Caught up in the Oscars

Luckily we arrived in LA quite early because we were so close, but not without its problems again. The traffic started when the satnav said that we still had 67 miles to go which was the beginning of LA. It was slow going all the way in so we had no problem with speeding fines here. Our friend eventually got us to our Motel 6, which is one of the cheapest that you can get and started out with that name because it was only $6 a night to stay there. That was many years ago and now they cast a little more, especially near to Hollywood Boulevard where we are. Once we arrived, Claire didn’t like this one so we reset the satnav and headed towards her next best choice the Best Western which was only about 2 blocks away but with the traffic took about 30 minutes. They were full up so we drove across the road to a Comfort inn and they only had one room left but it was $151 a night. We looked at the room and didn’t like it even though it was quirky with a spiral staircase and lounge downstairs so we hit the road again for our first choice of the Motel 6. We were nearly wiped out trying to get into the car park but somehow managed it without a scratch.

Once checked in we walked for 30 seconds and we were on Hollywood Boulevard but it was closed with police everywhere and roadblocks on every road onto it; that’s why it took us so long to drive anywhere. We asked a policeman why it was all closed off and he said because the Oscars were on tonight. We asked how to get across the road and he said that we had to walk about 2 miles around a block just to get to the other side of the road; bizarre, that’s why we just winged it and ran across the road. Once there they don’t make you go back but they are just very cross with you, but we are used to that. We noticed all the helicopters hovering above the street and all the strange people everywhere. I’m sure I spotted Elvis down the street and Claire thought she saw Tom Cruise coming out of the Scientology test centre. He must have failed!

All those star things were on the ground that we walked on with famous names and I saw Douglas Fairbanks Junior who I used to like when I was a child along with Tyron Power who used to play Zorro. All the girls used to love them and them and there has only ever been one Zorro. Just like the only Tarzan that counted was Johnny Weisemuller. My Dad always used to call me “Boy” just like Tarzan did to kids so I always felt a connection. I guess that in Germany the word for boy is “Junge” which means boy and that’s why he used it. I saw one homeless guy wipe his feet on one stars name so I guess he didn’t like him.

We stopped for lunch at “The Pig and Whistle” where we had traditional pub fair and both enjoyed it; a great change from the normal burger and fries. It was great to watch all the strange people walk by and all the cars that were allowed down the street; I guess that they were the project managers and organisers because they were all in DJ’s and dresses and we didn’t recognise them. The drinks are expensive on the main strip like you would imagine so we walked back and found a bottle shop and headed back to our Motel. Straight out again on the strip and we stayed for the evening in the “Lucky Devil” where they had an amazing assortment of different beers; I chose an IPA which was 7% and only $5 a pint and we could watch all the cars go by with the extras in; by this time the real stars were in a traffic jam. Maybe they we the producers, all the technical staff and all the tagger’s on but it was a traffic jam again. I was hopping to see Ricky Gervais but we had to settle for snoopy and friends. We also had a mad religious man with a sign that he waved in front of everyone and made them feel uncomfortable and when anyone said anything to him he was very aggressive. We saw the whole world go past us in that bar, even what looked like a very old Marilyn Monroe stroking somebody’s dogs. Speaking of dogs, everyone has a small dog on a lead around here; I have never seen so many.

We had a great night just watching everyone go by and then headed home to watch the stars and results on our TV just a stones throw away while we sampled our bottle shop wines. Lets hope “Avatar” wins through; the best film of the century!