Paul Jam - Paul Andrews' Blog - Dunsborough, Western Australia

Day two has been a chilled out exercise day. Wanting to keep a tight rein on my spending I decided to hot foot it around the place and walked the 3 or 4 mile journey into Valencia town centre and had a gawk at this fairly privileged community. I plugged the ipod in my ears and took off to the sound of the Angels “Dark Room”. A bogan till the end!

I made it into the local shopping mall and my first task was to purchase a t-shirt. I don’t know how, but I managed to only pack three t-shirts even though I’m sure I put about half a dozen out. After a few days even I can’t put up with my own smell any longer and a newie was needed. I tried washing the two I have worn so far but only succeeded in spreading the B.O smell over the entire t-shirt. There goes doing my washing in the tub while I shower idea!

I found a really cool brown Billabong t-shirt in Sears for only 20 bucks and that will be my threads for tomorrow – I wanna keep my Ramones T-shirt fresh to wear to Pearl Jam.  There were some other nice things I passed by including Levis for $7.99 and special Toni would have killed for – but alas, I know better than to buy her clothes without checking first. Babes, I think you’d get your Dirty Harry or Ed Rooney or whoever he is t-shirt – they had them on special here. I found those tech bikes Marcus wants, but will wait until NYC so I don’t have to carry them with me.

Anyway, Valencia is really nice – kinda reminds me of a cross between Joondalup and Santa Fe (New Mexico). The people here obviously have some coin as I saw a number of flash Porches, Ferraris, a Lamborghini, Hummers, Lexus, Mercs and other cars I can’t even pronounce let alone afford. Everyone in the shops was dressed like they were on their way to a premier or a nightclub. The streets are leafy and manicured with some very expensive boutiques and clubs. The suits playing on golf course made me think of the scene from “Falling Down”. All that was missing was the nutter with the gun.. but more on that later.

I finally found a decent burger (pictured below). Again, realising well into the afternoon that I had not eaten yet, I found a Johnny Rockets and decided to chance it. I was pretty confident a place which claims to have the ‘home of the original American burger’ could not possible produce the same crap as what was presented to me and called a burger yesterday. Talk about feast v famine. This burger was amazing – I won’t need to eat for a week.

After wobbling out of Johnny Rockets I made my way back to the hotel through the gold lined streets of Valencia to find a number of police/sheriff cars out the front of a fairly exclusive apartment complex. I overheard someone say a body had been found in an upstairs apartment. After quickly taking a pic I got the hell out of there as knowing my luck, the Aussie taking the pictures would be blamed and I’ve seen America’s toughest prisons and I’m not that tough.

Out on the main road there was even more excitement as the police were chasing someone in front of my hotel. They went flying by along Magic Mountain Parkway and I managed to squeeze off another shot.  They obviously didn’t get him – or were chasing the wrong person as I can still hear the choppers buzzing around up the canyon.

An eventful end to a chilled out day. Tomorrow I shift base to Universal City in Los Angeles where I’ll take in the sights and sounds of Hollywood and greater LA as well as two Pearl Jam Concerts.

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