Shopping and Strip Clubs

We had a great, if bizarre day today starting with a bit of shopping.

I managed to spend $150 on Benefit cosmetics within just ten minutes of arriving at Bloomingdales. Before I had a chance to even look at anything else, I was sitting on the sales girl's stool having my eye brows 'fixed up', my cheeks 'primed', my blemishes zapped with a magic wand and my lips painted pink. I was completely sucked in by these gorgeously packaged, girly, sweet-smelling products which are called delightfully American things like Boo Boo Zap, Brow Zings and Bad Gal and make you feel a million dollars by just looking at them. They became even less resistible when I was told that I qualified for a free gift. As my eyes lit up, Ric's rolled.

But then we went and found him a very smart Calvin Klein jacket so he is chuffed with that. All these brands are so much cheaper here! I tried to find a dress for our imminent trip to Vegas but my interest and patience quickly waned so we headed back to Hollywood (Boulevard - the locals chop off the Blvd, Street, Road etc, part of each address so they sound cooler) and ate an early dinner at a popular but cosy vegan restaurant I had been eyeing up since we got to Hollywood. They have an amazing menu which offers everything from succulent mock chicken and mock peppered steak burgers (with non-diary cheese) to protein salads, tofu and vegetable stir-fries, soups, curries, noodles and shabu-shabu, most of which are served with a bowl of nutty brown rice. And that was just the savoury menu! For once I was totally spoilt for choice and even Ric (who had a burger) said he couldn't fault it.

Afterwards, we had a weird night out. We went to meet Ric's friend (who happens to be a vegan) at a bar in West Hollywood. He'd been invited to some gig there and asked us to join him. We got there first, paid to park, paid to go in and looked around to find Ric was pretty much the only guy in there and that in fact, most of the clientele were gay - we found out later that this was a very popualr lesbian bar. Ric's friend whipped us out of there as soon as he found us and we decided to check out a comedy bar called Improv down the road (ie. a 2 mile drive away). I wasn't sure I coud sit through some bad commedy but we went anyway. We got there and the tickets had sold out so we just hung around the bar for a few hours before it was suggested that we try Jumbos, a strip club a couple of miles east of our Motel which stays open til late. I was assured that this joint was as popular with the girls as the boys and that the strippers don't even take their tops off. So off we went in the car again to watch some poles dancing at 1am. The traffic was truly terrible by now and we couldn't find a free parking spot anywhere but we finally made it in and found Lemmy from Motorhead standing outside the entrance smoking a cigarette. Ric was far more excited about that than seeing the semi-naked ladies. The things they can do in 8 inch heels and half way up a pole are amazing though.

We're learning fast that a night out in LA is nothing like London. First of all, you need to plan it far more precisely with your friends as everything is so spread out and you can't really do anything without driving. Then, because you need to drive, you can't really drink. If you want to park, you have to pay through the teeth. Most bars have a valet service which seems a bit of a joke to me especially when they only park it out the front. The traffic you have to sit in to get from one place to another somewhat kills the party mood too so the whole evening can feel drawn out before you've even done anything. At least there's always some up-beat rock tune on the radio.