It is now 4pm on Tuesday the 30th October - between my last day in the UK and now the world has cheated me of (at least) 1 day. Yes, the whole 24hrs of Monday the 29th October have not happened for me. Also, if my future return journey is via Asia as I normally do it, then I guess I will have lost the 29th October 2007 for ever....does that mean I become a day younger now...mmm, I think the flights alone have aged me by at least that much already, so a net gain of zero maybe?
OK, the flights:
London to L.A. provided me with the most interesting seating partners I have ever had. To my left was a 33 year old lady who was a film producer, having started as an actress who starred in various commercials and was once a "love interest" of doctor Benton from E.R. (sometime during 2000 season : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108757/). Unfortunately I cannot remember her name, but I do remember her delightful 1 year old son travelling with her, Siddhartha, and how good he was for the 12 hours. Most, if not all, of his behaviour was down to expert parenting from his mum, but I can say I provided some sock puppetry, homemade rattle and cot rocking services during the flight. Siddhartha was basically in his cot thing in front of my bulkhead seat and in my relentless search for symbolism, I would like to think his smiling eyes and 'whole life ahead of him - and I am going to enjoy it' charm, are a great start to my adventure here. (Hi, Siddhartha’s mum, if you are reading this blog from LA).
Well, even though my left hand seat buddy was a TV star, on my right side was none other than Prince Charles!
OK, so he is aka Guy Ingle and is a (surely 'the') professional Prince Charles lookalike, and even without his makeup and props, I got to say he was pretty good! (Check out his web site here http://www.princecharles.co.uk/ to see his 'made up' persona)
Charlie, as I feel I can call him now, was on his way to Hollywood to appear in a new film called Superhero! This is coming out next year starring Leslie Neilson, directed by Hans Zucker. More details on this film are here: >http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0426592/fullcredits#cast
and I understand it will be released towards the end of March (28th I think).
Charles, or better still Guy, was again a very nice passenger to share 12 hours of a flight with. His excitement for securing a part in a major Hollywood movie was infectious, and provided me with yet more inspiration for thinking about the good luck and chances that may befall my adventure.
The flight itself was a pretty typical British Attitude (aka Airways) affair - i.e. poor and infrequent service from an older (predominantly female) and uninterested cabin crew. If you, dear reader, are able to choose a carrier, unfortunately I cannot recommend BA at all now. You can sum up their approach to service by their method of drinks 'delivery'. You see, like other airlines they prepare trays of water and juices, but unlike them, they leave these trays in the galley for 'self-service', or more often than not, 'self-beg', as the air stewards (I think 'air sullens' better describes them), hang around this area and give you the 'oh can't you just sit in your seat for 12 hours' look every time you enter there! Mmm, it's good to vent, so at the risk of creating a long post, I will continue with the BA turn-off rant... It is fair to say that everything was too much for these air stewards (I am not adding 'esses as they barely deserve it in many cases - maybe if they shaved then I could tell the difference ;) - wow I am getting nasty, mmm I blame the jet lag - anyway, they do not even bother with the good old 'live' safety demo on BA flights now. It is now a computer generated animation which plays on your in flight entertainment* system instead, so if they do not do this, and they do not come around with drinks - plus when the food came around there was only one meal type left (I suspect start with too), so they do not even have to juggle hot trays....I ask you, what do BA cabin crew bloody do nowadays?
OK, enough of this grumble, because truth be told the actual flight was one of the best I have had, but I place the praise for this on my immediate fellow passengers and the reason I was flying in the first place...even BA could not cast a shadow on these!
*The interactive entertainment echoed the cabin crew mid way through the flight, as in it gradually stopped working!
We arrived in LA roughly on time and even though I had checked my baggage through to Wellington from Heathrow, I was now required to collect it, exit the airport via customs and then immediately return to the airport and recheck my bags?! But I have to say this did not take that long as my bags were one of the first off, however the suitcase had become covered in a white powder of some sort - which considering the proximity to Mexico and my fellow passengers, did give me some cause for concern - after all can you be charged for drug smuggling if the contents of someone else's bag has spilt onto yours in transit? The answer is either 'no you can't' or ’it was talc not coke', either way it has since rubbed (of been sniffed) off!
Still, not being arrested by customs, I took the opportunity to pop into LA, but fear of having a cap in my ass - i.e. being shot mum - meant that I limited my LA visit to basically the words from Braun Van 3000 and their '90's hit 'Drinking in LA'...which included the lines 'Feeling kinda groovy, Working on a movie. (Yeah right!) But we did nothing, absolutely butkis that day, and I say: What the hell am I doing drinking in L.A. at 26? With my mind on my money and my money on my... beer, beer!'
But being 33, alone and in LA airport, I did manage to wander around aimlessly for 30 mins, eat a steak sandwich (with lemonade not beer), attempted to gain access to the 1st class lounge for a shower (failed of course), and then walked to my departure gate - but I have got to say my LA airport experience and the song lyrics go perfectly together - i.e. there is absolutely butkis to do there!
The penultimate leg of my journey was with Qantas, and the difference to BA was instantly obvious. Here I had cabin staff which wanted to help, and when they were not helping had the decency to be attractive and cheerful! I started the flight in full 'final destination' mode, as in I moved from my allocated seat to the row behind, and then finally an exit row - all before we took off, all under the guidance of cabin crew and all because my request for an exit row must have fallen on deaf ears originally! However I fear my fellow passengers may have seen my movement around the cabin as some sort of ballast exercise for the captain, as not 5 mins before I started moving, he had announced to the everyone that your allocated seats were to help with the trim of the aircraft, therefore you must stay seated until we are up and flying!
I slept for a fair bit of the flight, I say slept; I mean closed my eyes in a cramped position and drifted in and out of the plot! Some of this poor thinking included peering out of the window to a starry sky and cloud covered ocean below, pondering my future life, and desperately trying to work out when we were crossing the International Date Line, to see if I could see some physical evidence of it!
12 hours later we landed in Auckland to be greeted with a warm spring/summer dawn and even though it was an airport, the cleaner air and fresh NZ smell! I maximised this experience by opting to walk between the international and domestic terminals to pickup my final flight to Wellington. I had feared that I would miss this flight, as I was predicting the 2 hour gap to be mostly taken up with the immigration queue, followed by specific questions to the motive of my visit. You see, I suspected their computers to be shouting 'he wants to live here for good! Check he has a return ticket you fool, or we may forget about him and let him in through the backdoor! Oh and whilst you are at it, please remember to insist he has no soil on him!’ However in the end it was all over and done with in 10 mins and I now have another 6 month visitors stamp in my passport. Yippee!
The flight from Auckland to Wellington was over and done with in a flash or 60 mins depending upon which flight scale you are using. Running every hour they have become commuter flights so I was now surrounded by men and women in suits with important places to be. I feared that my 2 day beard and 'same clothes for too long' odour, would be giving me away as being slightly different, but I did have a brief pleasant chat to a kiwi girl sitting next to me (who wished me luck etc). I spent the rest of the flight watching the dawn break over a cloudy, yet perfectly formed, New Zealand. We were low enough to see mountains peaking through the clouds and as we came down the east coast the most obvious was Mt. Taraniki (excuse spelling), which is one I, and others I know, have visited in the past - but I have to say it looked more impressive from 10,000 feet up!
Landing in Wellington was bumpy due to some wind, no, not (only) from me, but a typical Windy Wellington weather I believe. Still, I did get a great view of the surrounding mountains with short rows of houses indicating the 45 degree sloping roads, and glimpses of the south Island (I was on the wrong side of the plane to see it fully). So again, a top tip is to fly to Wellington rather than drive for 2 days from Auckland - if only for the views during the final approach.
That brings me almost to the end of this 'journey' blog post, but I just wanted to add a bit about my apartment and initial dazed wanderings up and down (then back up as I had gone wrong) streets.
This apartment is OK, but I have already opted to upgrade to a bigger one next door tomorrow, as having the oven at the end of your bed seems a little too cramped. However I do have a balcony from which you can see small area of the harbour water and distant hills, but the room next door has a better view and leather sofa to appreciate it from!
OK, I will finish this now, and apologies for the length of it (as the actress said...nope, sorry I should not be rude as my parents may see this), but I guess the realisation that I am here alone (for now) came upon me earlier. This feeling, combined with early jet lag*, did make me think I have made a big mistake – but I have to say that typing up this log up, after a shower and short sleep, is lifting my mood again. And even though I am not sure how many (if any) are reading this, it does provide me with something to do and a sort of conversation – OK, I have called Caroline a couple of times and sent a few texts to Mum and my sister – but those forms of communication are costly and can be delayed by pauses for emotion ;)
So I end this ‘my journey’ post about 2 hours after I started typing it and feeling a little better about my decisions thus far. I think that just even being able to glimpse the deep blue harbour water and green hills beyond it have also helped in making me feel more excited than my apprehension upon arrival. Tomorrow I will walk around downtown a lot more than my limited ‘must get water for the room’ excursion earlier today. I will also visit the recruitment agencies again, but this time I can say ‘Yes, I can start tomorrow...or maybe next month...all depends when my visa upgrade can happen’....mmm, maybe I should work on that line between now and then!
Bye for now – and apologies if the heading to this blog still says Coggeshall, but I am having some technical problems in changing it – yes, I have switched it off and on again!