Oz to US

My first October 15th

When I think of my departure day from Brisbane to USA I have a quiet giggle. For someone who has been planning this trip for 5 years and was so over prepared it made your head spin......there were a lot of.....shall we call them....hiccups :)

• the night before I was still awake at 1 am and again at 2:30. I had set my phone alarm for 3:30 (triple checked it) but at 3:54 am Lee  came and woke me up. WTF!! This caused a mad rush resulting in me leaving without my support member. Remember Kevin the cushion?  He's still in Brisbane and the loss is sorely felt.  Also  I left behind the hard drive Lee had prepared with movies & TV shows etc.
• The plane was due to depart at 6 am (boarding at 5:30) so I really still had quite  bit of time up my sleeve. When I went to Virgin to book in there was a problem with my US Visa. There was no record of it. Seeing as I had flown to Sydney to the US Consulate in April to obtain said Visa I was a tad concerned. The Virgin employee kept jabbing at her computer and frowning and big red crosses kept coming up.  She spoke to her supervisor who had the same problem. Time was marching on I was feeling a BIT TENSE. Finally they called the US  Consulate. My Visa was on my British passport which is the one I was travelling on but it showed I had another passport - my Aussie one - and they hadn't been linked.  They fixed that and the upshot is I need to travel to US on my British Passport and back to Australia on my Australian Passport. How lucky I had bought both with me. I could very easily have not bothered grrrr
• I now had 5 minutes to get on my plane but was busting to go to the loo. Struggling under the weight of hand baggage and my paperwork I raced to the loo and flushed and then dropped my boarding passes into the loo. I was so glad the loo had already been flushed :) and also that it wasn't like those American toilets that automatically flush when you stand up lol. I would have just gone home at this stage.
• I get a bit claustrophobic on planes so always book an aisle seat - somehow they had changed it to a window seat and in the rush I hadn't noticed - double grrr. The nice man in the aisle seat kindly agreed to swap so all was well.
• I was supposed to have a 2 1/2  hour stopover in Sydney - triple grrrr.  It turned out to be 1 1/2 hours (yes I had allowed for Daylight Saving so that wasn't the issue). Plane was due for takeoff 10:50 am. HOWEVER boarding was 10:05 am. I literally ran when I got off the first plane, hopped on the first bus to the international terminal, raced through to Customs where there were 12.6 million people in the line ahead of me. Finally got through and ran like a crazy woman (which I know isn't surprising - shut up!!) to gate 53. Pushing past old ladies and family groups and detouring around gated off areas, I finally got to gate 53 and was among the last 6 people to board and shortly after they closed the doors.
• I was hot - sweaty  stressed....but I was there. It took a long time for me to chill.
• This mad rush meant I didn't get any duty free Bourbon which was going to be a gift for a friend but under the circumstances it was just as well - I haven't had a drink in 8 1/2 years but I would have been sorely tempted to knock that lid off!.
• The flight to US was uneventful except for 2 occasions when it got very turbulent and I knew death was imminent. I was wrong.
• Note to self - always make sure you sit up the front of the plane - when you sit at the back all the good food has gone from  the food service trolley and you end up with the vegetarian gluten free options. :(  I was hanging out for the shepherds pie.)
• I was looking forward to the in flight entertainment as a few good movies and TV shows make the flight fly by (yes - pun intended). There were no recent movies - Shaun of the Dead was about the most well known and most recent. The TV shows were season 1 of Arrested Development and season 2 of Boston Legal. I was disappointed - even the Channel 2 news was a couple of days old.
• I didn't sleep much because I needed to use my iron will to keep that plane in the air so by the time we landed at LA I was fairly knackered......but very happy to be there and for my US stay to start.

A welcome sight :)

My second October 15th

Due to the International date line I left Briz at 6 am Oct 15 and arrived at LA at 6.30am Oct 15. Add a bit of jet lag and lack of sleep and I really was quite disorientated time wise...and it seems direction wise.

I got a shuttle to the hotel but my room wouldn't be ready till after noon so I checked in my bags and walked for an hour trying to get to the T Mobile shop I went to on my last trip (which was near the Beverley Centre Shopping Centre) so I could get a US sim card for my I Phone. I was still carrying a few bags as I didn't want to leave my laptop etc in the store room at the hotel and it was very warm out so I was fading fast when I finally found the shop. Got my phone sorted and asked about the shopping centre......seems I had been walking for an hour in the wrong direction .....oh my!

Interesting Election signs all over on my walk - not at all respectful lol

I called a Uber....there was no walk left in my legs. The young lady driving the car was going 50 mph (thats 80 kph)  in the 35 mph zones (60 kph) and jumped from lane to lane....and sometime just straddled the white line. This was a whole lot scarier than the entire Australia to USA leg of my trip. HOWEVER - the 25 minute trip cost $3.56...whaaaaat? A lot cheaper than Australia.

I had lunch and a coffee at Starbucks at the Beverley Centre and had planned to "do" the shops but was just too pooped. I got another Uber back to my hotel - $ 4.60 - and had a long overdue shower and jammied up. I got into bed and watched some college football on TV trying desperately to stay awake so that I wouldn't be too affected by jet lag.

 My team won the game but I lost the fight with jet lag and slept a few hours that afternoon - then was awake most of last night then fell asleep about 5 am till 10 am and woke with a headache. Jet lag had won the battle.  Note to self - if your hotel is next to a hospital there will be a lot of sirens during the night. 

The cause of the sirens - lovely looking hospital and environs though

I will Uber to Target today to get a few items but then have a quiet day and try to get my sleep patterns back in order - got a big trip to enjoy!!

Oh!! Last night I went to the Wendy's next door for some dinner - lot bigger serves than in Oz but the thing that amazed me was that there was a security guard at the door. Maybe in case the Hamburgler turns up...or that clown Ronald McDonald?

 

Wendy's security guard!!
Can't really see him but I didn't want to get too close lol

I'm desperately missing Derek hugs but he doesn't seem to miss me at all lol

Derek P Newton

I don't speak Spanish but.... It appears that DO NOT DISTURB
translates to DO ME A FAVOUR AND DON'T MOLEST ME!!