Touring Hollywood

Hollywood Day (Part 2)

Hollywood Movie Stars Homes Tour - by LA City Tours

Hollywood Bowl
Music Concert Amphitheatre, not Bowling Alley

With still plenty of time left to use the LA Go Card for the day, I headed over to LA City Tours to see if there was any spaces left on the 'Hollywood Movie Stars Homes Tour'. I wanted to make sure I would be back in time for a different guided tour at 5:10pm, which I was more into than seeing the outside of Celeb homes, but the tour operator said we should be back between 4:40 and 4:55, so I decided to risk it. It was worth $47, so I assumed that it wouldn't be too awful...

View of the Hollywood Sign

We got given little gold stickers and then all got piled into a tour bus (with air con, hooray!), and as the only single passenger, got to sit at the front of the bus. This meant not only a side window view, but a front and door window view too!

Hollywood Overlook Selfie

First thing's first though, a little bit of no-shame-America. Mr Tour Driver/Guide introduced himself in a cheesy way. I believe he was from Boston, but told us all about how he'd been living in LA for several years, bla bla. Get on with the tour. But no. Next it was time for all 20 odd passengers to introduce themselves, where they're from and a bit about their trip. Seriously. Get on with it.

Some celebrity house. Maybe.

Finaaally, the driver/guide sat down and did some driving. We went on a lovely tour along Hollywood Boulevard, heading East, and then headed into the mountains. Within 20-30 minutes we stopped at a great little place on the side of the mountain where we could all see the Hollywood sign and take a selfie. However, all the other tours stop there too so it was basically as crowded as Hollywood Boulevard itself...

It didn't really get much better than that. Especially as another couple apparently felt carsick and so I had to swap seats with them - they were sat at the back. Goodbye fab view, hello left-side window view with very limited right-side window view...

Michael Jackson's 'Death House' *
(*The Gate of...)

We drove around in the mountains, went along Mulholland Drive (apparently one of the most dangerous streets in LA due to the crazy rich kids driving along the very windy mountain-side roads at 160mph. At night. While drunk.)

Beverley Hills Trolley

As I expected, the tour was largely "Look at that white house over there in the distance by that tree. Barbara Streisand lives there" and "Who's this person running with a dog near these houses? Is it a celebrity?" and "We're not allowed to stop by these gates coming up because I'll be chased by the security guards and sued by Britney Spears, but Justin Timberlake, Katy Perry, and Mariah Carey all have homes on the other side of the gate".

Beverley Hills

Broccoli Trees
(Yes. These were part
of the official tour)

To be honest, it just seems a bit strange and stalker-like. If I was a celeb I'd definitely live in a gated community, and probably buy a random different house that I never went to and write "Cate lives here" on the garage door...

Once we'd driven past se
veral famous (and not so famous) people's houses, we headed back to Hollywood via Beverley Hills and Sunset. It was quite a good tour really as I doubt I would have seen Beverley Hills otherwise.

At least the Filipinos enjoyed it...

We got back at 5pm and of course, they expect tips. All dollar bills look the same though, so if you don't fancy giving a whole $5, just roll up some $1 and throw them in. They'll never know.

I had to run off pretty quickly to catch my next tour at 5:10 (especially as I needed a toilet break first!) I arrived, pretty exhausted after a full day, so was looking forward to another sit down on a tour bus, but twas not to be, for this was...

The Behind-the-Scenes Hollywood Movie (walking) Tour - by Redline

This one sounded great so I'd booked it the night before. However, as one so often does, I didn't read the whole text on the webpage, and consequently missed the part in the very last paragraph about this even being a walking tour. I can't say I was that pleased to find that out at the last second.

The guide for this was lovely. I can't remember any of the guides names at all but he was great. There was about 8-10 of us for this tour and the guide had a folder with pics in it to look at. We all got given a little headset which (thankfully) we could turn up and down depending on the noisiness of the traffic and crowds we were standing in.

Lovely Egyptian Hieroglyphics
Apparently these were copied from someone's tomb.
I don't remember whose, but probs King Tut

Mr Guide started by telling us all about Sid Grauman, an American showman who apparently created cinema and 'movie stars' as we know them. He told us some interesting facts about how back in the early 1900's, theatre was for rich people, and 'cinema' was for the poor - basically what Grauman did was to make the world of film both profitable and accessible to all.

Beautiful ornate ceiling in Grauman's Egyptian Theatre

So then off we went over to the Grauman's Hollywood Egyptian Theatre. This is a great theatre as it has a fab courtyard with Egyptian hieroglyphics on the wall and statues etc. Mr Guide had keys and so we were allowed to go in and have a wander. They are famous for having 'film events' where they'll show a film and have a film-related person come and talk to the audience about it - it's supposed to be rather good.

I think these elephants
were originally by
Grauman's Egyptian...

Stairs inside the Dolby Mall
Apparently the shape represents
an Oscar ballgown, with the rest of
the walkway (behind) representing
the train.

We then headed out onto the street, and up towards Grauman's Chinese Theatre. Mr Guide told us loads of fun facts about the Walk of Fame and the different stars we were walking past, occasionally stopping to show us a picture in his folder. The tour is supposed to go inside the Chinese Theatre, like with the Egyptian theatre, and usually Mr Guide tells the tourers all about the different cement hand prints and signatures, but alas, Zac Efron made this not so. So we skipped it. #Not Happy.

Plaques. 

We went over to the Dolby Theatre next (which I toured that morning) and Mr Guide told us all about the shopping mall that it's in. They have columns on either side with plaques showing the film that won an Oscar in each year. Very interesting. And that was the end. My feet were pleased.

So at $25, this one was pretty good. All in all, I'd already got $132 worth out of my $190 Go Card and I still had 2 days left to use... Bargain!


Hard Rock Cafe

Dying from exhaustion was starting to get to me so I popped into the Hard Rock Cafe, Hollywood. It was only about 6pm so the place was pretty empty, but I think this was probably the strangest restaurant experience I've ever had as after being seated, my waitress came along, sat down and told me her life story...

Guiness World
Record Museum
- Floating stone ball...

"A Hurricane"
If only I'd been able to drink it all

I ordered the small version of the Classic burger, and a Hurricane cocktail (No idea. It was fruity). It started filling up just as I got my food. Waitress girl, I think her name was Miranda. Let's call her that. Miranda came along, sat down with me (WHILE I WAS EATING) and told me that if I was feeling a bit full that I could put a napkin over my plate and have a wander around - "when there's a napkin laid over the plate", she said, "the guys know not to clear the plate".

It wasn't a wander I wanted so much as the loo, so I popped the napkin over my plate, as advised, and dashed off to the ladies. 5 minutes later, after a scenic route back to my table, I discovered that they had not only taken away my plate (complete with half eaten food), but also my drink, hat and guide books/maps. I was not impressed.

The Disney Shop
(And Fake Minnie)

Miranda was talking to someone looking upset/anxious? Perhaps they thought I'd left without paying, but as soon as she saw me she came running over to apologise profusely, blaming it all on the other wait staff, naturally. She didn't ask me if I wanted anything else to eat, you know, because I hadn't actually finished my meal, or if she could replace my drink which I'd barely sipped, but instead ran off to get the manager to approve a 50% reduction on my food. Just the food. No apology for my $15 drink (it came with a 'free' hard rock cafe glass) that I'd not had a chance to drink...

Mickey Mouse outside Disney
Far too crowded to get a selfie.
Sad face.

I couldn't be bothered to argue as I was very tired by this point so just paid and left (after collecting my hat and guidebook at the main desk and my free mason jar glass from the gift shop)...

"We Are Your Friends"

So I'm sure I've mentioned that I hate Zac Efron for causing the closure of the Chinese Cinema for the one day I'll probably ever be in Hollywood. He did this because it was the film premiere of "We Are Your Friends". I have no idea what it's about as I've not seen it, but I know it's got Zac Efron in it. And some girl. That's basically all I know.

"We Are Your Friends" Premiere at the Chinese Theatre

I also knew all about how film premieres worked due to my wealth of information from tour guides. So when I stepped out of the Hard Rock Cafe into a hoard of manic, screaming teenage girls, I knew why.

Zac Efron.

Zac Efron is in there somewhere...

I crossed over the road so I could get a better look at what was going on (a lot of flashing lights, that's what). I asked one of the screaming teenagers if he'd arrived yet. "We've been here since 5:30pm", she said. "He's not arrived yet but he has to be here in the next 40 minutes as the premiere starts at 8pm".

Nev Schulman Selfie
#WhoAreYou

Naturally the rule is that if you wait for someone for nearly 2 hours, they won't arrive until you leave. So when the girl turned to her mother a couple of minutes later and said she didn't care anymore, let's go get food, Zac Efron got in his car from a hotel somewhere nearby and started the drive over.

Zac arrived in a shiny looking black jeep about 10 minutes after the girl left. I don't know why I hadn't left to be honest. Probably because I couldn't, being stuck in the crowds of crazy adolescents. I can't say I got a good view. He walked across the road 100ft along from where I was, signed some autographs, took a few selfies and then walked back over.

I did get one celeb selfie though. Some guy I don't even know called Nev Schulman. Then I went back to the hotel.

"Take my picture, Hollywood! I wanna be a star!"

(Quote from Lady Gaga)

Today was Hollywoodland day!

I was up at 4am (jetlag) so was down for breakfast the second it opened at 7am.

I'm pretty sure I was the first one down so made the most of the freedom and helped myself to the (artificial) array of eggs, bacon, bread, a yoghurt, some fruit, oh, and then a cook-your-own waffle. American food is known for its processed, over-sugared nature and the rumours aren't wrong. I have no idea what they do to their bacon, but whatever it is, it's not quite right. Also, why is the bread sweet!?

American Breakfast

View from the hotel onto
Sunset Boulevard.
I know. What a dump.

By 9am, I'd made it to somewhere near Hollywood. I jumped on the bus from right outside the hotel, needing to go West for a couple of miles, and then North. After the previous day's debacle with the buses, I checked with the driver before deciding to hop on...

[Rather English Moi] "Do you go towards Hollywood Boulevard?"
[Black LA-Native Driver] "To wheeeeere?"
[Me] "Hollywood Boulevard?"
[Native] ... "What'd ya say maaam?"
[Me] ... Oh I give up... [American mimic] "Haaallywud Bulvaaard"
[Native] "Ohhhhh, nuh-uh. But I'm close"
[Me] *Rolling Eyes*

I hopped off "close" and spotted the first few celebrity stars in the Walk of Fame - which apparently isn't just a straight line along the 'sidewalk' on both sides of Hollywood Boulevard, but instead darts off along several linking roads. Maybe we have too many celebrities.

Aspiring Celeb slash American superhero icon...

There are hundreds of 'aspiring celebrities' just hanging out in the street around Hollywood. Some of them are dressed as characters or other crazy things and try to lure you in to have a photograph with them - however when you do, they then won't let you leave until you pay them money for their 'service'. There are also loads of young people who kindly hand you a seemingly free CD of their (apparently) fantastic hip new vibes, compliment you, and then make you pay for the CD. I got stopped by one of these creative minds, who forced a disc into my hand, and then preceded to snatch it back again when I told him I had no cash... strange place.

Our tour guide.
He was quite pleasant to listen to
so probs not an LA native...

Tom Hanks
on the Wall

I got myself something called the "LA Go Card" for my time in LA - which I highly recommend. I bought the 3 day pass for $190 and on day one of using it alone, I saved a huge amount of money.

The Dolby Theatre

After a wander up and down the boulevard, the first thing I did was the Dolby Theatre tour at 10:30am. I didn't really know what the Dolby Theatre was, other than that logo you sometimes see in film credits, so wasn't really sure what to expect... Turns out it's 'The Home of the Oscars'. The tour guide was full of fun facts which he must spout around 10 times a day. I feel a bit sorry for him - especially as I'm not sure I actually remember any of the fun facts...

Here I am in the Dolby Theatre.
No one else is here so
that means I've won right?
"I'd like to thank..."

There's not a huge amount to see in all honesty - it's basically just a large theatre, with pictures of previous Oscars Awards on display. It was interesting to hear about the logistics of the Oscars though - for example, there is a connecting corridor to the hotel next door where the celebs get whisked off to do a post-award interview before their allowed to go back to their seat. Also, there are so many people nominated and related to the films nominated, that there are no extra seats for celebs - so basically, heaven forbid there will ever be a year where Meryl Streep isn't nominated, but if she wasn't, she couldn't go (unless she managed to blag one as Tom Cruise's Plus one).

Me with my Oscar.
You saw it coming.

Dolby Theatre Tour Tickets are sold for $20, and the tour is only 30 mins long, so it's definitely not something I would suggest is worth doing without the Go Card.

Shopping in Hollywood
(through those two bridges is supposed to be the best view
of the Hollywood sign because it's 'frame' makes it look so big)

The Hollywood Museum
(The Old Max Factor Building)

The Hollywood Museum

Marilyn Statue

Next, the plan was to go to Madame Tussauds, but I found the Hollywood Museum first. It's in the old Max Factor building and there are a huge amount of make-up related exibits - I think the whole of the ground floor was in tribute to Mr Max Factor. He had a make-up room for each type of leading hollywood actress; e.g. The Pink Room for Brunettes, the Green Room for Blondes, each labelled "For Brunettes Only". I'm not really that interested in fashion and make up, so I didn't find it that interesting.

They had a whole floor dedicated to "Monsters, Mummies & Mayhem" in the basement, which I wasn't planning on going down into, but then I was told Harry Potter was down there.
So off I went. Plenty of creepy 80's horror film memorabilia, but there in the middle of it, Harry Potter. And also the Walking Dead, Phantom of the Opera, Shawshank Redemption and Sweeney Todd - also all excellent.

Max Factor Make Up Room
"For Blondes Only"

#PotterObsessed

Another whole floor was dedicated to Marilyn Monroe. Her clothes, films, dolls, photographs, map showing every house she'd ever lived in, every quote on plaques on the walls and more! Surely no one normal is that obsessed with her...?!

Up to the top (and final) floor, and this one was dedicated to all things LGBT(Q?). I found it a little strange that they felt the need to separate any film/tv show with anything related to homosexuality isolated up there. Surely the aim of the LGBTQ community is for integration and non-discrimination, but I felt like by having their own special floor, it just added to the perceived separation...

Marilyn Barbies. Anyone?

Tickets for this are $15 and while it had a couple of interesting things in it, I'm not sure this is worth it without the Go Card either. There are much better places in LA to spend your money.

Madame Tussauds

Next was Madame Tussauds. I got this confused with the Hollywood Wax Museum - which is basically the same thing, but not as good (or so I've heard), which is why I couldn't find it earlier. The Hollywood Museum seemed to be at the completely opposite end to Madame Tussauds so off I headed.

The Chinese Theatre.
It's probs great,
but who gets to know
other than Zac Efron?
I'm not bitter.

"John Travolta was here"

I walked past the Chinese Theatre (something else on my list) and discovered that they'd just blocked the whole of the courtyard area around the theatre (all of the bits with the concrete hand prints) thanks to Zac Efron's new film premiere. I was not happy - although I did get a shot of John Travolta's stone (not as good as Harry, Ron & Hermione's though. Grr).

I waited in line for around 15 mins to get into Madame Tussauds. It was pretty good, but I found the layout a bit strange. It was on several levels, and so from the entrance, you had to get on the lift which gave you no option but floor 5. Then on Floor 4, you get directed round to a staircase, and on floor 3, to a lift which takes you to floor 1, and then up some stairs to the exit (or something like that).

#MarilynEverywhere

Some statues were better/more life-like than others. I'm not sure how I felt about it though. It was quite clever, but also a bit creepy. There were several times that I thought someone was stood behind me, only to turn round and realise it was a wax statue... Weird. It was also pretty tricky to take selfies with the statues as it's hard to fit you both in, and most of them aren't looking at the camera (surprised?) so they look a bit odd.

I quite liked the section about how they're all made. It takes around 800 hours (approx 66 x 12 hour days) to complete a figure. Mental! Still, a bit weird. Who even came up with that as a viable idea?

Me and my BFFs, Brangelina

Madame Tussauds Hollywood is $30 usually. That is probably something I would recommend, if that's your thing. But it's much more cost effective with the Go Card.

So by 2pm, I'd done $60 worth of stuff, and still had until 5:30pm to do more!

City of Angels, City of Traffic

I made it to LA!

So I arrived in LA at around 2:30pm, and went through customs. That is not a walk in the park, I think he must have asked about 100 questions, and was really suspicious about the fact I was travelling alone. I was asked what I do for a living, when I said I was a student, he got really aggressive about how could I have afforded this trip. I tried explaining that I do temp work and he wanted to know details of the last 5 jobs I've had, what I did, what company I worked for, how long I worked for them. Then it was what my parents did, their dates of birth, whether I've ever lived in another country, exactly what I'd be doing in America (like day by day), my return flight details, if I'd be meeting up with anyone, when, if I was renting a car, how I was getting around when in LA and so many more.

I was exhausted after a 11 hour flight and was struggling with finding words and was trying really hard not to get flustered about the constant quick fire questions, especially as a lot of them got repeated again, worded in a slightly different way, randomly mixed among other unrelated questions, eg. "Are you renting a car? how are you getting around LA? What hotel are you staying in? What date do you leave LA? Where are you going afterwards? How are you getting there? What was your last job? What are you doing on your trip?"

The Airport

Not fun.

Free Shuttle Bus from the Airport

Then I had to wait for my bag, which also took ages. When it finally came out, it was upside down so it was a challenge to pick it up and the conveyor kept taking it away so I had to keep dragging it back again.

Then I made it out. I had to pop into the loo first as I hadn't changed into my summer clothes and I was boiling, so I went and did that, put on sun cream and then tried to find an information desk. There wasn't one so I walked out to the street to see if I could work out which bus I needed to get. I couldn't so after 10 mins, just asked one of the drivers of a shuttle bus that stopped. Apparently I needed that shuttle to the LAX City Bus center - and it was free too! I finally got over to the bus station and missed the bus I needed by 1 minute because I was still trying to drag my suitcase over so I had to wait 10 minutes. 

LA!

I needed to get a travel card but there was no info desk or ticket machines there either. I got the next one that went to Aviation Station, but I didn't have anything smaller than $10 on me and I didn't realise that you have to have the correct change for the buses. I was trying to work out whether it would give change, and the driver was like "Don't go putting thaaat in there. You gonna need something smaller. Don't you have a dollar?" I tried explaining that I didn't have any change yet, and she was like "Well how you gonna get on a train?!" She let me on anyway, but it made me really nervous.

When I got off at Aviation Station, there were ticket machines so I paid $26 for 7 day Tap Card. The machine is crazy fast and times out after about 5-10 seconds of inactivity, which made it really hard as I wasn't sure exactly what I needed at first.

Next it was the Green Line metro train towards Norwalk, and I got off at Harbour Freeway/Transit Station and changed onto the Silver Line bus. This is where it all went wrong as I asked the bus driver to tell me when we got to 1st Hill. He then asked me where I was going and told me he'd tell me when to get off. I went and checked again about 15 mins later about where to get off and he said it was probably best to get off at Figueroa/7th and take the #2 from across the street. I did have the #2 as one of the buses I needed (just a bit later) so decided to listen to him. Just as I was getting off I said "So it's #2 from over there?" and he was like "Yeah, #2 or something like that from somewhere over there" (waving indistinctly in a general direction).

So then I walked "somewhere over there", and there wasn't a #2... so then I spent 30 mins trying to work out where I was and how to get over to my hotel. There are no signs or maps on the bus stops - like a map of the city showing which buses go where would have been really helpful, but there was nothing. Sometimes there is a bus route for a specific bus but if you don't know what roads go where it's really not helpful.

After asking someone in Starbucks and several other passing bus drivers, I decided to just walk up the road. It turns out I literally needed to carry on walking up the road a bit and get the #60, and then cross the intersection and get either #2, #4 or #704 along Sunset. 

Sunset Boulevard

Finally made it and arrived at my hotel! (Thankfully it was right by the bus stop). Annoyingly there was no sign above the door that you had to go through, or a path from the 'sidewalk' so it took me a few minutes to work out how to get in. But I made it! It only took 3 hours from the airport. Only just over an hour more than it was supposed to...

Saint Nicolas

Saint Nicolas, protector of children

The 6th December is Saint Nicolas' Feast Day. Saint Nicolas is the protector of children and there are lots of stories about how he saved children from kidnappers and butchers' cooking pots. He usually wears red and carries a rod/staff and sometimes a sack.

Father Christmas, Santa Claus, etc. are all ultimately based on this Christian Saint Nicolas tradition although Christmas and Saint Nicolas' Feast Day seem to have merged into one in the UK, and lost the religious connotations of Saint Nick.

Saint Nicolas,
just like Father Christmas

In France, this is celebrated in some areas (particularly in Lorraine and Calais, Brittany and Alsace). He travels around on a donkey that carries a basket laden with small presents (sweets, biscuits, fruit) for children, and has someone called 'Pere Fouettard' (the naughty butcher from one of the stories) follow him around. His name doesn't really have a direct translation but some people think he's the bogeyman.

Gold coins and treats in shoes

Fran and Charly decided this would be a thing for them so on Saint Nicolas' eve, they all put out shoes by the prayer corner (would have been fireplace, but there isn't one), and then overnight Saint Nicolas brought gold coins (those chocolate ones), a clementine and a small toy which are left in the shoes (like stockings on Christmas eve).

In the Netherlands, where Charly lived for a few years, they have someone called 'Zwarte Piet' or 'Black Peter' who is a very popular figure - I think he's supposed to be a Chimney Sweep. That's who is came with Saint Nick when visiting here! He travels with Saint Nicolas too and helps with the present delivering. If a child is good, they will get the coins from Saint Nicolas, but if they are bad, they will get coal or sticks instead from Black Peter.

The Dutch have Saint Nicolas parades where people used to paint themselves black and pretend to be Black Peter. I think Charly said this might now banned as it's just a tad racist...

More on Saint Nicolas here

More on Black Peter and Dutch Sinterklaas here

Fête de Noël à l'École

Plain Hot Chocolate sticks decorated
with marshmallows to look like snow

Cinnamon Hot Chocolate Sticks

This week was also the School Christmas Fair (Friday evening from 4:30-6:30pm, I think).

Fran has spent months thinking about crafty ideas of things that her and the rest of the parent committee can make and sell to raise money for the school.

She did some sewing of little christmas bunting, and then we also made these hot chocolate sticks which you just stir and melt into hot milk.

They're really easy to make - we literally just melted dark chocolate, added some vanilla and sugar and a little milk and then poured into silicon moulds with the stick and left to harden, then they got decorated with cinnamon or marshmallows.

I sat and wrapped them all up in cellophane squares (which conveniently needed to be the exact same size and shape as a square of kitchen towel so that made measuring much easier!) and tied pretty gift ribbons around them.

I think they were sold at 1€ each and we made close to 100 of them - so a good fundraiser - not bad for a few bars of chocolate, a pot of cinnamon and a bag of mini marshmallows anyway!

I didn't actually go to the School Fair in the end. The weather was miserable and I wasn't feeling too great - plus I have no money! Slightly regretting not going now as Fran came back with loads of stuff (including some amazing cake), but never mind.

A Cinnamon Hot Chocolate Stick

A marshmallow snow-topped one
Wrapped in Cellophane
and tied with gift ribbon

The Hot Chocolate Sticks

Noël est à Venir

Christmas Trees up at
Les Eleis Shopping Centre in November...

Last Sunday was the 1st Sunday of advent. Fran and Charly took the children to a special Catholic advent church service. In the afternoon here, the Christmas tree and decorations all went up. It's a bit earlier than I'm used to, but the lights and colours have brightened up what was a rather gloomy living room during winter afternoons.

On Friday 5th, Cherbourg's festive season also begun with the opening of the Christmas Markets and other festive entertainment (including a Luge and Ice Rink!). They actually have a full programme of interesting things going on! I have yet to actually go and look at it all set up so will probably do that at some point during the week.

More Christmas Trees at Les Eleis

Sadly the snow is not falling and it's just rather rainy so I'm not feeling overly festive.

Cherbourg's Christmas Luge being set up

I haven't started on Christmas shopping yet (no money!) but perhaps when I get started I'll feel a bit more Christmassy.

I'm part of the Cherbourg-Octeville Language Assistants Secret Santa. They've decided to do it via Elfster, a gift list style website via which you can set up gift exchanges. It's a nice idea, but as people specifically put what they want on it, and you have to spend a set amount, it seems a bit silly - one may as well just buy themselves a present for the allocated amount.

I've got someone who has only put one thing on their list, and it's under the (30euro!!) allowance. It's also something I can't get in the shops here and will therefore have to get it online - except that I can't because the website that sells it won't let me have my billing address and shipping address as different countries... Nightmare.

My Advent Candle finally arrived on 5th December. Thanks Mummy!

I've got the job of resident wrapper here
 because Fran can't wrap to save her life

Santa and a 'drop of blood'
- trying to get more people to donate blood
at the blood donation day round the corner

The Family Christmas tree
(They're in England for Christmas so this is just a small, fake one)