Santa Monica

merry
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Well I'm here in Auckland updating the Santa Monica bit of the trip so already the enthusiasm for blog writing is waning!

We had a great week in Santa Monica that went so quickly it was unbelievable; one minute we had arrived & we're suffering the nightmare of jet-lag & the next minute we were waving Theresa off at LAX. Most definitely the fastest weeks holiday I've ever had. We were really lucky with the weather - OK Santa Monica/Southern California is always sunny but we had temperatures 30F above normal at 90F. Hot enough to get in the sea; well Jackie dipped one toe in & declared it too cold - pathetic! Needless to say Theresa & I were right in there with the screaming run in, unfortunately the sea where we were was like Ayr beach & we seemed to be running forever without it getting deeper! We decided to hire some boogie boards & I have to say both me & Theresa appear to be getting the hang of it although Theresa was still shitting herself at the big waves coming towards her!(as demonstrated by the attached photo!) Board hire was probably a bit expensive compared with Venice at $24 for 2 hours/2 boards hired from the pier. Full Photos & videos are on my Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tanyaconnor/collections/72157609516772066/ Enjoyed the customary dinner at Bubba Gumps (which my spell checker wants to call Gimps!!) The place is a complete tourist trap but the food I think is really good (if you like shrimp!) and the spec on the pier is amazing. They also do great cocktails - shame the jet-lag restricted us to only 2! Thanks to a Santa Monica law all restaurants that are on leased public land have to have both decent vegan & vegetarian food on their menus otherwise Jackie would have been stuffed! It was day1 that we discovered that Jackie had a serious bag shuffling problem! The rucsac was unpacked & then the almost hourly chore of moving things from one bag to another began - must be painful to have such a deeply rooted addiction! Monday was spent at Universal studios. We booked through starline tours online & I think due to it being off season they had a "free shuttle" deal, so that saved us a bit of pfaff on the way out to the studios. New to me was the Simpsons ride which was fabulous fun; basically its a big IMAX ride so you don't really go anywhere but your mind obviously thinks that you do! We spent the whole of the day basically getting soaked in one way or another; Shrek 4D donkey snotters, crawly beetle spray and of course opting for the wet seats at the water-world show. As its so hot though you dry off really quickly.

"Help me!!"

sneds
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As the park was quiet we were allowed to stay on the Mummy ride - Jackie however was having none of it & couldn't wait to get off after the first go; yet again needless to say Me & Theresa stayed on & screamed pantomime style the whole way round! Wish we ahd bought the photo though as its a classic; bothe Me & Theresa have our hands up in the air screaming for Scotland whilst Jackie is in the middle clenching her teeth & grmmacing - it really was brillaint. The backlot tour has changed a wee bit due to updates & also the fire last year. As per the rest of the day we were splashed with water at the Jaws part! There was quite a bit of filming going on & Theresa even managed to see Christian Slater (me & Jackie were talking so missed him!!) Ended the day off with a couple of lagers at the Hard Rock Cafe & then had an amazing Chinese called Panda something on the universal citywalk. Got home via the Chinese theatre/stars (red line to highland/hollyood) back on the redline to wiltshire/vermont & then the 720/20 bus to Santa Monica We stayed at the Pacific Sands Motel which was a perfectly adequate Motel right across from the Santa Monica Pier; most of the week it looked like a bomb site with what appeared to be all of our belongings strewn all over the room! Had my first international Skype experience on Sunday to the parents - couldn't get the webcam to work but really was quite cool to see maw & paw sitting in my living room!

yellowtrousers
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Jackies first Skype experience with Stephen involved the following quotes

"Oooo I can see you playing with your ring"

"How big is it?" (with reference to her web picture on his computer)

"Auch! I want to stroke him" Looking forward to more Skype chats & my skype name should people wish to get in contact is tanyaconnor1

PB160036
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Managed to blow both travel plugs with my hairdryer; what's the point in having some fancy "one adapter for all countries" plug is the thing is fused & only accepts up to 500watts - utter pish! It was about then that my tourettes started to show - I don't do drying hair naturally - especially not when its short!!! I've had to not only buy more fuses for the travel adapters so we can charge cameras/computers etc but have also had to buy a normal travel adapter for my hairdryer - what a pfaff! Thankgod for RadioShack though - they have everything! Jetlag has been a bit of a nightmare with waking up at 5am & then being nackered at 8pm, thankfully now we are Thursday this seems to have sorted itself out - just in time for getting on another flight & another time zone!!! Wednesday we took the bus up to Beverly Hills (720/920 $1.25 single) Again a beautiful day not a cloud in the sky. Had a glass of wine at the Regent Beverly Wiltshire made famous by Pretty Woman - as it was a hefty $19 a glass, one was enough & we went to the more suitably priced cheesecake factory for lunch. At the Beverly Wiltshire Jackie had a wee moment pointing loudly tot the tiny bottle of Tabasco sauce that was on this young business chaps table; said young chap told us we could sit at his table whilst he signed off his bill. This kept Thereas happy as he was totally her type if not juts a bit too young at around 27ish. Bizzarly he actually studied at St Andrew University so not only knew Fife pretty well but also Ziggys! Ferrari count was only 2 which was highly disappointing for Beverly Hills! No celebrity spotting but we did see a couple of papparazzi standing outside a clothes shop waiting for some model.  Thursday was another relaxing day. We took a ride on the ferris wheel ($3) which is something I've never done before. We then took the boardwalk along to Venice past Santa Monicas version of Muscle Beach. As it was quiet we had a wee play on the  various rings & bars; Jackie could turn herself right round on the rings whereas I just hung there!

swings
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Had a fabulous lunch in the Sidewalk cafe where we ended up spending the rest of the afternoon & evening. This is a great Cafe & I would highly recomend anyone who is staying in the area to get down there & sit out on the patio. Great people watching place & there are some really good musical acts playing all day alongside some chancers looking for spare change! I should have known that they day was going to turn disastrous when at only 1pm we ordered the first of many pitchers of beer! We were all wasted but Jackie was by far & away the most pished. We ended up in an Irish bar on Main Street & then had to get a taxi back to the Motel.

rings
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I was awoken on Friday morning at around 7.30am with Jackie flailing around the bed whining "help me!!" I tried hard to ignore it but even the 32db earplugs couldn't blank out the noise of the worst case of self pitying hangover whining ive heard in my life! Eventually i was poked on the side again with "help me!!" "I've got an axe in my head & I need drugs!" 45 minutes, one boaked up set of anedin extra & 2 digested co-codomols later there was silence in the room & I could get on with my own suffering!

Goodadvice
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Needless to say not much was achieved on Friday but we did have a nice Mexican & scary Margaritas at the Cantina on 3rd Street. Having been deeply disappointed with the talent in Abercrombie & Fitch earlier in the week it was nice to see a toned, attractive, naked yet bored chap standing in the door way on Saturday morning! As I'm writing this retrospectively I'm sure there is loads that I've missed so Boyle feel free to add in the comments of anything you feel should be in here!