Wed 24 August - we got two!

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24 August 2011 0845 (LA time) (25 August 0356 NZ)
I now have no chance of getting back to sleep on our Auckland – LA flight… around 3 hours till we reach our destination!! The excitement is setting in AND there is also the fact that I am sure they will want to feed me some kind of breakfast/lunch (yes I prob mean brunch!) between now & our arrival at LAX! Surely?
So so far so good really, we started out from Invercargill Airport approx 30mins late – let it be mentioned however that Trac was first at the airport (& her bag was UNDER weight – 19kg!)! Our first flight (ingill – chch), we joked inside the terminal that the real life criminal that was travelling on this same flight would be seated next to Ruddy in her full on body cuffs… nop behind trac & i!! provided us with some interesting conversation to listen to however!!

From the outset we were going to be left with no time at any of our connections – the departures board at Auckland International had us almost shopping & sitting down for a beer until we heard that it was the final call for our flight!! NO purchases to report of yet!!
I have decided that there is a definite plus to being a first time long haul flight travel – 9hrs in & there is still novelty in this for me!! LONG may it last, somehow I doubt it will. They bought around dinner and I wouldn’t be surprised if nearby passengers thought that the three of us had never had options of what we wanted to eat OR drink for that matter ever before!!
I swear that I have the sole heater that heats the entire plane underneath my seat!!! This has made sleeping with the provided blanket (which they obviously have given me as protection from the bogey man who might be on the flight too!) rather uncomfortable. Between the 3 of us I think I have gotten the most sleep – everytime I wake up trac is awake… cant wait to see her after a bit of shopping and drink this evening! Light weight!!!

Ill post this wee snippet from our hotel in LA… before we go SHOPPING!!!!!!!!!! (I have only bout 13.9kg to the other side of the world with me – 9kgs worth of shopping I can eventually get back with me, the rest I guess ill have to post!!

24 August 2011 1156 (LA) (1856 NZ)
Back in our hotel room & all set up in our beds… rock paper scissors for who had to share with trac (no idea why Rudz & I got a bed each to start with but oh well im ok rolling with that one!) then we get home in to bed & im a big fat loner… dammit! Haha trac is still within reach to whack should her cute snore get outta control! Phew!
GREAT day in LA! Love love love this place – ok so some of the people leave a bit to be desired but it is warm (apparently the weather is ALWAYS like this – oh wouldn’t it be the dream to live somewhere like that!!!), there is some GREAT shopping, happy HOURS are from 4-8 everyday and the food has been AMAZING!
We finally made it through customs & then the slight panic when we couldn’t find trac’s 19kg suitcase (turns out it was the with “irregular size” luggage!) and made it to our hotel! Around 26 degrees celcius when we arrived! We walked a km or so in to the shopping area of Santa Monica, grabbed some delicious Japanese (Wokcano) for a bargain during a happy hour!! Sashimi yellow fin tuna… just a wee bit though… is that that one that we are running out of?
After a light snack we started on the shopping – only purchases was makeup! Oh the Sephora shop is AMAZING! IF you know what you are after, otherwise it would be HORRIBLE!!! Bought everything you were after Kendyl minus the set of mascaras – gutted cos your right I totally wanted them too! – got myself a lot of new stuff too which was great and only brands I can’t get easily at home… got the ‘blue eye’ palette instead of the smoky one… LOVE it!!!!!
So anyway, we headed up at another happy hour that the girls spotted while I was getting makeup – 2 for 1 LARGE cocktails! All with tequila unfortunately but Ruddy managed to survive it! It was at that I did my first bit of work whilst being on holiday – actually second, I did work on my Wednesday in NZ as well!!! So anyway ran in to a couple of NZ guys at the same bar who were touring through California on Harleys – one of them has a modelling software program hence the work related drink I had to endure – gave him my card Russell, he’s gonna be in touch!

Our main issue at the moment is the +tax +tip thing – ugh who would have thought this would have been so difficult for us? Haha we had a ‘we’re not in Invercargill anymore’ moment in a taxi too… I can’t get over how the taxi drivers over here are so keen to tell you they have had a quiet day & haven’t been doing much, Invercargill ones would gladly lie about this to you when you attempt to strike up a convo! Thought trac was gonna give one of them a black eye!

We ended up eating dinner at the end of the Santa Monica Pier at a Mexican Restaurant called Mariasol – great service, very decent food for the price & a awesome view of Santa Monica! The Mango Margareitas are good too!

Called in & grabbed a bottle of wine at a roof garden bar that looked a bit fancy from on the st – turns out the service was TERRIBLE! It has been great cos it seems like everyone around here is on holiday with us, everyone just cruises, no one is in a rush, not even on the roads, but when you are waiting on someone who is being paid to do something for you to actually do it it is infuriating!!!!!!!
Tomorrow morning we are doing a tour around LA itself, we’ll grab some lunch at The Ivy which we located after we had dinner on the Pier, then a few hours to fill in before we are off to London! Not excited about the plane ride but heck it will be great to finally get to Ibiza!!! Cant wait to catch up with the girls!
Right a night of sleeping horizontal this evening – can’t wait! Hope everyone is good wherever you are reading this – next stop Ibiza!!! xxx

PS) so its only day one & we have already decided we could all live here... at least for a little while! i think we will suffer MANY more revelations like this one!!! would however take a wee bit of getting used to LA's vacum FS system - feels like we should be on a cruise ship or aeroplane everytime you go to the bathroom!!!

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Comments

[anonymous]

Hi just lovely to get your blog keep up the good work hope you all have a great sleep, we are all fine, lots of love.

[Manda Maree]

is this you mom??