Jet Lag

Well after stops in five different time-zones and six different airports in 48 hours I'm finally in Vero Beach, Florida. I discovered I'm no good at sleeping on planes, I was by the wings so the noise of massive jumbo jet engines didn't really allow me to rest.

We got to LA fine but getting through immigration there was a right royal pain in the arse. It took two hours from the time the plane pulled up to its snorkel to the time we managed to get into a cab outside LAX. By the time we got to the hotel it was about 1.30pm local time.

It was quite warm but not very humid. Once we got to our hotel we decided we'd stay up as long as possible to try and get our bodies in synch with the time-zone so we went out for a walk. We walked up to Venice Beach pier to start with, then we started walking up the beach towards Santa Monica pier. In between the two piers on the Venice Beach side is what I could only really decribe as a cross between Bondi Beach and Paddy's markets. Loads of clothes shops, dodgy sunglass sellers, CD bootleggers, lots of food stores and a few bong sellers. Wasn't particularly appealing but was interesting to walk through.

The walk between the two piers looked shorter than it actually was (it turned out to be a few miles) but it was good exercise after being pretty sedintary on the way over. Santa Monica pier is massive and you've probably seen it in at least one TV show / movie that's set in LA before. This thing is so big that there's parking space on it as well as a big ferris wheel and a rollercoaster. There was even a person selling Churros which got me thinking of Aivy and made me a bit sad.

Once we'd had a look around there we headed up to the Santa Monica shops to get something to eat and to have a quick look around. When we sat down we realised our bodies still associated sitting down with being on a plane, when we sat down our bodies still felt like they were being very lightly jerked around like you'd feel when cruising on a plane.

After the shops we headed back to the hotel at got back there at about 5.30/6.00pm local and had a drink at the bar before heading back to the room and crashing at about 8.00pm.

We had to get up at 5 a.m. the next morning to make sure we were ready to go and at the gate at the airport at 8 a.m. For domestic flights you're supposed to get out to the airport two hours before your departure time, three hours for international. We got through there fine and managed to fly to Dallas and then through to Orlando without any hassles.

Florida, when we got there, was warm and humid and absolutely pissing down with rain. The two hour drive from there to Vero Beach turned out to be longer simply because, on occasion, it was pouring down so heavily we needed to slow down.

So here we are. Some quick obeservations on the US:
* The currency: the notes are a pain in the ass, all the same size, all the same colour and there are no $1 or $2 coins, only notes. The coins aren't too clearly differentiated either for a new person. I can this is one area where Aus comes out on top.

* The airports: these things are gargantuan, Dallas and Orlando are so big and the terminal buildings so far apart that they have little train / monorail things to shuttle you between some of the buildings.

* The punditry: pretty much my entire experience with current affairs shows over here so far involve some vitriolic host having a screaming match with an interviewee. Exactly how does this make for informative programming?

* The mental arithmetic: Hope you're good at math because if you eat anywhere other than McDonalds you'll be having to be able to add 12.5% onto every bill that you get. Also, unlike Aus, you don't have to take sales tax into amount when you're pricing your goods, just whack a price on there then add the extra X% on when people actually buy the damn thing -_-''

Well, that's all for now.