Saturday October 9th

Departed Sydney - Saturday 9th October 1050am

Well I had completely forgotten what it was like to sit on a plane for that period of time. 13 and a bit hours and my bum was numb and my back ached. Delta DL016 was packed. No spare seats and plenty of crying babies.... 'oh please ma'am may I have another scotch and coke!'

It wasn't that bad, but it was a long flight and cramped. DELTA as an airline seemed pretty good, was disappointed when I asked for a second pillow that there is only one allocated per passenger and with a full flight there are no spares. But when you are paying 1/2 the price of a Qantas fare what do you expect... not spare pillows that is for sure.

I sat next to a couple of interesting guys. A young fella from Minnesota was on the window - very much an eye candy situation.... girls are you hearing me?

I was on the aisle and in the middle was a retired financial planner from Toronto Canada. His wife was sitting in 1st first class and he couldn't quite get over the fact that economy had plastic cutlery... what are we he says... terrorists?

I had planned to do some work, but, the annoying passenger in front kept laying her chair right back and it became too difficult. Therefore I watched 3 movies and a bunch of episodes of Nurse Jackie..... kept putting in my ipod and falling asleep to the book i am listening too... but that was only long enough to be annoying and than I'd had to rewind to the last bit I remember hearing.

Arrived Saturday 9th October 0730am

Customs USA was pretty uneventful except for the queue and the raised eyebrows of the customs official as my bag was scanned to show 22 packets of Tim Tams for those US colleagues of mine. 'Why so many packets ma'am?' Very good question sir...... keeping my US compatriots sweet on the Aussies.... 'good luck with that ma'am.... hava nice day'

Kicked out the curb pretty quick and waiting for my 'super shuttle' to the hotel in Woodland Hills.

As is ALWAYS the way, about 20 of us waiting and I was last to have my shuttle show up and he just happened to be the slowest driver and 'havachat!' I did end up being his only passenger as he completed another loop of LA airport (OMG I will never complain about being at gate 40 in Sydney EVER again). 8 terminals that took is 20 minutes to drive around.... excluding the chat time the driver had with every Super Shuttle coordinator at every drop / pick up point.

Day opened up and it was glorious. We sped down the 12 lane LA freeway and even the driver was surprised at the lack of smog. What a beautiful day. Exhaustion was setting in and I really needed to get something to eat and have an unbroken sleep of longer than 1/2 hour.

Trip from LAX to Woodland Hills took about 45 minutes. Even for an early Saturday morning there was plenty of traffic about. Driver advises on a weekday the trip can take up to 90min - great!

Drove past familiar sign posts.... Mulholland Drive, Santa Monica, Hollywood, Burbank ... heaps of others.

Don't know quite how the tip thing works, but I didn't have anything smaller than $10, so gave that to the driver. Room was ready (thank God) and finally made it to my room about 0900. Just wanted to collapse. But have to try and play smart so I sleep OK tonite and don't get hit with jet lag tomorrow. it was about 3am at home, and rang and woke my boy to let him know all was good and I was successfully ensconced in my hotel. 

Went downstairs for brekkie, and eaves dropped on the Latino and American conversations going on around me.

A dad with his kid drumming car model details into his kid.... 'no son that is a 67 Chevvie Camaro'.

Collapsed into bed about 1030 and set alarm for 1400. Cant get any details about Bathurst, so have no idea about starting grid. Oh well.

Woodland Hills is in the middle of no where.... $65 taxi to Hollywood and about 45min to an hour on public transport.....

Went for a walk once I woke up across the road to the mall. Gee with the Aussie $ and the American economy.... it's the place to be if you have money to spend.... damn shame I don't have any!!!!

Everything on sale.... minimum 40% off

Took me ages to figure out what size Levi's to get Kez, but now am sorted can go back and get them tomorrow.

Good old American customer service is a beauty to behold. Something Aussies can definitely learn from. 

Wanted to do something a bit touristy tomorrow but the logistics of being so far from anything are going to make it interesting. Will try to get up early and do the public transport thing....but.... let's see how I feel in about 8 hours.

Dinner and a couple of nice glasses of wine was across the road at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. Steak was very nice.... perfect medium rare... though I don't quite get the fat marbling that is raved about. Had a couple of lovely glasses of wine

• Zinfandel - Rosenblum
• Chardonnay - Sonoma Cutrer 'Russian River Ranches'

A couple next to me couldn't quite finish their meals... 'may i box that up for you?' So the T Bone from the steak and 1/2 chocolate pudding got put in t/a containers within a lovely little red bag..... don't see that at home!

Walked back to the hotel and had a quick scotch in the courtyard.... it's a beautiful temperature and there is a wedding rehearsal underway.... so plenty of people about. At $10 per scotch, it was the only one I had.... think I will drink my duty free from this point.

Now it's bed time, have a tiredness headache... or is that from the wine / scotch.

Pool Courtyard - Woodland Hills Marriott

Pool Courtyard - Woodland Hills Marriott



Outside Fire



Outside Fire

Pool Courtyard - Woodland Hills Marriott