Halloweeeeeeeen

So I leave tomorrow night, getting back to Melbourne at 9:30 in the morning, sorry for my mistake. The flight is NZ123.

So before I leave, I figure I should post about Halloween. The photos are a lot more work than I first expected, and so with packing and such, I haven't had much time... Luckily, they don't take too much brain power, so once I get home I should be able to get cracking on them.

So yes... Halloween. First thing I did for the day was begin decorating, Kristy and Richard wouldn't be home until later at night, and so I would have to be the one prepared for any trick-or-treaters. I put out some cobwebs everywhere, including on the door and one of the windows. I also got a Halloween playlist going, and set the computer speakers up near the windows.

As it got later, I got into my costume, and set out the pumpkins. When it got dark, I lit the candles, turned up the music and got ready for the trick-or-treaters.

I was a little disappointed actually. It wasn't until after 7:30 before I got one largish group of about 4 kids and two tweens, and then just before Kristy and Richard got home I got a group of three tweens who had what some may call a lack of clothing. I felt my costume (OK, so I have a photo of this already...) went to waste!

Luckily, it didn't totally. Kristy got home and disguised herself in a costume (including wig) that would ensure no one would recognise her as being an adult going out with a young adult trick-or-treating. I think most people thought I was 14 and no one really had an issue with it (plus by the time we got out, the night was starting to die down and so people wanted to get rid of their candy). Three houses up the street got REALLY into it, apparently they go overboard at Christmas (and at Easter too for one of the houses!) as well. One guy had dug a hole in his front yard to be a grave, another had people standing and sitting still in clown and scarecrow costumes, they moved when you had your back turned. Another had a huge graveyard, lighting effects, a guy who grabbed your foot as you tried to walk past, horror movies playing, and a person who would chase you with a chainsaw... Being the most elaborate, I can guess that this is the house that actually decorates for Easter.

I got a decent amount of candy, most of the area around here is apartments, and so they don't usually do the trick-or-treating thing... Probably why we didn't get many people. Now the only problem is I don't have time to eat it!

So today I was packing, I also went into Hollywood to go to the "Build-a-Bear Workshop" and bought twin bears... One for Kristy and I each as a sort of thank you and a bit of an inside joke between us (one is meant to be a ninja despite the fact the closest I could get was a karate costume, and the other is a pirate!). So that was fun...

...Tomorrow I leave! I kind of want to stay!!! Oh well.

See you all soon!

The day before Halloweeeeen

So I'm updating this on the morning of Halloween itself, but I think everyone will get over that.

So yesterday was Halloween, and after a bit of shopping, Kristy and I went to have some fun.

In the form of pumpkin carving!

Seriously, it isn't as easy as I thought, and it's actually really physically demanding! My arms got a good work out, that's for sure... We made two jack o' lanterns each. To see how easy it 'sounds', here are the steps:

1. Cut a hole at the top of the pumpkin, make sure you cut it at an angle so the lid can go back on. As I discovered from my first pumpkin, you should also make it big enough to easily get your hand in and out of, otherwise the next step and lighting the candle are going to be difficult.

2. Get a spoon and scrape all the edges. This step is really messy, because sometimes you can't get the spoon to grab enough and often it's just easier to stick your hand in and grab the stuff out yourself. Now is not a good time to decide you don't like the smell of pumpkin, because your hands up to your elbows are going to be covered in it.

3. Clean up the bits that didn't quite make it to the bin and wash off.

4. Get a sharpie or some other marker that you can draw on pumpkins with, and draw a face on it. Smoother pumpkins make this a lot easier, and while you can skip this step it makes your pumpkin look a lot better.

6. Get a knife and start cutting. Make sure it's real sharp, because as it is it's gonna get stuck in there and a sharp knife is easier to pull out of pumpkin rind. It's also hard to cut in any thing but a straight line, but it is possible. Be careful carving pointed teeth, they don't tend to stay on very well when you're pushing the cut up rind off the pumpkin.

7. Either drip wax down the bottom of the pumpkin for a perfect fit, or just shove a candle in there if you can manage to make them stand up straight.

8. Put the lids back on them and put them outside. Now your pumpkins are done!

So there you go. After making pumpkins, Kristy made jack o' lantern gingerbread cookies, which looked and tasted really good. Especially while watching The Mothman Prophesies with Richard Gere (a movie which is made all the more scary by the fact that it is based on a real story).

After that movie was over we settled down to watch a lovely movie known as Ringu. While I thought the American version of The Ring was actually scarier... It was pretty damn scary! For those of you who don't know, Ringu is the original Japanese movie that inspired the American movie. The plot is pretty much the same, but it has changed a fair bit. Either way, I'm surprised I was able to sleep so easy last night!

I have photos of the pumpkins coming too, so far I haven't made much progress on the photo album, but I'm getting there! I'm adjusting levels and resizing them before I put them up, and it's taking a little while longer than expected. Password is oranges in case it has been forgotten.

Halloween is tonight! I'll be dressing up and trick or treating! More details later!

Warner Bros. Studios

If you're reading this and say, "Finally, she's updated!"... Then, well... Yes I have, but scroll down the page, and look in the left column which shows you every post I made today. Start at the bottom post and work your way up, and you'll go from September 7 (The link marked "GO LA") to today.

Also you might notice a lack of photos... I can assure you, I have some, but there are A LOT. What I'm going to do is upload them into different folders of a Photobucket account. I'll probably be doing this tomorrow, as I have some other stuff I'm wanting to do, and adjusting the photos and uploading them is going to take a while. So check up on this link tommorow, the guest password for it "oranges". There will be folders for each day/thing, and newer photos will be to the bottom right on the last page of each folder (if there is more than one page)

I also have lots of video, but that's going to wait until I get home just because video editing is really time consuming, and I can't upload very long videos to Youtube.

But I'm now going to say what I did today besides update this blog (finally).

Today I went to Warner Bros Studios for their VIP tour. It was cool and we umm... Saw lots of stuff? Actually, asides from the stuff I got photos of it wasn't incredibly exciting!!! Wait until tomorrow to see all the neat stuff I got photos of!

ALSO: Just to tell/remind people that I'll be touching back down in Australia on November 5 at around 10:20am (providing it remains on schedule). So if you guys are interested... Yeah. Air NZ flight... Something. In International Arrivals. :)

The Week that was

The week of October 22-28, we're finally getting more recent!

So the day after Disneyland required some rest, but on Tuesday I was up and off again, this time to Paramount Studios! They were filming a few TV shows on the day, and apparently Eddie Murphy was on the lot on the day. We saw neither, but I did get to see the set of an upcoming TV show called Dirt with Courtney Cox, and here's hoping I don't get a lawsuit thrown on me... Found out some news that Trekkies may be excited about. I will say nothing more because the tour guide slipped up when she told us and apparently no one's meant to know.

It was pretty neat to see all the stuff though, and of course we got the obligatory talk about the Hollywood sign which could be seen from outside the sound stage of Dirty Sexy Money (and she got some of her facts wrong too, and I thought it was sad that I knew she was wrong).

What was interesting was on the buses here... They have TVs which show roughly where the bus is, play ads and such, and put up headlines. One of the news stories looked like: "Sydney (Reuters) Keeping fit is important! Just ask Australia's power walking PM, John Howard, who is soon to be facing a tough election" ... Yeah that was the highlight of my bus trip. Boy am I looking forward to all the Australian politics when I get home!!! Man, at least I don't understand enough about the stuff over here to have it really effect me... Though Stephen Colbert running for President in South Carolina is all I'm really paying attention to. He should move to Australia and become PM. Really.

Friday was my chosen day to once again return to Disneyland. I had to get up at 6:30 in the morning this time, using public transport meant that I wouldn't get to Disneyland until around 10:20. If I wanted to get there at its open, I would have to catch a bus at 5:30, and waking up at 4:30 in the morning did not sound fun.

So I went to California Adventure first, and made a beeline for the Tower of Terror. WHICH WAS COOL!!! On my way to another ride... I managed to really be in the right place at the right time, because apparently at the place I was walking through at that time allowed me to win a "Dream Fast Pass" for both parks... Basically tickets that allowed me to jump lines on certain popular rides. Nemo, again was not included but I didn't mind. So I went on all those rides! Including Splash Mountain which worked this time (though it didn't get me as wet as the Grizzly River Run at Cali Adventure... I was soaked for most of the day from that).

I got to see the main street parade this time, which was good (though I know some of the floats were missing...). What was REALLY awesome though was the Fantasmic show (which was a cross between the parade, a water show, some movie clips, and a fireworks show, all with Mickey and a big dragon and... It was just really cool), and the fireworks (which by the end had my crying because apparently Disney knows how to make you so incredibly happy that you can't help it!!!)

So yes... Friday was good.

On Saturday I went shopping for some items for my Halloween costume (A Surprise!), and on Sunday Richard had a few things to do, and so when he went to Frys I went with him and bought myself a copy of the Sims 2 Pets, which has finally gone down in price (it was cheaper than it was in Oz before, so even more so now).

With Disney photos, I didn't get as many as I would have liked. However, I sort-of-know a person who works there/has worked there, and she has a lot of photos and videos that most people wouldn't be able to get. So if you want to see some cool Disney stuff, check out her art page. If you click on the link just under the box on the right which says "Previous Journal Entries", she often has some photo posts and links to her photo albums in there, as well as links to some videos she has taken and put up on Youtube. There's some pretty awesome stuff.

Back to LA and A WORLD OF PAIN!!!

So on Monday, I bid farewell to Arizona and took a flight back to LA. My arrival was a bit hectic and confusing but it worked out eventually, and I unpacked and rested!

...And then packed again.

On Tuesday, Kristy and I were straight on the ball and used her two days off to take us both to Santa Barbara again. While we spent day one just lazing around (Kristy was using it as a getaway from work and I... Well I dunno, I was just there), on Wednesday we took a trip out to Solvang; A European styled town that was originally a Danish settlement, but was now impressing tourists by just being European. It was very pretty and cool. We got Danishes, which were also cool.

I came home to a letter and then drama from ACU... Which continued on into the next day... But more importantly I came back with A REALLY SORE MOUTH. So on Thursday I booked a dentist appointment...

...Turns out I need a root canal when I get back home. Yay. So I got prescriptions for antibiotics and a lot of strong painkillers (I'm done with the antibiotics now, but I still have some painkillers which I still need of an occasion)

I got them just in time too... Because... On Sunday...

We went to Disneyland. And it was awesome.

I bought a two day park hopper, but for Sunday it was Kristy, Richard and I. I was gonna use the second day with the addition of California adventure on another day. So. We went on a lot of rides, including Pirates of the Caribbean, Space Mountain, Star Tours, the Tea Cups, Whinnie the Pooh... We attempted to go on Splash Mountain, but just as we were about to reach the big drop, it broke down, and we had to be evacuated! They gave us a fastpass to any ride (except for the new Finding Nemo subs, where the line was almost two hours long, I did not go on this ride on either day for obvious reasons!). So we went on the Matterhorn, which was also fun!

It was pretty windy though, which was annoying and caused the fireworks to be cancelled! It didn't matter too much though, because I had A LOT of fun. And I was going back.

The Extra Suprise week!

So we came home from the Grand Canyon on Monday, and I was supposed to head back on the Wednesday, but in a stunning change of plans, I would spend October 8-14 in Arizona and fly back to LA on the 15th.

So during the week we did some fun stuff, Tiffiny showed me around ASU, which is like its own miniature city (and it has multiple campuses!). It even has a bus specifically to drive around the area, which has shops that are a part of it (including I think every fast food chain that exists here)

I went to the Arizona Mills mall, which was also big and greeted you as you walked in the door with an electronic voice. I had a New York style hot dog (sausages in bread are better), and learnt that the Rainforest Cafe looks cool despite its cheesiness, but is way too expensive to eat at.

I went with Amanda to one of her jewellery making classes at her university, and walked around the area too... Which was also pretty fun.

On Friday we even went with Lauren to see Elizabeth: The Golden Age, which was a great movie despite the fact I haven't seen the first one.

But the main reason I was sticking around in Arizona for another week was what we did on Saturday: We went to Rawhide.

It was like a smaller, Cowboy version of Sovereign Hill without as many people in costume. During the day it was aimed more at younger kids, but after dark, they put up their Halloween theme and became "Doom Town"... It was pretty awesome.

The first show we saw was this thing on the Lone Ranger, where the guy basically retold the story of the Lone Ranger and Tonto, showed off some gun spinning tricks and fired a very loud gun to do things like pop balloons inside. He was a little annoying... But... yeah...
After that we walked around and looked at all the expensive shops, then waited an age in line to get ice cream, because some stupid volunteer Girl Scout person decided to make more orders while she was paying.
The next show was announced by a gun fight in the streets, and was the story of how Billy the Kid came to a town, shot some bad guys and... Left. Billy the Kid, we agreed though, was rather cute.
We had some greasy burgers for dinner... And then DOOMTOWN!

There was a haunted train which was fun because it was really for kiddies and their parents. But that was OK. There was another show on the same set as the Billy the Kid one, it was a little tongue in cheek, but still pretty funny and cool with its pyrotechnics. While we were waiting for it to start, we mucked around with the entertainers... Two of whom chased Tiffiny when she ran away from a guy dressed as an undertaker.

After that came the stuff that wasn't for kids under 10. There was a show where they disected 'dead' people and blood and guts fell out before the corpses started talking (though us three seemed to be the only ones in the audience who found the sense of humour that went with it funny, especially with the Monty Python jokes he threw in...), and of course, the main event... A Haunted House. It would have been scary if it weren't for the fact that we were put with three women who SCREAMED HYSTERICALLY the whole way through, and so instead of screaming, the three of us cracked up laughing the whole time.

Sunday was spent packing, and a bit of shopping. But I had a good time :)

The aftermath and the Grand Canyon!

Surprisingly, on Monday everyone wanted to sleep. But we had to be out of the hotel by around midday, and have meetings with the staff there, so it wasn't really an option. We eventually got out of there though, and Lauren (one of my Arizonian friends and the main director) went to her place to crash, and Kristy and I went back with Tiffiny and Amanda's place (the uh... Other two directors and friends from Arizona)

So... The rest of the week from October 1-7...

On Tuesday, Amanda and Tiffiny took Kristy and I to a few cool places, the main places being a Halloween superstore (pretty damn cool) and The Bass Pro Shop. It was an outdoors shop and I think they must have killed... I don't know how many animals to decorate the place. I was a little mortified, and the girls laughed... Hunting and guns really are a part of life over here. We had some fun around the shop though, it was HUGE to the point where they could fit a river with live fish, a (fake) shooting range, an bow and arrow shooting range, a large fishtank, a restaurant, a rock climbing wall and a fudge shop inside.

...If you had to ask whether or not we bought fudge, you do not know me well enough. I got cookies and cream (with real Oreos!) and Cheesecake. We watched a really bad anime with what we think is the worst dubbing job in history, and fun was to be had.

Wednesday, Kristy was leaving, with me staying for a while longer with the girls in Arizona. We did go canoeing on the lake that is IN THE McGUIRE'S BACKYARD!!! It was pretty cool. I also got to experience Red Robin, which is actually a franchise restaurant and not a fast food place like I thought it was.

The main event of the week was yet to come though- My trip with Amanda, Lauren and Tiffiny to the Grand Canyon!

On Saturday, we piled into a car and drove all the way up to Sedona which... Was pretty stunning. Red rock all around. The scenery was nothing short of amazing. We went to the motel after lunch and a walk around, where we played some fun games including a drinking game with sake (and even with a fruity flavoured sake, we discovered that sake tastes pretty horrible). By the way, I don't endorse drinking!!! Just so you parents know...

And then came Sunday, the day where we actually went to the Canyon. I apologise for not having photos of this, I have yet to nab them off people. I do have a lot of video, but really... I couldn't capture it at all. The place was amazing.

For those of you who are curious, no I wasn't there when the four year old fell into the Canyon, that happened the day after we got back.

But yeah... The place was really, really awesome, and I don't know how to begin to describe it. Except for it was apparently tiring for the girls to walk (I've been doing a lot of walking in my time over here so I guess that's why I didn't have a problem? One of the few advantages of not being able to rely on a car...) We only saw part of the Southern edge and ... Wooooow. We also saw a graveyard, with people from all different time periods randomly placed. It was also pretty cool.

Scouts, Outs, and Arizona

After a week of stress, a stunning success in finishing the yearbook only a day late, and failures in both riding roller coasters and winning the lottery, The week of September 24-30 turned out to be even busier (and in terms of the weekend, even more stressful!!!)

I took a two day getaway, however! On Monday I packed my bags and met a Cub leader called April, who whisked me away to her area of California. Her four year old daughter, also named Kristy, was a little shy at first, but soon warmed up to me when her mother took us to a mini farm where we fed some goats before we had to pick up her sons. After that, I was taken bowling, and to dinner, and to play some arcade games... And I wasn't allowed to pay a cent. It was exciting.

But of course, the main event of the day was that I was to speak at their Cub Pack meeting. While I'm sure that my Cubs are anxious to learn the details of what went down... I'm going to keep most of it secret! You'll have to wait until I get back to talk to you all! It was very fun though, and I was so awesome that when I was talking the kids were all well behaved and quiet (in contrast to the throwing of popcorn and talking during the rest of the night). It took a while for one of the kids to catch on that I was from Australia ("How come you're talking about different badges and stuff?"), but otherwise a lot of the questions the kids were asking were really interesting, and some got my brain working. I also got questions from parents and other leaders after the meeting was over... Do you believe that most of the adults didn't know we have a Queen? OK, so maybe you do with them being American, but it was still really odd. Most people over here don't even know our Prime Minister's name (though they know who Tony Blair is)... Though I was surprised to see a little something on the bus the other day (more on that later!!!).

After the meeting, I was taken to the home of the main leader, and got to watch the first episode of Heroes... Before anyone in Australia! Haha! But yeah it was pretty cool. The leader's son is a HUGE Elvis fan, to the point that he's an Elvis impersonator in his own band with a costume and everything. It was pretty cool.

I was treated even more the next morning, taken to the Pechanga Indian casino (where I was asked if in Australia do we have Casinos on Indian Reservations? "Er... Well, it would help to have Native American Indians for a start...") to have breakfast. Though while there, it was suggested that the four of us go see a great big giant sacred Oak Tree. Normally public doesn't actually get to see it on a regular basis. But we did! In fact, we were given a mini tour by the Fire Chief of the area. The Oak Tree was indeed, HUGE. From the outside it looked like a lot of little trees, but once you got behind all the leaves, you could see that this was caused because the branches were so big, they were drooping to the ground.
We also got to see an educational area that was made for young Native American Children, which NO PUBLIC were meant to see. But we did!
We also got to look at the on site fire station, which was pretty cool. The fire truck had a ladder that went up to six storeys high.

So that was that. I had to get back to Toluca Lake and pack (again), because the next day I was off to Arizona!

The drive up on Wednesday took 6 hours, and so Kristy and I had some fun on our road trip. We had our lottery ticket tucked away safely. On the way there, there was some truly beautiful scenery. A field of wind-powered fans that went on for a few km's, some desert scenery with lots of cacti, and rocky mountain ranges.

Eventually we did arrive though, to the house of the McGuire's. After settling in a bit, eating some food and such... It was off to work for us! We had to pick up some T-shirts for the conference and pack up bags and... A lot of work.

Thursday was a little more laid back. We still had a lot of preparations to do, but most of it was quick and easy to do. Most worrying was the stress of seeming impending doom! One of these things of impending doom being a lovely vendor who decided to arrive a day earlier than expected due to a break down of communication. This vendor would prove to be a large annoyance later in the weekend.

And then Friday came- Move in day! We attacked the hotel by ordering rooms, took a tour of the Convention centre and filled it with all sorts of junk (including signs made by Kristy and put up by her and yours truly!). Test runs were made, drama was abound.... And there was a VIP dinner which was pretty cool, including the invitation to guests Michael and Melodee who were totally cool actors.

So Saturday came. There was more drama, but being only a minor staff member who was basically an assistant when I was needed... I had free reign to go to some classes run by Cyndi Greening, a woman whom Disney has stolen script ideas from, has been in the Crew for the first Zambian film ever and is currently in a legal debate with an Arizona University because of it. Her classes were nothing short of stellar, and I learnt A LOT.

Drama drama drama, and talking of drama, cue Sunday when the stuff hit the fan with the vendor... Seriously, if you want more details I'll tell all, but I've heard the story told so many times now!!!

By the end of the day we were all exhausted, and all the staff went to the International House of Pancakes (better known as IHOP) for dinner. Which was cool. I was also asked by Melodee if I could bring the conference to Australia, despite the disaster of not having enough people at ours... Which I will have to think about. I don't think my life is ready to handle setting up an event like this in Melbourne.

But yeah. It was stressful. It was fun. It was "Intimate". The photos in my collection are probably a little adult, so they won't be available in my album thinger, but feel free to ask for them... I still have to go out and find others from the weekend!

OU Workathon

September 17-23... As my trip to Arizona draws close, one of the main things that was a motivation to get over here became apparent.

A conference called Otaku University, meant to be an educational weekend for people looking to get into animation, film making, acting/voice acting... Lots of stuff. It was orientated around Anime and Manga (Japanese animation and comics), so it had a lot of educational stuff on that too, as well as some great night time events.... However, this was still a week away, in the meantime we were waiting to hear when the deadline for the program/guidebook for the even was.

On Monday, we were told the deadline was Wednesday!

So this week was a week of intense work and a lot of learning on my part of how to do such things. We ended up having to do an all nighter on the Tuesday, and overall it was a week of exaustion with a promise of going to Magic Mountain on Friday.

...As we found out on Friday however, that was not to be. Pouring, torrential rain made going to a theme park seem a little wasted. So instead we spent the day shopping for a gift basket to give to the three girls we would be staying with in Arizona, who were working harder than us as the Directors of OU. They were also going bankrupt.

So on Saturday, Kristy and I went for a nice walk around NoHo... And bought a lottery ticket:

"Today was a most auspicious one for our plan. We had many good omens and I am now more certain than ever that we cannot fail.

I took my car in to be serviced early this morning because it's a long drive to Arizona and I don't want any unwelcome surprises. Midas called me an hour later and said there was nothing at all wrong with it and they would just do a few basic maintenance things and call it good. I still had no car all day because Midas is too far to walk and Richard was at work. I'm going to pick it up in the morning.

Well, as I said, I had no car today so (Laura) and I decided to go on a walk to the grocery store and around the Arts District. It was raining a little, so we put on some long coats and headed out. On the whole, it was a very refreshing walk. The cool air and rain felt so good. We stopped at a little Chinese place down the street for dinner and the people there were really nice. They even gave us free soup with our meal! The best part of all was the fortune cookies! Here is what mine said:
YOU WILL INHERIT A LARGE SUM OF MONEY
(Laura)'s was also good:
AN UNEXPECTED EVENT WILL SOON BRING YOU FORTUNE

So it seems our plan is shaping up nicely! As we walked on we saw a number of crickets (lucky bugs, you know). Finally, we stopped at 711 and bought the key to our future fortune! Expect good news tomorrow night, my friends! We even did a tarot card reading that eerily seemed to point to our success!"

So yeah, we figured we were set. As it turned out on Sunday, we weren't. However, I demanded that we try again for Wednesday. "The Wednesday Plan!" We said. The term spread to our friends in Arizona, and now it remains as a phrase describing a stupidly ridiculous and desperate plan (for instance, going to a rich area and throwing yourself out in front of an expensive car, making sure to make a thump on the way, in order to get money out of the person).

We give permission to everyone who wishes to use this term from now on.

The week were uh... Nothing happened.

So... The week of September 10-16.

Nothing happened. Seriously.

Aside from watching a fest of doom and gloom on American TV on September 11, discovering that Magic Mountain was not open during the week (the first of two disappointments from the park) and maybe a movie night or two... It was a very relaxed week.

:)

GO LA!

OK, so because I'm slack and have not updated for a while, rather than condensing stuff into one post, I'm going to split it up into a few.

So this is the first! During the week of September 3-9

OK, so on my last blog post I talked about getting a GO LA card. This allowed me to visit a lot of different places for a flat rate of 100 something dollars and that's it, I got a 3 day pass, so here's the stuff I did:

Day One: Today was the day of Universal Studios! The first thing I did was head for the tours, which was very tongue in cheek, but still enjoyable enough. The Studios have a huge mall attached to it, but the tours are inside a bit of a theme park. A lot of the rides were very fun, from the Jurrasic Park ride where I would have been soaked if it weren't for a poncho, the fast (but seriously, too short!) Rollercoaster themed to "The Mummy Returns", The Terminator 3D... It was pretty expensive food wise but overall it was fun. The Waterworld show which was going to be closed due to the heatwave that had been plaguing LA, was opened because it was only around 27 degrees C. Lucky choice for a day! With it being a weekday, there also weren't many lines. I even managed to be one of the volunteers in their special effects demonstrations- I got to battle a giant cat paw, have dinner with the Klumps (From the Nutty Professor) and lug 'heavy' polystyrene bricks (The Mummy). So it was a lot of fun.

Day Two: Today was my "Downtown LA Day". I got up relatively early in the morning to catch the Subway out to Downtown LA... There were some problems with the trains, but luckily I made it in time for my Historical Tour of the area. It was a little different to what I was expecting from the booklet (which talked about movies that had filmed in the area...), and the guide talked mostly about the architecture and artwork on buildings that we walked around to see, but it was still pretty interesting.

After that, I headed up the road to the Walt Disney Music Centre. The place looks like metal sails and in the sunlight can be quite blinding! They're apparently trying to dull the metal because it is causing problems for drivers. The 'self guided' tour had a little remote which played narration for your tour, as done by John Lithgow (who is apparently rumoured to be cast in an upcoming film version of "The Smurfs"). It's relatively new, but REALLY pretty. Especially the rooftop garden.

I went to MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) afterwards which was... Well I expected it to be a little bigger. Apparently in the off season they have closed much of the place up, and so there wasn't much to look at. What was there was... OK. I hadn't heard of any of the artists featured.

I still had some time left, and so decided to go to the Gene Autry Western Museum and look at some Cowboy stuff. This is where another of my 'adventures' began. The GO LA guidebook said to catch a number 96 bus... It didn't say which way, and of course, not being familiar with the area, I had no idea. I asked a woman on one side of the road if I was on the right side to go to the place (I had a map in my guidebook, which I showed her). She pointed me to the bus stop on the other side of the road. So I waited there for a bus, and asked the bus driver if this was indeed, the right bus. I used my map again. He said "Yes, sure"... Though when he started driving, he was driving in a direction that went suspiciously away from the streets listed on my maps, and more into Downtown LA than into the San Fernando Valley. I asked him again if this was right, and he waved me off and said he'd get me there.

Then we arrived at the bus depot, and, apparently... The bus I needed to catch was on the other side of the road. I had to wait 10 minutes in the empty bus at the depot while he took a break and all the other bus drivers were milling around their buses. It was the most odd experience ever.

But finally the bus was on its way again, this time in the direction I wanted to go, and I soon arrived at the Gene Autry Western Museum. Which was awesome, and while it was all well and good to have Native American representation... I thought they had a little too much considering there was a Gene Autry Native American Museum nearby. It was still cool though, lots of costumes and... Stuff.

Then I went home and slept.

Day Three: The last day of my GO LA card, this was "Hollywood Day". If I had thought I'd heard enough about the Hollywood sign and how people get stars on the stree before, I was in for a treat... I went on three tours and every single one of them managed to talk about the Hollywood sign and the stars in the Walk of Fame. I don't think there's anything I don't know about them any more. I even know that Robert Redford, Mel Gibson, Jane Fonda and Clint Eastwood all don't have stars, even though Ricky Martin got his on the 16th of October and The Munchkins from "The Wizard of Oz" will be getting one on November 20th.

So I had three tours, one walking, one on a bus (to see Stars' homes) and one on a rather scary trolley ride that for some reason went out on the freeway despite the fact that none of us in the outside area had seatbelts (a general Hollywood tour). Seeing as I was all toured out, I went back to Universal Studios, went on the Mummy Roller coaster and then on the Jurrasic Park ride... Forgetting a poncho. So a little damp, I walked home and yet again collapsed for need of rest!

Overall, I'm glad that I got that card. There was a lot more I could have done if I had the means of travel and such, so if anyone comes over here... I recommend getting one.