Dec 31 - My birthday! I got some great gifts from Maggie which is always a good start to the day. We jumped in the car and got some breakfast before heading down to Legoland in Carlsbad, just north of San Diego. We had a good time until the rain poured down in the late afternoon. Having been to Disneyland the day before it was apparent the difference in staff attitudes, but that didn't affect the day too much. They sold Lego by the pound out of those bulk-food bins. I was very happy. I bought some Lego and we drove back to our shit-hole in LA.

We went to an event in Downtown LA for New Years Eve. My directions got us lost a few times and when we got there it was a shambles. The good news was the ticketing office screwed up and gave me three tickets instead of two. I flogged it off for $40 but everyone assumed it was a fraud. Doubting bitches. Our VIP entry wasn't really all that VIP, and we were warned to be inside for midnight or we might get hit by falling bullets. Ace!

Once we got inside we took a look around. Everyone was busted off their chops and we didn't fit in. The drinks were crap (though free for us with VIP) and everyone was outdoing each other. Normally I'm the first to appreciate a chick in a flywire tanktop, but this was skank to the max. We bailed around 1:00AM and gave our bands to some freeloaders.

Jan 1 - A whole new year begins. We had some breakfast and took the car towards the ocean. We strolled up to the world-famous pier (anytime there's a movie with a fairground on a pier, that's where it's filmed) and into the heart of Santa Monica. Along the way we saw an Iraq war protest and had a talk to the volunteers. They were interested in what young Australian's thought, and Mags and I were only to happy to chat with them. It was sad, but refreshing to see Americans with brains.

The rain forced us indoors and we saw Steven Spielberg's latest fim, "Munich". The lead actor is Eric Bana so it made me think of home. We both loved it, even though I nearly wet my pants. Too much Coke for one movie.

We had dinner at an American icon, Hooters. It was much better than I expected, but it's not surprising that a lot of people don't "get it". Their moto is "delightfully tacky, yet unrefined" which I think sums it up. Our waitress had large hooters, but they were held in with a double-reinforced bra. She was cute, and the obnoxious fools next to us kept hitting on her. He tried immitating my accent, claiming I was from the UK, then from New Zealand. I then immiatated him by yelling and screaming. The rest of the bar thought it was funny. I can only assume he went home to cry.

Jan 2 - Only Aussies would be crazy enough to visit Universal Studios when it's raining cats and dogs. That's what we did, after we returned our hire car. We met two other guys from our hostel and the four of us ventured out in the hostel's mini-van. Our driver dropped us off and said if we wanted to get picked up early to call him. The problem was it was 9:00AM, and none of the shops opened until 11:00AM, and the park didn't open until 10:00AM. Starbucks was open so we got a coffee and tried to dry off a bit.

The good news is that when it rains most people stay away. We went to the front of the queue for most of the rides and didn't wait. "Back to the Future" was a fun 3D video ride, and I got up on stage as a volunteer at one point during the tour of the sound stages. We saw a few famous movie landmarks, like the Clock Tower (from the aforementioned Back to the Future(s)), Wysteria Lane, the crash site from "War of the Worlds" and the house from "Psycho". We were soaked to the bone.

We finished up an hour early and went to get some Mexican food. Some bowling was desired, but all the lanes were taken so we had a drink and waited for 30 minutes. We got back home and called Deana. Initially she was going to come up to LA, but we changed the plans and said we'd come to her.

Jan 3 - We caught a train down the coast to San Diego. The ride was fine and only took a few hours. We checked into our hotel and called Deana, who came and met us after we had a swim and did our laundry.

Deana is great. We all hit it off straight away. She took us to a Thai place and then we had a few drinks afterwards at a local bar. I bought a massive bottle of vodka from the drug store (I love saying that) and we went back to our place. Deana was calling in sick the next day, and left so she could get up in time to fake the call. We said goodnight and went to bed ourselves.

Jan 4 - Deana picked us up in the morning and took us to La Jolla (pronounced lah-hoy-ah) which is on the coast. We saw some seals and had lunch at the Hard Rock Hotel. I grabbed mum some patchwork bits and we saw a vending machine that spat out iPods.

We spent the afternoon in Balboa Park, which is a massive public area full of interesting things to see and do. We checked out a few statues, the green house and some theatres. It's a really cool, arty area that we all loved.

We had dinner at a cool Italian restaurant "Downtown" and on the way we saw an aircraft carrier that's a museum. San Diago is a big military town, so it makes sense. That's where "Top Gun" was filmed :) (though the actual Top Gun has now moved) I think I saw an F-14 when we were at La Jolla - it had two con-trails and looked like a Tomcat.

Jan 5 - Deana took us to the bus station and we said our goodbyes. It was really sad, even though we'd only known her for a few days. A truly amazing girl, who should be in Perth in a few months!

We caught a bus, train, bus back up the coast from San Diego to San Francisco. At night we went and saw a play, which is something we should do more often. Dinner was really nice and the play followed. It was "Sexual Perversity in Chicago" playing at the American Conservatory Theater.

Jan 6 - I hired a convertible (American cars suck!) and drove to Silicon Valley. I checked out the campus of SGI, and got in touch with a friend who works at Google. I caught him after lunch and he showed me around the place. Seriously, amazing.