Its a really cool store that stocks all the labels like The Hundreds, Crooks and Castles, Bape, Nike SB, 10 Deep, Stussy, Acapulco Gold, lots of limited edition Nikes, Vans etc. What freaks me out the most about LA is how spread out everything is. We drove like 20 minutes to Diannes work and there were no other similar stores around. Not like in London where all the cool stores are within walking distance to each other. I think the Gimme 5 crew in London have been purposeful and thoughtful in the placement of their stores. Here, a cool store could be anywhere. All the shopping centres look identical, like terracotta buildings with the same stores and sometimes the stores don't even have their logos above it, just what they do in the same font as all the others, like CHINESE FOOD, HAIR SALON, 99C STORE etc, all in the same dry font. Despite this the store was pretty busy. Its so funny that just like in London, you get the same hypebeasts coming and and making a beeline for Bape, and then you get the plain dudes like "White Chris" who just wanna buy good, rare kicks. Yeah, they call him "White Chris". How funny is that? Reminds me of the MF Doom tune "Black Debbie"
Diannes works with these two really sweet boys called Mark and Jide. They were really cool. Mark is talkative and friendly, and Jide was quiet at first but then chatty towards the end of the day.
MARK+KAT
JIDE
At this point i STILL didnt have any dollars so I was looking around for a bank. The banks in the States are soooooo different compared to ours. You walk in and it looks like a timewarp. There are wooden tables everywhere like in an old school or something and the "Merchant Tellers" sit behind a tall wooden desk. In London the banks are like all modern and cool, with good lighting and furniture. All the cashiers sit behind glass windows with a little hole in the bottom of the desk for you to drop your money and stuff into. Completely different here. So I went to three banks who all told me they wouldn't change my money. They didn't say why. So I went back to the store and then the boys told me you need to have an account to do it and Mark had an account with Bank of America so we drove back to the bank. Then they said that they couldn't do it after 2.30pm because their systems shut down then and they cant do it manually because they don't have the forms left in that branch. Go to another branch, they said. So we drove around for ages looking for another branch We found one and waited about 20 mins in a queue. When we finally reached the teller, this girl with big teeth and frazzled moussed up hair, she told us that they don't do it. Forms or no forms. Is this a conspiracy to prevent me from shopping!? Jeeeeez!!
One thing I also noticed in the bank was that dollars are all the same size. I never knew this. How do blind people know which notes are which? I enquired to Mark while i was waiting at the teller, while they plotted to withold my money. The teller next to us put her two cents in by saying " Well they ask for notes of all the same denomination of course." Yes but what if a crooked store gives them all 1 dollar bills instead of twenties, they wouldn't know! In England, all the notes are different size in ascending order to their worth. So 5 pound notes are smallest and 50 the biggest. If you line them all out flat at one edge you can feel with your fingers what note is is. They were all bemused. I vowed to Google it.
Then we went to get food for everyone back at the store. Jide is extremely picky about his food and even gave Mark a list of stuff he eats that Mark keeps in his pocket.
THE GREAT AMERICAN PARKING LOT
Then he kept phoning Mark and requesting different food. So we had been gone for like over an hour by now. In the end we settled for Knowles, a place that did loads different types of stuff. I ordered a beef taco because you don't really get them here. Its like shredded beef in a tortilla. Just a "wrap" I guess.
And lo and behold i had ROOT BEER. Now I always hear about root beer in movies and I would always be like, what the hell is that? I thought it might be like ginger beer (my logic being ginger is a root veg and maybe they just got confused with the names) So i literally sprinted to the machine when i got my empty cup, with excitement. I squirted in a little, just in case I didn't like it, but it was the sweetest, nicest drink ever. Its a bit like Dr Pepper and Virgin cola mixed together. It says caffeine free on the button, but I think they are lying because somehow I have become addicted. Another conspiracy I see.
I had to pee like twenty times in the day because I drank so much root beer and we were trying to organise what we were gonna do that night. Maybe a movie? Yeah cool. But then TOM phoned. Tom is like Diannes super crush. She has like wanted him forever. Well since they were 14 or something. He is cute, really cocky and flirtatious. Talks a lot too. I can totally see why she likes him but why they can't be together. It would be too much. So we went home and fixed up then Tom and his friend Francis met us and we drove for agggggges, to their friends place. When we got there we met their two friends and they were all smoking weed and drinking Hennesey. I was NOT smoking outta a bong so i sipped my brandy and cranberry and watched them play basketball on the PS3. I fell asleep and Ange was getting angsty, so I suggested we go home. Ange felt ill because of the weed smoke and i was just plain tired. So we went home and left Dianne with the boys. She said she would pick me up at 8.30am to go to central LA and do some shopping....Ange is getting her Benz today. Paid for with her OWN money! How cool is that. We gonna be riding in style from now on...hollaaaaaaaaa!
Oh wait!! i totally forgot to tell you abut this weird drink called Boba, which is like green tea, cold. with weird black jelly balls in the bottom called tapioca. you suck them up through a huge straw and they taste aromatic. I don't like it much, the balls are chewy and stick in your teeth...
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