LA Story 6 – Friday 30 March – Burn Hollywood Burn

Surely the final chunk of notes from LA March 2007 – this is getting embarrassing.

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A nice day today. What am I saying? They’re all nice. The weather is just great (LA doesn’t suffer from damp) and I’m feeling very relaxed. Lunch today was at a popular Chinese restaurant. Delicious, and I took some leftovers home in those fold-up cartons you see people eating from in movies – you know, the couple have just moved in, they’re surrounded by still-packed boxes, a bottle of wine has been opened (they’ve unpacked 2 glasses), and they’re sitting on the floor by each other, eating from the cartons as the city lights tremble below.

After lunch, I did some more shopping, then Cassie got a text from her friend and fellow dog-owner Heather*, saying that Griffith Park was on fire. As we were in a tall parking structure at the time, we looked up to the hills, and lo and behold, a plume of smoke was smeared across the sky from the hill. Luckily the Observatory wasn’t touched, but a lot of the lovely hiking grassland had gone. LA doesn’t suffer from damp.

*more about her later…suffice to say she’s very nice

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It was time for another pub. This time, the Fox and Hounds in the “valley” which Cassie said was like Essex – more money, less class. The pub was a nice place, a covers band were “rocking out” and Cassie introduced me to her good friends Brian and Stacy. Brian went to London Film School as well, and I got on very well with him and Stacy his fiancé. I hope to seem them both again soon. Brian is a bit of an Anglophile, and I was happy to indulge him, so he gave me patches for his scooter club, the Vespastics. Am I an honorary member now? I did have a Piaggio for a while…

After a few drinks and a good chinwag we headed off to a local Mexican food place, by which I mean it sold Mexican food, in Mexican, to Mexicans. Much like the Lahore Palace in Tooting that looks like a canteen – LA and Tooting have a lot in common.