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In Summary :
Neil Diamond wrote "LA's fine the sun shines most the time, and the feelin' is laid back" - but not if you're a Warner Brothers security guard! In the guards own words, he had to do a "matrix-like move" to avoid being hit by my car as i reversed - oops. Also, i should have heeded the singer's warning about the sun shine - as i look like a microwaved panda now! Sunglasses may look cool when you're wearing them, but not when you take them off after forgetting to take the sun cream out with you.
In Detail:
We had woken around 5.30am and hadn't really got a clue what we were going to do first. We looked up the theme park "Six Flags Magic Mountain", but they are now only open at the weekends, so we missed our window of opportunity there. So we decided to go for the Warner Bros studio tour instead. Found a coupon online that gave us $10 dollars off the tour (how else did you think i could get David to go?) so we booked online and the went to breakfast.
We foolishly hoped that breakfast was included in the room rate and then were stung for $15 dollar breaksfast at the hotel (with a recommended tip minimum being 15% - jeez). Breakfast was good though.
As we have free wifi here, i went into my maps app and programmed in the location of the studio tour. I had hoped that David's difficulty in using my iphone was a temporary phase, as he adjusted to the technology, but it appears that it may be that map reading is just not his thing anymore. That coupled with my dubious driving skills may mean that we may swap driving/navigating duties for the rest of the holiday (although memories of David driving in Vegas still haunt me).
We got in the vacinity if the Warner Brothers studio, but apparently the wrong gate for the tour. I asked one of the security guards for directions to the tour, and he obligingly gave them. He did not, however, tell me how i was to turn around at the security gate i had drivin up to, so i decided to do a reverse u-turn. I was concerntrating on looking in my rear view mirror and did not see that another security guard was standing on the passenger side of my car, with his back facing us! The bonnet of my car swung to the right and he made his "matrix" move to avoid it (funny how that film is made by Warner Brothers, i wonder if they are only allowed to mention their own films?) Well, i got out of there pretty sharpish, feeling quite embarrassed. We did laugh about it later (me and David that is, not me and the security guard).
We eventually got to the studio tour and went on one of those long golf cart things around the studios. Didn't really see anything that interesting, and David was a bit diappointed that he didn't get to see the set for "Two and a Half Men". At the end of the tour we did get to go the the "WB" museum, and half of it was dedicated to Harry Potter, so i loved it! I sat on the stool and the sorting hat put me in "hufflepuff" house, which i was gutted about, but i suppose it makes sense, judging by my driving skills that day.
So, we finished the tour and mulled over where to go next. We decided to head to Mann's chinese theatre, but when i suggested that it might be cool to see an actual movie there, David was a but concerned as he suspected that all the films would be in Chinese!!! Another classic Planet quote. We parked in the underground car park right under the theatre. We walked up an down the Boulavard for a while, looking at the stars on the walk of fame. Some guys were touting for tours of stars homes, and we brushed them off until one of them mentioned that it was a "2-4-1" special, so needless to say, we were hooked.
It was a good tour, but there were four of us squeezed into the back seat of an open topped min-van, so it was cramped to say the least. We saw loads of star's houses (yes, Mel, we even saw Mr Buble's house, but sadly he didn't come out to say hi - maybe next time!)
We saw many houses, including: The Osbourne's, Matthew Perry, Jennifer Aniston (which was opposite the Buble residence), Joan Collins, John Lennon, George Harrison, The house they filmed "Halloween" in, the fire escape in the last scene of "Pretty Woman", The Playboy Mansion, and the house that Micheal Jackson died in. There were loads more but they all blurred into one as i was being fried slowly to a crisp under the California sun!
After the tour, David wanted to get a hot dog at the famous "Pinks" hot dog stand. We walked a good three miles to get there (passing Jim Henson's workshop on the way), but the hot dogs were good and the service was brilliant. Lovely women working hard and keeping smiles on their faces, and treating every customer as if they were VIP's. It's no wonder that place has the reputation it does. I ordered the "Millenium" dog, and David had the "Today Show" dog. Mine was enormous and had Jalapenos inside the sausage. David had to admit that, although his dog tasted nice, that mine was the better looking one.
We then faced the hike up hill three mile back to the boulevard. We got back and then took a look at the Kodak theatre (where the oscars are held) and it surprised me that it was not much more than a glorified shopping mall with a cinema inside it. Can you imagine holding the BAFTA's inside Castle Mall in Norwich? Weird!
We wandered over to Mann's Chinese Theatre and look at all the star's hand/foot prints in the cement. We were pretty exhausted by then and decided to head back to the hotel (eventually finding our way back after a few wrong turns) and settled in for an evening of Pizza and beer in front of the telly. Not exciting, but i think LA wore us out.
David has now been researching the dodgy areas of LA, as he finds them "facinating". I hope and pray that he doesn't want to visit these areas! We shall see what tomorrow brings.
- comments
Tony I have sent you two pics from The Yeoman to Facebook
Melissa Shame you didnt get to see Micky Bubbles!! x