LA: Hot Pods for Buff Bods

This weekend my bookclub had a field trip down to the Pacific Palisades in LA to see one of our lovely past members Cameron. (You might have read about my other Palisades trips here and here - it's between Santa Monica and Malibu.) What's new in La-La Land? For a start we found out that the latest (pricey) way to lose weight is using Plexiglas heated workout pods from Argentina and triple oxygen cabins.

Iobella Pods

*Iobella: A course costs thousands of dollars (the company won't disclose how many thousands.) After you work out in a pod heated to 98 degrees you can rest in the O3 pods which are supposed to soften skin and muscles. Or you can have electrodes taped to your body... apparently clients say they're addicted to the feeling afterwards. Would that be the same clean zing you get after waving your bikini line, perchance?

On the bookclub field trip: Me, Carson, Ellen and Cameron at the Getty

Arriving at Cameron's house

Ellen on Cam's front lawn

Cameron's house

We were the only ones walking the stairs, old skool

The walk allows you to have a good old gander into everyones' backyards

* We re-visited the Secret Sweaty Stairs of Santa Monica and my friend Ellen saw Matt Damon. (Of course I was looking at my feet.)  One particular set of stairs is where the Hollywood wannabes mix with the Alreadytheres.  People park their Black Escalades or yellow Lamborghini's at the top of a gorgeous palm tree-lined street, meet their trainer and start the stairs. No one just walked it old skool like we did. I didn't see anyone walking it on their hands which is the latest extreme way to do it - but many were carrying bikes, skipping or dancing sideways. You can imagine how much the neighbours are complaining about this influx of bodies.

If you want to do the entire two-hour Stairs Walk which is a great way to see into people's backyards, start at the bottom of Amalfi Drive, the home of Tom Hanks, Sugar Ray Leonard, Steven Spielberg and formerly O.J. Simpson (the new owners changed the street number so we weren't sure which house was his.) This book will show you the rest of the way.

* We did Group Reflexology - all four of us in one room and masseurs performed a melee of pressure point stuff, massage....and flicking, slapping and light punching! Only $25 each for an hour...no weight lost but the existing fat was much happier. 

Other random stuff:

Art: We saw the Turner painting which was recently purchased by the Getty for $25million. I would have only paid $24.5million, but that's just me. Apparently the curators bond with new work by kissing or licking it.

Food: The latest ingredient obsession is a salted fish roe called Bottarga. Mexican bar snacks have been updated with cubes of Coca-Cola gelee and freshly made chips and onion dip. 

Cool kidstuff: We saw a studio where kids could learn to mix and sample music. (Whatever that is...) 

Not so cool kidstuff: Kids as young as 13 are using a new i-Phone app to call Town Cars to take them to where ever they want to go. Presumably cutting out the middle man, er, parent, who can spend more alone time in their pods.