The Longest Day

The flight wasn't too bad - I seemed to continue my curse of noisy, obnoxious kids right near me. The kids in front of me were driving me insane. The boy seemed to need to have a tantrum about every hour of so, and his big sister felt that standing on the seat (and blocking the screen) was a great idea. The parents were semi-indifferent - but not completely. The single big screen was a bitter disappointment - for just that reason. But that was really the only issue I had with the actual airline part of it all. The service was fantastic (I have never seen staff dish out or clean up so quickly at meal times - and I mean that in a positive way.

The flight down to Sydney was less than stellar. I had a family all around me that were the kind of family that make you cringe about cheap fares. I make no excuses for being a snob - but the guy was a total dick. As we're taxiing down the runway, he pulls out his mobile phone to see if the navigator will work 'up in the air'. I (horrified), asked if the phone was in flight mode. He gave the thousand yard stare and asked what that was (so obviously the answer to my question, was NO). I advised him (still in a pretty horrified voice, I'm sure), that he couldn't have the phone on during a flight - it interfers with the navigation equipment - and we could therefore die. He didn't believe me and I was in full mind to call a hostie over as soon as the seat belt sign went out, when he finally turned it off (then had to announce it to me). I felt the only prudent thing to do was say thank you (even if I really didn't mean it so much). Hypocrisy isn't something I usually deal with at all - or dish out - but I figured I was stuck next to his red neck for the next hour or so, so I should make the best out of the situation!

The transfer between domestic and international was really easy - you just got herded down some steps and hey presto - there's the bus - and that was a QANTAS thing, and free.

The biggest surprise about the whole trip was San Francisco Airport. I have to say firstly that when flying into the States - this is definately the way I'd come in again. I really hate LAX because it's so big and busy - SFO was really great. What was SO surprising was that, at least at SFO, all the stories about horrible customs officials was totally wrong. The staff were great. All the workers at the airport were really friendly, and very professional. It was a really refreshing change. I think I had about a 5 minute wait to clear passport control/customs and despite having been good about ticking 'food' on the card- I just got waved right through. I'm sure they had a good look at the contents though - and could see there was nothing untoward in there (just truckloads of booze)!

Mary was running a little late at Phoenix - construction work on the freeway slowed her down - but only by about 5 minutes. It was so good to be here after so many years of promising. We ducked home, I had a quick shower and handed over her goodies - then chucked a change of clothes in my bag and we went to Tucson to stay at Wendy and Jim's for the night - tomorrow we have big plans. Her friends are really nice - total hippies - in a really good way. We stayed up until about 11pm talking - so if I've worked this out right the 4th of October lasted 41 hours for me - most of which I was awake between only getting 3 1/2 hours the night before I left, and the 1/2 cat naps on the plane. But I was fine - I got tired at SFO just before we got on the plane - but came through that.

Tomorrow is the real start to it all...........