G'Day Mates

I am in the land down under!! This is a dream come true for me. Australia has been at the top of my list of places to visit for as long as I can remember.

First, let me show you actual pictures of me on the airplane in my little nest. This has got to be the coolest way to travel. I spread out and made myself at home, and had a great flight. I even watched about 8 episodes of Fawlty Tours, which had me laughing out loud.

These are two of the event planners that I am traveling with, and here I am kicked back with my feet up on the ottoman.

These seats are designed so that you can be reclined when the plane takes off and lands. There is an air bag in the seat belt (I'll have to take a picture on the way home) that deploys and completely protects the person in the seat.

Here's a picture of the inside row:

I've technically been to New Zealand now, too, but this is the extent of what I saw other than the inside of the terminal. This first is landing at 4:30 am and the second is taking off at 7:30 am.

After traveling for 25 hours and a final three hour flight, we landed in Sidney at 8:30 am (there's a two hour difference between New Zealand and Australia). I just happened to be on the side of the plane that could see the city on the approach:

We hit the ground running and didn't stop for the entire day. When we got to the hotel, we had 1/2 an hour to freshen up before we had to be down for breakfast. You should have seen my room by the time I was done. This is what it looked like when I walked into it:

and by the time I was done with it it looked like a tornado had hit. I'm still trying to get it all straightened out. By the way has anyone seen my other flip flop?!

I have to run - we're meeting for breakfast at 7:45 am. No rest for the weary and all that.

Stay tuned for the next installment where I'll show you how even breakfast is cooked on the barby, and I'll share my adventures with Donk and the Harleys.

Happy Halloween!

It's 5:05 am on October 31, and I'm in New Zealand! We have a three hour lay-over in Aukland before we board another plane to head to Sydney.

The flight was amazing. I was in my own little nest that I could spread out in and not have to worry about disturbing the person next to me. I actually got 8 straight hours of sleep - the most I've ever gotten before is little two hour stretches. Very nice. I don't even feel like I've been in the air for 12 hours. And the food was very good. I had salmon for dinner with strawberry cheesecake ice cream and coconut ice cream for desert.

I did have one strange experience, though. I was dead asleep and woke up to someone touching my butt! I was completely startled and sat up to discover myself face to face with one of the flight attendants. He apologized and said he was just checking to see if I had my seat belt on (yes, the beds have seat belts that you have to wear when you're laying down). I'm sure I gave him my best suddenly-woken-up scowl because he quickly backed away and never came down my aisle again. Am I really that scary when I've been woken up? . . . Okay, don't answer that!

We hit the road running today, so I should have plenty of pictures to post tonight.

Well, I need to get some work done before the fun starts.

Love ya!

P.S. I still haven't found out for myself whether or not the water drains counterclockwise around here. The bathrooms here in the premiere lounge (yes, I'm bragging that I'm sitting in the first class lounge) are all European so they don't swirl, they just empty so I couldn't tell from them, and the sinks had really big drains so I couldn't tell there either. I'll have to wait until I get to my hotel room where I can perform a proper experiment. They do have air freshener dispensers in the individual stalls, though. LOL

Off to Australia - October 29, 2008

Well, the bags are packed, and I'm patiently - okay impatiently - waiting for Susann to come pick me up to head to the airport. I think that's the thing I dislike the most about traveling - the waiting. Ugh!

I thought I would put these pictures on here for anyone that might visit that I haven't shared them with already. I'm flying from LA to Aukland then on to Sydney with Air New Zealand on a 747 in their Business Premier Class. This is what the seats look like:

(The picture's a little warped because I had to shrink it to make it fit. If you click on the picture it will take you to a better version.)

And this is what they look like folded into a bed:



I shouldn't have too much trouble catching some sleep on the flight, I hope!

I've always wanted to fly on a 747, and now I get to. To say the least, I'm a little excited.

I don't know when I'll be able to update and post pictures, but I will as soon as I can.

Love you all and be carefull!