Hollywood and environs

The bright lights of Hollywood failed to impress us. My parents wanted to see Hollywood. I warned them it would be 1. dull, and 2. far away from West LA. But we went anyway. And they were 1. bored, and 2. tired from the long bus ride. But we saw the walk of "fame", Mann's Cheapo Chinese Theatre (which was so fake and tacky it was definitely Hollywood), the hand prints outside the theatre (George Burns' and Roy Rogers' were the more interesting of the lot), and took pictures of the Hollywood sign (which has recently been given a facelift).

On the plus side, we walked past a Metro rail station, and decided to brave the subway system. We were most pleasantly surprised to find a modern, clean, and dare I say safe, station, and while not state-of-the-art trains, still sufficiently clean to impress us. It was a great way to get from Hollywood and Highland to Chinatown (another stinking disappointment; the new, real Chinatown in Monterey Park is only accessible by car/freeway). The trains were fast. So much faster than the traffic overhead. I was surprised not to find it packed, especially since the relatively cheap day pass of $3 for the bus system was also valid for the subway.

Another pleasant find of the day was Union Station in Downtown LA, where we had to change trains for Chinatown. It's a relic of a bygone era, when people in America actually used Amtrack and didn't squish themselves in their tin can airplanes. The station was maintained beautifully, and the floors were clearly cleaned and polished often. Even the station restaurant looked inviting (and years of UK train stations has put me off eating in a station for life!). The sofas clearly hadn't been replaced since they were first installed, but evoked a sense of age that the rest of LA lacks.

One of these days, we'll be back if only to take in the atmosphere of the subway and the stations to feel like we're in a real Metropolitan city.

not best pleased with apartment

talking to my landlord winds me up. greatly. not a good start to the year, with multiple things failing in the apartment. we should really have taken the hint when we realised that none of the appliances and built-in furniture have been updated since the mid-70s.

a power outage on new year's eve has been annoying us ever since due to some odd electrical wiring in the apartment. suffice to say, for the lights to work in the bathroom, bedroom and kitchen, the oven must be turned on, even though it, the electric stove and the waste disposal thingy no longer perform their proscribed function. yes. this apartment is well f-ed up.

what bugs me the most is the landlord never once mentioned anything about dodgy electrics, nor that the ceiling heater is a fucking piece of crap and shouldn't be touched for the love of money, nor that the oven is the centre of the fucking universe and should be duly worshipped as the one true god and accorded the respect of being the sole electrical item in use at any time. so to tell us that in retrospect is pretty rich, and pisses me right off. we think she thinks we're buck stupid foreigners or maybe she just likes stating the obvious to show her thinking prowess is intact. but it winds me up no end.

i'm still very peeved. from now on, p will deal with all landlord correspondence because he's just so much more chilled than i am. and there's also what we call the "young man" effect, where we often observe that he gets all the attention and respect when we speak to people about vaguely technical or slightly complicated issues. (it's either sexism or racism, we haven't worked that one out yet because of the slight complicating factor that's me; cos i'm definitely the more technology-inclined of us both.) we'll test that one out on the electrician too.