Your time starts....now (cont.)

11:15am AEST
We left a full hour late. Given I have only a 1.5 hour layover in LAX, that is a wee bit concerning. At least my connecting flight leaves from the same terminal (no cross country jogging for me!), and is with the same airline.

I've had a catnap, and now feel a little more alert. Time for a movie?

1:30pm AEST
Dinner and a movie: check.

Okay, so it was an airline lunch of a not too rubbery chicken stew thing, and Tamara Drewe, which was a pleasant diversion. And then they handed out small dilly bags, containing a small bottle of water, a piece of cake, a box of mints and a muesli bar. Given most of my recent flights have been trans-Tasman no frills flights, it's a pleasant change. Of course, the last thing I need right now is more food, but the water is good.

3:40pm AEST
Second movie down - Love and Other Drugs - chick flick with pretty people, boy-meets-girl, boy-gets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-gets-girl, happy ever after.

Five hours down, eight and a half to go. The flight map says we're currently just to the west of Samoa, and it's dusk outside. I should try to get some sleep, but it's the middle of the afternoon.

7:00pm AEST / 2:00am PST
Five hours to go. Looks like they've caught up the lost time from the late departure, and then some. Upside, that means an hour and a half less time in this airborne tin can.

Bit of a nap, plus three episodes of the second season of Damages - it's always good to see shows with females leads, and Rose Byrne is gorgeous.

10:00pm AEST / 5:00am PST
I have just discovered it is possible to get a hot enough cup of tea on a plane. I'd always put the tepid tea down to the lowish air pressure they maintain in the cabin. (Water boils at a lower temperature when at lower atmospheric pressure - can't cook pasta up a high mountain.) Whether it's a pressurised urn, or what, I don't know and I don't care. But I have just had two cuppas and feel a whole new person.

They're serving breakfast soon, and then we'll begin our descent into LAX soon after that.

7:15am PST
We do arrive at around 7:15 local time, having made up an hour and a quarter of our hour late departure. Once we can connect with the local phone network, I get message from JD asking "Are you there yet? Are you there yet?" sent four hours ago. I think he's a bit bored and lonely bouncing around an empty house.

We disembark soon afterwards. And then the nightmare that is LAX begins.