It isn’t every day that you meet with a real champion. No sir. But in LA, everything is possible. Well, maybe not everything and no, I did not meet with a champion every day. Just the once. There we are, walking along, minding our own business, when I spot Mike Tyson, large as life, standing in a doorway.  It’s the entrance to a gym and boxing club. There he is, in full fighting gear, guard up, ready to swing. Ok, ok, so it’s a life size model of Mike in full living colour. Anyway, I say that I have to get a photo of him and Vicki stands in beside him as I prepare for my photo-du-jour. As I’m about to take it, the door opens and this huge guy steps out and joins in. He is big. I pull myself up to my full 6ft1, and stare at his chest. He has hands the size of buckets.  I take my shot and say,

Me:  I just wanted to get a picture with the champ.
Him: Well you did get the champ.
Me:  Right.  Mike Tyson.
Him: Me!  I’m the champ. Olympic gold medal.
Me:  Really?  What for?  (Well it could have been anything, how was I to know).
Him: Boxing. (OK, it was obvious).
Me:  Great.  What’s your name?
Him: Audley Harrison.
Me:  Well Audley, it’s great to meet you.
Him: You too. Have a good day now.

So you just never know, do you.  Yes, of course I googled him when I got home. Certainly looks like him!

I told you we couldn’t get in to the observatory the other day, so today we hiked up to it. We walked through quite a variety of neighbourhoods. The closer we got to the observatory, the richer they looked. Once into the foothills, the whole area looked very opulent indeed. The first couple of miles was relatively flat but with a slight steady upward incline. Then a bit steeper for a little while. Once we hit the hills, there were steps and steps and steps and steps. When the steps ended, the dust track began. It wound through bush and rock and finally came out right onto the observatory car park.

We spent a very interesting hour there, saw a Foucault’s Pendulum, an exhibition of moon rocks, mars stone, meteorites and a wonderful solar system model. Beep, beep.  Our pick-up arrived. We have a lift home. Gotta go.