Overcast skies today and rain in the forecast for the next couple of days, which must mean it’s time for home.

 

 

Well, that was the idea – we sat for an age this morning waiting for our car and wondering if we were really meant to stay a while longer!

 

 

After breakfast in Studio City with Mary, I stood on the pavement and waved goodbye as they left me standing on the pavement.  My hero was going to wave a magic wifi wand over there chez Valentine and in the meantime, I was left standing with an hour to spend on a street with not only one great bookshop but a Paper Source too – how difficult could that be?

Purchases will be revealed in due course, but I was sufficiently intrigued by this and this that they found their way into my basket immediately and subsequently squeezed into my check in bag.

In the meantime, partial success was reported in the wifi zone.  Phew!

Then, finally, it was time to head for the airport to return our rental car and make our way home again.  And because a journey in LA is never dull, here’s one or two sights along the way.

 

 

A cute number plate, don’t you think?

 

 

Shortly followed by another interesting one.

It’s always interesting to look at the billboards in this city of visual media, if only to catch a glimpse of what we’re likely to watching in the next few months.  Johnny Depp’s latest is heavily hyped here, alongside the remake of Footloose, which premiered last night, I read.

 

 

I’m not sure if the central character adorning both seats on the pavement and the billboards is the same one as we saw in Shrek, but the clever personality conveyed by the images of Puss in Boots rings a bell for sure.

 

 

Of course, as soon as I saw Antonio Banderas’ name, I knew it will be fun.

Further fun in the form of many ads for Newcastle Brown Ale – good old Newcie Brown seems to be having a publicity drive over here and each of the series of billboards provokes a smile!

 

 

Last but not least, one for Mary, whose reaction to any form of slight suggestion that we might call into a Chuck-E-Cheese’s is worth watching.  Suffice to say that I can picture the scene right now, provoked by the mere sight of the place.

 

 

So I offer reassurance that we accept her advice and didn’t go anywhere near the place today.  Especially since, having completed the wifi magic herself, she’ll now kindly come to my aid and rescue my camera battery charger, accidentally left plugged into the hotel room wall socket this morning.  What a star!

For one minute I thought I was going to have to come back to get it