does hope come in metric too?

Andy and Laurie decided to spend a couple of extra days in Hawaii leaving me to my own devices for another couple of days. Their toilet didn't work too well and I had to perform some fairly inventive plumbing techniques to get it kind of working again. I hung out with the next door neighbours on a couple afternoons. They were all moving out of their sweet two storey sharehouse in the hills of Del Mar. Sighting the metastasizing gentrification of Southern California as the motivation behind their landlord giving them the flick, the guys suspect their cool old beach house to be replaced by several tiny beach apartments within 5 years.

I rode around San Diego for the last couple of days I was there, spending time in Balboa Park, Downtown and around Del Mar. There's a cool old horse racecourse over the other side of the hill from A&L's place. As the Rat Pack used to go there to bet on the nags and chat up the ladies, I thought it would make for a cool place to photograph. What I found was an Auto Customs show , celebrating all things Chrome plated, shiny and American. So many beautiful old cars, but catching bits of people's conversations here and there, the general consensus between all the car owners was that it was better in the old days.

I got a lift up to Irvine with Laurie and then caught the train up to Los Angeles. I've been in LA for the last 3 days staying with and meeting a bunch of cool peeps. Bit of a shitty place to visit if you don't have a car and have to rely on their public transport system. Although their subway is pretty flash, the bus system is sketchy, with the majority of drivers I had the pleasure to deal with being a bunch of rude so and so. Have you seen that Simpsons episode where the family go to Itchy and Scratchy land, homer goes up to the ticket booth and the attendant suggests that he purchase Itchy and Scratchy money (Like real money, just more fun), only to find he can't use it anywhere in the park? I just experienced a similar doh when it came to the Metro tokens I was sold at Union station when I first arrived. Sure the maths worked out really well, getting you $16 of travel for $11, but when it came to actually using these tokens on the subway, the machines weren't designed to take them and there are no conductors to help you. Only guards with night sticks and glocks to remind you that you have the right to remain silent. I was instructed to find a bus, flag it down then buy a metro ticket from them. The bus driver eventually handed over what I wanted with a big "you are a massive fuckwit wasting my precious bus driving time" sigh and groan.

Eventually I found it to Hollywood and subtly made my way around with full pack for a couple of hours, checking out the stars on the footpath (Walk of Fame). I addressed all the impersonators by assumed character name, although I think the Elvira was the real deal I used to have this recurring dream in my early teens, where no mater what the context or subject matter the dream contained, somewhere a bottle of cheese whizz would appear, giving me a "yep.. I'm really in a America" feeling all over. Now that I'm here, I've not seen any.