Apparently all the nationalism really got to him and the objectionable things being said by people on stage were met with terrifying cheers by the tens of thousands of people in the hall. At one point, Sarah Palin said something derogatory about the 'liberal media' and the whole audience turned to the two banks of journalists and started pointing and jeering at them! Hdddrdrdrr.
It seems that the hurricane that hit Texas was the best thing that could've happened to the Republicans, because it meant that their convention was a more scaled-down affair and that George Bush didn't turn up, which is good news for McCain, who needs to distance himself from him as much as possible.
Because of the scaled-down convention, Max has had lots more time to socialise with the BBC people and has been hobnobbing with his bosses, which has apparently been fun.
I meanwhile had a fanastic rest of the week in LA!
The handover from Tom and Nina to Tom and Bambi happened at a cool silent movie theatre, where they were having a Labor Day event. They showed the first five minutes of 15 incredibly obscure horror movies that no-one will've heard of (Tom Newth had heard of one, which is saying something), then we all had to vote for the one that we'd like to see in its entirity and while the votes were counted, there was a barbecue (to which Tom N brought a pineapple. And no knife).
It was lovely to see Tom and Bam and to hang out with all four of my LA pals, but I was really sad to say goodbye to Tom and Nina. I was also sad that the film I'd wanted to win - Zero Population Growth, starring Oliver Reed in a futuristic tale of a time where procreation is forbidden, so couples wanting children have to adopt programmed robot dolls (cue many crash zooms between the doll's eyes and Oliver Reed's, accompanied by clanging music) - lost by one solitary vote.
I was particularly surprised/dismayed, because I'd canvassed opinion while in a long queue for the loo, and everyone was voting for ZPG. But a man who'd been in the queue came up to me afterwards at the barbecue and very sheepishly admitted that he hadn't voted for ZPG - he just said that to look cool - he'd voted for the 80s psychic comedy starring Bronson Pinchot, 'Second Sight', which the hardcore film buffs in the loo queue had scoffed at for having had a theatrical release and therefore not being obscure enough! I think he felt better after getting that off his chest...
The film that was played was 'Death Promise', which turned out to be an unintentionally hilarious kung fu movie set in New York during the 70s, about a man who avenges the death of his father by killing the syndicate of slum landlords who'd had his Dad murdered to stop him from campaigning against their terrible treatment of their tenants. It was soooo funny!
Tom and Bambi live in a kickass apartment in Mar Vista, near Venice Beach. It was great to see their place and to see their cat Brian again (I haven't seen her [sic] since she was a kittie) and meet Delilah, the cat they got when they moved out there.
On my first morning with them, Bambi treated Tom and me to surf lessons on Venice beach! I was really looking forward to putting my Costa Rica skills into action and was dismayed when the surf instructor (who bore an uncanny resemblance to James Franco and is a well-known radio DJ in his native Australia but came here to become an actor) told us to do everything completely differently to what I was told in Costa.
However, it worked! I had a much more fun time of it this time around and managed to stand up a few times. As I suspected, Tom was a natural and was zooming around all over the place, getting up on the board every time, but I had a nice time only getting up occasionally, while Bam watched from the beach.
that's me!
(I'd ridden the wave in from where that one behind me is - I'm not just standing up in shallow water!)
Bam disappeared for a while during our lesson, and it transpired that she'd gone to move Tom's car to avoid a ticket. But the car wouldn't start, so Tom got a ticket, despite Bam putting an explanatory not on the windscreen. Evil traffic wardens. Fortunately a mechanic man came and, after checking it over, ducked down underneath it and bashed it with a wrench, then the car started like a dream!
We had lunch with Bambi's parents, which was lovely, because I haven't seen them since our wedding and Robert has been very unwell, so it was nice to see him up and about and feeling a bit better. Then Bam took me and her brother's girlfriend off for manicures and pedicures and I felt thoroughly spoilt! That evening we had the taaaaastiest Mexican food I've ever had (they warned me that would happen) at a place called El Cholo. Mmmm, shrimp fajitas.
Tom had two days' work on a film set during my stay, so I spent lots of lovely time with Bambi, which I really enjoyed. We cruised around town in her kickass red convertible BMW and I was able to catch up with her about how things have been in the past few difficult months since her Dad got ill. Despite running her Dad's business single-handed, Bam was a wonderful hostess and very patient, ferrying me around all the local sites and letting me take lots of photos.
Then I joined Tom at work for his second day on set. He was working on a straight-to-DVD, microbudget horror movie, operating the second camera and basically doing whatever was needed. It was such a fun and interesting day - I worked on a film set in LA! Kind of...
The shoot was at a band rehearsal studio on an industrial estate about an hour's drive away. It's a real shoestring production and I was there as a production assistant (runner), so helped decorate the set, adjust costumes, hold the boom and do whatever else needed doing. It was so tempting to chip in with suggestions, but I quickly realised that this was neither needed nor appreciated! The crew consisted of the writer/director (Dennis), Tom and a producer (Dave) who spent most of the day asleep. The cast was made up of unpaid young actors, starting out in the business, and comparing imdb credits, which was pretty funny.
When Dave was awake, he was kind of weird. He looked a bit strange (below) and 
pervaded this undertone of sleaziness. For example, the plotline was about a group of high school kids who spend halloween in a condemned asylum. So of course, the two hottest girls in the group were lesbians and of course they went to the halloween party dressed as a dominatrix and submissive. And sleazy producer man said to them, in his sniggering saliva-y way, 'heh heh, I'm usually opposed to same sex marriage. Heh heh. But for you two lovely ladies, I'd make an exception. Heh heh'. Hdddrrdrrrdr. And there was a point during a classroom scene when he said to the beautiful cast, 'Heh heh, you know what's funny is that - heh heh - none of you would've spoken to me in high school! Heh heh'.
But it was really fun to see what Tom does and to see this side of movie-making. Plus I got paid $40! Bonus!
Tom and Dennis
(with an excellently decorated fake whiteboard in the background, courtesy of their new set decorator [me])
On my last day with Tom and Bambi, Bam was feeling unwell, so Tom and I headed off to Zuma beach in Malibu, where I introduced Tom to bodyboarding. The drive along the Pacific Coast Highway was great - Tom has a convertible too (it's the LA way...) - and the beach was amazing. Unfortunately there were loads of rip tides, so the waves were gnarly and a Baywatch-like lifeguard kept getting people to come closer in to the shore, so it wasn't really very much fun and Tom is yet to be convinced of the joys of bodyboarding.
That night, Tom and Nina were kind enough to schlep all the way across town to come out to dinner with us, which was really great. All four of them got on like a house on fire, having only met for the first time a few days before, which was lovely for me (and hopefully them).
Unfortunately it was far too lovely an evening and had been far too fun a week, because I was really sad to leave, even though I was of course looking forward to seeing Maxy again. There was something unsurprisingly brilliant about spending time with literally my nearest and dearest, after months of hanging out with people in DC who are really nice, but not people who I've known for years.
So Max and I have already planned to go to LA for Thanksgiving! Can't. Wait.
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