Voyage & Arrival

15/07/2010

08:12 PT

Location: West Hills, Los Angeles.

Population: 38,834

Taco Bells: 3

Weather: 87F: 30.5C.

TV Show: Channel 1518, VH1 HD: Ochocinco: The Ultimate Catch: Fielding His Team: At the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, 85 women from across the country will compete against one another in Ochocinco's dating training camp in hopes of being of the 17 dates on his tournament bracket to find true romance.

Word of the day (English): Brannigan: A carouse, a squabble.

word of the day (Spanish): Moral: Morale, morals.

Airports are truly international, in more ways than seem immediately obvious. The people there, the purpose they have and the places they are going conspire to make Airports the worlds true multi-cultural societies with their own cultures and customs. Even something as constant as time is affect by the lucidity of the Airport, for time is relative to the perspective of the traveller. For example, for a frenchman flying to Paris it was 09:00 in the morning, for me, travelling to LA, it was was midnight of the previous day, and we were sitting next to each other; Is this what Einstein meant with all the E=mc2 jazz? Time, in an airport is whatever time you want it to be.

It is for this reason that I has no qualms whatsoever about having a pint at 8:30 in the morning because for where I was going, LA, a Beer at 12:30 at night is perfectly normal. I saw the man next to me give me a look as if to say "he's starting early" so I reassured him that this was " normal behaviour for where I was going" and the man then said, to my amusement "what, Liverpool?". The slight scouce accent hinted that comment may have been a self deprecating one.

All of this played out at Huxley's Bar & Kitchen, of terminal 5Heathrow, which served an entirely edible full english breakfast for £9.50 (high point was the triple bacon portion though the tomato was inevitably pushed to one side). the Orange juice it was served with came with a straw and was definitely not Tropicana ( I am a bit of a OJ snob!!). I had with me, to pass the time while eating my breakfast, or midnight snack in LA, the book "A year in the Merde" by Stephen Clarke which tells the story of an englishman who goes to work in Paris for a year, he's just arrived and is struggling with the formalities of French greetings.

Other delights of heathrow's terminal 5 included a Sony shop which didn't sell mini-discs for my camera but did sell widesceen TVs. Who buys a TV in the departure terminal of an Airport? where do they put it once it is bought? The issue of the discs is yet to be resolved but i'm sure there must be at least one shop that sells them in LA.

The flight was, for a 10 hour journey, a rather painless one. I had the giddy pleasure of turing left rather than right at the doors which made me feel really rather important. I was sat next to an Indian lady who seemed to be flying alone but after the seat belt sign was off her husband came over to say hello (i'm guessing) and he did so at regular intervals. our seats were the 1st of the compartment so there was extra leg room. I thus assumed, her husband had given up the larger more comfortable seat for a regular cattle class chair. However a few hours in I saw that there was a 1st class compartment between us as the next economy class section. So, with little grey cells buzzing, I became BA 279 chief inspector. Was this man the gallant gentleman visiting his wife in the luxurious surroundings he gave up for her or was he a cowardly swine? For his next visit I was standing and thus had a good view down the aisle, as he walked away from us he reach the end of the 1st class cabin, stopped, turned and took his place in high luxury... (think tit say tut)... tut. And I was going to offer him my seat so that they could sit together, though that would have been win win for me if he had said yes.

The inflight entertainment was normal, lots of films, nothing majorly exciting but don't watch avitar on a screen the size of a iphone, they look like Smurfs!!

We landed in LA on time and I was rearing to go and take on the force of US border control. I had to re-scan my finger prints because I wasn't pushing down hard enough, the officer told me to push down with my other hand on top to add pressure, -2 lad points there I think. I was Picked up by Juan, from Chilli, in a Beige Lincoln (a type of car, not the 16th president of the United States). Juan, who is from Concepción in Chilli, the same town as my Friend from Rennes, Stephan, started life in the shopping cart or Trolly industry. He would collect carts from the homes of the various shoppers and return them to the super market. While that business is still running he now joint owns the limo service with his brother which i was using. He told me Mexico was a great place (didn't mention LA though...) and the danger lay mainly in the border towns.

I arrived at 6616 Valley Circle Boulevard (see photo) with the temperature a searing 107F to be met by Priscilla, my dear friend from Boston. She is staying with her sister, Rachelle, and her husband, Allen, to look after their newly born son Jacques for the summer. To continue my summer tradition I was straight in their pool too cool off and wind down. Other than meeting Priscilla's family plus their 2 dogs Hilo and Murphy and updating each other on our lives we haven't been to active today, though we went to a Cinema to see Toy Story 3 in 3D. this was my 1st 3D experience and it was spectacular, though I was dosing off a lot.

Tomorrow, or today as I am writing has a lot more action in store, but I will fill you in after the events.

much love,

Chris.