Upgraded to World Plus, sitting beside German student Tim, en route to UCSB for a semester of Economics major, working for a large German insurance co in a sandwich course. Marco the steward found me funny, not sure how that worked out. Went up to meet Cribby and Will in 1st class, both wearing their matching pyjamas and enjoying the "whatever you want" menu! Watched Amelie - lovely film. Great views of landscape - Greenland icebergs and glaciers, Utah/Wyoming desert and hills, LA pool madness.
LA - long wait for parking slot, got in early. Guy taken off by immigration people because of some transgression years ago - Will and I waited for the luggage and of course mine was almost the last off. Not that that mattered, since Guy was still waiting to be interviewed. He's brought a sail, on the basis that will be the one he needs! Black passenger helper lady not happy with her Portuguese? charge who having been wheeled from the plane, now wanted to stand up and get his baggage! Eventually it had all arrived and he leapt up and wandered off to her obvious disgust! Japanese translator walking around with very pretty and slight Japanese lady, waiting for companion. exchange between Imm official and translator - "how can I respect you when you walk away when I'm talking to you" - not sure what that was all about, didn't seem to phase the stereotypically inscrutable Jap guy.
Guy on the phone trying to organise the Venice Beach trip, supposed to happen while we wait for the other flight to arrive. I'm Bag Bitch... everyone else is on the phone. Usual airport bedlam of cars, people, noise... several groups of Chinese wearing facemasks! Turns out that Guy booked the bus for the wrong day, so we get a new one, and our first meeting with the redoubtable Musharraf Khan, but it turns out that there isn't time since it'll be a 2-3 hour trip which means we can't really do it with an hour to spare now. So we debus, and repair to a dodgy snack bar on the arrivals floor, Guy and I having hotdogs and purchasing lots of water for the arrivals, who shortly arrive. Guy is waving his hand-writtenTWATS sign in the arrival queue...
Musharraf - after discovering we are from England, announces he swam the Channel in 88, and was in the Montreal Olympics in '76, the only Banga Deshi rep. not sure if he medalled, I suspect not. He was also a Flying Officer in the BD airforce, and said something I didn't quite catch when I asked about the BD separation from Pakistan in '71. He returns to take us to SD, and we pack in. The traffic is immense - 8 lanes in each direction of solid cars, SUVs, trucks... The unspeakable scale of America-style living hits me right between the eyes. And it's 120+ miles to SD and we're doing 20-30mph. It takes 3 hours and we try to sleep, me stretched on the first bench, Guy in the front and the others doing what they can. The aircon is far too high, I'm forced to put on my wool fleece to try to warm my arms up. Ridge Living - that's what they want! Enjoy Ridge Living for only $umptyumpump thousand, No Money Down!
The GPS takes us straight to the hotel on Pacific Highway, with a view of the harbour and a couple of railtracks behind us - the Amtrak passenger trains have HUGE horns, it's not until we walk out later we discover why they use them so freely. Musharraf bids us goodbye almost forlornly, off to break his Ramadan fast - he took some water on the trip, probably his first of the day. That would be hard!
Classic US motel - Ali is already in our room having arrived directly an hour before. We all go up in search of burgers or more specifically the bird in the burger bar flyer... we find the joint but she's not there...! Huge HungryBoy burgers, very tasty, too many baskets of chips. Then to The Waterfront bar, where the blues band is setting up and three honeys are keen to converse with these strange-accented chaps. We eventually return to the motel, and I sleep fitfully, waking at 2.30 to toss and turn with the airconditioning cycling on and off, alternating between chilling and sweating - yuck.
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