Los Angeles. USA

After a long hiatus of log entries, this recollection of events commences immediately after departing from San Fransisco, as the captain and his comrades take on the City of Dreams.

The journey to LA began just as any trip to the Hollywood city should, with the sighting of an A list Celebrity – Waiting at the airport as the vessel we were to travel on was cancelled, out came Courtney Cox, followed by a man who looked like Freddy Kruger. Although we are unsure about the Freddy part the Captain and the team of Super intendent Dave and Wing Commander Nand were lucky enough to use some of their Aussie charm to manage a selfie with Courtney Cox.

After a bit of a delay to our flight, was finally on its way and it didn’t take Wing Commander Nand long into our decent to realise L.A was a monster of a city. Departing the airport we discussed our plans for the night and called our first Uber into the city, which got cancelled, and then called another which once again got cancelled. Waiting about 45 minutes at the airport tensions were mounting, it seemed like no one wanted to pick the cross atlantic crew up. Finally after a substantial time waiting, along came our transportation saviour.

A few minutes into the conversation we discovered that our Uber driver was a full time actor, he had been on T.V shows such as Greys anatomy, Dial M for murder and was currently working alongside Jack Nicholson in a movie. He gave us a card and recommended his services if we required actors. At this point, thoughts crossed my mind about motion picturing the captains log and having him play his character. After dropping Super intendant Dave to his Banana republic Hostel we made for our abode, agreeing to meet up with super intendant for the nights activities.

We had not eaten since Master Chef and Base Captain Rish had fed us Pancakes and sausages earlier in the day, so we quickly prepared our materials and headed out to the Banana Republic – chanting “Leeves” as we walked. We rendezvous with Super Intendant Dave and headed to Roscoes Chicken and Waffles. Roscoes was a suggestion that was made by Wing Commander Nand – as he had seen it multiple times on Fresh Prince of Belair. This place had to be sampled. The food was both Delicious as well as a heart attack waiting to happen. It crossed the boundaries of segregation between sweet and savoury and delivered fried chicken and waffles. It took our minds a few minutes to process what we were eating, and our bellies a lot longer to digest it.

Belly’s full and minds confused the squadron of three headed to Hollywood boulevard to check out the ‘Stars’ of the strip. To our surprise there was thousands of these, 2000 plus to be more precise. Stars upon stars, many of these unknown and nestled amongst a heap of known personalities. Walking for about 3 hours we saw the strip and returned home exhausted.

At this point had been hit with an illness – i could only describe this illness as Santa Flu. Since the onslaught that was Santacon i had started to feel a deterioration in my health. This started with a itchy throat and developed into a cough, finally mutating into a severe chest pain. Not to hinder Super intendant or the wing commander I carried on, pushing the limits to the extreme, also leaving large deposits of phlegm and saliva everywhere I went. The health was getting bad and my party could feel my failings.

Day 2 in L.A began with the squadron of three meeting up in the morning and walking towards the strip, trying to figure out what the best run of actions would be for the day. As we headed towards the strip, a odd looking gentleman approached us and discussed if we would like to go on a bus tour to see LA landmarks, at first a little confused we heard his reasoning and the prices and decided – why not. Some time was remaining for the tour to start and our bellies were making some type of growling noise, we thought it was best to go and feed. As a recommendation of Super Intendant Dave we headed for a Mexican chain called Chipotle. We ordered and what came can be described a burrito the size of a small baby (not a foetus but a Baby) not only was the size of this meal amazing so was the taste. Guzzling our Burrito babies we headed back to the tour area and met with the Odd looking fellow. Upon Arrival he started speaking to us, it seemed a slurred speech and required some concentration, soon he revealed that he had been shot in the head a few months in the past and was on the road to recovery. He has been smashing doctors initial diagnosis of full speech recovery sitting only at 1%, he was now at 80% speech capacity.

We boarded the bus just in time for a storm, and to add to the adventure the bus didn’t really have much of a top. Getting drenched, we drove past places such as Rodeo Drive, The Hollywood sign and Micheal Jacksons house. Having a semi deaf driver did not accommodate our request for him to speak louder. Possibly the worst tour have ever done. Moral of the story – don’t trust a street seller that has been shot in the head.

Drenched and exhausted from the tour we walked up to the Chinese theatre to see fit our hands in those of our celebrity heroes. As walking up the strip we were once again approached by a random person – this time with no dents on his head. He approached us and stated that he had some open spots for the shooting of “The Price is Right” with Drew Carey, for the next day. At first we walked past thinking this cant be true, then we walked to him and he advised it was! Not only that but they choose contestants from the crowd. We were advised of the early start and agreed to the conditions. We were going to be on the Price is Right! To celebrate we bought some beers and a bottle of Vodka and headed back tot he hotel, listening to some Rap music we polished off the bottle and were flying high and after a few hours we decided to grab late night snack and call it a night – we had a mega day ahead of us. Santa Flu was getting worse.

Waking up at 7am after polishing a bottle of Vodka off really sucks. Another life lesson learnt on this trip. Scurrying we headed to CBS studios, stopping by the Banana republic to grab Super Intendant Dave. The wait was insane, lines upon lines – all up waiting time was well over 3 hours. Although i can not disclose much of the shooting (NDA) i will say that we did not get called down 🙁 despite our epic photographs and our charismatic interviews). On the bright side we are surely on the screen multiple times cheering and a carrying on like we have parts of our brains missing (we maybe do). The set and the shooting was very entertaining with Drew Carry and George (the MC) making a heap of jokes. Also in the first time in Price is Right History the producers revealed the WRONG showcase! This had to be re shot and the executive producer came out to apologise to the crowd and the contestants. The show will be aired on the 10th of March 2015, so the wearing of my Santa hat was not allowed 🙁

Following an eventful session at the CBS studios Wing Commander and I departed ways with Super Intendant Dave. Dave headed back to Banana republic and we headed to Warner Brothers Studios to see the sets and the homes of our favourite TV shows and Movies. Once again we faced Uber issues as the Driver ended up taking us the wrong direction and straight to universal studios, upon seeing Jurassic park, both Wing commander and I knew we were at the wrong spot. The Uber Driver apologised profusely and voided the charges. Inside Warner Brothers, Wing Commander and i Marvelled at Batman and Harry Potter props, including original costumes and artwork. we walked around the dessert in Terminator and the Lake in Dexter. We had been given sneak peak into how the industry does it, the so called ‘Movie Magic’.

Concluding the tour we dialled D for Dave and planned a meet up in Santa Monica Pier. Our new Formula one Mexican uber driver made us reach in no time – beating Dave by a full half an hour. We strolled up and down the pier crossing Bubba Gumps restaurant, the Pier theme park and other novelty places including a semi raving santa. We reached the end of the pier we watched a Seal steal the bait off fisherman and laughed. it was pretty random. Catching up with Dave we walked down to view the famous Venice beach, strolling up and down before decided to head back towards our hotels for a well earned dinner. To fit right into the shoes of a true tourist – dinner was to be at Hardrock Cafe. In my deathly sickness everything had started tasting like mush and the service was nothing to admire, like a snooty frenchman we complained and managed to get a 12% discount. Disappointed in dinner but satisfied with a full day the Captain and the Crew headed back to base for a well earn rest. At this point my health had reached its worst point. I went straight to bed hurting inside – i was worried that it would jeopardise my tour of Vegas.

Since this was the end of LA journey, it was time for D man Dave to end his service and return home. A very sad moment in our trip as we gave Dave a big hug and promised him a visit to the beautiful city of Vancouver. Sadness filled our minds as we fell asleep.

We awoke exhausted from the previous day, and also realised we had already begun to run late. Our bus was to leave shortly and we had not even gotten ready – in a mad Dash we got ready and caught an Uber towards the Bus stand – Today was the day we were leaving for Vegas! Sin City! we rushed and made it to the bus stand 2 minutes before the bus was to depart, once again being the last ones to board. Thus ending our L.A adventure and heading North east towards the Sins that awaited us.

Los Angeles The City of a million stories.