So as you all know the aim of today was to get to Los Angeles by 2pm so we could get our seats for the live recording of James Corden’s ‘The Late Late Show.’ Last time I checked in we had 80 something miles to go. Well, the good news is that we made it!!

Not quite as swimmingly as it should have been though! As we began to exit the freeway we found ourselves in Hollywood where traffic was insane, lanes suddenly ended and gas was ridiculously expensive. Our tolerance now is anything under $3 a gallon and our new tank is guzzling $50 a time 😫! Not cool! We had to fill up and they only took cash or USA credit cards. We only had $20 so a trip to the cash point and eventually we filled up. 

Onwards we went. The satnav hates being in cities as it doesn’t register when we go through high rise buildings so it decided to go mental and we had to rely on good old 3G to locate the car park. We found it, dreading the cost which was very confusing. It was first hour free then like $4 for 1-1.5 hours then $1 for every hour after that up to three hours. I think we thought we would only have to pay $9. Wrong!!!!!

We parked on level 5 then began the task of dressing as per the dress code…’upper scale business as if you’re going to a nice dinner.’ We are absolute travelling bums who somehow had to make themselves look presentable! Tough job! I fished the creased black netting dress I wore in Vegas out and paired it with my black sandals (can’t wear flip flops so they’re sandals), Nathan went to locate his jeans/chinos. Problem number one. They were in the wash as they suffered a terrible fate at the bottom of his big travel bag and still weren’t dry. 

We have them a good sniff? Did they smell damp? Could we get away with it? Chinos were immediately out. They’d be like wearing a wet towel. Denim shorts were up next. It said no shorts but if he looked smart (bearing in mind it was 100 degrees and they want you to wrap up like an Eskimo!) could it work? Should we risk it? The answer was no. We didn’t come all this way to not be let in because we hadn’t done laundry in, well, too long it seems. 

That brought us back to the jeans. They were just too wet. Next option? Where’s a H&M? 1.4 miles away. That’s half an hour there, find jeans, buy jeans then half an hour back. That makes us late. By this time the sheer thought of trekking though LA in the scorching heat in a black dress and sandals was reducing me to a puddle of sweat. Are there any other shops nearby??? Nike? They don’t sell jeans! Gap? Yes! How far away? A few hundred yards. Ok great we can manage a 2 minute walk as per google maps directions.

Those two minutes didn’t account for the 6 escalators we had to venture down with me stuck behind a grandma and her two kids who no matter how much I danced behind them in a hurry, would not let me pass! They bloody stood two wide too!! Then we got to the bottom and couldn’t figure out which direction to go as we were in a courtyard of what looked like a hotel! Eventually google maps caught us up and it turns out we were looking at the shop the whole time.

In we went on a total mission. I mean I’ve never walked up stairs so fast! Jeans or chinos? Whichever was cheapeast. Nothing! They’re jeans were $60! Could he get away with keeping the tag on and taking them back? No. Finally some in the sale! $24.99. Winner! Grab them and pay. The woman at the toll could not have gone any slower. I mean she waited until she got to the till to ask if they had other sizes in what she wanted! There must have been 10 people on the shopfloor!!!! They were having a nice little natter while we were there trying to figure out whether to stay here or go down to the woman’s section and pay. As soon as the till lady sent her colleague out back to check something that cemented our decision. We raced down the stairs….

Only to be greeted by a queue of five people and possibly the chattiest cashier in the world! Everything was against us. We finally got to the till, gave one word answers and raced out the shop. Thankfully there were no grandparents for me to dodge this time and we went straight up to fix ourselves at the car. It was half past two. 

I was already sweating. My makeup had evaporated off my face and my dress seemed to just attract the sun even though I was in the shade. We then had to walk to the CBS building on North Fairfax Avenue. The bloody google maps sent us the long way round! About ten minutes later we finally made it to the priority check in queue.What a relief! They even had umbrellas to shield us from the sun. Something much needed! Oh wait, they had run out. Literally just as we got there. I was hot, sweaty, uncomfortable (I have grown quite attached to my shorts, loose tops and bikini top), can’t remember the last time I had worn a bra as bikini tops are soooo much more comfortable when roaming. This had better be worth it! 

Thankfully only about ten minutes later a ginger dude came along telling us we would be going in soon. Yaaay! I might be able to try and look semi-presentable before we go inside. He scanned our tickets and checked our IDs then about ten minutes after that we headed in. They took our release forms, rechecked our IDs, collected our purple wristbands and another 1iota woman was handing out black wristbands to certain people. The fact that we took notice of the dress code counted for nothing. I mean there was a woman wearing a black strap too about five sizes too small for her boobs who was let in as well as other in short shorts or even just a loose jersey! Yet we were the good ones who actually adhered to the code. Most of those in priority did to be fair except a few who thought it ok to flash bums and boobs, and the general admission, well that was a whole different ball game!! 

We dubbed the black band people the pretty people. Clearly we didn’t fall into that category as we just had the lowly purple wristbands. Nathan should have just risked the shorts, then maybe we would have got a black wristband as I wouldn’t have been a puddle when we arrived. We then got seated on cold metal uncomfortable benches after passing through very lapse security as it was ‘probably my necklace’ and ‘probably his watch’ that set the beeper off.

Now we waited. The shop wasn’t open, much to our dismay as we LOVE a gift shop! We played around on our phones, judged the people walking in who had black wristbands and took a sweaty selfie.Filtered much? Of course. After about an hour here, and one insanely gay guy telling us constantly to smile and pulling his mouth up with his hands like we didn’t know what a smile was, telling us to make use of the free water, soap and toilet paper and reminding us that we were going to be on TV. We know!! It was only funny once!!

The pretty people went in first and we were dreading the coming fight for seats amongst the ‘unpretties.’ Luckily, they did it row by row. Phew. In we went, like Noah’s Ark, two by two…three flights of stairs took us up to the right floor, cellphones turned off and then we waited for further instructions. It was very well organised, except for the lack of sun shielding umbrellas!

We were getting closer! The suspense was killing us! Where were we going to be sat? How big was it? Had JC even arrived yet? Our questions were answered soon enough as we were hearses into the studio two by two as I had that song in my head the whole time..”the animals marched in two by two hoorah, hoorah..” trust me it will get in your head. 

The porter in the not so sexy red blazer put two fingers up at her colleague. He nodded. Eeeek front row seats!!!! Get…in!!! We casually strolled down the few stairs whilst secretly screaming with joy inside!! Until we saw how small the seats were. No joke, they were made for five year olds who haven’t hit puberty yet! We sat as the rest of the herd was seated. Sadly no phots could be taken hence the lack of during this post.

After not too long, a British guy got on the mic (we had no idea who he was, but he sort of looked a little like Karl Pilkinton), and he was informing us of how the recording would go, what they needed from us as an audience, and then he told us who the guests would be! Laura Haddock (woooooo), Dominic Cooper (woooooooo😍😍😍😍) and Adele when the crowd went wild. And I mean wild. I think people actually cried! Jokes!! He totally fooled us all and just wanted to see how loud we could go! It was hilarious!!

He introduced the band and it wasn’t long before James Corden ran on stage thanking us all for being there. We were under instructions by the introductory guy to make as much noise and keep going longer than was clearly expected and it took ‘Mike Shiv???’s’ (think that’s his name) grumpy face and a ‘shut up everyone’ look, to make us stop! Amusing!

James Corden then went into his monologue. Donald Trump was today’s choice and how he thinks adding solar panels to his wall along the Mexican border would be a good idea! I mean honestly, we were in hysterics, it was hilarious! You MUST download this episode in order to see it! He told us who the guests were going to be, showed us Travis Pastrana (an insanely cool X-Games BMX, motocross, supercross and all round crazy dude) outside with the stars of the nitro world games doing crazy shit with their bikes and scooters.

He showed us the night he went delivering pizzas with Seth Rogen and Dominic Cooper, asking the shocked people if they wanted their ordered pizza or the mystery box. All chose the mystery box and we saw wrestling, just tomato sauce and even a 42nd birthday party gone carazzzzy!! Hilarious! Then came the celebrities! Laura Haddock, star of the new Transformers, and Dominic Cooper, fiiiiit!! He also stared in films. 

They talked through their upcoming films/TV shows after coming down the same stairs we walked down. They were so close!! If I was two seats over I could have touched Dominic Cooper! Still, they chatted on the sofa about the days he and James shared a flat and Laura’s OCD of all things clean. We laughed and clapped and cheered till our throats were raspy and our hands hurt.

I can’t describe what it was like really as you’d have to be there. We were very close, the atmosphere was electric but controlled, James was hilarious and natural and has such great rapport with those he’s interacting with. They finished off by saying ‘goodnight America’ where we stood up and clapped and whoop’d as James thanked the band and then ran through the crowd high-fiving those in the front row! That was us!!!!! We got to high five James Corden! The seats were perfect. We had the front seats of the bleachers. Couldn’t have asked for better seats to be honest!

The whole show, live as well, was just amazing. It was hilarious, even in the ad breaks, the band was awesome, the charisma exuding off James and the guests entranced you and you totally forgot that at any time, your formless face could be featured on the TV. We are so lucky to have seen this, and all for free!! It is airing tonight on NBC at 1230am our time, so no early night for us!!

Thank god we have the best pizza in the world to keep us company…blaze pizza!! You haven’t lived until you have eaten one of their pizzas…

Until next time…