Eileen Lee
This week I received my first visitor from the UK! When I say first I of course mean since Covid took over the world and closed our borders.
The honorable guest is my 23 year-old niece Rose, from London. She messaged me a few weeks ago to tell me that she was making an impromptu trip to Los Angeles for the Frieze art festival as her friend Imogen Allen had been invited to exhibit her work at the Ernie Wolfe Gallery in Culver City (erniewolfgallery.com)
It was going to be their first time setting foot in the USA and she had lots of questions for me. To start with (and possibly most important to many of us Brits) “Does America have normal tea? “; the real answer for me is no, although if you drink PG tips you will be fine, as many of the major supermarkets stock that. Rose was relieved when I offered to share my stash of Yorkshire Gold. Her next question was regarding transportation. I warned her that public transportation takes a lot longer than what she is used to in London. She is already familiar with Uber but I recommended she download Lyft too as it is often cheaper or quicker. For rental cars I sent her to fellow Brit Zoe McDonald Hengst who runs Express Rent a Car For Less which is probably the best deal in town – wish she would open a branch in the UK – We would save a fortune on our trips back home.
In my excitement I completely forgot how arduous the drive from Hollywood to LAX was and offered to pick her up…but to be honest even if I had remembered I would probably have done it anyway, as I do try my best to be a good auntie… albeit mostly a long distance one, so it was a nice opportunity to be able to do it in person on my home turf.
The Tom Bradley terminal is daunting at the best of times and was back to its usual pre-pandemic chaos, so I was pleasantly surprised that the process from the plane landing, going through customs and baggage claim to getting in the car was well under an hour. It would have been even quicker except I was stuck in the terminal ring road traffic.
It was all worth it, to not only see Rose but to also see Los Angeles through her fresh eyes. She was wowed from the start, and even enjoyed her mini interrogation with the border control officers as “they were so American and just like they are in the movies”. She exclaimed in excitement when we drove past the Westfields Culver City (formerly the Fox Hills Mall), as it looks like the ones back home.
Rose is vegetarian so I sent her to Trader Joe’s to grocery shop as not only do they have great prices but also a fantastic variety for the non-meat eaters amongst us (and lots of great stuff for carnivores too!) . Half an hour later I get a text exclaiming “I love Trader Joe’s” followed by:
“I’m obsessed”
“Got a tote bag”
“Spent 80 dollars”
Her enthusiasm is contagious and mentally transported me to my first foray to a Trader Joe’s. Coincidentally I was also 23 – I had driven past it many a time assuming it was a chain restaurant that was a Trader Vic’s wannabe (turns out that was actually the inspiration for the name and the decor). One day a friend informed me that it was the best grocery store in town and 25 years on here I am passing on this insider knowledge to the next generation. If you haven’t been, GO! As you can see I highly recommend it. And if you are a regular don’t forget to tell all the new arrivals!
So far Rose has only been here 36 hours and not only has she been grocery shopping, but she has already beaten jet lag, visited Venice beach and stopped for noodles in Sawtelle Japantown – she is here for a month and eager to fit in as much as she can, so I will no doubt share more of her endeavors next time. She already has sky diving and a visit to Joshua Tree in her sights, as well as a weekend in San Francisco followed by 10 days in Mexico – (I’m worn out just thinking about it!), best of all she doesn’t even realize it is actually quite cold here, as compared to London the weather this week is ‘amazing’.
If you have any recommendations for things Rose and her friend Imogen should do whilst they are here drop me a line at eileen@britsin.la
Till next time!
Cheers
Eileen
