It's A Boy

NEWS FLASH!

We have a new member of the family.
Fox has a little brother.

Banjo Foster Curry was born in Los Angeles early this morning

More Details will Follow

Second Day in L.A.

I must admit we don't suffer at all from jet lag which is very good.

Bernie was starting filming at the studio so Grandma and Granddad took Fox to The Grove. But first we went to the local park on the way for a little play and a run around, and I can tell you this little man can run. We had a job catching up with him but somehow managed.

 They have some great children's playgrounds here in Hollywood full of Spanish nannies looking after toddlers. Fox just loves this place.

Maybe he is a budding mathematician, playing with this abacus.

At the Grove they have this old tram, mainly for tourists but very authentic. They call them 'trolleys' here. This one just runs up and down the length of The Grove. We walked past the Apple Store without entering, how about that?

A little side street at The Grove. It looks very European. There is also a large market at the end of The Grove and I was looking forward for my coffee. I remember last time we were here we couldn't get a drinkable coffee at the markets. But I discovered a coffee shop called The Coffee and Tea Leaf in one of the side streets that serves an excellent chocolate milk latte. I must remember that.

Then we spotted this little gem. I was very tempted to have my thongs (flip-flops) cleaned. Kidding I was wearing sneakers.

On the way home, our little man was very tired and we didn't want him to fall asleep in the pram, so we went through the park again and let him have another run. 

First Morning in L.A.

After a good night's sleep recovering from the long flight, we're up and running. We drove to Traveltown in Los Angeles, a railway museum, favourite with Fox and Granddad.

This place is about 20 minuted from Sonya and Bernie's house in Hollywood. It's a little like the Railway Museum in Peterborough but no entry fee other than a donation box.  It's very large and has lots of steam trains on display. Fox was in his element climbing onto all the trains.

Sonya is very uncomfortable and finds it difficult to walk very far so we gave her lots of time to sit and relax.

Fox discovered a model railway he could play with.  There is also a miniature railway you can ride along the perimeter track which we all enjoyed. No one took any pictures. Pity, but I took lots of video which will end up on YouTube in the next few days.

Then, after a browse through the Railway shop (without any purchases, I mighty add), we set off home for lunch and a rest for Fox, Sonya and the oldies.

Our first day in Los Angeles,

Until soon....

We're in Hollywood

We've arrived in L.A. mid afternoon after a 15 hour flight. We're very impressed with Air New Zealand from Auckland on but not with their Brisbane operation. When booking in, they had shifted us from the seats on our itinerary to another place, even though we had been given our seats weeks ago. On the Brisbane to Auckland leg they had us at the back in economy class, even though we had paid for premium-economy seats. Now that may sound petty. But we accepted it as Sam, our travel agent had told us that it would be unlikely that we would get premium-economy seats on they short leg as they didn't have a premium-economy section on short haul flights. We accepted that and walked down to the gates, when I heard my name being paged to go back to the Air New Zealand counter.

Once back, we were told that they had decided to give us the original seats shown on our itinerary and that they would upgrade us to premium-economy seats between Brisbane and Auckland. Now wasn't that nice? 

So as we boarded the 777-300 we found that they indeed did have a premium-economy section. If we hadn't complained about our Auckland to L.A. seat, we would have travelled at the back of the plane.

However I must say that the service on board including the food was excellent even better than Qantas and on the other scale of that dreadful Air Canada airline. It was a smooth crossing most of the way and the choice of movies was the best I've experienced so far in an overseas journey.

We arrived at LAX on time, even though we were delayed in Auckland for an hour. Bernie picked us up and drove us to their residence in West Hollywood, where Sonya, our heavily pregnant daughter and a very cute and beautiful grandson Fox greeted us.

Fox recognised us immediately from our regular Skype contact and we are now having fun playing with him to give Sonya and Bernie a wee rest .

Until soon....

Up, up and Away Again

We're leaving, On a Jet Plane, but Do Know When We're Back Again, to steal from John Denver's song. We're flying over to Los Angeles this morning so spend some time with Sonya, Bernie and Fox while waiting for Fox's little brother to arrive anytime soon.

This time we're flying Air New Zealand

We're stopping in Auckland to change the plane for Los Angeles. The reason for Air NZ is that we'll return from San Francisco and Qantas doesn't fry from San Francisco to Brisbane anymore.

Stop-over in Auckland

Hopefully Bernie will be at LAX airport to meet us,
unless he had to take Sonya to hospital in which
case, we'll call a cab to Hollywood.

 I'll have my MacBook with me to blog regularly from California and don't forget to check out my 365 project site at http://365project.org/wilbo43/365

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

On a spur of the moment, we decided to go to the movies last night with our friends, Paul and Helen. The ladies were playing tennis in the morning and the topic of conversation veered to this delightful feel-good movie. I ask you, why should anybody think of going fishing for Scottish salmon in the arid desert of Yemen.

Well, author Paul Torday thought of it. Torday (60) who had written very little since his youth, when he wrote articles for British newspapers, penned this delightful story about a wealthy Yemeni sheikh (Waked), with more money than sense, who decided he wanted to fish for salmon the Yemen.

He engaged consultant Harriet Chetwode-Talbot (Blunt) who floated the idea with the British government, who, desperate for a good-news story from the middle-east forced the project onto fisheries expert Fred Jones (McGregor), Fred, an asperger-syndrome sufferer who thinks it’s a crazy idea but ends up working with Harriet to fulfill the sheikh’s dream.

There is, of course the inevitable side plot. Fred’s marriage is falling apart and Harriet’s soldier boyfriend, is missing in action in Afghanistan, so it is inevitably that Fred and Harriet are brought together, but only after a few riotous disasters.


The film is directed by Lasse Hallström, known for his block-busters Chocolat and A Guy and a Gal. 
A stellar cast includes Amr Waked, Ewan McGregor, Emily Blunt and Catherine Steadman.

Another one of those wonderful British movies I’m glad we went to see. I highly recommend it.

Alexander Clark Park

The Blogger dragged me out of bed again this morning as the rain had stopped. So off we trundled down to Loganholme to find the Alexander Clark Park for a pleasant walk. I must admit, I enjoyed it.

The Logan City Council has done a great job laying out this park on the Logan River

There are pontoons to tie up boats

There is a peddle railway where you can cycle around a large track

This lovely tree caught my eye. If I was younger, I would climb up

All pictures taken with my iPhone, the first and last one with Hipstamatic App.