Once again there has been a big hiatus in my blogging (well on here anyway, I've been keeping a more private journal online with some of the thoughts that are going around my head at the moment, but it's best to keep them separate from day to day stuff I feel)
Anyway, I couldn't go on holiday and not fill everyone in on the minutia of details of what I've been up to. The post title is a bit of a clue...I'm currently in California and have had a really interesting week so far, but fairly limited time to sit and reflect and record exactly what has been going on.
First of all, this will be (for what I've managed to do so far) a fairly cheap holiday for me as my flights were paid for (bar a £65 amendment fee) as well as the first 3 nights of accommodation, food and activities for 3 days. How you might ask? Well I ended up doing pretty well at work last year and qualified for an incentive that we call in our organisation "High Flyers" although i'm not sure whether more accurately it should be "High Fliers"?
Anyway, when you are a High Flyer, it means that for 4 days you are treated a bit like a VIP/Royalty and given 2 extra days holiday and flown out to a destination with other High Flying colleagues. There were about 15 of us in total that went on the holiday - more had qualified, but some couldn't make the dates. We also had 3 directors with us to "supervise". We met at Heathrow and made introductions and then shortly boarded the plane to LAX. Being the extremely well coordinated person that I am, I managed to throw an entire Bloody Mary complete with ice down my jeans within 30 minutes of takeoff - I had only tops to change into, no change of trousers. It dried eventually and I ended up smelling of tomato until I managed to get changed at the hotel.
My attention span wasn't great, so I managed to watch 2 films, but they were fairly low brow and I have to say, not very good at all. In brief I watched For a Good Time Call it was incredibly predictable, but also really quite poorly characterized so you didn't really care what happened to the characters who weren't at all realistic or in a realistic situation. I then watched Smashed which was much more realistic and actually very sad - a mutually alcohol dependent marriage that changed when the wife decided to get sober. Probably not the best preparation for a holiday where we'd be frequenting some high end bars - although it was a good sense check.
So we landed at LAX and took a long time to get through immigration, but fortunately we all made it through. We were met by our rep who showed us to our transfer coach and then after a short journey we arrived at the fabulous W Hotel Hollywood. We were welcomed with a cocktail and a seat outside as we walked through the truly awesome lobby.
Anyway, I couldn't go on holiday and not fill everyone in on the minutia of details of what I've been up to. The post title is a bit of a clue...I'm currently in California and have had a really interesting week so far, but fairly limited time to sit and reflect and record exactly what has been going on.
First of all, this will be (for what I've managed to do so far) a fairly cheap holiday for me as my flights were paid for (bar a £65 amendment fee) as well as the first 3 nights of accommodation, food and activities for 3 days. How you might ask? Well I ended up doing pretty well at work last year and qualified for an incentive that we call in our organisation "High Flyers" although i'm not sure whether more accurately it should be "High Fliers"?
Anyway, when you are a High Flyer, it means that for 4 days you are treated a bit like a VIP/Royalty and given 2 extra days holiday and flown out to a destination with other High Flying colleagues. There were about 15 of us in total that went on the holiday - more had qualified, but some couldn't make the dates. We also had 3 directors with us to "supervise". We met at Heathrow and made introductions and then shortly boarded the plane to LAX. Being the extremely well coordinated person that I am, I managed to throw an entire Bloody Mary complete with ice down my jeans within 30 minutes of takeoff - I had only tops to change into, no change of trousers. It dried eventually and I ended up smelling of tomato until I managed to get changed at the hotel.
My attention span wasn't great, so I managed to watch 2 films, but they were fairly low brow and I have to say, not very good at all. In brief I watched For a Good Time Call it was incredibly predictable, but also really quite poorly characterized so you didn't really care what happened to the characters who weren't at all realistic or in a realistic situation. I then watched Smashed which was much more realistic and actually very sad - a mutually alcohol dependent marriage that changed when the wife decided to get sober. Probably not the best preparation for a holiday where we'd be frequenting some high end bars - although it was a good sense check.
So we landed at LAX and took a long time to get through immigration, but fortunately we all made it through. We were met by our rep who showed us to our transfer coach and then after a short journey we arrived at the fabulous W Hotel Hollywood. We were welcomed with a cocktail and a seat outside as we walked through the truly awesome lobby.
We had about 45 minutes to get freshened up and accustomed to our hotel rooms before dinner. The rooms were fairly spectacular - very white, bright and clean and with a very exciting, but expensive mini bar selection!
We went up to the rooftop restaurant of the hotel and had a really lovely meal which included 4 courses - although I had gone to bed by the time they brought out the desserts! I particularly enjoyed a melt in the mouth steak with garlic mashed potatoes (although it probably had a posher name!) The view from the rooftop was brilliant and the atmosphere was really good too, however at 10.30pm (equivalent to about 6.30am UK time) even an espresso couldn't keep my eyes from closing and drifting into mini sleeps so I snuck away and went to bed in my huge comfy white bed switching on the wave sounds machine to block out some of the partying noises from down the corridor. I think that the rest of the guys were out pretty late - although everything in Hollywood does close at around 2am so not that late, but the equivalent of 8am for those who hadn't slept on the plane!
