A terrific night’s sleep, + then breakfast. And then, I think, a misunderstanding. Val asked if we could possibly stay for another night, + Nisrin said just a flat no. It sounded strange, since they’d both been so friendly, but it was her decision. And then, when we left, she said we could stay – I think it must have been a misunderstanding. Anyway…
A swift couple of chores, + then on to the next item in our decadent LA trip – a visit to Hollywood, +, in particular, Universal Studios. Val navigated us there perfectly, we parked +… took our place in line. Not for too long tho’ – soon thro’ the gate. There were 2 parts to the tour – first an actual conducted tour thro’ the different semi-permanent sets, plus a couple of demonstrations. It was great, driving thro’ whole streets of facades, with houses used in various films + series, plus lots of staged events – an attack from Jaws, a collapsing bridge, a flood, amongst others. Best of all a trip thro’ a revolving ice tunnel. There was a lecture on filmic special events, using various volunteers to demonstrate particular things, + Val + I managed to get to act Buck Rogers + Wilmer in a space scene, costumes + all. It was great fun, + we did all right. The 2nd half was 4 separate mini-shows – all free (well, we’d already paid for them. They were Animal Actors (sad but interesting), a horror show (silly), a stunt show (funny) + screen test, when a bunch of volunteers got to make a mini-version of Airport 77. I got to play a part, a navy technician – not a large part, but it was fun to participate, + interesting + funny to see the end result.
After, we took a drive to take a picture of the Hollywood sign, then a nightmare journey back + forth thro’ the rush hour to try + find Westwood village, supposedly a good area. It wasn’t special, but we got to see a great movie – “Priest of Love”, with Ian McKellen as D H Lawrence. Slept in the car.
Pretty much our last hurrah at conventional tourist activities for quite a while, but clearly we were easily pleased.
Not sure that I quite understand why we didn’t stay with Akhbar and Nisrin, since the impression is that the misunderstanding – if that is what it was – had been sorted out. But perhaps by then the damage was done. Anyway, we slept in the car – nothing too unexpected there.
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