AMERICA the 1st

DAY TWO - 23rd OCTOBER 2008

I realise now, after being in Ammerica for a day, how lucky I was to have three seats to myself. I remember not being totally confortable and not sleeping as much as i wanted. I suppose at least i did sleep.

Better than the trip home hahaha

The coolest thing was when day started to break. It was amazing seeing my first dawn in America. From darkness to a tiny film of colour on the horizon. Almost a rainbow stretching itself gradually from the horizon to the sky proper.

Then it was light enough to see the ground. At the start it was still just cloud. I remember the clouds looking like sand which made me think of an early morning walk on the beach.

Descending was amazing. From seeing the first island with everything looking so tranquil. The bright pink and orange colours. The island and boats looked like toys from some fairytale. The sun off the water. All so peaceful and pretty.

The first signs of suburbia....all in the insdustry, housing, teh roads. The south side looked like the ghetto side compared to when we touched down. I remember seeing L.A's skyscrapers and teh roads leading straight to them. And then the expressways! and the baseball fields! the oval tracks (Nascar style).

Inglewood at the bottom. Santa Monica and Beverley Hills to the Left. Compton to the Right. Way Right.

Upon touching down on the tarmac we taxied around to the other side of the airport. And we then parked and waited for a tow-car who would tow the plane in. I remember the walk to immigration - it looked like a bit of work was being done around the place.

The first dude i saw was a black security guard sort of wearing a trooper outfit. He had a buzz cut and a mo. Hahaha. That was cool. Welcome to America. Whilst in cue it seemed to take ages. Just people taking really long for their papers to get checked. Either that or the boys in blue (a very dark navy blue) were excessively slow. I remember a kind of mexican dude who was in his 40's. Possibly symptomatic of the entire US population excluding New York taxi drivers?? nah - hahah - i was just impatient i guess. Although at the time i was more than happy to wait Baggage wa a bit gay. The conveyor belts actually malfunctioned and had to go to another baggage area and then a guy nearly took my bag by mistake. And the PA guy trying to announce what belt our luggage would be on was having a hard time getting his words out. Must have had a big night at the beach. Once that was done it was a quick out the door and into the public area of the airport where Sherry would be waiting. Seeing her for the first time was exciting - but also strange - she looked either tanned or sort of changed or something. It took me a while to get used to her and maybe that was due to her being here already for a few months. But she was happy. She had hired a car and it wasnt too far away. It was weird. It was pretty much the exact same time i had arrived at Melbourne Airport and the same day. Outside the airport was my first dose of America. And what was one of the first things i saw?? Cool hey? We then scooted out of L.A - well not really - L.A is massive and its just a big sprawl connected by heaps of expressways that are, admittedly, pretty well thought out. Sherry would have had to have been up early to get here on time and I also remember her telling me about a fire that was on the freeway that had slowed up traffic, so she would have been a bit worried about making it on time. Besides, I didn't have any idea of what to do. 'I'm goin' ta Disneyland' But just being on the roads was awesome. This was one of the first streets out of the airport. i think the first fast food chain was on the left and I think it was Taco Bell? Hahhaha. 'Al...... Do you wanna have sex??'....'Ahhhh....No Peg'...FLUSH!!! Wooooooooo!!!

No sign of the Joker anywhere.

Instead we turned off the freeway and headed towards Santa Monica. I was keen to see the basketball courts along the beach that were world renowned in basketball circles. But we didnt do that. We went to a cool beach (just up from the Hotel California it turned out later) that just had heaps of sand, a cool pier with food stalls and rides. The ferris wheel lit up at night. At the end of the pier was a afro man playing an electric saxaphone. Was awesome, but also weird to hear on a pier at the beach.

A typical day in Los Angeles. I guess security got my email which stipulated that the Santa Monica beaches needed to be deserted upon my arrival.

Just near the Ferris Wheel there was a 'Learn Trapeze' area. Sherry was keen! Word??