Day 3 - Hollywood and Universal Studio Wow a beautiful sunny day - just right for spending the day at Universal Studios. We went back to see Noma at the Chinese Theatre to get a ticket as we had promised her the day before that we would so would get the commission on the deal. Good deal with Starline Tours, the ticket price is the same but they pick you up and drop you off at the hotel for no extra charge - bargain. Seeing as how they seem to charge for most t...

Day 2 - Los Angeles Awake really early this morning,bit of jet lag but not helped by receiving a text from Kath at 5:30! She had been up since 3am and assumed that my phone would be switched off or on silent. We are obviously trying to get used to local time, she by contrast is flying back tomorrow so isn't!Anyway upshot was that we were up and breakfasting in the café across the road from the Renaissance by 7:45. We managed to avoid buying tour tickets althoug...

Day 1 - The Adventure Begins After a frenetic weekend which started with a lovely lunch for my 60th at the Print Room, followed by a fantastic party attended by around 80 family and friends, some of whom had travelled long distances to attend; then on Sunday another lunch for all of the family at Durley Dean which was rounded off by a walk along the prom in the sunshine, a few tearful farewells to children and grandchildren, (well mine anyway) we are finally at ...

Four weeks to go and panic is setting in with so much still to do; there's Christmas, all the parties and family visits to fit in, New Year and my birthday in the mix, I just know that the time will fly past before we know it. I'm trying not to get too excited although it's difficult. I don't want to get pessimistic but with being away for so long it just seems that there are so many things that could go wrong at the last minute and would muck up the itinerary....