WT - Los Angeles Arrival

Having only gotten to bed at about 04:00hrs this morning we were pretty buggered today but that's okay, the first day at a new destination is always orientation day. This was carried out online as this is quite a large city and surrounds.

I tried to contact Chriselda on waking, but had no end of trouble with phones, partly numbers but mainly codes, international dial codes, country codes and area codes.... codes.... codes....and more codes:) Finally I managed to get through to the home number and left a message on the answering machine. As a precaution I emailed Chriselda and Bernie contact information.

Chriselda called this afternoon having a good laugh over the Aussie accent... this comment will tickle the fancy of my Aussie mates who reckon I still have the touch of an African accent - they are bound to have a lend of me, fair crack o' the whip:) She sounded as excited as I was to hear one another's voices .... yes this was our first actual conversation since we had lost touch over 30 years ago and she does still have the accent. It was only May this year that we found Chriselda on Facebook, we had already planed our world tour and were going to skip the USA altogether but on finding not only Chriselda but also her sister Bernadette both living in the LA area of California (with their families) of course we changed our plans, but this meant we would be pretty disorganised on this leg without much notice. What with all the drama of the business and short notice Ronnie and I had decided that if we couldn't meet after all this then it just wasn't meant to be.

The long and the short of things is that Chriselda is trying to organise a get together with both families and ourselves... I did explain that we are not looking for them to entertain us, we are pretty good at looking after that ourselves, we just want to say G'day and Howzit for a few hours, meet the families. We are hoping to get something happening on Sunday.

In the meantime this afternoon we decided to go for a dip and relax for a while at the pool, since its right outside our door. Ronnie was sun tanning while I was enjoying a pleasant frolic in the water when I heard "Hurro!", "Hurro!" I looked up to see an attractive young Asian lady waving at me. Not one to be rude I waved back and bid her "G'Day" whereupon she called out "Werrcum to China!" with a little cackle "I fom China - look (with a sweep of her hand) werrcum to China!". What could I say, "Thank you!" it was only then that I realised that we are the only 2 Caucasians here .... everyone else is Asian cause we are in a predominantly Asian suburb.... made me feel right at home, memories of Surfers Paradise during our time on the Gold Coast.

We decided we would like to go out for a traditional Aussie style meat and potatoes meal and that meant travel as my experience is that you can't get that type of meal from a noodle shop so with the help of the front desk attendant we were directed to the "Outback Restaurant" for a traditional Aussie meal. Ahh! what the heck, why not after all back home we go to American BBQ Barns so while in America why not do the same from their point of view.

Trust me the only thing Aussie about the Outback Restaurant is the name and the decor, T-Bone nope Sirloin, the biggest meanest tea saucer sized steak as thick as half a deck of cards - you've ever seen. Damper?? Billy tea?? how about sauces "Mushroom/Dianne/Pepper", Huh? fries? - never seen Aussie fries like French fries with the jacket left on and a nice muddy brown colour. Disappointing!! I mean the food was fine but after all the hype "Genuine Traditional Aussie Tucker" (and I know they don't mean native) I was disappointed. The owners of the Bull & Barley Inn at Cambooya should come out here and show them how it's really done.