This log opening will be quick, one because its 1.20am LA time, and 2nd, the netbook's battery is low.
I've just come to, after blacking out at 9pm, but no worries about the early hour and I can sleep till checkout at noon.
I'm at the Hacienda Hotel, El Segundo city, part of LA, same place Ken put the bike tour in last year,
still the same, toilet bowls half full of water, but hey, those upside down light switches have gone.
In their place is a thing I tried slipping the door card into in the curtained off afternoon gloom when I arrived, but found its actually a flat light switch that you push to initiate,
thereafter its a sensor that turns the light on when you walk past, and turns things off with a timer if you forget to when you leave!
Handy in the bathroom too...
Pretty warm on arrival, as opposed to 2 previous years to the Wet Coast, but the cloud rolled in at 8pm which chased the bare shoulders and limbs off the streets, but a welcome return to sunset at that hour instead of the 5.30pm I've just come from.
I felt the first pang of loneliness outside Macy's shopping mall, the hotel shuttle which was supposed to pick patrons up at 8pm never turned up, it got dark, and there was no way I was going to try walking home
there wasnt any cell-phone coverage here either, hardly 3 km from the hotel.
Riyght handy of the hotel to run a shuttle to this reasonably nearby shopping centre though, as I found I'd left my togs behind, and sun-glasses, although theyre something I find just another bloody nuisance on holidays.
Besides, I needed a feed and a mall sounded like a good place to achieve that.
I found some togs for $20, but the sunnies I passed on, like who needs Raybans or Helfigers at US$80 up to $200 and beyond, nowhere competitive with my $25 Stihl industrial glasses.
The young lady at the perfume counter just inside Macy's door kindly called me a cab, and lonely got to be a thing well of the past as the driver questioned my accent, and in response he commented NZ'ers and Australians speak somewhat the same, no?
Er, no..., as I gave him a nasal rendition of "stone the flamin crows, the feesh n cheeps'll be culled before the danss" as opposed to "eff me, the fush n chups in 'n zillin'll be colled before the dince"
But you speak good english I commented to him, actually he's Indian, as in Asian Indian,
Oh no he says, I never lost my accent in 8 years, but I grammatically am good
No problem I say, because by and large Indians do speak understable english.
Then his next question, do you like cricket?
Uh oh, I wasnt about to jeopardise my new found contact by letting on I find the game somewhat less exciting than watching flies walk up a wall, and after a tentative nod, away he went about Daniel Vettori.
So here we have an Indian, in LA, nuts about cricket. Fortunately it was only a couple of weeks ago I saw that program about the kiwi "rock-stars" playing in the Indian League, so was able to inject a few leading names for him to run commentary on.... amazing.
Writing from London hotel now...
Am pleased to say I've beaten the jet-lag associated nausea, bloating induced actually, by fasting 12-20 hours before flying.
Its funny, you feel the better for the no-food, plus its very good on the travel budget, but eating the in-flight meals no problem.
Speaking of budget, the .80c exchange rate with US is most noticeable, at the shopping mall I found myself drooling at the men's clothing, something I dont do enough I guess, and got to figuring taking one of those LA or SanFran 3-5 night packages isnt all that silly an option for a short break, given the cost of getting round NZ.
My seat mates on the plane commented on how reasonable US hotel rates are, cheaper than home a lot of the time
my night at the Hacienda US$98, not a lot over NZ100.
Indeed, was somewhat amazed at the number of people in their late 20's, early 30's, on the plane, making a trip to LA a social expedition, how long you going for, oh a week, echoing round my section of the plane
strange anyway for a Wanganui-ite, where every second day the Chron carries front page story about increasing food-bank demand.
There's a hell of a lot of money around out there, and a lot not far from home.
Have a growing appreciation of US currency policy too, printing their own money by the truckload keeps their exchange rate down, rendering them less vulnerable to the Chinese loan exposure, and the price of imports up, which the nation dosent do too much of, stuff from China, and half its daily oil consumption.
You could begin to wonder whats hanging the place together if 30% of the local economy is tourism, and its heavy industry is pretty much run down, but had a eureka moment recently when somebody informed me that USA is the world's biggest exporter of food, and there you have it, labour intensive agriculture, no social welfare, no other restrictive employment conditions, and an exchange rate geared to exporters.
Arriving in GB makes quite an opposite statement, cant help wondering whats keeping sterling so high.
This hotel I'm in now is NZ$300 equiv a night, it was the cheapest close to the bike shop, others were up to $1200 a night,
the 1 litre "complimentary" bottle of spring water on the table is an $8 add-on, 'refreshed' each day they say.
The Heathrow express into town was 18 quid (bit over $36), only I got taken for a 1.5 quid commission I guess over the machine vended price by a couple of touts at the air terminal exit.
LA - London was on a Boeing 777-300, longer version than the same model -200, and a real nice ride, maybe the seats are a bit bigger.
The ship had full passenger load, and incredibly, looked like half the cabin length was business and first class seating!
There really is some serious dosh out there us plebs dont know about.
Leaving at LA 4.30pm, flying under 10 hours eastward through a night that flashed quickly by, the plane got in UK 10.30-11.00am ish, took an age to get through immigration, 6 cash machines wouldnt dispense cash on fee-free cash loaded cards, but would give it out for credit cards, and everybody I saw was in the same boat, something fishy there.
All airport money-changing counters appear to have been amalgamated under the TravelEx brand, but theyre still a rip-off.
My TravelSim cell-phone card has similarly refused to give me service either here in UK or USA, not worth the frigging around,
but Vodafone's global roam has done its stuff.
Quite a mission getting from Heathrow to the bike shop, then the hotel, with my 2 bags
the train system's pretty good, out here in East London in 2 train changes, but a lot of humping the bags up stairs etc
Hadnt realised AirNZ have started charging for any 2nd checked in bag, $60-70 a pop
so in future any expedition on a rented bike should be done with one suitcase.
This time the bike rental co were so unclear about how the bike was actually kitted, I took my own top-box when I didnt really need to
and I could have fitted everything needed into a wheeled travel bag, and thence to hard-shell panniers and topbox.
The bikes fine though, Suzuki 1250 GFS, wired my GPS in simply enough
couple of cracks in the fairings, good rubber, but the gearbox flogs a bit if you dont keep up in the gears
dosent have the same real lowdown torque of the CB and I've stalled a couple of times
but the streets are so pokey here the traffic's flat to get up to 30mph anyway.
The old right hand rule applies, and it was a bit strange to have left-turners helping themselves to right of way.
Its a good rule though, and cant wait till its re-introduced back home after the RWC.
Getting gas was simple, same as home, grab the filler, fill up, go inside, swipe your card, 13 litres, 17 quid, $36 roughly, $2.80/litre std grade?
The hotel was a trick to find, there are 2 roads, one 'old' and one 'new', and a street, all with the same name, in the one suburb,
even funnier was its number, 265, being opposite about number 500 on the other side of the street.
I got 2 'up there' pointers from people on the footpath before I found it, the GPS didnt have a 265.
Off to the channel Euro-Tunnel this morning.
