Homeward Bound

THURSDAY
I caught another bus out to Century City to track down Pete's MBTs. When I got off the bus there were gum trees growing next to the footpath. I crushed a leaf (it's still in my pocket) and the smell of home brought tears to my eyes. It's definitely time to go home.

I was at the shops bright and early at 9 am, and then discovered that nothing much opens until 10 am and the shoe shop didn't open until 10:30 am. I filled in the time window shopping, found a shop called The Container Company that's a bit like Howard's Storage World, and then bought some books at Borders. The Walking Company had the shoes Pete wanted so that was alll right, and I bought some MBT sandals for myself and wore them (which was a mistake, because I had a blister by the end of another day's hard walking).

I caught another bus back to Downtown LA (I'm getting good at this) and walked down to the FIDM Museum(FIDM is Fashion Industry Design and Marketing) in the fashion district. They had a wonderful exhibit about Betsy Bloomingdale and Haute Couture. Betsy married into the Bloomingdale family (Bloomingdale department stores) and her husband started Diners Club credit cards, so they weren't poor. From the sixties to the nineties Betsy bought haute couture in Paris and she donated a lot of her clothes and accompanying sketches to the Museum. The exhibit included video interviews with Betsy and some of the designers. It was fascinating to see the designs and the detailing of the dresses.

FIDM also has a scholarship shop with discounted clothes but I didn't find anything I wanted to buy. I wandered around the Fashion District for a couple of hours (poor feet) - there are blocks and blocks of clothing shops, mostly cheap imports (I've never seen so many stretch jeans with diamante pockets) but with some designer shops - usuallly just wholesale, not retail - as well. Big bottoms must be fashionable, because all the jeans were displayed on big bottomed dummies and I even saw some panties with foam inserts to make your bottom bigger. Not that I need that!

There's also a Jewellery District, which I skirted yesterday - blocks and blocks of jewellery shops. These districts remind me a bit of the cities Pete and I visited in Vietnam and Thailand, which also have specialised shopping districts.

After all that I needed to sit down and rest, so I ended up at the new cinema complex that has just opened near the Convention Centre. There were lots of people headed for the Nokia Stadium to see a basketball match (I think) but I saw Scrooge in 3D. It was okay, apart from chattering children at the back of the theatre. I notice a lot of movies have sequences in them that seem to have been included so they can become a computer game or a Disneyland adventure ride at some future date. This one certainly did, and the graphics were great (especially in 3D).

I had grilled salmon at the Country Kitchen diner ("continously in operation 24 hours a day since 1926"), sitting up at the counter like they do in diners in the movies - that was fun. And I caught a taxi the rest of the way home, and was asleep by 9 pm.

This morning I'm packed and ready to check out. I'm catching another bus west of Downtown to eat at the Farmers Market and then visit LACMA "one of the finest art museums in the nation" and the La Brea tar pits, and then come back to the hotel to pick up my luggage and catch a shuttle bus to the airport. So this will be my last post until I get home. Pete's picking me up from the airport on Sunday morning.