Well, it was the weekend and i’d spent all week writing with rusty and working on demos and recording demos for this project i’m working on. sunday hit and we were supposed to get together later w/ LOVE FAN Cheryl ffrom the “O.C.” but she had to change her plans. So Hannah and I set out sunday morning on a gorgeous perfectly lovely sunday morning to meet up with my Mum the day before her birthday. See, Mum lives about 2 miles from the airport near Jesse Owens golf course in a district of Inglewood called “Park West Terrace.” Hannah really liked the Spanish stucco design of all the houses and the really wide streets and stuff. Luckily there weren’t any knuckleheads hanging out in the neighborhood so she got a good glimpse, i figured, on a nice day.

Mum had water and A&W out on the table (with 2 straws even) waiting for us, which i thought real nice as well. She’d gotten Baptised the day before and was especially springy. She was watching the Sunday football games (she attends church on the sabbath only…OH, she told me the Sabbath means Saturday, which i didnt know…), cause she always have, since i can remember. She’s been a Dallas Cowboy fan forever. Oh, A&W is the most awesome RootBeer ever, ok? SO it was getting nearer to noon and Hannah and I had to meet her mate, Gayle, for lunch.

So we hopped on the North 110 Fwy and took it until it ran out in Pasadena. We parked in Old Town and then met gayle at this great Mexican place called (i think) Cuervaca De Noche. The owner, this old guy, was a hoot and he even talked me into a strong margharita with petron tequila. bad boy! So we enjoyed our meal and hannah and gayle girly chatted about when gayle was a student and they both lived in Oxford a year ago and how gayle used to play her songs at pubs. (gayles’ a singer song-writer..check her out at: http://sdafterlife.com/gayle ) she’s got some EPs available so check her out. She’s in school near Pasadena now but she’s originally from San Diego.

After that we drove to the 5fwy and then Los Feliz Blvd. was closed so we got off on Glendale Blvd. and drove past the Red Lion Pub to Rowena and from there to Hyperion and from there to Griffith park Blvd and then back on to Los Feliz Blvd. made that left and drove to Franklin and then to Beachwood ave. took Beachwood ALL THE WAY tot he Hollywood sign (it was literally about 100 feet from us) but then the road was blocked off where the horse trail begins and then Hannah, an avid horse rider since she was a little girl, got excited and copied down the web address ( www.sunsetranchhollywood.com ) and threatened to make me ride one of them critters. We high tailed it outta the gorgeously over-priced Hollywood Hills and onto Sunset Blvd where we ‘peeked’ into the Hustler store (only out of curiosity!). We parked right infront of the Whisky, on Sunset and Clark street and walked to the Hustler store, which sits caddy corner to the Whisky, right on Hilldale and Sunset. (You guessed it: the space in between DOES happen to be BETWEEN CLARK AND HILLDALE!)

We left there about 2pm and headed west on sunset Blvd, turned left in Westwood (on Veterans) and then a right on Montana and another left on Sepulveda. took that south to Wilshire and then headed west to the Supermarket (Albertsons) in Santa Monica on Wilshire and Berkeley. Got some groceries (we had a dickens of a time finding the cranberry juice) and then drove back to the fort (aka, our house) with the fiddles n everything. We watched some Tv and then Traci (Mrs. Daddyo) Green’s tv show, MANHUNT (a silly but funny show about some pretentiously clueless blokes from the heartland who yearn to be famous models but only succeed in being made to look like fools…), which she was the casting director on.(oh, and me and hannah bumped into Traci and our pal, Jade “The Slapper” yesterday at Jade’s health store on Wilshire and 5th street)..then we caught some old Curb Your Enthusiasm and i must say that a great friend and LOVE fan, Greg from NYC, mailed me seasons 3 and 4 and so they were on their way while we watched some old episodes…

On the Monday, i did some more work, ran some errands and wot not and then Rusty, Lucy, Hannah, and I went up to sam’s place to write tunes with him while the gals lounged by the jacuzzi (that’s SOOOO LA, huh? who do these brits think they are?) and then, around 8pm, we all headed to Father’s Office on Montana (north Santa Monica) for Burgers. The gals drove with rusty and i went with sam in his convertible porche and i be damned if he didnt drive down a steep hill at 50 MPH and i thought i was dead 25 times. the whole trip down the moutain took about 10 mniutes but it felt like 2 weeks. i screamed and begged for my mamma for sam to slow down but he wouldnt. i was glad when we finally reached P.C.H. (the pacif. coast hwy)

after burgers we all got home around 11pm, knackered and everyone was off to bed. Our other house mates, Kate & Jason, we up watching the WIRE, their fave show. See, Kate is from Boston and works as a marketing agent and jason is from idaho and works as a production assistant on a reality show so you can imagine our house would make the perfect Big brother show! See, jason gets up first, watches cartoons and has a bowl of cereal and coffee. kate’s next, has her coffee and ceral as well. but she watches “E!”, which is our entertainment channel (she watches it everynight with hannah as well), as part of her media job and then she splits about 8;30. i am usually up around then and finish the coffee off. i then go to work on lyrics, finish bits of songs and check emails (if you’ve emailed TRAVEL SONGS please be patient…there are so many on there and for every 10 i answer i get 20 back! 🙂 So, now it’s 9am and Hannah gets up and watches Maury or one of the judge shows before tuning in to Court Tv. And then we make breakfast…yum…

Mike Randle