Monday, March 9, 2009

Beaches, taxis and planes

Monday 02 March - Overcast, bit of drizzle but warm, mid 60s

This was a day for wasting time and preparing to make the big flight to New Zealand. After breakfast, it was pack cases time, a task that you think will take ages but is done in just a few minutes. Usually, just when you are sitting back thinking that everything fitted in really easily, you find a drawer with a jersey in it or a pair of trousers hanging in the wardrobe, today was no exception.

Checking out from the hotel was easy as it had already been paid for and the receptionist kindly arranged to keep our bags until after lunch. With several hours to 'kill' the beach Venice beach beckoned once more. Although it was still warm, it was overcast and breezy, but there were still plenty of people out on the beach and pier. The surfers were congregating by the pier and a small film crew seemed to be making some kind of commercial down by the water. The 'actress' was dancing about flicking her hair around just in front of a cameraman. She was barefoot and he was wearing trainers. Somehow, despite her antics, he managed to stay out of reach of the water whilst she splashed around in it.

An early lunch in a beachside eatery provided another chance to watch life go on around us. A beer delivery driver got some grief from a parking warden about his choice of parking outside a bar, she told him to move, he ignored her entirely. This proved to be a mistake because she reappeared unexpectedly about 10 minutes later and the driver had to hurriedly abandon his barrel trolley and move his truck.

Back at the hotel, the free internet access provided some distraction until it was time to call a taxi to get to Los Angeles International airport. The hotel called a taxi and a fairly scruffy vehicle arrived which had been loosely modified to become a taxi by removing the front passenger seat. The driver, probably Persian by origin, talked on this 'hands-free' mobile phone for the duration of the journey, only interrupting the call long enough to ask which airline we were travelling with. He still managed to miss the Air New Zealand drop-off point, but on the good side, the fare was only just over $20.

Checking in was painless, the New Zealand girl was on her fourth day of employment in LA and clearly on a high. Security was chaotic. I'd say unusually, but US airports always seem to be overstaffed by TSA with very little direction to passengers. Should we keep our shoes on? Should belts be removed? Eventually, we escaped into the terminal which was very crowded, possibly because of delayed flights caused by bad weather on the East coast.

Once on the aircraft, a 747-400 we had a seat almost at the back, just two seats, aisle and window rather than the standard rows of three. Once good thing about these seats is the extra stowage space on the window side and room to stretch legs out up the side of the seat in front. The flight left at 1930 and was scheduled to take 12 hours and 15 minutes to cover approximately 10500km. Hoorah!

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