The great tire debacle

I am sitting down to right this post after a having now recovered from a 24 hours period of tire mayhem. It all started at 2.30am Thursday night when the valve off my 'vintage' inner tube exploded making a terrifying sound that had me thinking someone had been shot in the lounge room.

Until then I had been winging it, figuring if I got a flat I would hop on the bus with my bike.. a fairly unrealistic plan to say the least. This flat seemed like a good reason to finally go and get a pump, some tire levers, a patch kit (quite a dodgy looking sticker patch but that was all they sold and I didn't actually have a hole to patch..this was really just emergency supplies) and a new inner tube. Things went fairly swimmingly getting the new tube on in record time before I was heading out for the evening to see a friends band. Things when pear shaped almost instantly when my new tube seemed to get a flat really quickly for no apparent reason...no sharp things around... maybe pinched by the tire lever? who knows..anyway..its all good, seeing as how i now own all the things to fix this situation... I quickly patched the hole of unknown origin and got back on my way to see the band. Sadly..the shitty sticky patch lasted all of half an hour before it started to leak..leaving me outside a petrol no where near home OR where I was going to attempt a second patch. It was quite a vibrant petrol station, some folks asked me if they could buy weed..others offered to sell..neither party had an inner tube for sale (or connections that were holding). The second dodgy patch got me to the band venue where i could comfortably sit down with a beer and text all my local contacts (both of them in the silverlake area) to try and find a new tube for the trip home.

So..fast forward a few hours..beer and bands..and its getting late..the patch definitely does not hold air for more than 5 minutes (and I have an hour ride home)... Fortunately my friend in the band was the hero of the evening with a spare tube in his car...so..tire off (for the fourth time) tube in (for the fourth time)...tire back on (you get the idea)...finally on the road on the way home...only one minor incident with a broken front light and getting a little lost and i was back home, within 24 hours of this whole saga starting.

The moral of the story? I am ALWAYS carrying a spare inner tube now.. along with an accumulating number of tools..being stuck far from home with a flat tire is not my scene..though begging locals for inner tubes was kind of fun.


Now I have a reasonably domestic weekend ahead, having had enough excitement for one weekend already. I am waiting for my clothes to wash now and tomorrow am going to attempt to not only get some food into the house, but also to cook and eat it. I started today pretty well with a pretty decent breakfast burrito (though lunch AND dinner came from the vegan pub OTR from the kitchen).

Critical Mass

I have been chastised for being a slack blogger and facebook person lately so am attempting to amend my ways.

Its been a busy week, which is a good thing... work has become pretty hectic as well so life is generally happening at a faster pace these days.

Friday night I went to Critical Mass. This ride is on the last Friday of every month and this one was possibly a little more political than most due to a recent judge ruling a fairly minimal sentence after a hit and run involving a drunk and unlicensed driver. There is some awesome video footage of the ride/protest..I encourage you to check it out. I think there were very roughly estimated to be 800+ bikes...

Other than that my weekend activity was diverse from country music at the Roots Roadhouse Music Festival to fence painting... there has been plenty of action at the kitchen. I am still reasonable useless with most things when it comes to fixing a bike but I know a crap-tonne more than I did a month ago.. I completed a minor milestone of wrenching 10 shifts (in fact have done 12 now)... starting to get into the swing of it now. Tonight I did my first 'Bitchin' at the kitchen night, Monday night is laydees and transgender (rather than the usual slightly male dominated enviro)... wrenching with this crew was super fun. I might make Monday night a regular thing..

The real thing

I was kicking myself on Friday for not taking at least a photo of my actual bike (although the interweb had some good selections of similar vintage racing bikes). You may recall I left my prized but not yet ridable bike with a relatively random stranger in the bicycle district on Friday night. It took me a few hours to track my new friend down on Saturday morning (which became afternoon) but my faith in the good folks of LA continues as my bike was safe and awaiting me to collect it.

After a fairly solid afternoon/evening of work ("waaaaaah...its 9.45pm?? We should be at Molly's party" ).. I now have semi-functioning brakes, wheels that could be a tad truer but are pretty good and have tires WITH AIR in them, vaguely adjusted gears, a chain that is AOK. There was one minor disaster testing out the brakes last night but I think after today I might be able to ride it home. I am showing faith in my abilities but catching the bus in this morning so I will either ride my bike home or have a long walk/bus back again...hopefully I ride :) ...watch this space!

New wheels and good food

With all this learning about fixing bikes action I wanted to put my skilz to work.. so tonight I bought a frame from a 1970s Raleigh racing bike to start building a new bike piece by piece (hopefully not to slow or painfully). Sadly I didnt get a picture before I left my new pal at an almost total strangers house (due to riding two bikes for the hour trek being a physical impossibility for me). I am pretty excited..it's such a cute bike, kind of similar to the one pictured above but more smurf blue, and not quite as groovy. It is an old British racing bike actually brought out by the original owner in (who bought it in the 70s) and then sold to a really nice dude who sold it to me at a pretty cheaprice (essentially as a frame). It needs a little bit of love, but managable. Anyway, I am very excited to have a little project to work on tomorrow...hopefully will have it happening before Steve gets here!

Feeling quite joyous after bike bike sucess I decided to treat myself to a nice meal on the way home, so got a take-away meal from Native Foods. Native foods is the first place I ate a meal at here in Westwood and its a pretty special organic veggie place. Much of their menu is mexican-ish..but tonight I decided to break away from my comfortable burrito and taco rut and get something wildly different. I went for the Saigon Wrap (pictured below)... it was AMAZING (the hipster who handed me my order mentioned it was his fave..so I was pretty excited to test it out). It is hard to say what was so good..possibly the tastiest peanut satay sauce scenario ever combined with fresh lime..a really delish tangy taste..and the tofu was incredibly moist and flavor-filled.. the combination definitely took me to a very south east asian place, really good (the hipster was right!). I should definitely go there more often, especially given its a few hundred metres from my front door! A good night all in all, I just hope my bike is still at the random strangers house when I get there in the morning! I think that is a good snap shot of the highlights of the last 2 weeks. Work is getting super busy now so I suspect my leisurely days might be in for a rude shock but it was fun while it lasted. I am likely going to be swept up into a storm of grant writing/protocol developing/paper writing/trial conducting madness... should be fun!

Also...i like to rock

Last night at the Hammer Museum was a free gig with a couple of local LA bands, Voxhaul Broadcast and Chasing Kings. Voxhaul Broadcast, in this small world, were known to one of the bike folks who accurately described them as 'upbeat, fun and melodic' which summed them up to a tee. I could totally see these folks at Meredith or GP. I have linked some of their tunes to my page here so I definitely encourage a listen ...go on..you know you want to!

The Hammer itself is pretty rad, there is a massive open courtyard filled with bamboo trees in the middle of the art gallery. The free gig was broadcast and filmed and sponsored by a local radio station that I have now also discovered (yay..more tunes..and they have good news and commentary so I can understand what is going on here a little better).

That was the last in a series of free gigs on Thursday nights..pretty cool, loving LA music right now.

Retreat!

I have been doing some fun stuff the last few weeks..so much fun stuff I have been very slow to blog about it. Last weekend I headed off with a bunch of awesome folk to Malibu Creek State Forest (or something very similar for that) for a biking/camping retreat for the bike kitchen were I am currently volunteering.

The weekend involved a lot of fun..a lot of discussing how to make the kitchen more awesome and a bit of swimming in the amazing little swimming holes that were near the camp site. Unfortunately I struck photographic disaster after spending some quality time with some jager and foolishly I dropped my camera battery in the swimming hole, rendering my camera unusable for the weekend. I am hoping for some pics to up load from some other folks who didn't drop their batteries in the water... but if I had photos they would be of lots of people jumping off the dam wall in to the water..general camping joy...and some images of our 30 mile ride in 105 degree heat...(possibly the least attractive of the possible photos).

It was crazy fun, ending with a ride back through the streets of LA getting home at 1am Monday morning (following some fence scaling and an illicit lap of a velodrome we passed on the way). It was a pretty amazing chance to get to know a bunch of people really well in a short space of time and have a whole lot of fun doing it.

Pure luck

So..its been a period of free-falling I guess..hoping to land of my feet and meet some nice folks, perhaps increase my social activity in-between Australian visitors. I think big cities can be pretty lonely places, in fact I think I have probably felt more alone in this big city than anywhere else despite the numerous sensational things about living in LA and the wonderful people who keep in touch.

I started to think that this could be a fairly depressing year if things continued as quietly as they had been so thought I should invest in finding things to do and people to see.

Very kindly a few people had put me in touch with their friends in LA ....and at the same time I also tried to check out things to do that excited me a little to see what I could come up with.

Last saturday night I caught up with a pretty fun friend of a friend, as Aussie chick working in the TV industry over here. I had a super fun night starting with Brazilian Jazz and ending with dinner at one of those uber cool and hard to find place on Sunset Blvd that I imagined might exist but had not discovered yet. The folks I met were pretty fun and we even had desert with birthday candles in my honour (bless them for making me feel a little special!).

Sunday was an adventure of a different kind. I have started volunteering at a bike co-op ... a completely volunteer not for profit space where they help people fix bikes and build bikes from donated parts, all at minimal cost. So.. now I am a shadow and learning to be a 'cook' at the bike kitchen. It is a sensation, I really love building things and bikes are cool, and being covered in grease is a good contrast to my usual activities in LA. The kitchen has just lost a bunch of volunteers who headed OS so they were pretty keen for new people so it seems we have a match (providing I can actually learn to build bikes with some level of skill...but it's going ok so far).

I headed back to the kitchen-o-bike last night and found I had stumbled onto something perhaps even more sensational that I had initially imagined. Over the road from the kitchen is a vegan restaurant/pub type scenario (closed on Sundays, hence my missing it the first time round). I had dinner and cider there and I am totally hooked on this new corner of the world. 'Pure Luck' is the name of the sensational culinary and drinking find (see below). Unlike many of the places in LA this little eating spot also has loads of charm. Apparently Tuesday is 'Brewsday' at the kitchen so I am feeling pretty happy with the whole deal. The only draw back is the decent hour cycle to get to the kitchen after work, that should help offset the cider and burritos that I intend to consume :)

So after a little bit of alone time and some soul searching it seems like there really is a suzi sized spot that I can fit into here ...at least for now. I am heading out to spend the weekend on a kitchen retreat with these awesome bike making folks..so if they can stand me after a weekend of camping (swimming, biking in the hills etc) then I think its going to be super happy fun time!

I am eating lunch from the gas station

One of the in-jokes around ISAP is about the local fine dining...in particular, the food from the petrol station next door. There has been a lot of talk in the lunch room since my arrival of the food from the 'gas station'..or if people want to sound a little more cultured is often referred to as 'le garage' or 'the grill' (they actually call themselves the corner deli and grill, and their website does not promote that they are in a petrol station!). From the outside..this place is everything you are imaging...its a petrol station with a little kitchen in corner, big petrol pumps outside..lots of car products for sale when you walk in the door. Apparently some years ago to try and capitalise on the floor space by diversifying their business the petrol station started selling food. It's mostly salads, sandwiches and mexican food.

As most of you would know, I am used to my local food-work type places being more along the lines of Radio, Trippy Tacos if i feel like I can take a lunch break perhaps.. Newtown..the usual fitzroy delights. Popping into the petrol station for lunch seems pretty out there, but right now I am pretty out there as far as distance from the comfort zone ..so why not!

So..lunch at the gas station: In keeping with my love for mexican food I got the taco special, three tacos for 4.99 (with corn chips and salsa).. They have LOADS of vegetarian mexican food options ..and really good healthy looking salads but I was finding it hard to move past the idea of beans and cheese...mmmmmmmmm... I have to say the corn chips were a little thick for my liking but the tacos were a hit. Go go gas station, I can see why everyone eats there (though the japanese over the road is also a sensation if you can work up to crossing 8 lanes of traffic).

I will be hauling my arse around the perimeter tonight, perhaps twice after the last day of feasting!

Another year older and not any wiser...plus a counter meal

Where to start.. a crazy week its been to say the least. My strong recommendation for those who randomly decide to place themselves on the other side of the world around the time of their birthday is prepare for the worst..or be a little tougher than I am. I had a totally sucky birthday despite wonderful kind messages and cards from home..there is no escaping that 'all alone on your birthday' type feeling that comes from no one that you see that day really knowing its your birthday. Strangely enough, everyone at work remembered today that Friday was my birthday... go figure?



Anyway... lets take a step back before I decided to indulge my inner sook with birthday sadness.

Last Thursday was a different kind of celebration; one of the studies i am involved with met a recruitment milestone of 150 peeps so to celebrate we went out for burgers at 'The Counter'. This fine establishment prides itself on custom built burgers. I also included a picture of the the team that work on this study..they are pretty fun people..super nice.


So I ordered the vegie burger (this is the smallest of the three sizes, the big ones are scary big) and a side of sweet potato fries. Both were sensational, though with so many options with the custom built arrangement its hard not to to be left wanting to try more. It seemed like reasonable value, burgers were less than $10... (though a burrito is usually $5 so its all relative!)

Our next goal is 200 people and then Indian feast! Cant wait.

I take it all back...

It seems like after a fairly bumpy landing I my coffee radar seems to returned to a reasonable state of autopilot... for the third time in a row I had good coffee ... no doubt the next adventure will be a shocker. Anyway... have new bike will go far I guess, so I decided to cycle to one of the pockets of LA that I love (sadly around 40 mins to an hours cycle from the other pocket where i live....but good for the fitness I guess...and I am pretty happy cycling aimlessly with my new treadly..but I digress). I saw this place two weeks ago, I actually sort of went in but it was a little overly cool and I felt intimidated and quietly snuck out sans coffee. This time, with the new found confidence that a super hot bike can give a girl I strolled right in. That was as far in as the end of the queue..which was long (which around here seems to be a good sign). With no flat white on the menu I ordered a soy latte...it was decent, good actually (and looked remarkably like a flat white). I had a few hours of reading to do today so I stayed a while and savoured what was not only good coffee but a pretty cruisy vibe, good tunes. A nice way to pass the day. The hipster vibe still had me a little intimidated (even though folks were nice, I am sure it's not their fault they are painfully cool). Anyway, I didn't whip my camera out inside, which is a shame because the place is pretty good lookin in there. They have a website with some great pics, I think I could sit i there for hours surrounded by coffee roasting and brewing paraphernalia. Eventually however I decided to return to my own hood.

Its a fairly diverse range of areas between Westwood and Silverlake; I pass through Hollywood (and WeHo), Beverly Hills, and 'little Armenia' to name a few. Diverse ranges of cultures, wealth and road conditions (the roads in little Armenia could use a little council love, not a pot hole in sight in the back streets of Beverly Hills though). As I was riding I also saw the Scientology mecca (near Rob Hubbard Drive or whatever it is)..this place takes up a whole city block almost, quite massive and scary ...AND strangely intriguing. Anyway..that was my first big solo ride..(around 25 miles which might be about 40km?) good times, I love my bike..and good coffee, so that was the perfect combo!

i like to ride my bicycle...

Yesterday was pretty exciting. I finally had the cashola to get a bike that was nice to ride(sorry to the feelings of my very cheap 2nd hand bike with limited brakes..you are now officially a guest bike). I now have a cruisy bike with gears that change and brakes that work. This is not any random house that I was cycling past; Mike and I went on a bit of a mission on the way back from Santa Monica to see the house that Frank Gehry built and lived in (before he was massively famous) ...this is me giving the big thumbs up on my new treadly out the front..check out the great lines on the house in the background).

I still have a giant smile on my face, and was particularly entertained to take a pic of my bike in good company with a shiny back porche behind it. So TWO bikes...its a pretty cool thing, great for exploring LA when folks visit (look out steve, you better get some cycling fitness before August). Yesterday was pretty fun, we cycled down to Venice beach, watches some folks pay ball, lift some weights, saw a multitude of touts trying to entice people to cure their woes with medical marijuana, street performers doing amazing tumbling/street dancing..good times.

Jazz and the tar pits

Yesterday was a bit of an adventure to a new part of town to check out the La Brea Tar Pits (not because I have developed a sudden passion for fossils and things but because Mr Bode is in town). It is true that I would possibly have taken some time to check out this museum but it was pretty rad. So the Rapid 720 bus was our chariot, zipping us down to the tar pits. They are conveniently located next to LACMA (The Los Angeles County Museum of Art) .. which I am really looking forward to checking out properly. There were also random fun things like a little section of the Berlin wall on the wander there.

The Tar Pits and the Page Museum is, essentially, a fuck-tonne of fossils. An unimaginable quantity of well preserved things from 10 000 to 40 000 years(ish) have been pulled out of the tar pits and reconstructed for our viewing pleasure (and no doubt some other serious sciency pursuits also).

There were crazy condors in addition to mammoths and sabre tooth tigers and the like... and one cabinet that was a full wall length of skulls (below)..literally hundreds of skulls, it was starting to feel a little like they were just showing off their enormous skull bounty at this point..but it was pretty rad.

Conveniently, after the tar pit museum there was free Jazz at LACMA (every Friday night till November!) . What a sensational way to end the afternoon. The Jazz is held in a huge outdoor space with a wealth of folks bringing picnics and a couple of bars selling drinks (and tacos?).

I was quite taken by this collection of lamp posts also..as you can probably tell from photo density of lampposts.

Managed to get in some enchiladas in before Mike passed out from exhaustion/jet lag..... this almost real time blogging is a result of my best attempts to quietly potter not wake him up...but you know...its been 12 hours of sleep and its after 10am so maybe now I will make some noise...

Profeta

I spied this little coffee places in the back corner of westwood on Monday night when I was wandering the streets still feeling a little out of sorts after Tennis was cancelled. It was way too late for caffeine consumption but this tiny little European style place with a sexy looking coffee machine..and a comfortable vibe (i.e does not feel or look like a cafeteria OR an RSL) seemed too good not to give this 'coffee in LA' thing one last try. I got up particularly early on Wednesday morning knowing that I had an all day training course on the ASI and was going to be in need of caffination. After an early run I decided to also treat myself with an almond croissant after a certain person (thanks Eminee) had got my pastry cravings going again. This time I was not disappointed, flat whites were ON THE MENU..no explanation required, the croissant was amazing...perfect... there is even free wireless so if I so choose I can do my morning emailing here while having my coffee. Life with caffeine is looking up! There is a really cute courtyard, and lots of cosy tables indoors as well, all the morning papers in plentiful supply too. If I can commit to leaving the house early (or keep turning up to work at 10am with no shame) this could just work out. A coffee with soy is $5..so not cheap...but this good strong, earthy tasting coffee is worth it... I don't know how everyone else manages to destroy the coffee so badly but now I am on a winner I am certainly not shopping around. For a once or twice a week dose of civilisation this is a total winner. Thanks Profeta!

I

One final burrito por favor

On my cycle back from Santa Monica on Sunday I got a little lost and found myself in a quite industrial part of town...only to stumble upon a treasure I had previously given up searching for some weeks back, 'Tacos Por Favor'. I can see why I didn't find this place initially.. but glad I made it there in the end. I was there during the Mexico v Argentina game of the world cup and this place was pumping (in an elderly Mexican gentleman kind of way). Unlike many of the places I have dined there really was some atmosphere here, and a real community feel (ala the spanish club before it got cool many years ago).

I ordered the spinach burrito, not being able to rest the burrito just yet but wanted to try something a little different. I decided to break with convention to photograph my burrito half eaten because before I started eating it, the look was very similar to EVERY OTHER BURRITO IN LA...I decided at this point that I should stop talking about burritos ... but thought because this place was pretty rad I should at least mention it. .. it was good, filling, tasty, saucy (black beans, cheese, spinach, rice, avocado), excellent value ($4.59) ..enough food for 3 people really. Did it stand out from the other burritos... probably not, they are all sensational. The place was pretty cool though; if I find myself in the industrial back blocks of Santa Monica again I will surely stop in to test out some of the rest of the menu..perhaps even try a taco!

Cycling in Santa Monica ...and Paris

I spent most of the morning on my bike this morning; I checked out what was on in Santa Monica today and found a great sounding photography exhibition by Gil Garcetti. The exhibition was inspired by both an appreciation of the glamorous Parisian women cycling around town and a also a wish to try and promote cycling more generally for enviro and health type reasons..sounded good!

It was fun that to get to the exhibition I went on my biggest cycling adventure so far (further than my trip to Hef's house). Its around 5 miles, not very far..and infinitely quicker by bike than bus I have discovered! There are wide bike lanes all the way from Westwood to Santa Monica I was pleased to discover. It was a cruisy 20 minute ish ride to the beach.

The location of the exhibition was a discovery in itself; the Annenberg Community Beach House. This is where the free exhibition and also a very appealing looking swimming pool (which I didn't test out today) was located. The beach house and exhibition are right on the beach bike path (literally a massive concrete bike path in the middle of a very wide stretch of sand, below). The exhibition itself was really superb, I loved it. I might even buy the book which I discovered is available on Amazon.

After that I rode around Santa Monica, cruised past Tacos Por Favour (which I will describe when I work up to talking about another Burrito..). There are some real characters in Santa Monica..loads of homeless folk (sadly) and then some more eccentric types (quite entertainly), like this gentleman above on his bike with several parrots.

See the fab bike path on the beach? (above). I am hoping at some point that will be me with a surfboard on my bike! It is really hard not to enjoy this cycling utopia, great weather, delish food and art mixed into to one big pleasurable Sunday out. It could only be improved on by some good company!

Hollywood!

I decided to have a go at being a tourist today and headed up to Hollywood Boulevard. It was a little scary, I didn't stay long, but it was good to see those things that have been on the big screen for so long. Today (June 26th) marks one year since Michael Jackson left this world, which explains why there was a crazy commotion on the footpath around his star. People had built a memorial..it was all pretty crazy. There was also a large bunch of religious folk walking along chanting "Come to Jesus" behind me so I decided to make like a tree and head back to sunset blvd where life is usually a little calmer.

There were some pretty famous old sights as I trotted around, and a good view of the famous HOLLYWOOD sign looking back up from sunset blvd.

Once I was back on Sunset Boulevard I was minding my own business when a slightly disturbed fellow started running up to people and hugging them. I wasn't really in the mood for stranger hugging (smelly stranger hugging) so I ducked into a little store with groovy thinks and vintage clothes called popKiller (really, it wasn't my fault, I was not planning on shopping). Cool store though, with some fun Japanese chicks and a Chihuahua running the show. So while I waited for the stranger danger to pass I spotted this nifty little dress. I tried it on, it fit, it was fate...it was coming home with me!

So..all in all, a good day!

Tennis?

Well last night was one of the the first of my semi-social outings with the folks I am working with. They are a pretty impressive bunch (I was glad they invited me to do something sporty rather than anything that required intellectual prowess or worse).

Tennis is a new thing they people started doing a few weeks ago every Monday night. I was invited to come along and despite not having ever really having learnt how to play tennis it seemed like a pretty good idea. We all met at the Westwood tennis club... conveniently on my way home from work .. I managed to borrow a racket and tested out my new shorts in public (I purchased some running shorts recently, feeling my lycra running pants might be a little confronting to hang out in with my new colleagues; they are strictly stranger only wear).

I learnt a couple of things at tennis, mainly:

1) I am completely crap at tennis

2) Tennis is fun even when you are completely crap

3) I am strong enough to hit the ball well out of the court, but not focused enough to hit it within the lines on purpose

4) The IT whizz (Kenny) is an very skilled tennis coach, and a patient man. I now have something of a forehand and a backhand..not bad for one night. Apparently he coaches his kids..I am sure that is more relaxing!

5) Tennis Smurf is a rare collectible item now (I am sure I had one as a kid). Deciding against asking my new tennis buddies to take a photo of me in action, or worse still taking photos of my new friends and appearing creepy, I will leave you with my blue faced friend!

Right now I think I am going to keep playing tennis (at this stage my social calender means I am pretty flexible). Its a nice change from running...which I have been doing a lot of.

My new favorite running track is the UCLA perimeter, its just over 7.3km by the time I get home, or 8.3km if I go the long way and avoid the last hill (which i do sometimes...I have given all the hills unpleasant names, such as the hill of discontent, its a hilly area). My tennis buddy last night runs marathons so I might have a winning combo there!

I have a few other small wins today, I now have a bank account AND a social security number. No actual money to speak of but I am hoping that come soon.

I also have about 16 hours (from what I can calculate) of face to face and online clinical trial ethics training to do... its full on, ask me about the ethics of publication, mentoring, peer reviewing.. go on ..I DARE YOU). I also spent my first morning in the clinic today...its a tight ship and its absolutely flat out, organised with almost military precision..these guys are amazing in the way they work!

So..that is new for now.. I am super busy for the next week that I can see which is good, I was starting to feel restless ... no time for that now!

Oh... I almost forgot my other small win!! I think I am finally starting to get used to the cars driving on the right side of the road...the last few days I have hardly had a near miss either crossing the road or riding my bike! (probably should not get too cocky or I will be blogging from a hospital bed)..but it is good especially on the bike to find myself less often facing on coming traffic or in the middle of intersections having got it wrong again.

Tommy Tacos

This curious little building right near Gushi has had me wondering for some time what goes on in there. There are always groups of men there..gathering late at night, i thought perhaps a saucy venue of some sort? Turns out this little gem is Tommy Tacos. I stuck my head in (there are seriously no signs) and saw that this little hole in the wall dishes out delicious Taco treats as well as other Mexican fare. I ordered the vegie burrito, for a bargain $5...there was a 12 inch version for $6.50 but the 8 inch one I purchased must have weighed more than half a kilo! It was massive, filled with avocado, tomato, cheese, rice beans and sauce..oh and some lettuce and herby business. It was more than i could really eat but so tasty I ate it all anyway... very satisfying...could have handled more beans and less rice but the combo was very tasty and yet another reason why I probably wont cook too often. What a find! Clearly not a brothel..and now i know why all those people are there hanging out the front! Super yum!

Sunset Strip

I headed out on another mission today and saw some cool and famous shit. I went for a bit of a walk along Sunset Strip. Whisky A Go-GO and the Viper Room are right over the road from each other... and I also found some fun looking comedy places.

This was my favorite find..I think Linday Lohan lived here for periods of time but I didn't see her as i passed on by.