Viva Las Vegas

Well we just had to go didn't we?  It's only a four hour drive away and only two roads - the 210 freeway and the 15. To be honest Las Vegas was never going to make it to my "must see" list alongside the Taj Mahal, Machu Picchu and Ayres Rock, but as we are so close....well it would be stupid to give it a miss, wouldn't it?

Las Vegas rises out of the desert like an oasis of neon.  There really is nothing else to see along the journey - just a couple of small towns which appear to have been built purely to service the roadside break.  As soon as you reach the Nevada border you spot your first casino, and a power station.  California likes to import its fuel from its neighbours rather than produce its own - that way it call call itself green and clean - who are they kidding?  It's 100 yards over the border.....

So you leave the freeway and join traffic deadlock trying to get onto the Las Vegas strip.  This is when you realise that cruising up and down the strip to take in the sights is probably not such a good idea.  Fine, just get to the hotel, park the car, unpack the suitcase and go for a walk.

And here at last is an American town that has been designed for pedestrians.  Yes of course there are roads and crosswalks and lots of them, but the hotel planners have at least realised that their clients do want to be able to get from one casino to another without dicing with death and negotiating the traffic.  They have constructed bridges and, even better, built elevators and escalators to help you reach the bridges, and moving carpets to transport you from the bridge to the hotel.  Some of the hotels have even clubbed together and built trams to ease your journey, so yes, you can see the strip without using your car, and yet you still don't have to use your legs either - that's so innovative and amazing....

Well everything about Las Vegas is amazing - jaw dropping opulence and awfulness side by side as each new hotel tries to do out do the other. 

We found the infinity shopping mall - it just goes on forever, never reaching an end......

We found Venice; the Rialto Bridge and the Grand Canal.  Yes we did the gondola ride - and why not?!! Yes it was very tacky and our teenager cringed with embarrassment as we were serenaded by the gondolier.  We floated past the resplendent white and gold wedding gondola, and were informed that 27 marriages were being performed that day - nothing like making your wedding day unique and special here then!  Of course every hotel has its own wedding chapel; these poor brides must arrive reeking of beer and tobacco as they stroll through the gaming rooms to reach the altar.   Las Vegas was the first place we've come across in America where you can smoke indoors and boy do they take advantage of it! And drinking in the streets - this is America's Ibiza - college kids suddenly reach the age of 21, everything's legal, and here they come....

Oh and don't think Vegas, casino, glamour!! This isn't Monte Carlo here you know - don't bother de-mothballing the tuxedo and unwrapping that little black dress - jeans and shorts, sneakers and a baseball cap will do you just fine.

Yet despite the masses on the street at midnight clutching their beer cans and swigging margaritas, you wake up the next morning and the place is spotlessly clean.  It's like Disneyland - there must be a whole team working behind the scenes to keep the place looking immaculate. 

This really is sanitised America.  And not just America - here they have sanitised the whole world - the Grand Canal smelt of chlorine and you can climb the half sized Eiffel Tower outside the Paris Las Vegas Hotel and instead of a great view of the Champs Elysee, you look across the road and you're in New York, there's the statue of Liberty and the Empire State; to the left you've made it to Egypt because there's the Sphinx and a pyramid, to the right is Treasure Island and it's pirate ship, and there's the erupting volcano outside the Mirage....you could be anywhere in the world.  But you're not - you're in America and you know it can only happen in America when you walk through a casino on a Sunday morning and there's a religious service taking place in one of the bars. I really didn't get that - nor did I get what that wholesome couple Donny and Marie Osmond were doing performing in a place like Vegas every night.  Making lots of money obviously but doesn't Vegas represent all those vices Mormons abhor - drink; tobacco; gambling.....although actually the town of Las Vegas was originally settled by Mormons - or so I learned from our rather thin guidebook....

And talking of gambling - yes, fortunately we came back with the bank balance still intact.  One very brief flutter on a slot machine and we were in credit so we quit.  We spent our meager winnings on a bottle of wine in a restaurant overlooking St Marks Square.  A squeaky clean St Marks Square under a sky blue ceiling painted with puffy white clouds...I love that place!

Then it was time to drive back across the desert and home.  Suddenly LA doesn't seem such a bad place after all.

Culture Vulture

Any one who knows me well will know that I’m a bit of a culture vulture.  I do like my old stuff.  I’m not saying I’m addicted to Time Team or the Antiques Roadshow, cos I’m not, but I do like a bit of art, a bit of history and an authentic old building or two.   I’m one of those people who will always read the guide book; I like to discover a bit of the heritage and history of wherever I happen to be – despite those exasperated sighs from the rest of the family whenever we’ve been on holiday somewhere – yes you really do have a give up half a day on the beach to go and walk around some old ruins….

So, to be honest, I didn't think LA was going to be the ideal place for me to be.  But on the contrary, I’ve been amazed by the amount of culture I’ve found out here.

There’s "new" money in California and lots of it.  What do those 20^th  century American entrepreneurs and industrialists like to do? They collect stuff.  They spend their cash sending their minions around  the world buying up everyone else's antiquities, Old Masters and National Treasures.   There’s stacks of it out here.

We’ve visited the two Getty museums – the Getty Centre and the Getty Villa.  Mr Getty acquired so much art he had two museums specially commissioned to display it all in.  At the modern high tech Getty Centre in LA you can view the Rembrandts and the Van Goghs; at his pseudo Italian villa in Malibu you can see statues from Pompeii and ancient Greece.  Zillions of dollars worth of it. And how did Mr Getty make his money?  Oil.  His formula for success? Rise Early; Work Hard; Strike Oil.  Well my husband has been rising early and working hard for an oil company for the last 20 years.  How come he hasn’t bought me a statue of Aphrodite yet? 

Then, here in Pasadena, there’s Henry Huntington.  He made his fortune out of the railroad and this man collected anything and everything.  He started with books – hundreds of them –  then moved onto art, furniture, ceramics, silverware, plants.  He's got Wedgewood; Constables, Gainsboroughs; he has medieval manuscripts, a  Gutenburg bible, and a collection of light bulbs.  Yes light bulbs. Why? Presumably just because he could.

And then, just last week, we discovered the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena.  Mr Simon was another 20^th century industrialist who made a whole lot of money and spent it on collectables.  He has paintings by Picasso; Raphael, a garden full of sculptures by Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore (haven't we all?), and the largest collection of Indian statues outside of India. Why?   How much “stuff” does one person need?

Couldn’t these people think of anything more worthwhile to spend their money on?

I’ve never seen so much culture in all my life.  In fact, I’ve seen too much.  Must be time to visit Hollywood Boulevard again to buy up a bit of old tourist tat.

Dining Out

We all know America loves to eat - so are all those preconceptions about super size portions and round the clock junk food justified? Well sadly....

Out in the suburbs our dining out opportunities were severely limited.  Within a ten minute walk of the house we could have dined at McDonalds, KFC and Pizza Hut; across the road was a Subway, a Chinese takeaway and a Taco Bell.  The culinary delights of American fast food were literally on our doorstep, great for teenagers but what if you want  a proper meal? Unfortunately the local restaurants left a lot to be desired, a five minute drive away was the main drag of downtown suburbia - a row of eateries that would have you in and out within an hour.  You soon realise that the American eating experience on offer here isn't quite that laid back, share a bottle of wine, enjoy good food, soak up the atmosphere, and make the evening last experience you have back home.  Americans simply go out to "eat" - not so much of a social occasion as a necessity - they want their food quick and without any fuss, they want to watch at least one TV but preferably four whilst they wait, and they want to be back home as soon as possible - and definitely before 9.00 pm. Seriously we've been in restaurants where they have been locking the door behind us...

But now we are in town we are spoilt for choice - Pasadena has a wide variety of restaurants serving international cuisine.  And it really is available 24 hours a day, not just from the burger bars and drive thru's - there are takeaways for everything and everything is available to take away.  Every restaurant in town has a home delivery service.

This really is a society obsessed with food, and there's no getting away from it. Food outlets are everywhere and every occasion presents an eating opportunity.  You think the national games of baseball and American football have those frequent time outs for treating injuries and team changes?  Think again, it's actually an opportunity for the crowd to top up their tray of cheesey nachos or buy another hot dog without having to miss any of the game.  On a trip to Los Angeles zoo - highly not recommended - it was more of a question of count the fast food outlets rather than spot the animals. Junk food plays a huge part of the American dream - it's convenient, affordable and readily available.

Restaurant portions do tend to be on the generous side but on the other hand its perfectly acceptable to split and share.  You can take leftovers home with you and I literally mean leftovers - it doesn't matter how little you have left on your plate, waiting staff will always offer to box it up so you can take it home - your bin or mine?  Sometimes there are occasions when you are in a hurry and you are happy to have the bill thrust under your nose the minute you've ordered dessert; on the other hand there are times when despite the "there's no rush, when you're ready" that always accompanies the bill, you can't help but wish you'd been left alone to linger a little longer.

Menus can be vast - think 24 page novelette - and baffling.  We have been  surprised by the combinations on offer, sweet and savoury are frequently put together, sometimes in a pleasant way, sometimes in a  slightly peculiar way.  No I really don't want a blueberry muffin before my salad, with my salad, or even after my salad....but if you have to give it to me, box it up and I'll take it home.  Something that starts out sounding perfectly decent can  quickly turn into a "did I really order that?" and it is very easy to picture Masterchefs John Torode and Greg Wallace shaking their heads in dismay at the "too many flavours, too much going on" combinations.

Fortunately, Californians being on a bit of a health kick, vegetarians are well catered for with plenty of fish and a variety of salads.  Vegans would find it hard, most food is liberally sprinkled with cheese, whether you ask for it or not.  But that's another thing we've learned, don't be shy about asking for exactly what you want or don't want when ordering - always ask for the  dressing to be on  the side otherwise the salad will be swimming off the plate, and its perfectly acceptable to request variations and deviations from the menu. Waiting staff are extremely willing and courteous, after all they have to make a living on the gratuities and Americans are notoriously fussy and demanding eaters.  Carrot soup without the carrot Ma'am? Not a problem...

So dining out is definitely a case of not bad, just different.  It's not uncommon to have your main course brought to your table whilst you are still eating your appetiser, and of course we Europeans are considered incredibly ill mannered for using both our knife and fork - but then again I think it the height of rudeness to have my plate cleared away whilst the rest of my table are still eating.....here it's just good service! Better leave an extra large tip for that....

Celebrity Spotting

This has been a source of  major disappointment.  After a whole year of living in LA we haven't seen a single celebrity.  To be fair locationally we are at a disadvantage, Pasadena is on the opposite side of LA to Hollywood and Beverly Hills, but it's a pretty cosmopolitan place and every Saturday night you can walk down the main street and see Ferrari's and Porches valet parked outside the swankiest restaurants. These must surely belong to some celebrity or another, but who? Of course the other great disadvantage is that I don't watch enough films, sport or TV, or read enough gossip magazines, to actually recognise a celebrity if one was standing right in front of me.  Every time we go to Santa Monica I see beautiful people jogging along the beach with designer baby in designer pushchair, designer Chihuahua riding shotgun on designer bicycle - surely these people must be the "rich and famous"? But again, who exactly?

When we first arrived in California we took the customary "Homes of the Stars" tour of Beverly Hills.  Sure I've seen the seven foot high fence Orlando Bloom has just erected around his property, I've seen the sturdy locked gates at the beginning of Jack Nicholson's very long drive, I've seen the house where Sharon and Ozzy used to live and the mansion Richard Gere owns but hasn't lived in for the past 3 years. I've also seen the house Tom Cruise once shared with Nicole Kidman, and tucked away in the distance behind that we could just spot the Beckham's chimneys....but well I would have liked to have seen at least one  well known personality out on their drive washing their car! But there again, if I was a celebrity, would I choose to live somewhere a bus load of tourists pulled up outside every 20 minutes or so? No way!

As we drove along Sunset Strip our guide pointed our the cafes and restaurants supposedly frequented by the beautiful people, but we were "just a little too late" for breakfast, and "just a little too early" for lunch, so of course we saw no-one.

You can, however, regularly see film crews and production teams hard at work around the city.  The Arboretum where I do my voluntary gardening is frequently used for location shots.  The parking lot overflows with large heavyweight production trucks; you can watch hoards of technical guys off loading lots of complicated equipment and other media paraphernalia; miles of cabling, huge lighting structures and lots of scaffolding.  The mobile catering team is always hand to feed the masses; setting up large BBQ's, occasionally you can catch sight of the wardrobe mistress wheeling out costume rails, and there are always lots of beefy looking security men milling around with headsets and walkie talkies.  But I've never actually seen any filming - that's just a very minor part of a very longwinded procedure - it really is a case of lights, camera and very little action!  And you can get very excited thinking you're going to catch Johnny Depp stepping out of the portaloo, but actually, at the end of the day it's more likely to be a Hollywood wannabe making a TV commercial.

So what other opportunities are there for star spotting? What about the Oscars and all those charitable functions and film premieres that bring Tinseltown out in force? Unfortunately the surrounding roads are almost always blocked off.  Those people you see standing along the edge of the red carpet are specially invited guests.  There's no hope for us mere mortals to catch a glimpse of anyone famous through the entourage of TV crews and security guards.

Perhaps I will just have to work harder at this star spotting lark.  There are websites which will tell you where to hang out if you really want to make an effort to see celebrities - personally I think this might just be a clever marketing ploy.  Apparently a lot of celebs do their grocery shopping at Bristol Farms - very upmarket food stores.  There's actually one near us in South Pasadena - a reliable source tells me they spotted Liz Taylor there 20 years ago.  I don't think I'll bother changing my grocery habits just for that.

So whilst Los Angeles still holds onto its reputation of being the entertainment capital of the world,  the days are long gone when entire movies were filmed here. The writing team, editing team, production team, might well still be based in Hollywood, but the actors and actresses certainly don't need to be.  These days the only stars you will see in Hollywood are the ones embedded in the paving slabs along the "walk of fame".  And whilst a walk down Hollywood Boulevard is a must from a touristy point of view, it does have a tacky, past-its-best sort of feel which is actually rather sad.   Now Beverly Hills, that really is plush, and Rodeo Drive is positively deluxe, and yes you do have to be mega rich to shop there - but should that  alone automatically entitle you to celebrity status? There are plenty of so called modern media "celebrities" I've no desire to meet whatsoever.

You wanna see real stars? Wait until its dark and look up at the night sky - there's hundreds of them twinkling away up there. I think for now that will just have to do for me!

And when it's hot....

When it's hot, it's very very hot.  113 degrees Fahrenheit - record temperature this year, and that really wasn't very pleasant.  I like the heat, I like the sunshine - that's my favourite thing about living in LA.  When you've been uprooted and subsequently transplanted a very long way from home, you need something to keep you positive and a little bit of sunshine goes a very long way.  But not over 100 degrees worth of sunshine.  Stuck indoors all day with the air conditioning on, only venturing out in the air conditioned car on the school run.  Going outside was like walking into an oven.  I don't like putting the air conditioning on.  I like to be warm; I like it hot.  I don't share this American obsession with keeping everywhere inside as cold as possible; we can all cope with a little bit of warmth.  Neil works in an office where people have asked for fan heaters to counteract the air conditioning - how can that make sense? Why not turn it down a few degrees and save some energy.....

It's like the tumble dryer thing.  Well I like tumble dryers, I had one in England.  It lived in the garage and was very useful on wet wintry days when it wasn't worth pegging the washing out.  Well hanging your washing outside to dry naturally is unheard of over here.  We now live in an apartment where it isn't possible and the tumble dryer, unfortunately, goes on most days.  When we lived in our house the owner didn't provide a tumble dryer and we certainly weren't going to buy one.  Why wouldn't you dry your washing outside when its 75 degrees and sunny most days? I do find this odd, especially as metaphorically speaking, Americans love to "air their dirty linen in public" and are very good at it, often in a very open space in a loud a voice as possible.....

So anyway, most days are warm and sunny.  Last year we had Christmas dinner outside on the patio - full turkey roast, all the trimmings, Christmas crackers, the whole British bubble thing in 80 degrees of brilliant sunshine.

Even the winter winds here are warm - the Santa Ana wind brews up every Autumn.  It's a positive lightweight compared to the howling gales we get back home, it wont blow your fence down or rip your shed roof off, but it does swirl the old palm trees about a bit and it's hot - imagine being buffeted about by a very large hairdryer on a high heat setting!

It's always cooler on the coast of course - that's the other metrological phenomenon which they love to talk about here - the "marine layer".  This is a layer of fog that floats in off the sea and hangs over LA in the mornings in spring and early summer - "grey May" and "June gloom".  It inevitably develops into a pollution ridden smog as it heads inland.  This smog will hover around all morning then disappears about lunchtime to reveal a beautiful sunny afternoon, when the temperature can rise 20 degrees in the space of a few hours.  The downside of course is the layer of black soot that covers everything in its wake...

LA is reknown for its poor air quality.  It's a huge city - in fact the 14th largest "urban area" in the world (Wikipedia - see I don't just make these things up) with a population of over 14 million people, all of whom have at least two cars (well okay I made that bit up).  Anyway, the end result is a lot of pollution and very poor air.  Not too good if you are an asthmatic or suffer from chest problems.  Our daughter had never had a chest infection in her life until she came to LA, where her childhood eczema returned with a vengeance this summer.  The doctor informed us that she was sensitive on the outside and in (just like her mother!) and unfortunately the eczema was a good indication that her lungs were overly sensitive too to the harsh, dry LA air.  A trip back to England would be a good cure all!

And of course it was true.  A trip back home to the damp, grey British summer did the trick.  And that's not the only advantage of the UK's climate, it's good for your skin too, that cool moist air keeps our complexions soft, unlined, youthful looking, natural. Ever wondered why there's such a big market for  Botox and plastic surgery out here? Life under a cloud aint so bad after all!!!