Friends and Frozen

We had a lovely evening yesterday as we went out with friends. She is a colleague I miss very much - I loved working with her. She was insanely good at her job - and still is - and more importantly, was one of the nicest kindest most genuine people I worked with. It was a joy to spend the evening with her and her husband and we were thoroughly spoilt. Some people make the world a better place just by being in it.

Today we had a reasonably leisurely day after chores this morning. One of the things we had to do was buy a new toaster. We have had a spate of things packing up and as there have been three I hope that is it now. First, my desk lamp, which was 27 years old, went and so we both had new desk lamps - much needed actually.

Then Nigel's bedside lamp broke and he tried to mend it but it couldn;'t be fixed. I guess they had done good service. They were bought in 1993, making them 26 years old and had been painted a different colour over the years too. Not bad for lamps that were probably under a £5 new. Not sure I like the new ones yet - but I am sure they will grow on us.

Finally, our toaster went and he couldn't repair that either, and that was a youngster by comparison, being a mere 12 years old. But I guess things are not built to last these days! I was quite shocked at the price of some of the toasters. Serious money and they all just toast bread. Ours was cheap and cheerful.

This afternoon we went to see Frozen 2 which I really enjoyed, but then Olaf is my hero! I was cross though at how thin Anna and Elsa were, They will be idols of little girls so why they had to draw them so impossibly skinny in this day and age is beyond me. Seriously disappointed in Disney for that one.

I have scrapped too!

I have been itching to scrap some of the trip. This was the moment wew started on our Route 66 part of the trip at Elk City Oklahoma.

Today I am thankful for

special people in our lives
no work today
the longevity of most of our household goods
a good Disney movie

Day 20 Los Angeles

3rd November 2019

Start miles 8.45

Start time 6347

End miles 6590

End time 6.45

The one with Hollywood

Breakfast was a bit of a zoo again, but we were prepared for it this time. It was a little hazy when we set off but by the time we reached our first stop in Downey it was a beautiful blue sky day again. We had gone to Downey as it was on our way up to Burbank and was the home of the longest continually and still serving McDonalds. It was beautiful and one of the iconic double arch architectural designs. And they were serving so we had to buy a diet coke there.

It was a beautiful retro place to visit. After a slight disagreement about one of us vanishing of the face of the earth and the other one of us not knowing where HE was, we popped into the local Walmart for a few supplies we were out of, notably water and tea. Oh and a nice bottle of wine for the evening.

Our next stop was a tricky one to find. I am a huge fan of Grey’s anatomy and not much of it is Seattle based in reality. Nigel found out that the atrium which is such a feature of Grey’s, was actually the Ambulatory Care centre at Supulveda and was kind of on our way. Well, we found the hospital grounds but no joy on the atrium. In the end, we found someone – this campus was huge and was also deserted – and asked and we must almost have passed it on our way in. We stopped for the inevitable photos and felt a sense of achievement.

Finally, we headed to our real destination of the day – Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank where we had booked to do the StudioTour. We had done it before back in the early 90s but knew it would be very different these days. I was especially interested in the Friends and Big Bang Theory things.

We were very early – now come on … if you know me you can’t be surprised by that surely! And wit some persistence we managed to get on an earlier tour which was fabulous as we did make a bit of an error and booked a tour a little too late.

The tour was fascinating as always. You ride in a small tram with just 15 people and a guide. Our guide was exceptional – really enthusiastic and very knowledgeable. You never know quite what you will see as it depends on filming as it is very much a working studio, but she did say going on the weekend was the best time as there were more areas open since they were not usually filming. We drove round backlots and had their uses explained and we saw the two special sound stages where Friends and Big Bang Theory were filmed. They have names on the sound stages as there were so many episodes filmed.

We saw lots of props areas with things from the Avengers, Aquaman, Harry Potter etc. Our tour also wasn’t meant to include the props stores but she said we had time and took us anyway and they were huge and so interesting and absolutely stuffed with every prop imaginable.

We then went inside and saw things I had been waiting to see, namely Central Perk and the sets from Big Bang Theory. The Friends stuff was great but we have been to Friendsfest and so we had seen more there, but the Big Bang stuff was fabulous. I started watching Big Bang Theory in prep for this trip and binge watched all 12 series and loved them. So to knock on Penny’s door and sit on Sheldon’s spot was great. We also had the change to hold a real genuine Oscar (we even had to remove our rings if we wanted to hold it properly as it was so valuable which is why Nigel couldn’t grasp it – his rings don’t come off (well not without surgery anyway)

It had been a great trip which we had really enjoyed. We grabbed a Starbucks (they have one on site of course) and headed off into Hollywood. We have read about the Hollywood Forever cemetery and decided to go take a look. In keeping with the theme of the trip, they had had a special event on and so the area was filled with crews taking down seating, lighting rigs etc. However, we did enjoy a walk in the sunshine. We didn’t buy the map so didn’t find all of the celebrities that were buried there though we did find Tonto and Douglas Fairbanks amongst others.

We drove through Hollywood, cathing the sign and Graumanns and then headed to our final stop. This meant travelling all the way down St Monica Blvd to the beach and it wasn’t the easiest drive. We played counting sets of lights (all of them on red) but got bored and stopped at 40!

Eventually, lights not withstanding, we reached the beach and managed to pull up right by the end of the road Route 66 sign – a key point for us. The pulling up might not have been completely legal but it was right there. We had done it – more than half of Route 66 and all of it fun.

We decided on TGI Friday for dinner and we felt like we had robbed them. We always have the appetizer Sesame Jack strips each and fries each and it was happy hour and the chips were on silly price and we ended up paying less that $18 for the entire meal and drinks! We even stopped off at The Cheesecake Factory to buy take out dessert.