Beside the seaside

So I have been spending the last few weeks in Huntington Beach in Orange County. I have been really rather lucky with the weather for October, and have been to the beach 5 times (6 if you count the one where I got a puncture).

I love the beach and the beach towns of LA and the OC and have been exploring a bit more over the past week.

On Monday I met up with an old work friend and her hubby who were visiting friends in Newport Beach. We went off to The Beachcomber in Crystal Cove. It is one of the few places in SoCal where you can eat so close to the beach, with an uninterrupted view of the sea. You get a little shuttle bus to bring you down from the parking lot, and then sit at your outside table taking in the lovely sea air and the view of a darling little cove. The food is good, but it's the view and ambiance you pay for!

We then went to Laguna Beach - probably my favourite OC beach town. We wandered round the shops and galleries and then made our way to happy hour at Kya, a lovely rooftop bar just a way out of the centre of the town on the PCH. The hummingbirds were out in full force at an apartment below, but alas no dolphin spotting today.

Then on Tuesday we went to Hermosa Beach, where my friends were meeting up with a lift to their next port of call. I have not been to the main part of Hermosa before and it is fab! I am staying here with my parents in January so am pleased I have made such a good choice. We stopped at an Australian cafe and had a delish spot of lunch there. Hermosa is one of three great little beach towns south of Venice - Redondo, Manhattan and Hermosa.

Then I carried on North to Santa Monica. I love Santa Monica for the brilliant shopping and the accessibility of everything. This is one place in LA where you don't need a car (as long as you don't want to leave, and why would you?!)
Third Street promenade also has a plethora of street entertainers (of various quality - perhaps this is where I try out my Adele tribute act?!) and cinemas. I am really looking forward to staying here in December.

Herbivore dinosaurs in Santa Monica

Stars and stripes at the Converse Store

And now I am back in Huntington for my 6th official beach trip - 85 degrees today! Woop Woop!!!
Here's hoping I see some more dolphins/fit surfers today!

Down in the Downtown basements

So after the heady heights of rooftop bars a few weeks ago, we braved some basement bars on this little pub crawl in downtown LA.

First stop was Coles, which claims to be the oldest continuously running bar in LA, having been opened in 1908. As is usual with basement bars, it was pretty dark, despite it being a balmy 80 degrees outside.

The bar was quite old fashioned inside and it took a while for us to get served. My friend tried the famous french dip, which is not as you may think a kind of mustard/mayo thing, but a beef jus, almost like a consomme, that you dip the sandwich in. Weird! I stuck to the stinky garlic fries.

So we were drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon, or PBR as it is more commonly known. In 1977 they were selling 18million gallons, compared to less than a million in 2001. But PBR is having a bit of a resurgence of late, and I rather liked it!

LA Confidential fans would like to know I could see the cafe that stood in for the Nite Owl from my booth, and also when Bud White hangs the DA out of the window? Upstairs!
I am reading LA Confidential at the moment, so this was quite a thrill, and made me want to watch the movie again.

But the best part of Coles was the secret bar out the back, The Varnish. Part of the same bar, but a million miles away in terms of ambiance, music and drinks offered. The cocktails were lovely (although the second was just a bit too aromatic for me!) the service great, and we felt like we had been transported back in time. I expected gangsters in pin stripe suits and spats to walk through the door any minute (rather like I did at Union Station a few weeks ago). But all good things must come to an end, and a rather rowdy party was making the ambiance more like the rest of Coles, so we upped and left!

Third stop was Casey's. Now this was pretty different from The Varnish. This is a sports bar through and through, with a plethora of TV screens, and loud half pissed blokes at the bar, spouting on about their teams. But we got a booth with waiter service, and weren't too bothered by the bar brouhaha! PBR again here after the lovely but rather strong cocktails at The Varnish.

We set the world to rights, and before I knew it, it was midnight (we met at 6pm!) so we stumbled off home after another successful Downtown pub crawl! As we have now done rooftops and basements, I am intrigued as to what our next theme might be...

Meetin' and greetin'

So for those of you who don't know there is a website called Meetup. As the name would suggest it is a website where people with similar interests arrange to 'meet up' in a geographical location to speak about whatever the group is, and interact with fellow beings.
Some are social, others are into hiking, photography, theatre etc. Some have about 60 members, some have 5000. You get the picture right?
I belonged to a photography Meetup in London and went on a couple of interesting field trips with them.

So the best thing a person can do when they move to a new area and wants to meet new people is to join this site. So that is what I did!

I have joined a number of groups in LA and in Orange County and have been to a few different meetups: a meal in Chinatown, two different happy hours in OC and Monday night football round someone's house.

As you would expect from a website of this type, the kind of people you meet at them is really varied. With this being the US, everyone is polite, friendly and smiley which is great when you are walking into a bar and know no-one!

Having an accent is a good icebreaker - I have been told numerous times that I have an amazing accent, whilst also being mistaken for Irish (once) and Australian (three times). I also got mistaken for being Mexican, (although as I wasn't talking I don't think this was anything to do with my accent).

But some people seem to use the accent as a way in, and then talk about themselves incessantly. I mean it is like standing under a waterfall of words whilst I stand there nodding! Vacuous and self obsessed springs to mind...
However some people are very good at conversation, ask questions, are fun and interesting.

Of course it is impossible to know whether someone is cool or a weeble just by looking at them, so the evenings end up being pretty diverse!

I will keep attending meet ups and alert you if any of you are in danger of being replaced with my new SoCal BFFs, but I wouldn't worry yourselves about this in the near future!!!

Things I have learnt in LA/Socal - Part two

Things I have learnt this week:

• It still gets up to 87 degrees in October.
• Dolphins are an exceedingly common sight in the Pacific, but it never grows tiresome seeing them.
• 'Kettles' are only available on the gas stove. I haven't seen an electric kettle since I arrived. They take approx 6 minutes to boil and the plastic handle gets so hot you have to pick it up with an oven mitt or tea towel - rubbish.
• Washing and drying machines are absolutely enormous and can do a load for a family of approximately 10 people.
• Rock music is on the radio ALOT! This is the necessary music to listen to in California, particularly down the PCH.
• You can only park on the side of the road that the traffic is travelling in.
• Great Danes only need about 10 minutes exercise per day.
• Gas is no longer cheap - $4.45 per gallon is the cheapest I have seen in HB.
• American football is fun to watch, and in my amateur eyes more entertaining than baseball.
• The restaurants here are plentiful and always seem to be busy, but all the natives are pretty slim making me think that no one eats, or they spend hours at the gym every day working everything off.
• They have unlimited champagne brunches on a Sunday at the Waterfront Hilton.
• Surfers will sit out on their boards for literally hours with very little wave action taking place.
• Despite the two political parties being far further apart on the left and right than anything we have seen in the UK for 40 odd years, there are still people who don't know who they are going to vote for in November. Crazy!
• They put sugar in everything. The only bread I can find without sugar is pumperknickel. I bought some crackers yesterday without looking at the label - 2nd ingredient? Sugar! In a savoury cracker!!! They must have an incredibly powerful sugar lobby here!
• Americans can talk. I mean really talk! I struggle to get a word in edgeways sometimes (very hard to believe I know!!!)

And now...the weather...

"It never rains in Southern California" so sang Albert Hammond. He lied to me!!! 

I was woken up on Thursday morning by a massive clap of thunder around 6am. In my sleepy state, I thought I was still in LA, there was an earthquake, and the mirrors I shared a room with were going to fall on me and my air mattress. Momentarily terrified, I then realised I was in the OC, in a bed and it was a brief storm...phew!

Then... On Friday it rained FOR AN HOUR. How rude! Having been in the 90s and 80s for my first 4 weeks, this brief but full on shower was a bit of a shock to the system. It did however lead to an amazing sunset:

But it's all sunshine again now, and back into the late 80s all next week - Haht!
Here is my view from the beach this morning. Unfortunately I watched this much longer than I thought I would as I pushed my bike with a puncture two miles home...

So beach time for the rest of the week for me me then...

Driving Miss Daisy

So driving in California is *interesting* and very different from home!

Apart from the obvious driving on the other side of the road, both LA and Huntington Beach have major roads running up and down them and across them in the famous grid format.

 When I say major, I mean the size of the North Circular, three lanes in each direction, with traffic lights at every junction, very busy kinda major. This can be pretty intimidating! Hooning up to the shops, basically means going  on the A406, not a little 'one lane in each direction' kind of a road that is more normal at home. These smaller roads do exist, but you wouldn't really drive up them unless you lived up one!

Everyone travels up, down and across these major roads (when they aren't on the Freeway!)
The main reason I can see why LA surface roads are so clogged up is that everyone does approx 40 miles per hour for quarter of a mile and then has to stop for a traffic light for about 2 minutes. They need to get some roundabouts in this town, and certainly take out some of the traffic lights. (Who can I write to about this?!)

Of course the freeways are normally 6 lanes in each direction. Exit roads (off ramps) are sometimes just turn off roads (like most of our motorways) where you indicate and move over and either go up or down to the surface roads. These are fine. But sometimes the freeway lane just turns into the off ramp. There is not often a huge amount of warning of this. And some off ramps (and this is the best bet) cross over on ramps!!! So as you are trying to get off the freeway, you have other people trying to drive into you (well onto the freeway, but it feels like they are trying to drive into you!!!)

Despite there being advertising and signs for shops every 5cm in this part of California, traffic signs are far less frequent which makes it difficult for us johnny foreigners trying to negotiate massively busy roads...

Driving can be a challenge to say the least particularly on the freeway. I successfully negotiated getting onto the 405 the other day and was very pleased to be heading off to Orange County. I stayed in the right hand lane, and within quarter of a mile of getting on the freeway, it had filtered me off onto another freeway (the 10!!!)   I laughed a little, came off at the next junction and manage to get back on the 405 within 10 minutes. (The grid system is great for finding your way back to whence you once came...)

Indicating is not really used much in Southern California. When it is used, it is more a 'I am pulling out right now and I am telling you I am' rather than an 'I would like to move into your lane, and I am indicating so that you hopefully let me in at your earliest convenience' Basically it's just all a bit more American...Interestingly many cars also have red indicators. So you think someone is putting on their brakes, and then look more closely and they are actually turning.

There are these insane stop signs at cross roads, where the first person to arrive is the first person to leave. It gets really interesting if all 4 of you rock up at practically the same time, and everyone edges forward wondering who should actually go first! If they just popped a roundabout in, it would really help traffic move more quickly, or perhaps get rid of some of the these thousands of 4 way stop signs.

Slowly I am getting used to it, and The OC is much more pleasant to drive around than LA. Partially because I choose to get on the Pacific Coast Highway as much as possible. Having the Pacific Ocean in your eyeline does wonders for the soul! It's costing me a lot more in gas, but it's gotta be worth it right?! I am also more cautious than I am at home (and those who have driven with me in London probably see this as a good thing...) hence the 'Driving Miss Daisy' title of this post.

So sat nav is definitely the order of the day, as constantly referring to maps at traffic lights isn't helping me on the uber wide roads!

And the *REAL* reason why the space shuttle is moving so slowly through LA as it makes its way to the Space Center? It's those damn stop signs...

New digs in The OC

So I have moved to The OC. Former home of MTV's Laguna Beach and more importantly home of the teenage show The OC that I used to be a big fan of back in the day. It launched Mischa Barton into the big leagues, and also gave us Rachel Bilson, Adam Brody and Brent Mackenzie. The theme tune to it was pretty epic as well: 

I am in Huntington Beach - Surf City USA - which is about 1 hour south of LA, and just north of Newport Beach and Laguna Beach.
I am house sitting for a friend for a few weeks and am already loving being so near the ocean with autumn sunsets aplenty. My friend has moved out of her old apartment and into this new one, which is really nice (although alas no swimming pool at this one!)

Here are my new digs:

An even bigger sofa than my own at home

Award winning photography adorns the walls on the vaulted ceiling

Cute dining area

Lovely little garden

Nad's special flower cans

No more air mattresses for me!

One of the two bathrooms

Lovely big mirror in the living room

TWO TV blankets (you know I love a bunkie when watching TV)

A treat left to me by my good friend Nads

Downtown Disney - Better than Downtown Abbey?

I enjoy Disney movies. I own a fair few. I am not sure how I have got to the age of 37 and not been to Disneyland Paris, Disneyland or Disneyworld. But I have! I never got to go as a child (sniff) - something about me having my own pony was enough of a treat (apparently). I also never got a Playdoh Mop Top Hair shop, or a Mr Frosty for the same reason...but I digress...

For the uninitiated (which included me) there is an area outside Disneyland in Anaheim called Downtown Disney. It is free to walk around and is full of bars, restaurants, Disney stores, other retail stores, musicians etc and is also the gateway to their 3 hotels.

We went down there for some swing dancing and I explored the stores.

Three stores really stood out for me:

The Lego store - for obvious reasons. How is it that an 80 year old toy company is still so COOL!!! All the statues in the images below are made from Lego:

The beast

Lumiere and Cogsworth

Buzz Lightyear and Woody

The Genie from Aladdin

Maleficent

Disney + Lego = wicked

We then went to the candy store. I didn't buy anything this time, but will be going back here to pick up a candy apple for sure. They had all sorts, and the rainbow Mickey Mouse heads were amazing. Look at these Jack Skellington caramel apples:

It was then a trip to a massive Disney store, where they have everything Disney you could ever think of, and then some!

It was a lovely little taster, and has made me even more excited about visiting the park in November! 

To infinity and beyond!!! 

Dumbo

Mickey and Minnie Star Wars

The Genie from Aladdin

Grumpy shot glasses

Ursula the Sea Witch

Jack Skellington goodies

One of my fave characters: Lumiere

My reaction will hopefully not be as extreme as Lilys was:

Hollywood Bowl (not a bowling alley in the suburbs)

So today I got to go to the Hollywood Bowl again.
I have been twice before, and if things had gone according to plan this would have been my third time on this trip.
However, first excursion was the night of my 'continental chunder' as it has now been named so I wasn't leaving the house for no one. No man, no beast and certainly not a firework concert at the Bowl!
Second excursion was to Sing Along a Sound of Music. I couldn't find anyone to go with, and despite my love of gay men, it felt weird to rock up without knowing any of them, so sacked that off.

So this was the big one! Jason Mraz, an intelligent, witty singer song writer who I have enjoyed for many years. This was actually the third time I seen him, and again he put on a great show. He has a great rapport with the crowd and he has a lovely voice. Sometimes I find his lyrics just too wordy to enjoy, but overall it was a really good concert. Here is a bit of I'm Yours - probably his best selling tune from a couple of years ago:

Christina Perry also did a stirling job, as demonstrated by her song Jar of Hearts. (Still prefer Lea Michele's version though!)

The venue (that seats about 18,000) is lovely and it is so nice to be able to watch a concert in the open air in October.

If only the couple in front of us had listened to any of it!

Why on earth do you go to a concert if you want to talk all night? They would have been better off going to a bar so he could verbal diarrohea all over his date! And to add insult to injury he had a big old pumpkin head that he insisted on swaying, when he wasn't talking to his date.

A small glitch on an otherwise great concert!

Rooftops and castles

This week I went out  on the town - I know! Crazy right?
A new friend kindly took me to some downtown bars, and themed it as a rooftop crawl.

I had already needed a couple of beers to help my aching feet from 4 hours of sight seeing, so had already got into the happy hour spirit (beer)...

We went to Perch, off Pershing Square where the view was lovely and the drinks were pleasant (bit stingy with the cheese platter though!). Happy hour half price drinks always helps the enjoyment I find!

'Perch' on the edge of a building

View from 'Perch'

We then went to The Standard where the view was even better and the gin was strong (just how I like it!) Bizarrely all the bar staff were in cheerleader type outfits. We asked them why, but they didn't really seem to know...

US Bank Tower by dusk

US Bank Tower by night

Looking north to Westin Bonaventure Hotel

After this we tried to go to Elevate, but it was closed for a private party, so instead we went across to WP24 at the Ritz Carlton in LA Live. This was the highest of the buildings we frequented and for me had the best cocktails as well - Pineapple mojitos, with herbs grown on their own rooftop. They also have lovely bar food. We had a plate of lobster and prawn spring rolls which were delish!!!

The rooftop bar crawl was an amazing success and I got home at midnight. Not bad for a 4pm start.

Then last night we went to The Counter. A build your own burger place. Great idea and I am amazed somewhere like GBK hasn't done it. Basically you have a tick box sheet for your meat, cheese, toppings, bun (or not) and sauce and you can make it as huge or as healthy as you like. 

I had the smallest size turkey burger with spinach, pickles, sweetcorn and blackbean relish, sauteed onions, and some horseradish cheddar. It was the best burger I have had in the US so far, and I am loving the fact that turkey burgers are so widely available everywhere!

We then went to Chateau Marmont for a couple of beverages. The main hotel bar was closed (for a rhino fundraiser of all things), so we went to Bar Marmont, a funky little bar at the front of the complex that is very dark, but has a good vibe. The waitress and I both had our hair and lips done the same - although she also had the whole retro outfit going on!

Their 'Ginger Rodgers' cocktail with gin and ginger was actually a little too gingery for me, and I moved onto the wine! Fun place to have a drink though and our lady bar tender was great!

I then bumped into my celebrity boyfriend, Alexander Skarsgard on Sunset Boulevard and we had a quick kiss as I hadn't seen him for a while...

So WP24 wins best cocktails so far, and I have to go back there to try out more of Wolfgang Puck's food! Two lovely nights out - raise a glass to many more!!!

Bradbury and Blade Runner

For those of you who are Ridley Scott fans, you will know that his movie Blade Runner is set in a dystopian Los Angeles of 2019...

The Bradbury Building was one of the stars of this movie, and I saw why when I went downtown:

Looking a pretty average building from the outside, the interior is absolutely beautiful and not remotely like the dark wet interior you see in the movie. It was such a beautiful building. 

It is an office block now. Imagine telling people you work in the building where they shot Blade Runner - SO COOL!!!

They also had a Charlie Chaplin statue on loan to them...

My Digs

As promised here are photos of the apartment I am staying in. 

Nick (mine host) has decorated the whole place in keeping with it's 1920's heritage. 

It is a lovely lovely apartment, really large, with only air conditioning and cable TV missing - both of which would make it truly great! I have at least got his internet access and a wireless router sorted since I got here :)

The Living Room

The diner in the Kitchen

Twiggy enjoying a well earned rest in the Living Room

Nick's bedroom

The Pool Hall

The Balcony

And the jewel in the crown - The mirror factory/my bedroom! Just imagine an air bed on the floor :-)