Hi guys,

We have finally got round to writing our first blog post, sorry it has taken so long but we`ve been far too busy mingling with celebrities to take five minutes to inform you of our activities...

The flight was ok, very long though. The free alcohol helped, but they didnt come round to offer it out enough. Therefore Dave had to keep popping behind the curtains to get more beer and wine.

Li got shouted at by a crazy old woman from america for nudging her chair and over the other side of the plane another american guy went mental at the guy in front for putting his chair back. It was a bit scary because he looked like Skeletor.

Arrived in LA and after an excrutiating long ride from the airport (where some nutter was threatening to be sick on the bus - what a joker) we dumped our bags in the hostel and swiftly made our way out for some `authentic` american food. We were advised by some guy called Boogie that a place down the street was good... after settling down Li noticed a few things that unsettled her. The pictures on the walls looked familiar and as time went on we eventually realised that we were living in the JEWISH part of the city. Those of you who know Li well can imagine how she felt about this - obviously really excited. Or something along those lines. Safe to say, haunted by the images of old jewish women, it was a pretty early night.

The next couple of days we just got settled in, had a look around the shops etc and generally stuffed our faces with far too much food.

Then when we finally decided to socialise we met a couple of guys from England who were travelling the states (Sean and Robin) and a couple of girls from Switzerland (Laura and Cinzia). This meant we had drinking buddies and proceeded to order vast amounts of alcohol for delivery to our door.

We thought we`d better do a tour to see the whole of LA so signed up for a bus tour which took us around Beverly hills and all the stars homes then down the walk of fame and sunset strip and over to Venice beach to see all the freaks. it didnt disapoint, everyone is mental down there. There was a basketball tournament going on aswell so we got to see some proper streetball. All in all a good tour made better by the crackhead who picked a fight with our tourguide when we made a stop!

That night was spent, again, consuming various intoxicating beverages and retreating to the adequately named party room in the basement of our hostel that mainly just looked like a dirty crack den - but we liked it all the same. ( notice the numerous references to crack/crack w****s/crackies - literally everyone has been on the pipe over here and we`re not even kidding...)

The best evening so far was probably spent watching the sunset over LA drinking bottles of wine out of a brown paper bag - we had met an American, Todd, who was actually from Hollywood who was just staying in the hostel for a while and he basically showed us around and took us up to the Griffith Observatory which looks out over the whole of LA - a pretty amazing sight - so thanks for that Todd dog. Again, on our return we were summoned to the basement for such beverages as smack me b**** and suck me beautiful, expertly made by Sean. Y ou can see an emerging pattern here, unless you`re Whippy who takes a year to catch onto anything.

The next couple of days were spent hanging out at the hostel on the lawn and taking beer and cigarette deliveries on an hourly basis.

We did feel like we werent making the most of being in LA so went down to Santa Monica Pier and had a look around. then ended up back over at venice beach with the crackheads.

Todd had a friend here who promotes clubs so we went to his apartment to get through a massive bottle of vodka before heading out to a club called Area. Were not sure if we made the best impression to the people there as when we got to the flat Sean opened someone elses drinks and offered them out, then we all went down for a cigarette, got lost, stuck in a lift and held everyone up whlst we got back to the apartment. Luckily we got in free to the club because it would have cost us half our budget. Club was good, drinks were ridiculously expensive. probably the best part of the night was the lift home we got from a man who called himself "Charles Baby!" Charles was a massive black man in a suit who took a particular liking to Li. He piled 6 of us into a cab for 4 people and loved it all the way.

Highlight of the first leg of the trip:

- The amount of times we got asked "hey, u got a dollar?" including one crackie who shouted into the hostel " HEY AMERICA, U GOT A DOLLAR??" to which another english crackie replied "I aint got s***!!!" brilliant.

- flying seans swimming shorts that have a union jack on, on a twig in the garden to let ze germans know who is boss.

-moving rooms a total of 4 times, with a total of five beds each.

-Charles baby - enough said.

-the aforementioned english crackie getting ridiculously drunk and pooing the bed while he was in bed with a girl that wasnt his girlfriend.

-The awesome people we met, you guys made the week ace - too many laughs and lager to even write down so thanks a bunch.

thats about it for now, we`re literally going to have to run for our flight for New Zealand, somethings never change hey!!!!!! We miss u all lot, hope everything is ok.

We`ll update u again when we get to New Zealand.

Love always, Lianna `where`s my noz, I`m clucking for some` Nethercott and David ` for f**k sakes Dave` Field.

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