25 July 2012

Travel tales: Los Angeles, Super Size Me, Walk of fame, burn out

I am in America now. I am not well. It was probably inevitable given how much I had packed in during my London trip and the plane trip. Now I have a sore throat, chest infection and fever, and haven't felt well in my tummy. I am in the midst of a burn out. But America is good so far. I flew to Los Angeles on Sunday, and the lovely Tim Minchin was on my flight. I was lucky enough to talk to him and tell him how much I loved Matilda the Musical in London. We are staying at a lovely hotel in West Hollywood which is close to shops and Hollywood city. This building is near our hotel.


Yesterday afternoon Mum and I went to the Hollywood Walk of Fame and got excited over the Aussie celebs featured. We also saw a red carpet movie premiere which featured Ben Stiller. The crowd was crazy and screaming. And then we went to Madame Tussauds.


We saw many character impersonators on Hollywood Boulevard. A man dressed as Mickey Mouse grabbed my boob. Yuck. I am all for a good boob grope but not by a stranger, and especially not dressed as a scrawny Mickey Mouse. Anyway, The Mad Hatter was lovely -'maybe I am collecting Johnny Depp character impersonators.


It has been good to see my Mum. We have been shopping - she has shopped much more than me. Yesterday a lady gave us a lift to Hollywood Boulevard and Mum's pants got stained in her car. We made an emergency stop in Gap and I am proud to say I styled Mum with that grey striped cardi and some gorgeous orange skinny jeans. She was impressed. Today we went to Universal Studios. The weather is warm - not unbearably hot, but too warm for me to comfortably walk around in, and it was very difficult at Universal Studios today. That is one thing I would like to change about having icthyosis - dealing with the heat and outdoors better.

Everything here comes in massive portions. I am not enjoying the lack of healthy food available. It is cheaper to eat junk than healthy. I saw kids who are sadly overweight, eating massive plates of fried chicken. Their parents were too. It is sad. Last night we went to a place called Barney's Beanery which I really enjoyed. I had American chilli which was a reasonable portion size, amd it came with cheese corn muffins and jalapenos.
The service was great too. It felt like being on the set of a movie - it was very American diner like - with rock and roll references and motorbikes. It was a lot of fun.

The news here is filled with reports of that devastating Colorado shooting. All news agencies are weighing in on it, incuding entertainment shows. There is much talk about gun laws (can you believe guns are permitted in checked luggage in domestic airlines?!) and I get the sense of grief porn due to the excessive coverage of mourning families. All flags are flying at half mast, after President Obama requested it post Colorado massacre.

So far I like America but it feels like a strange place. The majority of people we met have been nice, but I am scared of the way the news portrays the violence. There is a violent protest happening in Anaheim right now, and the media is feasting on it. Maybe I will feel differently when arriving in New York. I hope I will be feeling better by then too. I will post more pictures when I have better wifi on my phone.

6 comments:

  1. Take care of you - it is a little insidious the constant pouring over who was lost, the trauma and the interest. I think people should be left to grieve in private.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hope you feel better soon. I just did a post on the joy of eating veggies when I got home from my trip. I highly recommend seeing less, sleeping more and googling "healthy food" when travelling.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Carly! I hope you are feeling better soon! You are packing so many adventures into your trip! It is too bad that you are in a very busy, mainstream area of America. Up here in Northern California, we have lots of healthy choices and not near the obesity levels found in other parts of the country. You do manage to find the yummy foods!

    I do not listen to the news when terrible things happen. I love hearing your perspective on events around here. I don't like how the news has to fill hours with every little detail they can possibly find.

    I hope the next leg of your journey is fun and healthy :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. CArly I hope by the time you read this you'll be feeling better. Take care, it must be so lovely having your mum travelling with you. xx

    ReplyDelete
  5. You'll definitely feel better once you get to NYC -- the Big Apple, baby! First of all, you'll be meeting so many people at the conference that you've only known online, they'll all know the fantastic places to eat, and you'll have your mamacita with you. Maybe you should re-think the idea of the Jewish deli that I told you about; corned beef sandwiches piled a foot high, potato knishes, kishka, noodle pudding...heavenly for me. But make sure you get plenty of NY pizza, the best in the world.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh, Carly, Doll, please don't judge us Americans by the way the media portrays us. I'm just a simple Mawmie (grandma) who is the happiest when surrounded by her beautiful family. If you ever find yourself in my neck of the woods - Chesnee, SC - we'll treat you like family, too.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for reading my blog. I love receiving comments :)
I really appreciate the time you've taken to write to me, and to share something about yourself.

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails