la is massive. we drove in through pasadena, although we saw neither bill nor ted. we stopped off for a quick burger and we rang marty, a mate of ben's who we were due to stay with while we were in la. i'm trying to navigate usselves along route 66 but it's much more difficult in the middle of a massive city. we end up getting totally lost and we end up in this really shitty part of town. i'm trying to figure out where we are on the map when some bloke starts walking towards the car and it looks like he's taking something out of his pocket so we hammer it out of there and decide we'll take the interstate the rest of the way.
the interstate is mental, full of cars in fact it were choc-a-block. ben's shitting it drive, it were like being a rollercoaster. eventually we find us exit and we follow marty's instructions with out too much hassle and arrive at his house. the house is in venice, which is an absolutely wicked area, very chilled out. it's where they used to film baywatch and if they hadn't moved it to hawaii we would probably have been in it. hasslehoff man, i tell you.
marty
marty's already got some beers in, so we have a quick beer and we're talking about music and he tells us us plans for the evening: we're going to see leo nocentelli (out of the meters). i think we were all 'what?' but we head over to the bar in santa monica. on the way we walk past a bar owned by slash.
we get a couple of beers in and leo takes the stage. it's not really our sort of thing but we're enjoying it any way (especially after the beers). i'd never heard of the bloke or so i thought until he played an old meters song and i totally recognised it. it were the one that goes "duddle-der-der-der, der-der der-der, ba-da-da da." wicked. we left and picked up some beer on the way back and went down to the beach. it were dark and there were no-one about and we just sat there drinking beer and staring at the ocean, but it were cold as well so we didn't stay out for too long. marty stayed over at his brothers so we all just crashed round at his.
we got up pretty late 'cause it had been a big day the day before and then we went for a brunch at this nice little italian place. they did these little garlic bread pieces which were ace, and we ate so many we could hardly eat us lunches. after that i went back to crash for an hour while ben and colin went for a stroll around the beach. they came back after a while because the weather was poor and they were freezing. ben when to get his head shaved and everyone in the hairdressers had reet long blonde hair.
marty had a wedding to go to so our plan for the evening was to go and see the la galaxy (the soccer team) playing at the pasadena rosebowl, but after driving round for an hour trying to get onto the interstate we sacked it off and went to the pub instead. we went to the blue octopus where we saw nathan out of eastenders. that's the thing about la - you're always running into famous people... (more about that later). after the octopus we went to aloha. we got some wicked food in there and then we sat outside drinking sol and this horrid old pissed woman had a go at us because she was mexican or summat and sol were mexican and she said we might as well drink motor oil. what rubbish.
we had a beer at another bar but it was rubbish so we decided to go back to the house. we watched a bit of telly and then the telly turned itsen over and we were like 'what's going on' and then we realised that marty was taping something so we thought let's watch it. the show was called six feet under and it's one of the best programmes that i have ever seen with mine own eye. after that we watched some more telly and then went to bed.
when marty got back from his wedding it was time to drive down to san diego, so we piled into his car and went to get bagels. we saw marty's brother outside the bagel shop, then we got bagels and then we set off on us journey.
a couple of hours later and we're in san diego. we stop off for a break and there's all sea lions knocking about, but there's also loads of seagull poo all over the place and it stinks to high heaven. we don't stay there long and drive off heading for the chargers' stadium. we park in the car park and have to walk about eight miles to the other side of the car park to get to the stadium. by the time we do get there though, we're well pumped, aching for the game.
i mentioned (much) earlier that when we were in st louis i really enjoyed watching the baseball. the same did not apply to the football. the only thing that was enjoyable about it was the food and the beer and the raiders fan who was taunting the chargers fans. if he'd of been in england, he would of been carrying his face home in a bag, but the chargers fans were just taunting him back and it was really friendly. i hadn't seen owt like it before.
me and ben got bored and went for a wander and got some beer. after the game had finished, we went back to the car and headed for mission beach where we were due to meet john, the bloke that we were staying with that evening. we went to the beach and marty went to the restaurant we were meeting him in. we didn't realise that we should of gone over as well. we stayed about acting like nobheads on the beach while everyone was waiting for us in the bar.
after we ate, we stuck around for a couple of drinks and john's girlfriend attempted to guess our ages. she guessed colin at twenty-six (he were twenty-eight), ben at thirty (spot on) and me at thirty-four. i were only twenty-six. maybe i should cut down on the beer a bit. after we left the bar we all went round to john's and sat in his garden drinking tequila and smoking cigars before heading back inside to kip.
when we wake up we're surrounded by mants that had snook into the house in the evening. i picked up my trainer and gid it a shake and all mants come out of it, it were a proper nightmare. mants everywhere. once we're rid of them, it's time to say goodbye to john and his girlfriend and then it's off to mission beach again.
we hire boogie boards and hang around the beach all day. boogie boarding is a lot of fun but it doesn't half chafe your nips! we go to a beach bar to get something to eat and a beer and marty gets id'd - despite the fact that he's forty years old. mind you, i probably look older than him.
on our way down to mexico, we stop at hotel del coronado which is apparently dead famous for cocktails. it's a well nice place and the cocktails are pretty good as well, but when we've had them we're off to mexico. we stop briefly at the border to get insurance for the car (we don't particularly want to end up in a mexican gaol) and then we go across into mexico.
