flying time

Okay, so i've been a bit slack on the blog. Can you forgive? :)

LAX --> SYDNEY:

** NOTE: When you fly to Australia from the West-coast U.S., you pass the International Time Divide and end up losing an entire day - leaving the U.S. to arrive two days later in AU. Amazing...

Last I wrote we were about to board our flight in L.A. to sydney. Well, it was quite a flight - 14 hrs that passed like the snap of a finger. Each seat had its own movie screen with a remote control (what!) - we had many entertainment options: movies on demand (newest releases, premier movies, Aussie movies, international, children's, etc), radio, tv/news, video games (really cheesy, I tried one!), and even a flight tracker that shows you where you are flying over the globe, how fast you are flying, distance and time to destination, elevation, etc. (and I got to see where on the map I lost that day!) It was great. Within the first hour and a half we had dinner - chicken (which I didn't eat) with rice, black beans and corn, cole slaw, roll with butter, drink (I had a mini bottle of red wine) and this squishy-looking square of custard thingy (I was too afraid to eat it, haha). So after the meals we had hot cocoa, yum! I suppose other people had coffee, but not me! Then I threw in a kids' movie 'The Last Mimsy' and had myself a long nap afterwards. It wasn't too bad sleeping on the plane, but at one point I woke up having to pee and I was by the window... Peter and the Tennesee lady next to us were both asleep - doh! haha anyway, later on I watched an Aussie flick, 'Ten Canoes' about the Aborigines. It was good. I think I took another nap. They switched on the lights at some point and woke everyone up for breakfast - it's called brekky here. There wasn't anymore cereal so I ate the frittatta square (and gave Peter the scary looking sausage), melon salad, OJ and tea. Then just an hour or two later, WE WERE IN SYDNEY!!!

--> Now you're thinking, why would someone give us so much detail about a stupid flight when she's going to AUSTRALIA! haha Hey, you don't want to miss any details, do you? So you're getting all the nitty gritty :)

SYDNEY, AU:
Arrival around 6 am AU time. Then we picked up our checked luggage and hopped on the shuttle bus ($5 each, not free!) to our terminal for our flight to Townsville. Says Peter: we had to take the bus "because they stupidly built the terminal 5km from the international terminal" and we couldn't walk, which I had hoped we could. We went through customs and security, checking our bags once more. Security and quarantine is quite serious in AU - they scan your bags before you are allowed into the country. No one is allowed to bring in fresh food (produce, grains, etc) or animal products of any kind, save leather shoes and clothing. I got picked for the random explosives check - grr, I'm scary looking... Danger is my middle name. The lady was so friendly, she even made a joke at the end. She said we were okay to pass, especially since we weren't making bombs that day. Can you believe it? I was surprised after dealing with the uptight security guards in the U.S. Starting with the airport, I could tell that people are very friendly here. Next, we had to eat again, I was hungry! So we got a large pumpkin (actually butternut squash, but they call all squash pumpkin here), feta and pine nut salad (YUM-O!) and tried a half of a Moroccan lamb wrap. Yum-o again. We hopped on our flight to Townsville at 10:40am.