a pictureless post

My computer died on me the other week. I opened the lid to wake it up and about
10 seconds later, the screen went black, and it wouldn't boot up again. It's off now getting a new logic board. Fingers crossed it comes back to me ok. I'm hoping I haven't lost anything from my hard drive, as I haven't backed it up for... ever.
For now I'm using Jon's old, slow computer, so I'm not going to upload any new photos (sorry!).

Anyway, hope you had a nice weekend. Ours started early on Saturday morning
with a phone call from a friend's bucks party (in Melbourne). The phone got passed around, so Jon got a quick catch up with a few friends. Afterwards, we headed in
to LSU for an all-you-can-eat pancakes fundraiser, and stopped by Mike the tiger's enclosure (LSU has a live mascot!). We went out to BJ's for dinner (burger and pizza, good beer and a very excellent cookies 'n cream pizookie for dessert). The restaurant is part of the Mall of Louisiana, so after dinner, we went for a walk round the shops. Yesterday, we drove out to Gonzales for some more (outlet) shopping, and stopped in at Latte e Miele on the way home for some delicious gelato. Fun!

la la land

It's almost hard to remember LA, it already feels like so long ago. Here are a few snippets from our first taste of the States:

It is warm and steamy! I'd say the weather (or mainly) the humidity (80% +) was harder to get used to than the time difference. It's different to an Aussie summer because that's a drier heat. Here, the air feels so thick and heavy. By the end of each day you kind of feel a bit gross and in need of a shower.

We stayed at a hotel in West Hollywood. Our room had some interesting artwork, and zebra print sheets (maybe this will give some idea about the artwork?!). Possibly not the nicest area or hotel, but definitely ok for three days. Would probably be great if you're the kind that likes to 'paaarty' ... we did hear a few people getting back noisily in at the wee hours of the mornings.

We spent an afternoon in Santa Monica, which turned out great after paying $40 for a taxi to get there! We weren't entirely sure where we wanted to go, so got a bit conned by the driver who told us it 'wasn't too far' ... sucked in. (Got back to the hotel by bus for only $5 though, so not too bad.) The shopping was good, came across some nice shops like H&M, Urban Outfitters and the very lovely Anthropologie. Saw some buskers, walked down the pier, and took some photos of the people on the beach that had walked half a kilometre to get to the water and were eating the sand cos it was so windy!!

A couple of other things to note: the coffees are BIG, and the cars are REALLY BIG. You can buy beer from a pharmacy. Oh yeah, and they drive on the wrong side of the road!