I can't believe how quickly time flies and how terribly unfaithful I have been to my blog. I have never had any intention of abandoning it or giving it up, but I must admit there is a 'bouchon', as the French say. A cork, literally translated - or a plug, a hold-up, a jam, in the context of traffic.
This bouchon - with all its meanings - is a blog post I wrote in January 2017, which I never published, but which is fine, good, easy to read, and quite funny in my eyes, but which I have some qualms about publishing and therefore can't seem to get around to doing it. I have heard of writer's block - without being so pretentious that I even think that this condition will ever relate to me - but this is something else. Consideration perhaps. Having got everyone curious and excited now, I promise it will be published.
Talking about 'le bouchon', my travels still go mainly to France, but I must admit I have fallen in love with a new city since the last time I was spreading my news in this space. Well, 'fallen in love' might be taking it a bit too far, or not far enough depending on how you look at it - mesmerized is probably a better word. Completely and utterly fascinated. Where else than the City of Angels - LA. I couldn't even bear to look at my bank statements afterwards without feeling nauseous, but wow, was it worth it! Crazy, unreal, fake, superficial, expensive, greedy, ugly, aggressive - especially the driving - but also friendly, genuine, decent, normal, compassionate, beautiful and not least incredibly colourful. If you think walking down 5th Avenue in NYC is like being in a movie, walking down any street in LA IS being in a movie.
View from our apartment in Downtown
I went to Los Angeles with my daughter Johanne and my two granddaughters Jelena and Mira. We rented an apartment in Downtown LA, which turned out to be ideal. Far from the madding crowd, but with a view of the Hollywood sign - and a private garage, because hey! You need a car in this city! Coming from Oslo - the most environmental city on this planet, and I appreciate it - I was a bit concerned at the start about where we would find parking spaces around town for our enormous rental SUV. But need I have worried? It dawned on me that the US is vehicle country no 1, and yes, of course - they're waving you in. There is even competition in this field! There are parking spaces everywhere, in the darkest little alleys, the most crowded avenues, on Sunset Strip, Hollywood Boulevard, Venice Beach, Santa Monica Pier. The Grove Shopping Mall is never ending with spaces. Universal Studios has an eternal multi storey car park with different choices of walking distances from your space! The only place you should not park perhaps, is on the street in front of neighbours Leonardo di Caprio and Keanu Reeves in Beverly Hills - but so what! You can just drive a couple of more kilometres up Mulholland Drive and park for free at Runyon Canyon and you might run into them anyway.
Our LA trip was partly a Christmas gift to the granddaughters, and so of course celebrity spotting was on the agenda. Celebrity Tour of all the Hills, but the only one we spotted was Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, who waved at us. I had to explain to the girls who he was. Not that ZZ Top is my favourite band either. But each of us spotted one or two celebrities on our way around LA - Youtube star and writer Lele Pons' Mum - we practically got friendly with her lining up at the till at Forever 21, the Mum that is - then Brody Jenner, and probably many more. They're all experts at disguise.
Billy Gibbons
Venice Beach
Champagne pool brunch at rental place - why not? Let's go all in.
Oreo doughnut dessert for one. First day and learning about American portions. (And I just noticed the writing on my lovely granddaughter's sweater...)
So I'm back and blogging, and there's no stopping me now.
