Here I am in LAX, a -hole of a place. (Please feel free to prefix that with appropriate modifier)
I am about 25 hours into the 30 hour journey and feeling fairly wretched - sweaty and tired. Another 20 minutes or so till the next flight and as usual business/first class tickets don't get you into the Continental Airlines club so I'm in a fast food joint, the same as on a previous trip. No photos so far since there's really been nothing new.
David picked me up and took me to Perth airport about 9pm Saturday for an 11pm flight to Sydney. Had a chance to read a few golf mags in the lounge before taking off. The movie was "Up in the Air" - quite appropriate and not too bad. I nodded off somewhere in the middle however. We arrived about 6am and I had arranged to meet my Aunt and Uncle, who I haven't seen for 20 or so years. They picked me up around 8-30, so I had breakfast in the domestic Qantas lounge and read the Sunday papers.
We headed to Brighton for coffee and a catch up. After showing them photos of my kids, house and last trip to the US and seeing those of my cousin and her family, we were back to the international. Then I realised we were so busy looking at photos, I didn't take any. I guess sometime in the next 20 years we can try again.
I had about an hour to wait before my flight after buying a couple of duty free mini whisky bottles.
There's no doubt the flight to LA is long and even in business class it is a trial, so the economy trip must be awful. I sat next to the keyboard player from Whitney Houston's support band, heading home after 2 months on the road. There were quite a few others from the band scattered around the cabin.
Unfortunately, the entertainment system was playing up and after watching the missed bits of Up in the air (only about 5 minutes as it turned out), started to watch "The Informant". They turned it off and then rebooted some time later. It still wasn't working 100% and after trying to fast forward to the right spot, couldn't stop it and it fast forwarded all the way to the end. After that I wasn't even able to get it to load. I gave up and had a nap instead. Probably 3 or 4 hours. I was able to watch the general broadcast movies and saw "the Blind Side" which was again quite good. Sandra Bullock has earned her Oscar nomination.
There was still another 3 hours after that but eventually we landed. Passport control was quick and my bag was out early but there was a bit of a wait for the golf clubs so the exit queue was building up.
Once through I put the duty free in the suitcase, put my bags on the conveyor belt and headed to the Continental check in counter, which is probably a 1km walk. Check in was again pretty quick and I got through the security with minimum delay. I've got some US money from an ATM. So here I am ready to get on yet another plane.
Later
The flight was no better or worse than the others but it was over 3 hours. The entertainment has improved from the previous trip on Continental, with asmall screen in the back of the seat which had a very large choice of TV stations. I found one that was showing back to back episodes of "The Unit" and saw 3 of them, although whenever they made an announcement, we lost the sound. Being TV, rather than a film, I also got to watch the ads.
I had a window seat, for a change, and although a lot of the time we were flying over clouds I did get shots of the Rockies and the dessert.
My Limo driver was waiting for me holding up a sign with my name on it and my suitcase was in the first 20 off the plane. However we waited at the oversized luggage area for 30 minutes, seeing a number of other golf clubs being delivered before I headed to baggage services. They confirmed it didn't get on the flight and said it will be delivered to the hotel, but has not yet arrived.
However, Gina had got everything organised for me with a phone, car and a welcome basket waiting for me at the hotel. The room is more than adequate although a bit smaller than at the other Marriott I stayed at 18months ago. It has a lounge and a small kitchen as well as an LCD TV.
I called one of the 2 golf contacts but got disconnected only shortly into the conversation. A second try went to voice mail. I dialled the other guy and something similar happened. After several unsuccessful retries I dialled the first guy again and got through. He said he did something so it wasn't my phone playing up, which is what you think when the same thing happens twice. Anyway, he was quite friendly and said if I dropped his name at the pro shop, I would be able to use the driving range during the week. However, tomorrow doesn't look likely as they are predicting 1/2 to 1 " rain in the Houston area. Last time I came here they had even more rain the day after I arrived.
I have managed to stay up till after 9.30 so far, so hopefully I will get my body clock in sync quickly. I have only had about 6 hours sleep since getting up at 6am on Saturday, some 2 days 6 hours ago. I have been watching the golf channel while eating my crabs and getting technical support to send emails from the hotel (about 20 minutes on hold) but now working.
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