Los Angeles, CA... city of dreams...

Well after much anticipation and excitement, James and I find ourselves in the city of dreams... LA. Well, the city of my dreams anyway and by that... I of course mean in the entertainment world. Hollywood certainly isn't a city you'd dream of living in for it's beauty. I knew what to expect but James was surprised to see the filth of the Blvd and every second store an underwear store with pieces of lingerie to suit everyone from all walks of life.
SUNDAY: Arrived and were pretty good considering the 19 hour trip. We checked into the Hostel and took a walk down the Blvd. Took some photos of stars...

 We kept walking up to the Kodak Theatre and the Chinese Theatre and took some pics as well. We went to the top to see the Hollywood Sign but this wasn't the best quality viewing spot.
We ended up seeing XMen movie at the Chinese Theatre that night too to combat Jetlag. :) Took along a new friend Arthur from the Hostel.
Here are two more pics from day one...

MONDAY: I really enjoyed Monday. We headed to The Grove and Farmer's Markets near Fairfax. It was really nice to just chill out. Apparently the place is one of the best places for celebrity spotting and celebrity spot we did. Well, not on my top 10 but still... John Cho from Harold and Kumar movies. Pretty cool. But even better was that we spent the afternoon with Mike and Zoe and it was awesome to just hang out with them and have a few beers. We then headed to El Coyote in Fairfax and had an amazingly fun night with great friends Mike and Zoe and also Jeanie and John. I'm so glad that we got to see Jeanie and John as Jeanie's parents are in town and we weren't sure if we'd catch a night with them so I'm pretty happy we did. Lots of great mexican food and many scratch magaritas later, I find myself stumbling into our hostel later that night after a great night of fun with my mates!

Mike's office's front door! :)

TUESDAY: UNIVERSAL STUDIOS BABY!! Woohoo! James enjoyed his gift from Jenna and Katie and we had a great day at the Studios. I think my highlight was the Waterworld Show again. James loved the Delorian and the Backlot tour. Whole day was great and we didn't even get front of line passes and didn't wait long for the rides so I was happy with that. I was almost convinced to go in the House of Horrors but after last time... I know better.

WEDNESDAY: I call this Rudolf day... why? Because we both didn't heed the warnings we each gave each other and ended up getting a little red! LOL. It's all good... I'm brown now. :) (Sorry Mum) Every other day we have been so good but it was a cooler day and I guess we didn't really think about it.
We headed to Venice Beach and Santa Monica Pier on Wednesday. Was a great day to walk up the beach and the cultural aspect of Venice Beach particularly. It's a world of it's own. We ate lunch at this awesome Ale House. I had a grilled Portobello Vegie burger where the big portobello mushroom was the 'meat'. YUMMY! After lunch we continued to Santa Monica Pier where I won James a little red Shark toy by popping a balloon. Yes I know it should be the other way around right... mmm....
After the pier we went to Century City (Nakatomi Plaza!!) to watch Transformers 3. Mike, Zoe and one of Mike's mates Will, joined us. I enjoyed it. Classic transformers with little storyline and heaps of action and a Victoria's Secret model... LOL.

THURSDAY: Thursday was awesome. We went to Rodeo Drive and even though I tried to convince James to buy me something in Dolce and Gabbana he wouldn't have a bar of it! (Considering I think the cheapest thing I saw was at $400 for a belt or something ridiculous like that). We then headed back to The Grove for our sceduled viewing of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson that we had booked through the Grove on Monday. Turns out we had priority tickets which was nice. The show was good. Warm up guy before that wasn't so good... bit gross really. And not that funny. Anyways everything was redeemed when... HENRY WINKLER stepped out onto the stage!!! The Fonz!!!! WOW! (I did know he was going to be there though) He was awesome. He came out wearing a (popping) yellow jacket which was pretty cool. And the interview was funny and went for about 15 minutes. Was so cool to see him live and I'm pretty sure my Dad will be the most jealous when he reads this!!! Following Henry Winkler was Mike Massino who is a NASA Astronaut so that made James' day as well. Was pretty cool! Then on the way back to the Hostel we had the opportunity to drive past the red carpet at the Chinese Theatre where who should be there but... JENNIFER ANISTON!! We tried to get photos but it wasn't very clear. Oh well... I've already walked the red carpet with her anyways! LOL. Thursday night we ate in and then just came up to the Blvd to try to jailbreak my phone and unlock it. (It's been a nightmare!) CELEBRITY THURSDAY!!

FRIDAY: DISNEYLAND!! Need I say more. It was awesome and we were lucky to have used our fastpasses to the best and we got on space mountain twice with limited wait and had a great day at the Happiest place on earth.

(Mickey Mouse totally hit on me!)
SATURDAY: Today. Today we headed out on foot to the Hollywood sign... Oh my am I unfit or what! It was up some steep hills to get to the bottom of the sign. The closest most legal spot to the sign. Once up there is was worth the walk but still took some time and ventolin and plenty of water! Got some fantastic pics and then headed to Griffith Observatory. It's beautiful up there. Great view of the whole city.
Tonight we went to Barney's Beanery with Mike and Zoe and watched UFC and had dinner and drinks with them. Such a cool bar. Been there since the 30s. We even played shuffle board and James and I beat Mike and Zoe 21-20! Close game.

Which brings us to now. It's our last night in LA. We are heading to San Francisco tomorrow in our (hopefully) Mustang Convertible. Fingers Crossed! Looking forward to the drive up the Coast. Will post more in San Fran. Sorry there aren't more photos... We have to turn them into Jpegs! LOL.

Love to all!

xox

A whirlwind month!

Wow! Seriously where has the last month gone???
We are already half way through June and in just 12 days I'll be boarding a plane with James to go on the long anticipated USA trip to celebrate my 30th year of existence.
Soooooo much has happened in the last month.

OPPOSITES ATTRACT
I am completely overwhelmed with the response we had to Opposites Attract. I knew that a large cast would draw in a good crowd but I was uncertain just how good. We performed to 4/5 sold out audiences and were given a wonderful review by Duncan McLeod from the Primate Perspective. You can read it here...
http://www.theprimateperspective.com/2011/06/theatre-opposites-attract/
It seems like only yesterday that I met up with Steve at the Exchange Hotel in Balmain and thought what a great space it would be to put on a play. I've been wanting to do Opposites Attract for 5 years now and I've finally done it. :) It wouldn't have happened without my partner in crime, Steve Hopley, my wonderful cast, and excellent crew including the ever patient Lissa and ever more patient James.
James put up with a lot of my mood swings and craziness during it all and I am eternally grateful to him for that.

The show unfortunately did have a small downfall though and up until now I've tried to be very diplomatic about it all. I suffered through (along with the rest of the cast and crew) the attitude, unprofessionalism, crudeness, rudeness, selfishness, etc etc of one such actor that thought that he was above it all and was exempt from all rules cause he was some kind of 'super special' and I can honestly say I will never work with him again. It may come across as truly unprofessional that I would even mention this but I want to publicly say sorry to the others that he affected during this whole process. I hope that he did not tarnish the experience for you all.

Anyways, Hot Room Theatre Group is alive and kicking and watch this space for more to come! Steve and I will meet up to discuss the next project when I return from the States. Very exciting.
Also check out Sydney Shakespeare Company's first production "Othello".

USA
Only 12 more days til I get to board a plane with James and finally relax for 5 whole weeks! I can not wait! I'm so excited I've thought about packing my bag now! Instead I'll write a list of things I need to pack and start preparing that way.
Last night James and I decided to drive from LA to San Francisco and explore the coast line for a day. So we booked a... wait for it... FORD MUSTANG!!! Woohoo!! Everytime I say Mustang I feel like singing... Mustang Sally !! I hope that is what we get. It does say 'or similar' so fingers crossed.
LA is booked, Vegas is booked, can't wait to see Nanette, Ray, Michelle and Caleigh in Denver and then off to NEW YORK NEW YORK for 10 days! We fly back to Fiji for the weekend before heading home on August 1. It's a huge trip but I'm so excited about it all.
Looking forward to being greeted by warm air as well. Can't wait to leave the wintery blues behind us for a while.
It's going to be awesome. I've been following Laraine and Brendon's blogs and am jealous of what they've done already but I just keep saying... not long now.

And you know what... I deserve this holiday! I've worked hard and saved and haven't had much of a social life and this holiday is perfect! And the same goes for James!

I am disappointed I can't go to Samoa this year but there is always next year. My thoughts and prayers are with the team who venture over there in a few weeks as well. I pray it all goes well! :)

Well I best be back to work. It's not going to do itself unfortunately!