From Las Vegas I spent a long hot day on Saturday driving down to Los Angeles, where I turned up at my friend Evan’s house, in a lovely location right by the beach, about 50 miles north of the city.
I first “met” Evan when he helped out with some of the online publicity for ALife4Sale, and then met him in person last year when I came to LA in November, when I achieved Goal #17 – skydiving in a wind tunnel.
Evan was away for the weekend, but had left me the keys for his apartment and car, and a note asking if I could pick him up at LAX airport at 10pm the next evening. So on Sunday afternoon I went to meet another internet contact, Chris, and his mate Nick, in The Corner Office sports bar in Costa Mesa. I managed to gain a slightly better understanding of American football, but am still somewhat confused by all the plays.
After the game, we arranged to meet the following weekend again if we didn’t manage to catch up during the week, and I made my way to the airport, where I was pleased to see Evan again.
On Monday I borrowed Evan’s car once more, and went to meet Andrew, who had just flown in from Australia. Andrew had joined me on my trip to Israelite Bay earlier in the year, and had planned to join me in Las Vegas, but unfortunately had not been able to make it.
We wandered around Hollywood Boulevard, and took a drive out to the coast at Santa Monica, and up Highway 1 to Malibu, where we watched the sunset over a huge field of commemorative flags at Pepperdine University.
That evening we met up with Eric, who I have spoken to several times on the telephone, and was looking forward to meet. Eric chose Dukes Restaurant right on the water’s edge at Malibu as our rendezvous, where we had a great Hawaiian chicken meal.
Eric is a TV producer, and I had had an amusing conversation when I spoke to him the first time, right at the very end of the ALife4Sale auction, about three or four minutes before the auction closed. At the time of the conversation there were three different TV crews in my living room, a news helicopter flying overhead looking for a place to land, and a live uStream internet video feed from my house. When I think back about that time it all seems so long ago now.
Eric is actually the tenth person on the the list of people that I wanted to meet in person, who I had come across during the course of selling my life. After I finished ALife4Sale, and wrote out my list of 100 goals, I decided that I would like to meet some of these people who had contacted me to offer support, or ideas, or encouragement during that process.
There were about twenty people on that list, and I have now met ten of them. In actual fact, I must have met at least fifty people, maybe more, who knew of me and contacted me because of ALife4Sale, or 100goals, so the goal has been well-and-truly achieved!
Ten people I wanted to meet
The ten people that I have met that were on my original “to meet up with” list, are as follows:
Misty
Misty wrote to me to tell me she was doing a painting inspired my my life for sale idea, and I got to meet her, and see the picture, in Las Vegas in November 2008
Evan
Evan White helped me a lot with PR for ALife4Sale, and we became good friends. We met and went to Perris Skydiving in California, where Evan did a tandem jump, and I tried out the wind tunnel. EvanWhitePR
Yvette
Yvette writes a couple of blogs herself, and made a few comments on my ALife4Sale blogs. She also was trying to achieve a new adventure each month in 2008. Her idea was that one of her adventures might be to try to meet me, and we went for an evening out in Los Angeles when we discovered we were both there in November 2008.
Brandon
Evan introduced me to Brandon when several people were asking about movie rights early on during the development of media interest in the ALife4Sale story. I finally met Brandon in person when we went for lunch in Beverley Hills.
John
John email me to tell me that he was using my idea as inspiration for his own life-sale, and offered his home and lifestyle living and working as an artist by the beach on his website artistlifeforsale.com. I experienced the life that was in offer when I visited him in Santa Monica.
David
David was the winner of my video clips competition that I ran in the final days running up to the auction, and chose the book “1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die” as his prize. We kept in touch, and I met him and his family in Portland, Oregon as I passed through.
Moe
Moe had offered to take me dog sledding in the wilderness if I fancied a change of pace after selling my life, and that idea subsequently went onto the 100 Goals list, and became a wonderful reality when I flew up to Whitehorse in Canada for an amazing week.
Matthew
Matthew was my dedicated eBay help representative for the whole of ALife4Sale, and we talked a lot during that time. We finally got to meet when I was in his hometown of Vancouver.
Richard
Richard Branson was quite an inspiration for my final decision to go ahead with ALife4Sale, and although I did not speak to him during those months, I did blog about him here, and finally got to meet him in London.
Eric
Eric seems to have a remarkable ability to call me just as something big is happening. He called during the final minutes of the auction, and then completely at random he called when I was in Australia, the evening before I was due to set off on the second part of my 100goals journey – great timing!
There are so many others that could have been on this list that I have met over the last 14 months, and I imagine many more wonderful people yet to meet before this adventure is all over. Thanks again to everyone who has offered help, support and encouragement on this amazing journey. It would never have been possible to have achieved so much without your kindness and generosity.
Top marks – ten out of ten to you all!
