Saturday - Day 10 LA

Alarms were set to make sure we didn’t sleep in as we still had a bit of packing to do before we checked out of the hotel.

Our last LA breakfast was taken in our usual haunt, Uncle Johns and Minty opted for their trademark special – the spicy pork chops. The Chinese lady who ran the cafe had remembered we were leaving today and she wished us well.

Instead of walking up the steep hill back to the hotel, we opted for a ride on the Angel Flight express train!

Angels Flight station

It was a steal at 25c a go for the short climb to California Plaza.

The short track for
Angels Flight

We finished packing and then checked out of room 917.

We managed to fit the 2 bulging cases and 2 hand luggage bags into the boot of the rental car and set the Sat Nav (GPS) to take us to Luxuria Music studios, in Frogtown. No-one has been able to tell us why it’s called Frogtown (apart from the fact that there was a lot of people hopping around town.)

As we pulled up outside the studio,  Andrew Sandoval was also arriving, and The Beeb made up for the fact he had not had the opportunity to speak with Andrew during Sunday’s party in the next half hour. We also found a good home for a CD of a great Scottish duo, The Wellgreen as we felt he would appreciate the harmonies in every song.

Following a recent pledge drive, where $12,000 was raised to keep the station on the air, listeners were given the opportunity to sponsor articles in the studio. The names of the “sponsors” were attached to each of the articles, and we spotted some of our friends’ names..... Clara for the light fitting, Kiki for a chair, Katie for the door (and a chair). The lounge had a great painting of Brian Wilson, which you can see part of below.......

Andrew Sandoval, Minty and The Beeb

At 1pm on the dot, Chuck began his musical introduction to Heroes & Villains, with Minty and The Beeb as special guests. We thought we would just sit there and listen and watch, but Chuck had other plans, and in between records (including the awful Brian Wilson Rap song, which was played accidentally!!), The Beeb recounted the tales of our LA experience – Our tour with Chuck, the party at Dom & Becky’s, the day with Darian & Nelson, the visit to the Sunset Strip, the chance sighting of Brian Wilson at the deli....... The hour whizzed by and before we knew it, the show was coming to an end.

Chuck Kelley hosts Heroes & Villains

As Chuck was wrapping up, another Luxuria DJ, Steve Stanley popped his head around the door to say “Hi.” It was great that he was able to come out to the studio so we could meet him.

Steve Stanley, Monty & The Beeb

Steve suggested we “follow him” to Rockaway Records which was just around the corner! That’s the last time we follow him – we ended up with another 6 CDs!!!!!!!

On the wall of the record shop was a signed acoustic guitar by legendary surf guitarist(sic) Brian Wilson, from 2005, for a $600 price tag, and in the display cabinets there was a lot of Beach Boys memorabilia, including a copy of the Surfin’ demo for a cool $350. There was also a CD signed by Mike, Brian and David Marks for $40 but we resisted the temptation.



The loo wall posters in
 Maui & Sons

After our splurge on the CD’s, we said our goodbyes to Steve and then headed off to Hollywood Blvd for some last minute gift shopping and some lunch. We ate (quite fittingly) in a surf bar – Maui & Sons where tunes by Link Wray and the like were playing. The toilets were pretty cool too, with old gig posters up, including two with The Beach Boys! These guys get everywhere!!!!

After lunch we headed to Alamo to drop off the car. We hopped on the courtesy bus to the terminal and then found out that our flight was delayed by 3 hours... instead of leaving at 9.20pm, it was delayed until 00.15. Now, we know we don’t want to go home, but we would have preferred being stranded in LA City and not the airport!!!! British Airways very kindly issued $9 vouchers for refreshments but that doesn’t buy you a lot here and the choice of veggie options for The Beeb was almost non-existant!!!!

And so out holiday draws to a close.

Some things we learned along the way....

1. It’s illegal to get out of a NYC cab other than at the kerb side
2. NY has the greatest coffee shops
3. Most restaurants in LA only have one single toilet for each gender (not a set of cubby holes!!)
4. Lemonade is NOT fizzy
5. You can turn right at a junction on a red light
6. A fire hydrant in NY is called a Johnny Pump
7. Americans drive on the wrong side of the road
8. You need a mortgage to use a mobile
9. LAX is a great place to arrive, but the pits to try and get out of
10. You can’t get a beer after the security point in LAX!!!!