So here I am…randomly in Los Angeles.

I got offered this trip two weeks ago, two weeks that subsequently became the longest two weeks of my life….not having left the country for 6 months does that to me now. I got to the airport and as usual I felt right as rain. Mum came to see me off and I went through to departures an hour and a half early. It was lucky I did because the queue for customs nearly took me that long to get through it, then security…which was the usual lap top out, boots off, belt off…oh what ever..I'll just arrive naked next time huh?

I had to run all the way to the gate to board my Virgin Australia flight to Los Angeles. The flight went smoothly and I must say Virgin run a tight ship, it was one of the best flights I've ever been on. This was only assisted by the fact that I had 3 seats to myself and I got quite a bit of sleep.

We touched down after thirteen hours of flying time and I then had to stand in another exceedingly long customs queue, which didn't seem to move, followed by collecting my baggage, followed by another queue for quarantine. When I finally left the airport, I had to find the Super Shuttle stand to pick up my transfer. I did this with no hassle, but the driver had to do two laps of the airport seeing if anyone else wanted a ride. He was also given the wrong address and tried to drop me off and the crappy Ramada in a s***ty area of Hollywood, rather than the classy Hotel Wilshire in Beverley Hills.

After being dropped off I managed to check into the hotel early, a lovely young lady named Julee pulled some strings so I could check on arrival even though check in is at 3pm. I forgot how good the service is here. I went up to my room, which has a massive king size bed and the biggest shower I think I've ever seen. It is absolute pure luxury.

I had a quick shower and raced off outside to explore, before I knew it I had walked 4km down Wilshire Boulevard to the heart of Beverley Hills and was outside the Beverley Wilshire hotel where Julia Roberts and Richard Gere stayed in the movie Pretty Woman which I had only watched last week. I had a stroll down Rodeo drive and peered in at all the expensive shops, one of which had an amazing black and yellow Bugatti Veyron parked outside.

I then decided to get the red open top hop on hop off bus as it was much too far to walk to Hollywood Boulevard. The bus commentary was good, I wouldn't have known what half the buildings were with out it. Among some of the more interesting ones were Flynt Publications, where Larry Flynt first produced Hustler Magazine, the night club River Phoenix died in, Paramount Studios and Farmers Market.

I got off the bus outside the famous Chinese Theatre, it was bedlam there were people dressed up as super heroes, movie stars cartoon characters and even transformers trying to get people to have their picture taken with them. I had a look at some of the foot prints and managed to find Bruce Wilis' "Yippee Ki Yay" message. I then walked all the way down the walk of fame and went and had lunch at Johnny Rockets, an American style diner type place. Again I forgot how good the service is in this country. I had no sooner ordered than I had food in front of me, I mean not even two minutes had gone past. I also made the rookie mistake of ordering a starter and a main, cheese and bacon fries and chicken strips. Yeah, I went full retard….so much food.

From the shopping complex I was now in I could get a really good view of the Hollywood sign, so I went up to the viewing platform for some pictures. I then went into a Hot Topic store and went a bit nuts. They had Supernatural merchandise! What was I supposed to do! I was in heaven, shopping for awesome clothes, with heavy metal blaring in the background. After my splurge, I walked the other way down the walk of fame and into a few more alternative clothing stores, in which I managed to restrain myself. I then got back on the bus, which went down sunset boulevard and the nightclub district and back to Wilshire Boulevard via the Le Brea Tar Pits, which I'm going to visit tomorrow.