We’re sitting in the Los Angeles airport.  Lollie and I arrived at 3:40pm and it’s now close to 9pm, LA is not a pretty place – it’s basically a place with a lot of people, a few hills and a few extraordinary rich people who live on that hill.  A lot of crappy films and a few good ones get produced here every year.

At 4:50pm we decided to check the city out and caught a local taxi, after driving for 10 minutes and seeing what we’ll pay, we got out at a local mall and checked out the shopping (it was my first mall on this trip – and I’m glad – malls are the same throughout the world).  Our taxi driver was almost incapable to communicate in English, as we got out we tried to pay for the trip with VISA and he explained that he would only accept credit cards for trips above $20.  I had no cash on me so Lollie waited with him as I ran into the mall to withdraw money from the ATM.  The taxi driver had a smoke-smelling den with some fresh roses in the front!  When I asked him about it he kept on saying "picked it this earlier" with a big smile on his face, he took the roses and placed it in front of my nose to sniff (all this while he was driving).  I stopped to smell the roses as to speak and he really liked it!  A few minutes into our drive he pulled out one of the roses and gave it to Lollie.

After the rose-taxi man we browsed the mall and ended up at Starbucks for our last cup of java.  Our trip back was significantly cheaper with the bus system provided by the city – we’re now just chilling at the gate.  Have you ever noticed how everyone is in fast-forward mode in an airport?  Our gate opens in fifteen minutes and there’s at least fifty people standing in line, nothing before them than an empty gate.