Legs 2 and 3...

Leg 2. Melbourne to LA.

Flight from Adelaide was completely uneventful… I did find that my Scull Candy noise cancelling headphones work wonderfully well. Very happy with them. I also found that short flight entertainment is imensley boring. My new book “Anansi Boys” by Neil Gaiman has started well tho, so that’s encouraging.

I am on hold with Telstra trying to change my phone plan, but I don’t think they’ve decided not to staff many people on boxing day - fair enough, I guess, it might cost them money… first call for my flight has just been announced, so more when I get on the plane.

On the plane:

And its not just any plane, it’s a big red one with aborigional artwork all over it… it looks really cool. But the seat is uncomfortable – and I’ve only been here for an hour, I can only imagine in another 14 how my arse will be feeling. One of the disadvantages of a window seat – you cant easily get up… obviously having a wall to lean against when you want to sleep is a huge advantage, but otherwise, its just another cramped seat on a massive red plane.

I could have guessed, I have a child, who supprisingly is not screaming sitting in the seat behind me. He is – however fairly regularly kicking me in the kidneys so that should be a hoot... I’m sitting next to a young couple who seem really nice, also on their way to Toronto.

Going through customs was ridiculously simple and no where near as scary as some people have made it out to be. Although it is meant to be worse on the other end of the Pacific where supposedly the Americans are rude and blunt… *Shrugs* that’s their problem… I got about $450 back at the tourist rebate scheme counter, which I am thrilled about. Everyone so far has been nice. All I have to worry about is my arse, and my kidneys.

The seats even have their own little screens in the headrests. Games, and movies all at my fingertips. And I wont even have to use my laptop…

Anyway – back to my book… more later in the flight.

My little lcd monitor in front of me tells me that there is about eight and a half hours until we reach our destination. We just experienced a quite wonderful sunset, but because of how fast we are going and the direction we are traveling, it really didn’t last long enough. Time enough however to have everyone scrambling for their cameras in time to get a photo. And now it is dark.

The kid behind me has just quietened after a good hour and a half of screaming and kicking my chair.

Looks like I just got to the toilet in time, as the line up has got ridiculous…

Probably should try to get a bit of sleep at some point… really don’t know what the best way to do this to avoid jet lag is… its only 5.30 Adelaide time, but sitting does make you tired. .. I might listen to some music for a while, maybe read some more… not much more I can say… I might even watch a movie until I fall asleep…

More later. *yawns*

Leg 3.

US customs, while slow and long winded, was relatively painless. And after getting into LA at about 7.45am and wading thru the fore-mentioned beurocacy, we were running late for our Toronto flight. (I say “we” I should clarify– the young couple from Melbourne who are working in Canada. We’ve been getting along quite well, we stood in line at customs for over an hour and they let me use their luggage trolley, and chatted: was good. Would like to catch up with them for a drink when I get to Toronto, they seem nice, and they said they don’t go out much)

I got a last call for “Masson” or “Manson” so that was funny. Because of this I had to re-check in, and the lady at the desk asked me if I wanted an emergency exit isle which has more leg room, which I was thrilled about, until the ginormous guy came and sat next to me, oozing out over both armrests and complaining about how cramped these smaller plains are. Then settled in and literally 2 minutes after take off, while we were still very steeply climbing, was snoring loudly and obnoxiously. So… screaming kid kicking me in the back for 14 hours, and now being squished against the wall by an overweight computer nerd, and hoping he doesn’t roll over on me and kill me for the next 5. So I have heaps of leg room, but no room for my body...

Great.

My first impression of LA as I stared down at the “Google-Earth”esque view was that of a massive computer chip… very ordered little squares, with the occasional dampener or electrode of a high-rise building. Then it got more into the hilly bits, which were quite nice, massive houses etc, but roads that look extremely poorly planned, winding all over the damned place… I guess its so the zillionaires can see how well their cars handle on windy roads… Crazy… Other than that, I don’t think it really feels that much different to the southern hemisphere. Fistly I guess cause another Qantas flight arrived at nearly exactly the same time as ours, and the whole terminal ws filled with Australians, and secondly, cause I didn’t’ go outside… it was just like Australia, except with a few American accents… and thirdly, cause I didn’t go to the toilet to see how high the water was, and if it spins the wrong way down the drain…

And its funny how some thing said with an American accent can sound hilarious… especially – and im not being racist in the least here - the black American stereotype way of talking… From what I’ve seen its not a stereotype at all, its true… imagine, if you will, a very large black American woman, security guard/customs officer, nice as pie, smiling at everyone, and as another security guard walks past, she calls out “hey! Tyrone, yo squeekin boy!” cracked me up… he had a squeaky shoe… *coughs* guess you had to be there…

Anyway, back to sleep I think…

I’ve had a chance to talk to the big guy sitting next to me… a doctor from Toronto, who’s just been to Brisbane for a day for something to do with doctoring… he works in Canada’s version of the Royal Flying Doctors… been interesting…

More soon...