more interesting off the beaten track than the Hollywood/Santa Monica/Beverley Hills trail that we (and most people) seem to follow. Had a great time on an all-expenses paid cruise off Newport Beach one year and enjoyed racing cars in Walnut.
Casey Kasem - the voice of Scooby Doo.
Diary
A quick dash around the corner to the Venice Beach Cotel where we were told that if we waited long enough we would get a room. We settled down in the bar and coffee lounge behind five others. This place was a different class to the dump round the corner. After a couple of hours our patience was rewarded with 2 keys to room 312. We initially had to share with a Swedish girl who didn't want to go home and Andy from London. Short aside - Aussies and kiwis abound when travelling around Europe but the rest of the world seems to be the domain of cockneys. Probably all trying to get away from their boring football teams.
Chatted to a Welsh lad who was shortly going home to become an accountant with Peat Marwicks. Tough luck. We walked along the ocean front to Santa Monica and back. Not a sign of the Track Club. I'll bet Carl Lewis has never been there. As usual the California weather was doing a good impression of a summer's day in England - cloudy and dull. We walked past the new muscle beach and not a bicep, tricep, pectoralis major, latissimus dorsi or a gluteus maximus was to be seen. We were told Titwatch was being filmed but as we got there they were clearing up. This was not our day. Eventually the sun came out and we hit the beach along with a few others. Not the packed Venice Beach of the TV and films. A rare sighting of the Great White Tit was made - the first two (or should that be four) on the North American Continent.
2011
Peat Marwick - back in 1988 when I joined Price Waterhouse as an IT programmer there were 8 major global accounting firms. Peats is one that disappeared or was gobbled up along the way.
Titwatch - I'm sure this phrase was coined back in our Uni days, either by us or it may have been common parlance. To this day I don't think I've ever watched more than 5 minutes of the show. I seem to remember that about 10 years ago they were negotiating to film a series of it in Palm Beach Sydney. It never happened.
Great White Tit - after weeks away, it was obvious where our minds were. In the gutter. American beaches are very conservative and a real disappointment after inter-railing around Europe a few times. I don't recall whether they were the Greater Great White or Lesser Great White.
Diary
Got up in time to catch the train to Del Mar. Persuaded Cheryl to come down to the beach so we could do a bit of sun-bathing while watching the California Girls. I think the two of them are less frustrating when separated. See "synergy". Unfortunately Cheryl had parked her car in a tow zone and had it towed away. $140. Phew. It was like something from Viz - "The adventures of Suzy and Cheryl, the crap parkers".
Caught the train to LA and it was just like a severely overcrowded European train. Waited over an hour for the #33 bus because we were standing at the last stop on the route. Went round the corner and discovered the first stop. Hallelujah. The bus filled up as if it was an Orange Bus in Rome and took just as long. finally got off at Lincoln Blvd only to find the hostel full. We were offered a sofa and told were the nearest motels were.
Ever the adventurers we decided to walk to the beach and try the Cotel. Got there and then went into the wrong hostel. The v nice beach hostel turned out to be the v horrible beach hostel. Still, we had a bed. A search for food only upturned Van Go's a weird cafe which sold kissonts (two bad puns in one sentence, neither of them by me). A veritable feast was had. Nourished by this we headed back to the hostel. I settled down on the floor as the bed was too soft.
Survived the night listening to the various grunts, snorts, farts and mumbling from our room-mates without (I hope) catching anything from them or the room. The 10 year old grundies in the bathroom disappeared over-night - probably eaten by the shower curtain. The hamster cage smell was over-bearing and we made our escape as workmen moved in to knock it down.
2011
"Ever the adventurers" = too tight to pay for a motel. We hiked for miles through some dodgy parts of town - I think we went straight through the area that kick-started the riots a year later. I really should check this. We were young and naive.
The hostel we ended up in was absolutely filthy and stunk to high heaven. Everything was stained or mouldy. I don't think we bothered getting a shower there.
"Orange bus in Rome" - a reference to an inter-rail trip in 1987 when Oz, Bop and I squeezed on overcrowded buses with our backpacks. They were so full there was no way of getting to the ticket machine. In fact, they were so full, we didn't even know there were ticket machines so we travelled around on them for a week and innocently didn't pay. In my defence, it was my first ever week outside of the UK.
Diary (there are a few 20 year old in-jokes in today's diary which I've sanitised - Ed)
Ate breakfast/dinner (that's lunch to non-northerners - Ed) in a fast food joint called Jack in the Box. Still not eaten in McDonalds. Wandered through an unimpressive shopping area called the Horton Plaza, through the conference centre and out to the harbour. Sun-bathed and watched a bit of jazz basketball. Oz tried to phone his loved one but she was out frolicking (not the original phrase used in the diary - Ed) with G-Bop. Or so we assumed. Unless Bop was away on his clean weekend, then she must be frolicking (not the original phrase used in the diary - Ed) someone else.
Headed back to the "Y". Guess who was late again. We were then treated to an extended version of the previous nights parking sketch, changed the choice of food several times and eventually ended up in a Greek restaurant where the owner was from Crete and thought we were Germans. Suzy and Cheryl decided they weren't hungry and only had the dessert. We were ripped off by v. expensive lager. At least we got to see Athena the belly dancer and her enormous norks accompanied by Vangelis on keyboards. The Greek belly dancer was, in fact, Spanish. And we didn't get to smash any plates and Vangelis didn't play anything from Zorba the Greek.
2011
Jack in the Box - up there with Waffle House and Hardees in my opinion. When Christy and I did our South West USA trip in 1995 we had a little jack in the box clown on our aerial the whole way.
We had a running in-joke that Beth and Graham were together as, ahem, a couple whilst Oz was away. We never did find out the truth.
Jazz basketball - another in-joke. Anything that was unstructured or seemed made-up or on the fly was "jazz".
Frolicking - and not the word you're thinking of either.
Diary
Got up and went in search of the California Sun, California Girls and Fun, fun, fun. We were (California) dreaming of sun as it was still very overcast. Still, people were out surfing (USA, Safari) and playing volleyball. Female volleyball on the beach is one heck of a spectator sport. It almost beats standing on the Holgate End on a sub-zero January Saturday with the wind, rain and icy blasts while watching your team lose in the FA Cup to some lowly 3rd or 4th division team that haven't won since October. Almost, but not quite. I wonder what Bernie Slaven would look like in a pink bikini. We set off on the supposed 2 minute walk to Del Mar station only to discover that 2 minutes referred to being in a plane overhead. Gave up and went back to the beach.
Picked up our rucksacks and Oz phoned Cheryl and Suzy. They were only about 1 hour late. The four of us drove to San Diego and this was our first real viewing of the slapstick comedy that is Suzy and Cheryl.
"which way should I go?",
"I guess, you know, kind of...you're the driver",
"I guess, kind of",
"no, you should have gone left, I guess"
.......20 minutes of this........
"I guess, we're kind of there you know",
"I guess".
The two most dynamic ditherers I've ever met. "I guess, you know the meal in the Old Spaghetti Factory was kinda neat. It's kinda unique to San Diego, kinda like McDonalds is (!!!!!) you know".
Finally got back to the Armed Services YMCA (troops we love you all, Iraq sucks, propaganda, blah, blah, shoot the commie bastards etc.) and despite looking like a battleship inside the beds were surprisingly good and we had 36 channel TV. Watched a bit of MTV and sank into a deep sleep.
2011
36 Channel TV was a real novelty for us - we were used to 4 channels.
The Holgate End - the home fans end at Ayresome Park, Middlesbrough. But, of course, you all knew that.
Diary
Up at 6am to catch the train. Had time to phone home and just caught ma, pa and Andrew. They'd been home an hour after their plane was delayed from Greece. An omen perhaps ? Yes, the train was an hour late. We got on and found ourselves surrounded by an army of kids, most notably Nathan (Bart) and Leila (Lisa). We then spent most of the exceedingly long journey convincing them we were John Cleese (aka Bob) and Eric Idle, the long lost twins sons of Queen Elizabeth II, refused to give our ages and confused them as to our destination. English humour, don't you just love it ? Homer (their dad) occasionally thought the kids were getting out of hand and kept ordering them to be quiet and sit down. Well, it worked for about 10 seconds.
 |
| Making our own fun |
Late into Fullerton, Oz had time to phone his cousins and tell them we would be on the next train into Del Mar. Finally got off at Del Mar into the Californian sun, which could be best described as cool and a bit dull. Just like the sinful geometry girl. Oz phoned Cheryl and Suzy and we prepared for a 10 minute wait. And then waited another 10, and another, and another....they eventually turned up and we all went, like, you know, for a burger. Couldn't stay at their house so we phoned around motels. $50 was the cheapest we could find. It was a bit too posh really but we did get a good nights kip.
2011
Andrew - youngest brother Andy, a mere 15 at the time.
You all know who Bart, Lisa, John Cleese etc are so I won't discuss it any further other than to say that in those days you had to make your own amusement. Being the father of a Bart and Lisa I know what the dad was going through. Actually ours were more Charlie and Lola.
$50 - One of the most expensive nights of our whole world trip I think.
