It’s already Friday, 4 days since I’ve arrived back in Melbourne. I like the sun and maybe the heat is a little crazy, but I can forgive it at the moment. I rather have it hot and sticky than cold and lonely. Spent time with Vyanne and friends. I enjoy the company.

Just slotted right into the time zone, as if I never left Australia. It could also perhaps be the comfort of business class on the flight back from LA to Sydney. I usually spend time writing bits of my trip but they never end up getting posted as there is a whirlwind of activity when I’m back and there’s usually many other interesting things happening in between.

In summary, flying within the US is maddening and flights get delayed/cancelled all the time. I arrived at the airport early on Saturday and the most enthusiastic airline staff checked me in. He noted I had the ‘itinerary from hell’, making so many transitions just to get to one place. As I arrived too early, I managed to get onto an earlier flight to Denver. That was a 3 1/2 hour flight and I just slept through most of it. Got down in Denver and I was so hungry I just went to the first most familiar foodstop I could find. I ended up getting McDonalds, and it was after I swallowed my Big Mac whole did I notice the other shops around the area and started regretting my choice.

Denver Airport

Anyway, I was delayed in Denver as all the planes to LA either arrived late or had one issue after another. I was getting restless but the plane I was supposed to be on finally departed for LA, and it did so 2 hours late. I arrived at LA 30 minutes after my flight to Sydney had left. I was angry and annoyed. I had to stand in line after that for another 2 hours before being able to speak to a customer representative who booked me on the Monday night flight as the Sunday flight was fully booked. Also got some accommodation/food vouchers for my troubles, although I would have gladly traded those in for a seat on the flight back.

Finally got to bed around 4am New York time after checking into the LA Westin Hotel. Had a buffet breakfast the next morning but didn’t eat too much. Didn’t get the chance to look around much as the rain seemed to threatened the whole day through so I just decided to stay in.

I decided to try my luck at the airport, so I arrived early to request to be wait listed. I was turned away twice as again I was too early. LA International airport is rather massive and I had to walk up and down in the rain between buildings just to get things sorted. Heh, only had a cup of crappy coffee to keep me sane.

Finally managed to check in and get to the gate where I waited for the flight. Was anxious as I had managed to get this far but still wasn’t assured of a flight. I was pacing up and down, my shoulders already sore for lugging my hand luggage around since yesterday. About an hour before the flight, my hopes for getting a flight sank as they wanted to offer people the next day’s flight with business class as they had oversold the flight.

I hovered around the airline staff who was allocating the seats and in that short period of time, managed to find out more about airline operations. It’s quite a nightmare of a job and at one point, a flight attendant came back with a boarding pass stub showing a seat that did not exist on the plane! A few more calls and clicks on the computer and another seat had to be allocated.

I was fortunate in the end, as there were 5 other flights coming into LA with passengers on this flight and at 1030pm, when the flight was supposed to fly, 60 people were still trickling in from other domestic flights and rushing to this gate. One of the planes had not arrived and they were bumped, so I managed to get one seat and hastily got myself onto the plane. It was a sigh of relief at that point.

I have never travelled via business class before and it’s quite amazing, how much space you get. I have never slept well on a flight before and this is the first time I managed to do so. No cramped feet of aching backs, just simple sleep. For all the things that went wrong the night before, this turn of events managed to calm me down a little, and I felt pleasant for a bit.

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Anyway, got back into Melbourne without any further drama. Had dinner with friends and proper coffee in the mornings. I’m just happy to be relaxing at the moment, taking my mind off everything else that needs worrying about. Heh, and here are the food pictures that accompany such posts.

Steamed abalone

A proper latte.