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Well being a sucker for sunrises and sunsets I had to watch the sun set in the west over the Pacific Ocean.

Today was spent cruising the coast on bikes I don't know how the locals manage to ride bikes with cruiser bike style handlebars as I found then rather quite odd. Rode up through Venice and was intending to keep heading towards Dockweiler Beach/Park which is pretty much where LAX is. Gave up a bit after Venice though as the bike path ended and riding on the road wasn't that fun. Venice though was an oddity of sorts. Eccentric characters sprucing their wares and what not. Including the cardbox box 'Venice Park Wishing Well which proclaimes that it was to fund a pothead... Wanted to get a pic of it, but the owner of the sign had moved it before I got a chance.

Tomorrow brings the first day of driving. We might check out a shopping mall and a Walmart, as we think we've seen enough coast for the time being, and haven't really got anything planned. The day after is the supposed 'happiest place on earth' - Disneyland!

Okay so all the above didn't really occur at the same time, but they did happen. In a continuation of yesterday's happenings dinner was bought from this Japanese place on Hollywood Blvd. We wanted something reasonably healthy but not too expensive and it seemed like a decent enough place. And it was only $7 bucks. Now to see how much food this entailed I have to post a picture:

Lets say I was quite nicely full after eating not even half of it.

Then after dinner curiosity got the better of me, so people watching the Emmy's party ensued. It was kin of extremely odd as they had converted what was a parking lot on the street of the hostel into a party complete with red carpet and what not for the after party. There were news trucks from the major news channels parked in the street and all that stuff that goes with it. No photos though, as we had to watch from the other side of the street and small compact cameras don't hold up well taking photos at night in the street and that distance.

It was interesting to see that pretty much most of the arrivals chose to drive their own cars and get them valeted... Not sure what the drink driving rules are? There were what we think were a few paps there as they knew each other and at one point one asked another who he had rung. Anyways these guys knew who the celebs/stars (?) were... The only one noticeable to us was Lindsay Lohan. I'm pretty sure there were others though, as the pap guys pointed them out - the chick from The Sarah Connor Chronicles was one. A quick Google shows others rocked up during the night, but we gave up and retired to the hostel.

Today though it was time for new scenery and over to Santa Monica it was. We're staying a bit up from the pier - about a 20 min walk I think? - so after we dropped our stuff of it was time for a wander down to the pier area. It's very quiet at the moment 'cos I think it's low season, so when we rode the Pacific Wheel there wasn't that many people at all. Some wandering around the shops and my feet were pretty much dead. Thank goodnes for the Big Blue Bus. The one awesome thing about the buses here is it's a flat rate where ever. And so a ride on the Big Blue Bus was only 75 cents. Well worth the distance we would have had to walk.

Not seen in that particular order, but that's what was pretty uncovered today. Did the Runyon Canyon walk rather early (a bit after 7am) as it gets reasonably warm later in the day. Lots of dog walkers and lots of unusual looking dogs too. Walked the shorter loop up to the top and took a few photos looking down on LA. Was quite smoggy though, so tried to capture the Hollywood sign as best could. The photo below though was taken from a different point yesterday - it turned out slightly clearer.

Then it was on to Beverly Hills. That suburb has a totally different scenery - green grass, tree lined streets. For some reason or anther shops in the US don't open till 12 noon? At least in Beverly Hills they don't - so walked around Rodeo Drive and all the shops were closed. Can't say I could've afforded to shop at any of them though.

As a rather interesting note, the Emmy's are happening in Hollywood tonight Checked but it's being held downtown not on Hollywood Blvd so no star spotting to happen. Though across the road from the hostel there is some red carpet do that has been setup during the day. Looks setup now but lots of people in black doing things.

Anyways, for some photos...
View of the Hollywood Sign (taken somewhere on Hollywood Blvd)

Watch out for rattlesnakes in the canyon!

Beverly Hills palm tree shot

Tomorrow it's of to Santa Monica...

So am in Hollywood right now. Flight over was way long. Ironically there were personal entertainment screens but I didn't watch any of the shows/movies though. Been down Hollywood Blvd this evening and tomorrow will head out to see other parts. Most likely Runyon Canyon and onwards to Beverly Hills.

So thought I'd post an entry on the gadgets I'm lugging with me on my travels this time. I don't usually take this many gadgets, but since this trip is a little longer than usual and there's lots of flying, driving and free wireless there are now a number of additions.

1. Asus Eee PC - The first time I'm lugging a computer of sorts with me. I sort of bought this specifically for my trip (those in the know, this is the machine which in theory I made a profit from buying). It's approx 900 grams is small, light and has pretty much everything a laptop these days has. And it comes in black! It wasn't too hard of a choice to decide to bring this as this trip is going outside of Asia, and most places out of Asia have free wirless almost everywhere (exception being Australia). It's also got Skype so if we needed to make any calls we could just use it and comes with all the basic software for word processing, editing images, organsing your music player etc.
2. Apple iPod - Read a couple of articles about how some choose not to bring their MP3 players as they detract from everything else on their travels/experiences/etc. For me though my iPod is the gadget that lets me tune out, usually when I'm waiting at the airport for hours or on some bus/boat ride which turns out to be twice as long as it should be. Also I'll be using this as my backup hard drive to copy my photos to and what not.
3. Auto Kit for iPod w/ Dock Connector - Got a couple of road trips happening, so need this to transmit from the iPod.
4. Mobile phone - I suppose I don't really need this, but SMS is useful and as is the alarm clock feature.
5. SanDisk MicroMate Reader - This came with one of my SD cards I bought a couple of years ago. I like it because it's super small and it reads quite fast.
6. Canon Digital IXUS 60 - One's got to take photos when they're on holidays... Decent small/compact camera.

Of course the unfortunate part of lugging all the above is that you have to carry all the cables as well as power plug adaptors. The cables are the worst part though.

Not really related to gadgets, but definitely tech related, is Google Docs. Have used Google Docs for this trip to store what ever interesting info might help along the way. There is now a plugin which enables you to access and read/edit your documents offline and when you're online it will save/update as required.

Did a somewhat rough pack today as I really won't feel like packing during the week after I get home from work. Hasn't turned out too bad, first weigh of the bag was 5.8kgs. Since then have removed some stuff and added others. Packing is a somewhat fun exercise - having to think what will work well, wash easy, be okay? And the ultimate question of, 'Do I really need this?'... Going into Central Europe in mid-late October it's supposed to have average min/max day temps of about 4 - 13 degrees, which I think is a bit colder than Sydney's winter min/max averages. So had to pack some warm clothes since I consider winter in Sydney a bit cold sometimes.

In some somewhat exciting travel news for me, I found out the other day that the ice rink at the Rockefeller Center opens for 2008 before leaving for Europe. Which I'll now have to definitely go to that!

Well it's time to revive the blog as the trip looms ahead. Have started copying all my music to the computer to load up my iPod and deciding on playlists to make. With 5 weeks of traveling to happen anything and everything is going on. In shock horror Robbie Williams and the Spice Girls make the cut - there's only so much Snow Patrol and Stereophonics one can listen too unfortunately.

Anyways for those who may be following the blogging travels, bookmark this. It'll take you straight to the travelling tagged posts.

Well not necessarily of the bad kind. I've embarked on my journey to fix the non-meeting front teeth which have resulted in having to get 4 premolars extracted. Got 2 done a few weeks ago and the others just came out this afternoon. So I'm kind of sitting here with a numbed left face and I won't go into the rest of the detail...

Hoping the pain I have won't be as bad/intense as before. The first 2 extractions resulted in me having close to 2 weeks intense jaw pain and tension. Worse than when I had all 4 wisdom teeth extracted at once! That was nothing compared to this.

And to add to today, tomorrow I have to see the orthodontist at 7:30am for separators... so I think pain will be the word of choice for the next week or so...

So I mark my return to blogging with a gripe... I meant to post about this earlier in the week but just got round to it now.

Broadsheet newspapers, you know those gigantic newspapers that fold out and could probably be used as a tablecloth (if you really tried)... well there not designed to exactly be easily read in cramped places/spaces. Like the bus or train for example.

Especially if it's the morning peak... Have you ever tried yourself to read a broadsheet on public transport? Yep... disaster. So there I am on my normally peaceful morning bus ride which becomes un-normal when the dude behind me proceeds to read his paper the whole paper... So not only does he have a dude to his side, theres the passengers in front... and what do you know the whole way in I get the swish of paper on the back of my head... Argh... at least fold it so it doesn't attack the fellow passengers...

I've decided to start a vent category appropriately tagged 'Gripes'.

For my first posting on this new site, I have to vent about public transport.. and the stupidity that a near empty bus does not stop at a city stop during peak hour when signalled. Add to the fact that it is the only bus route into where I live and you have a pretty annoyed passenger (or lack thereof really, considering I never got on it).