From Hollywood Boulevarde

Here I am in Hollywood, surprisingly chipper, all things considered. When I say "all things" I'm referring to the flight-sleep-time difference combo. Here's how it works: I get on the plane 11am Sunday, my time. Due to the sterling efforts of the Qantas crew, we arrive early a bit under 13 hrs later. That would be midnight Sunday my time, so the inclination is to watch movies, read books, chat to neighbours. BUT the time I arrive in L.A. time is 7am Sunday, so if I didn't sleep I'd arrive in LA and have a whole day to kick around like a zombie wishing I was in bed...and that isn't possibly because no hotel will give you a room at 8-9am in the morning. Not when you've booked through a discount website anyway.

Not wanting to arrive at conference reading to collapse from fatigue, I took a sleeping tablet. I forced myself to doze on and off for about 2 hrs. Then I was wide awake again. It's not 4pm in the afternoon and I'm still wide awake. Hopefully I'll sleep well tonight without emdication because I don't like to make a habit of those things.

So, the flight was pretty okay. I had a nice window seat with exactly the kind of neighbors I like: unobtrusive, happy to chat for a while but not wanting to yabber on all night, happy to get up and stretch their legs so I could too. Nice peoples. I didn't fly Qantas last trip so I really noticed the changes this time. Back-of-seat entertainment system, choice of movies which play over the whole trip, games, and also menu changes. We won't discuss the meals. I mean, what meal prepared in advance and reheated in those little plasticy thingimmys is going to taste good? But, hey, I gotta love an airline that does the hot-towel thing and gives out ice-creams for dessert and hot chocolate at midnight and a snack pack of neat chocolate/nut/fruit mix choices.

The movie selection, however, was meh. I watched Failure To Launch (Matthew McConaughey and Sarah Jessica Whatsername) which was more entertaining than I'd anticipated. If I'd paid to see it at a theater then I might gripe a little about over the top comedic reactions and characters drawn with thick lines and no light and shadow and out-of-character behavior played in the name of cheap laughs. But I didn't pay, so I'll just say it was okay and any chance to listen to the MM drawl (especially while he takes his shirt off) is a chance well spent.

Also I listened to an audiobook, an amusing British chick-lit tome in which the first-person heroine meandered along having a rollicking good whinge about her life and family and kids and such...the kind of such one can empathise with! Luckily it was this kind of book because at the 3/4 point I discovered that the download had malfunctioned and a great chunk was missing. I rewound and checked several times, just in case I'D wandered off for a few chapters. I mean, how did our intrepidid heroine suddenly arrive at the bright idea that her husband was having an affair??? But, no. Chunk (which, hopefully, contained motivation) missing. I didn't care over much and moved on to a romantic suspense paperback.

So. Arrived at LAX and, as luck would have it, we were the only international flight arriving in that window so immigration and customs went amazingly quickly and I was in a taxi heading for the hotel (if not the room) one hour after landing. The last time I flew through LAX, that was more like 4 hours. Good start to the day and things got even better when I arrived at hotel in time to take a tour that I'd considered impossible to make before I left home.

So I've done the tour around the sights, seen the sign, cruised Rodeo Drive, read enough stars on Hollywood Boulevarde to make my eyes wee, well, stars! Lunched at Farmers Markets, pretended to enjoy our karaoke tour guide's rendition of Imagine, returned to hotel where my room was ready. Yay.

It's a nice room, if somewhat small. But since most of the space is taken up with a large and very comfy bed, it's looking good. Oh, and yeah, the air-con works a treat. The other thing I noticed about this hotel (which I was going to name, but then you all might prank-call me tonight, so I won't!) is the number of good-looking people walking around. Staff and guests. Is that a Hollywood thing? For a minute I was worried they would turn me away as not being high enough up the Beautiful People scale to check in. Luckily the light in the lobby was very low and they didn't realize exactly how haggard I'm looking with this chronic lack of sleep.

Tonight's dinner may be off. :-( In which case I'm wondering how dorky it would be to wander down to the Kodak Theater where there's a movie premiere happening, just in case I catch a glimpse of someone who looks like they might be a star... Or perhaps I could go shopping...