22/1/07 - Day 26

Yesterday, Robert Bailey-Hughes had kindly organised for Huw, himself and I to go on a daytrip to Universal Studios, 30 mins north of the city. It wasn't something I'd normally do, but I thought it'd be good to try something new. Anyone who knows me will quite happily tell you that I never go to the movies, so I thought the place would be rather irrelevant to me.

I was proved wrong! First up, we went on a tour of the actual backlots, which was exciting. We saw...


Exploding car models used in the movie 2 Fast 2 Furious


The Bates Motel from Alfred Hitchcock's hit Psycho


A mechanism used to create floods


The exploding wharf from Amityville - Jaws movies

We then went on a few rides (the Jurassic Park dropdown ride was scary, but fun - involving falling 25 meters off a cliff in a dinghy thing!), we also saw a demonstration of how fire-type special effects are made. We then stopped for lunch, then on to a trained animal show. We had...


the recycling dog...


A bra-wearing monkey...


And a bird trained to fly in a wind tunnel

The view from Universal is rather picturesque



In the evening, we had our Tour Farewell dinner. Helen Sherman sang some showtunes, accompanied by myself, Robert Bailey Hughes and Mark Stubley on the piano, much to everyone's delight! Home tomorrow