I have just come back from a week of wine tasting, bike riding, margarita tasting, and mexican eating in Santa Barbara with a girlfriend of mine. A beautiful spot and a breath of fresh air from the concrete jungle here in LA. Plus, my friend and I figured out that this particular rendez-vous was our third continent together! Not bad at all. Next time… shall we meet in, say,  Africa?

Me and the French boy are off to Las Vegas this weekend for 4 days of debauchery!

And going by the weather forecast, it is going to be smoking hot!

107°Fahrenheit aka 41.67° Celsius for those in the mighty metric system.

Phwoooooar.

P.S. I have not managed to catch up on my blog reading yet and immerse myself back in bloggyland after all these travels! Life has been slightly surreal. But I will. Promise. xx

breast implants… EVERYWHERE.

I took these photos at Muscle Beach in Venice on the 4th of July (hence the patriotic colours on the girl’s bikinis). Plastic fantastic! A bit of culture shock for the French boy.

Is anyone else slightly obsessed with etsy? I have just recently discovered the wonders of it. I love trawling through etsy’s marketplace of handmade delights, and I particularly love the vintage stuff. The kind of stuff you normally have to really hunt for. Etsy’s mission is to “enable people to make a living making things, to build a new economy and present a better choice”. Hear hear. I love things that are made with love and when you can tell that they are. Your creativity really has no limits, as you will see on etsy.

(Warning: may make you spend hours online when you should be doing other stuff.)

Here are some of my favourites today… a page full of etsy delight.

credits anti-clockwise from cameo: 1. victorian style butterfly cameo 2. majestic sparrow necklace in brass 3. lil hand painted acrylic ‘true’ ‘love’ earrings 4. bird series spring 5. delicate fly away with me balloon necklace

Oh and speaking of groovy wonders that are non-mass-produced, I happened to stumble across two wonderful shops today here in LA (they are right next door) called the Majestical Roof (indie artists boutique), and Lula Mae (cutesie gifts and unique vintage stuff with super lovely staff). Majestical Roof has been described as like opening a box filled with imagination, beauty, color and fun. They have monthly alternative art markets where everything is made locally (a refreshing change from alot of the mass-manufactured crap you get in LA). Here’s a photo I took of the gorgeous wee courtyard where you’ll find this little gem.

Now I shall get back to daydreaming…

I am baaaaack in bloggy land… after a week of madness and our 12 hour flight. I am sitting here in our apartment for the summer in Los Angeles (it rocks!), with the fan blowing on full (it’s muggy here, but I know those back home in winter right now will kill me if I complain about the heat!), and listening to music while procrastinating unpacking. Security was easy peasy at LAX, we had this young black dude who didn’t seem to care what we were doing in America so no dramas there (after my last experience at LAX) - phew. As we came in, we were encompassed by the cloudy grey smog hugging the entire city and the amount of huge billboards advertising cheeseburgers/juicy ribs/pizza. Welcome to the United States baby!

As I said in my previous post, I love going to the supermarket to discover stuff about the culture I am living in. So off we went to the supermarché and as I had expected, the French boy was shocked by the aisles full of sugary sweet or slimy fat food in huge bulk packs. Everything seemed supersized. He could not get his head around the whole aisle full of jell-o (gelatin desserts in many different colours and flavours!), or the whole concept of SPAM (ham in a can!). I am sure alot of Americans do know how to eat well, but it must be hard growing up with alot of it so sugary/fatty and yet be bombarded with images of perfection at the same time here in California. I guess it often comes down to convenience - big packets/cheaper to buy in bulk.

So, according to various research on StateHealthFacts.org, California: the Percent of Adults Who are Overweight or Obese in 2008 is at 61.3%. At the same time, Californians are not as fat as their counterparts nationwide and tend to have more people with healthier lifestyles (probably has something to do with the constant images of thin, sexy celebrities here and the amount of places offering plastic surgery, or as one place promised today “a smile to die for”). Ha.

What I do love so far about LA is that it is a melting pot. The mix of different cultures and languages. Can hear Spanish spoken everywhere. Haven’t heard any Frenchies as yet I can’t wait to really discover this place. Stay tuned.

I was having a looksie through the apartment and job ads on Los Angeles craigslist (kind of the American equivalent to gumtree for you UK peeps) when I came across these live ads below.

You would never ever get away with this in New Zealand (or many other countries for that matter I am sure). If someone advertised a job for “black people” only, or “smart beautiful women”, there would be an uproar! Imagine it.

• VIRGINS AND VIXENS WANTED!!!
• Do You Have Hot, Sex Lips, We Want You$$$$
• ~~~NOW HIRING BLACK PROMOTORS FOR WEEKLY HIP HOP/SPECIAL EVENTS!!~~
• EMPLOYMENT AGENCY SEEKING SMART BEAUTIFUL WOMEN
• Hit REALITY TV Show looking for nerds/geeks

By the way, I think it is important to mention that the advert for the “EMPLOYMENT AGENCY SEEKING SMART BEAUTIFUL WOMEN” clearly states that to be accepted to this recruitment agency for administration work in offices (as ‘eye candy assistants’), you must send them one head shot photo and two full body shots of yourself AND your accurate measurements (specifically states bust-waist-hips). No joke. Apparently “ugly women” or those less fortunate in the boob department need not apply.

Does anyone else think it’s crazy that they can advertise for these?

I never thought I’d say this again, but… “LA here we come. ”

In 3 weeks and 3 days (not that Im counting…!), me and the French boy will be touching down in LA. It will be my second time there. But a few things have changed since 2007. Last time I was passing through on the way to Scotland for a one year working holiday, this time I am passing through on the way to France for a one year working holiday. Last time was a week, this time it’s 3 months. Last time I was travelling with a friend (starting our year long travelling adventure), this time is with my boy’o (and starting another adventure of our own). My good friend I travelled with, Alley belly, now lives in Munich. And me (soon to be), France.

Looking back on the past year of my travels around Europe and how we left as two naive wee kiwi’s back in 2007 in search of something (but not really sure what), I never would have predicted where my life is at now. I guess we never can. But I am so lucky to be free and be able to travel and wander the world. One very lucky bunny.

Slight change of plans.

The French boy’s company asked him to move to LA for 3 months before we move to France. So in 4 weeks we are off to spend summer in LA!

I’ll be there on a visitors visa so will be a lady of leisure for 3 months. I think this is the perfect opportunity to finally volunteer like I’ve wanted to for ages (but havent had the time etc), such as my post back in January 2008, over a year ago.

So there ya go, c’est la vie!

So apparently me and Alley looked suspicious at LAX airport. We didn’t have a great experience at LAX airport when catching our flight out to London. At check in, we had no idea that the lady behind the counter had stamped us as requiring additional searching for when we would later go through the Xray/Customs area.

We as two excited backpackers headed for the Xray area ready to board for our next adventure. As soon as the guy there saw our tickets he told us to stop and made a radio call to another person and informed us that we were “special” and that we would get to skip the queue (whether that would be a good or bad thing remained to be seen).

From there, we were escorted to a special scanning area, searched thoroughly all over our whole body in front of all passengers (who by the way were all free to go except for us) and then taken to another counter where they took out absolutely everything out of my bags, scrawled it all over the counter and swabbed every single one of my personal items for drugs. They even checked every individual one of my pens in case I was hiding needles and checked that my ID was genuine.

Noone told us what was going on so I asked why we were the only ones being searched. She told us that we were stamped for additional searching (in other words they thought we had drugs). Eventually we got out of there.

Alley’s hands were shaking from being so upset, and we felt terrible with everyone watching us with suspecting eyes. One guy thought he was funny when we were being scanned and said “you have a little too much fun before you got here did you?” - we were so not in the mood. The lady said she was done and that we could pack up our stuff again (gee thanks… re-packing right before a flight) so we threw everything in our bags and ran for the terminal. And we made it. Just.

The only thing we can think of is that we had been mistaken for two other female backpackers who were tipped off as drug mules/traffickers. I guess we will never know, but its not a nice feeling to be suspected and made to feel like a criminal when you are clearly not.

As a side note, but while I am on the topic of drug mules, I watched a really good movie (I have a bit of a fascination with foreign films) is Maria Full of Grace which is about a Colombian girl that ends up in a spiral of drug trafficking, a powerful movie (in Spanish so you just need subtitles if you dont speak Espanol!). I believe movies have to be watched in their original language, so that you can get a true feeling for the words spoken (even if you can’t understand them). Thats what subtitles are for.

Our plane was delayed but finally made it to London. And true to form, it is raining.

Sitting in an internet cafe on Hollywood Boulevard right now, before our flight to London today. I just gave the rest of my left over coins (which was quite a lot, but he needed it more than I did) to an old black homeless man in a wheelchair who opens the door for everyone who enters Starbucks for their coffee fix. He thanked me and whispered, “let the angels be with you always”…

It’s time for us to leave sunny crazy California and brave the streets of London for the next part of our adventure - and we are excited.

The relaxed atmosphere of Venice beach was a refreshing change from Hollywood and we met one particlular man that made us giggle.

Today we saw a man sitting on the side of the pavement with a cardboard sign, simply saying:

STONER FUND

(no free photos)

You often see people begging for money on the streets and we all know where the money is really going a lot of the time - alcohol and drugs, rather than a meal. This guy was completely utterly honest about where the money is going. He wanted to get high. And for his blatant honesty, we gave him a few coins, a chat and a big smile.

We cant take life too seriously, can we?