Here�s a remarkable thing: the entire time I was in LA - about 10 days - I did not watch any television.

Well, aside from about ten minutes of Howard Dean�s out-of-the-race speech on CNN while eating breakfast at a cafe in the Farmer�s Market.

And I had a TV in my room at Dada and Frank�s. No Alias, no final episodes of Sex and the City, none of that strange beast called local television news. Why not?

I guess we went out every night except two. On one of those we had a big party, and on the other we cooked dinner and sat at the table talking and killing off two bottles of wine that Dada regretted when she had to get up for work the next morning.

We�d get home late, I�d crash into bed, read a little and zonk out. I was up by 9 most mornings, and pretty quickly out of the house, hitting the stores, lingering over breakfast and lunch, and not really feeling the need to turn on the box when I was at home.

On this trip I also only stopped for In-n-Out burger once, consumed only one regular sized cup of Ben & Jerry�s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice-cream, and didn�t have a single bite of chocolate for the first week. Then PMT took over and chocolate was consumed at a frightening rate with not a little desperation. But up until then I just hadn�t felt like it. I�d stocked up on Hershey�s kisses to take home with me, but hadn�t actually consumed any.

We had, however, been out for Caribbean, French, Spanish, diner, Mexican and vegan food. And given that Dada and Frank now live only five minutes from our favourite French bistro I�m surprised we didn�t eat more French, especially given the waiters knew their names, orders, and what wine they�d drunk the last time they were there, without prompting.

Random list of other trip happenings:

- cheese, cheese, wine, wine

- the back wall of Beck�s house viewed from his neighbours - Dada�s friend�s parents - lavish garden

- Barney�s warehouse sale, of course

- the Paris Hilton-paparazzi mutual admiration society roadshow

- Marty and Elayne and being stalked by The Girl from Ipanema

Likely there will be more on some or all of these later, and there will definitely be more on the Dada, Greer, Uli 10 year-plus reunion.

But in the meantime, even though I won�t post this until I get home, I would just like to advise that I am writing it sitting beside the pool, on a deck high above Suva, Fiji, with views across the coast, the mountains and the Pacific. It�s hot, spectacular, and unfortunately a little too early for a cocktail.