Monday, March 31, 2014

Spring Breakers

On Tuesday we all slept in late then went to the Getty around midday. Such a beautiful spot! 
After wandering the gardens and checking out a couple galleries, we headed to a really cool street, Abbot Kinney, for shopping and a yummy dinner at Gjelina's - thanks Ron and Mandy (Izzy's parents) for shouting dinner, such a treat!
After dinner we went to watch a show that the producer of Greasy Grimey Gopher Guts is also producing! On the way there we had the most hilarious encounter with a couple reeeaally cute guys in another car. We drove past them and all waved, smiled, and beeped at each other - which was cute - and we ended up driving with them behind us for ages! Amidst our giggles, we all egged Luce on to write her phone number on a piece of paper and put it up against the window next time they overtook us. Finally she did it (even though she wrote down Han's number) and when they passed they took a photo of it! Haha too funny! We ended up getting off at different exits BUT then they somehow ended up next to us again! The last time they drove past, one of them (the cutest one) waved his phone and flashed us a smile. We were feeling pretty optimistic about the whole thing buuuut we're still waiting for him to call! Haha it was a fun little flirty experience though, even if we don't hear from them...
When we'd nearly reached the theatre, we picked up Sullivan and headed over to see the Spring Shorts!
The show was super funny and we were excited to be able to support Jake after all the support he gave us!

On Wednesday Luce got up early and went in to finally do her scene with Chambers! It was a total success and it feels great to have it done before going overseas. When she got back, we all got ready to go spend the day in Hollywood! At 11:57, though, Han remembered that we had to move the Sentra for street cleaning at 12:00!!! She raced downstairs and ran over to the car just in the nick of time! The key clicker didn't seem to be working, so she unlocked the door old school and shoved the key in the ignition to get outta there... Nothing. The engine didn't even click over, it was D.E.A.D. To make matters worse, Han had left her phone in the apartment, so she couldn't even call Luce for help! She stopped a guy walking by and asked to borrow his phone - which wasn't even helpful because Luce didn't pick up - AND he said he had jumper cables in his car and offered to help! So, so nice!! After about twenty minutes trying - and four or five other offers of assistance - we had to give in and call AAA. By this time Luce, Sarah, and Izzy had come down, but there was no way that car was starting without a new battery. Anyway, in no time the AAA guy showed up, switched out the battery, and we were on our way! No sign at all of the street cleaning...
We headed to the 101 Coffee Shop for brunch and went absolutely nuts! It was a breakfast feast!! We'll definitely be going back there soon.
We stopped by Sam French to show Sarah the glorious actors' bookshop, then went on to Hollywood Blvd and Jimmy Kimmel!
The show was SO COOL!!! Julia Louis Dreyfus and Michael Pena were SUPER cool and really funny - as was Jimmy Kimmel himself! We also got to see London Grammar perform and we loved their sound. Such a fun experience to share with the girls!
Afterwards we went to Ryan Gosling's restaurant, Tagine, for a decadent Moroccan dinner, SO tasty and the restaurant itself was really cozy and intimate. 

Although we didn't spot Ryan Gosling at the restaurant, we DID have a serendipitous celeb encounter on Thursday! We were on our way to hike to the Hollywood sign and stopped at a cafe to go to the loo. While Izzy was in there, Han was casually looking around and who should she spy but TED from How I Met Your Mother AND Josh Bowman, the heartthrob on Revenge!!! When Izzy opened the door of the bathroom, Han pushed her back in, explained the situation, and after Han peed we worked up the courage to ask for a pic! We decided Josh Radnor (Ted) was the less threatening/more famous of the two, and he graciously agreed to take a photo with us!
The best thing is, you can see Josh Bowman in the background!
Our hike to the sign was short lived because one of the roads was blocked off, but we still managed to get pretty close!
After that we met Mum for a Dim Sum (Yum Cha) lunch, went to Melrose Ave for some more shopping, and opted for a quiet night in making cupcakes instead of clubbing haha no regrets there either!

Friday was our last day together and we packed a lot in! We had brekkie at the Urth Caffe in Beverly Hills then walked around Rodeo Drive!
After seeing the highest end stores around, we opted for some cheaper shopping at the sample sales in Downtown LA! For our last hurrah lunch we took the girls to Bronzed Aussie - amazing as always - then dropped Sarah at the airport in the afternoon.
We had an evening of Izzy + twin time and it was really lovely! We got boba, hung out in the hot tub, and had a super relaxing night.

Saturday really was the last hurrah, so we decided to try our luck again at the Beachwood Cafe where we'd spotted the celebs on Thursday. We didn't see anyone famous BUT the food was great and it seemed a fitting way to end the week! 
We made one last boba run (Izzy's hooked!) then went to the airport to say goodbye :(
When we got home we toootally crashed out! What a huge week!! House of Cards and grilled cheese sandwiches were exactly what we needed - that and an early night!

We woke up yesterday ready to go! We cleaned the apartment and packed for Austria as quickly as we could, then headed out to Mum and Q's! Mum made crunchy chicken casserole for dinner and we watched Frozen together, a great start to our holiday!

We did the last of our packing this morning and headed to a LAX for the third time in four days - except this time we're the ones boarding the plane! 
We're standing in the longest line we've EVER seen for security, but, true to form, we left heaps of time to get through. A quick lunch on the other side and we'll be off to Austria! AHH!! SO unreal! We can't wait for the wedding and many other adventures in store!

Monday, March 24, 2014

City of Angels

On Friday we woke up early, 7:45, to get going on all our errands for the day. Han checked her phone, still a bit groggy with sleep, and got a rude shock! Izzy: "About to take off!!! See u beauties in 6 hours!" at 5:07am. Whaaaat?? Wait... 5:07 + a 6 hour flight = 11:07am - AM!!! Oh my gosh!!! The girls had never specified am or pm and we had thought all along that they were arriving at night! We flew out of bed and got down to business! Get this, in two hours (because we had to leave at 10:00 to get to the airport on time) we...
1) made signs for the girls for when they arrived at the airport
2) cleaned the kitchen and bathroom
3) vacuumed
4) Han went to Ralph's
5) Luce baked a cake
6) washed the sheets and remade the beds
7) had a couple, erm, not so successful moments which we pushed through haha
8) showered/got dressed and ready to be in public
9) wrote up the itinerary we had planned for the week!
And we were off! We got away on time, completely impressed with ourselves that we were able to get everything done! We made it to the airport and got to the gate with about 10 minutes to spare before Sarah's flight arrived!
REUNITED!!! It was AMAZING to engulf each other in a huge hug! It was just as wonderful when Izzy arrived 15 minutes later and we were finally all together again! So much love for those girlies!!
We pretty much had a bonus night, so after chilling for a while at home we went out for an evening at Universal Citywalk to have sushi and watch... DIVERGENT!!! 

It was the perfect first night, we were SO satisfied with the film and the sushi was to die for! The only hiccough was that Izzy came down with a bit of a bug from being on the plane, so we tucked her into bed as soon as we got home and all slept soundly ready for more shenanigans the next day!

On Saturday we took it pretty easy. Han was the mum in the morning, grabbing medicine for Izzy and grocery shopping before everyone else got up. We headed out of the apartment and went to Amoeba Music again, the girls had their first ever In-N-Out burgers for lunch, and we shopped/went to Sprinkles for cupcakes at The Grove.
We went home and had dinner and chatted until 2:30! (except Izzy who fell asleep on the couch at 10:00)

Yesterday was a glorious beach day! On the way we drove past The Bachelor house to sneak a look at Andi (the next Bachelorette) and her beaus, so cool!
Then it was on to the stunning El Matador Beach!
After some beautiful sunshine, we went to Santa Monica to shop, have fish and chips for dinner, and walk the pier.
We were asked by a huge group to take their picture as we were leaving and we had them return the favor afterwards.
They took our picture and then one attempted a photobomb - before we knew it, we'd invited everyone in and had made a big old group of friends!
Too funny!

Today we went to Universal Studios and it was SO MUCH FUN! It's been ages since we've been and there's a deal on at the moment which means we got an annual pass for the price of a 1-day ticket! We got there early, rode all the rides, saw the shows, met some minions (one of whom pretty much attacked Lucy) and Optimus Prime (who was HILARIOUS and called us "Optimus's Angels"), and saw Minnie Driver on set during the backlot tour!
We'd pretty much done the whole park by about 5:00! Wow! So we came home, spent a little while in the hottub, ordered Chinese take away, sipped on some wine that Sarah brought with, and are about to demolish a delicious dessert that Izzy made this arvo! Such a wonderful few days with much more to come!

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Stars and Cars

On Tuesday Lucy was finally going to work on her scene at Chambers' that had been canceled 3 times for various reasons. We got up early and left the house in time to battle the rush hour traffic. When we were almost there - on time - Luce got a text canceling AGAIN! Ahh! Soo absurd, this scene is cursed to never be performed! Haha so we had a little more time to ourselves and Luce took us out to chai lattes at a super hip place on Sunset blvd :)
After that we went to pick up Ali from the bus stop! She ended up having a couple extra days without anything on so we got to spend some more time together! We met at Universal Citywalk because the two of us had gotten tickets to see Chelsea Lately with THEO JAMES!! Gahh! He's the star of Divergent which we couldn't wait to see AND he was major heartthrob, Pamuk, on Downton Abbey season 1! We had a yummy Thai lunch - Ali's shout! - and lined up for the show. The three of us had put in some effort to our outfits and we were glad we did because after a couple minutes we got plucked from the middle of the line and put right at the front! So cool! We went into the studios but we weren't allowed to use our phones, so we couldn't take photos :( we did, however, make it onto TV! (Well, the backs of our heads anyway...)
The show went by in a snap! It was hilarious but also incredibly offensive, in true Chelsea Lately style. Theo James was gorgeous! He seemed a little uncomfortable about the whole thing though, we're fairly certain he's not prepared for the insane stardom he's about to be catapulted into! He was really cute and seemed like a genuine guy - we were just so excited to be within a few feet of him! Mission accomplished! Also, Chelsea's little person friend, Chuy, who's on the show threw out stress balls and Han caught one!
The evening was very chill. We watched Roman Holiday, baked muffins, and helped Ali practice for her Skype interview the next day - lovely.

On Wednesday we went to the most BEAUTIFUL beach we've ever been to in the States!!! El Matador State Beach, it was incredible! We've totally found our regular spot!
We went back through Topanga Canyon again to get home and stopped at one of the cute places we'd scoped out last time. 
Luce got the most DELICIOUS ice cream sandwich and everything else in there was so yummy-looking, organic, and expensive. And then we tried to take a selfie with the sun in our eyes and this is what resulted haha!
Ali left that night which was another sad departure, but we all have so much exciting stuff coming up that we knew we'd be distracted in no time!

On Thursday Chambers called us in to help paint the backdrop for his son's play haha. It was a lot of fun and it turned out really well!
Then we went and picked up Tim and Krystle (our cousins visiting from Aus) from their hotel on Hollywood Blvd. We went to Amoeba Music on sunset together then had an AMAZING lunch and even more amazing desserts at Portos! 
We hung out with them at our place for a little while too which was really lovely, then Han went out to Chapman for an audition and a seminar with a panel of casting directors and Luce drove Tim and Krystle to the airport for their flight home.

-- Han --
It was the first time I'd really driven the Sentra and it worked out great! Besides the fact that the traffic was shocking so I ended up being half an hour late. The talk was really interesting though and the audition went really well! I hung out with some friends afterwards and it was great to catch up on everything that's been going on since I left. It was hard to say goodbye, but I headed back feeling very happy with my little trip to Chaptown. The way back in the Sentra was a little more challenging! My phone was almost out of charge so I was nervous about knowing the way home, and I was also kind of driving by Braille because the dash (with the speedometer, temp, and fuel gage) doesn't light up at night! I made it home no worries though, SO excited for Izzy and Sarah to arrive the next night!

-- Luce --
Everything was going smoothly driving Tim and Krystle to LAX after Hannah left for Chapman..! I was driving along in stop-start traffic, and it was finally seeming to thin out so everyone started picking up speed finally.. I sped up a little and then the car in front of me slammed on their brakes and I braked as fast as I could but it wasn't fast enough and I bumped into the car in front of me and rear-ended them! OMG. I was SO shaken and terrified and embarrassed and shocked (not hurt at all because it was really a very little bump - more of a love-tap I'd like to say haha) and I got out of the car to assess the damage. Luckily, the car in front came out of it without a scratch! Amazing! He didn't even ask to exchange insurance info! It was definitely due to the great big tow-bar on the back of his car that managed to mangle the poor Subie :( But with no serious damage to the Subie and no warning lights on the dash, we kept driving and I dropped Tim and Krystle at LAX without any further hitch. They were very sweet when it happened too - I was glad to have them with me even though it was suuuuppperrrr embarrassing haha! Krystle reassured me, saying that she'd been in five car crashes and mine wasn't bad at all! I got home safely and called Mum and Q and told them what happened and they were completely supportive and loving and caring and not at all angry so that was the HUGEST relief. I'm feeling very lucky that I got out of my first ever car accident with so little damage, but I'm also feeling much more aware and I am going to be sure to leave a bigger space between me and the car in front of me next time!! 

So, despite some car trouble across the board, we were both home safe and sound. We went to bed with a long list of to-do's before Izzy and Sarah's arrival at 11:00 on Friday night! SO EXCITED for our week with them!!!

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

We do NOT have the luck of the Irish!!!

We woke at 6:20 to violent SHAKING and Lucy's shrieks of "Hannah! It's an earthquake!!! HANNAH! It's an EARTHQUAKE!!!" and we ran under a doorway - that is, after Luce scrambled off the particularly rickety top bunk! It passed quickly and everything was fine, but we COULDN'T BELIEVE that it had happened! Especially because the day before we'd talked about our emergency plan in case of an earthquake, what?! When the danger seemed to have passed and the stream of blaring sirens ebbed, we fell back asleep for a couple hours...
When we woke up for the second time, it as almost like it hadn't even happened! We'd made plans to hang out with Sullivan for St. Paddy's day, so we had a chill morning and picked her up around 3:00 to head to the festivities in Downtown LA.
We managed, against all odds, to find all day parking right nearby for ONLY $5!!! Yay! We walked over to Casey's Street Parade, the place to be, and strolled up to the lady checking ID's. Proudly over 18, Han flourished her license out of her wallet and waited to be granted entry.......
"You're not over 21."
"What?"
"You have to be over 21 to get in"
"WHAT?! Noooooo!!!!"
We were SO deflated! It hadn't even crossed our minds that we'd have to be 21, are you kidding?! So we'd paid for all day parking and suddenly had nothing to do! We halfheartedly attempted to get into a couple pubs with absolutely no success, then resorted to our fallback downtown LA spot: Bronzed Aussie! It was a short walk away - although that didn't mean we could escape interactions with various creepy men, one of which thought Han had "a smile that makes you want to take her out to dinner" eww. No thank you sir. We made it though! When we got there, Samantha recognized us! YAY! Mission accomplished, we're officially regulars at Bronzed Aussie. We had delicious desserts, flirted with the cute aussie lad behind the till, and got offered part time employment for later in April! 
Feeling very happy about how we'd turned the day around, we headed back towards the car with plans to go get boba - Sullivan had never tried it before! On the way, we bumped into these two nice, very drunk, guys who offered their assistance in finding our car - which we'd sort of misplaced... One of them, John, was dressed up as a very convincing leprechaun and Freddie, the other, was off his face drunk and took an instant liking to Luce. He paid her what he seemed to think was the highest of compliments when he said: "You look like you have really big boobs.. I might be able to get it up for you." Umm, EXCUSE ME?! They really did seem harmless and nice, but that was pretty much our cue to say goodbye.
We managed to find the car, went and had delicious boba, then headed back to our place to watch Irish movies and bake St. Paddy's day themed cupcakes!
Even though we felt like we were living in some other reality on several different occasions, it was the perfect Saint Patrick's Day! And look out 2017, we're goin hard once we all turn 21!

Monday, March 17, 2014

Orange you glad we weren't hit by a palm frond?!

Chambers' bootcamp on Friday was particularly fun! It went by in a snap and we had a great time mucking around, reading plays, and creating scenes. After a finding-a-bathroom fiasco in which Luce visited a Starbucks, Subway, random Japanese restaurant, and finally (accompanied by Han) a Holiday Inn to find a loo, we drove out to Mum and Q's for the weekend! We satisfied a craving for Chipotle burritos for dinner and watched Catching Fire - so good! 

Yesterday we went exploring and found a beautiful - and massive - orange grove! We walked around, dared Q to pick a kumquat and eat it (which he did, despite it being underripe haha Han had better luck, it was actually pretty yummy!). Walking among the palm trees scattered through the orchard, things took a terrifying turn when the wind picked up and huge beanches started dropping all over the place! We snapped a quick pic and got outta there!!
We grabbed some delicious oranges from the fruit stand and some lollies from the gift shop then headed to lunch at a Turkish restaurant we'd seen in a magazine. 
It was INCREDIBLE! Ohmygod YUM! The dips, bread, rice, and beef, lamb, and chicken kabobs were to die for and we ate more than our fill! We slumped home in a satisfying carb-coma and had a very snoozy afternoon reading, sleeping, and doing absolutely nothing free of guilt. We watched the most recent Thor movie in the evening and we're all very impressed with its twists and turns - and with everything about the gorgeous Chris Hemsworth! 

Today we had a super yummy brekkie, did our laundry, and procrastinated leaving Mum and Q's for longer than was plausible haha. We're just arriving home now, actually! We had a long chat with Izzy on the way, we CANNOT WAIT for her and Sarah's visit! We have House of Cards in store tonight and a jam-packed week ahead! WOO!!!