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I was surprised at how easily my eyes opened and I was able to jump out of bed at 5am after less then 4 hours sleep. Turns out, I must have been more excited than I realised...(either that or extra anxious at the thought of missing an international flight.)
At about 6am, the car was packed with our luggage and we were off. My mum, dad and Tilly drove us to the airport. Tilly began to become sad until I was able to point out the circus Grandma would be taking her to the next day and the next part of the car-trip was filled with Tilly animatedly describing the circus acts she would see such as "clever catties, dinosaurus-rex, and modore-bykes!!" - she told me how she would walk on top of people's heads toward the front to clap, and she demonstrated with three strong claps.
It wasn't too long before we got to the airport. Grandma and Tilly were very helpful with helping me wheel my luggage, despite their combined fragility, god bless their cotton socks! I got a pang of excitement when I saw our flight on the departures board. I'd always hoped one day I'd look at that board and know that a flight to LA was for me. I daresay, I felt quite glam.
We got our luggage checked in and it was time to farewell my baby-girl before walking through those international departure doors. I got a good cuddle and wave and she coped quite well apparently... I can't say the same for me, who had a bit of a cry once we had walked through those gates to the other side.
The queues on the other side was my first insight to Aimee's impatience with lining up. I joked that she was that person at the supermarket that if she's more than a 2 person wait at a checkout, she's the one remarking to other customers, "Are they going to open another register? - you know they really should open up another register! " Aimee even lied about having a pen to a stranger so we could get to lining up in the next bit sooner.... I could not, ... I had my pen in plain view... I'll admit , I did however , pretend not to hear the next pen-forgetter pen request so I could line up sooner with my pen on my person.
Relieved to be on the other side of the other side and in duty-free land, we sampled some free sips of this and that and made our way toward a quick Asahi before heading to our gate to catch the biggest plane I've ever been on! - An airbus- A380! - a double decker!
Once we headed into the boarding-tunnel-thingo, that's when it hit me. I truly believed it to be so. I was really going overseas again!
The plane trip was long, but here are the highlights as follows.
- I learnt that "Welcome Drink" is a fancy Qantas term for "lemon cordial" , -We scored two lovely plane buddies in our centre section next to us. Two more nurses, which meant I was surrounded by nurses, one on my right and two on my left. I would be well looked after if anything were to happen. - A nice surprise to see one of my bosses, Kristy was also on the plane :) -The intrigue of travelling back in time, back through sunrise, then night, sunrise and morning again. I did forget my almanac though, oh drat! -Frozen Bounty Bars! , oh yum! , at one stage during the trip, when all travellers were in a dreamlike state, the air-hosts delivered a delicious version of frozen bounty-bars to us all. I had to check with Aimee that such a delicacy did indeed happen and it was not just a dream. Indeed it was not. They were delicious, and not of the texture I have ever had before, from another realm I am sure.
Finally we arrived in LA for our dramatic finish to the trip.
Customs in LA. I'd heard they had no sense of humour, but after our experience, my humour is beginning to lack too.....
I would have thought we were some of the less threatening of the bunch awaiting processing in customs. People of all different walks of life, got processed, no problems.
It took a long time for Aimee and I to make it the front of the line, and there was still quite a crowd behind us. We must have looked very threatening with our poler muscles, dark hair and blue eyes. My theory, is they may have thought we had something tough planned and specialised in Krav Maga.
We had let our plane buddies go ahead of us because they had to get their luggage and get on a plane to Mexico in less than 40 minutes. They checked in to the desk together, no problems.
When Aimee and I finally got our turn at the desk the customs officer started off by asking us two questions in one sentence.
"Are you travelling together, are you family? "
Aimee answered yes , to "we're we travelling together" and I answered "no" to we were not family. ... and this is where the drama and interrogations began. The custom officer became instantly suspicious that we "had different answers"- he wanted to know "how we knew each other?" , "why were we travelling together?", "what was our intentions in the US?.. etc etc"
He again asked how we knew each other and how long for. We said we were friends. I answered that I wasn't sure, maybe at least 6 months? - We knew each other through a friend" - we were then further tested us by asking Aimee when my birthday was? .. He became angry when she couldn't tell him my birthday....further questions, further intimidations and we were in the nervous babble stage. The long flight and exhaustion had not helped our plight for coherent assertiveness.
Quick survey - "Who knows a new friend's birthday after only knowing them a short time? " , how bloody ridiculous!
Like naughty schoolgirls, we were separated and told to stand and wait whilst they processed the rest of the long customs line, and we were not under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES to talk to each other! They would deal with us soon......but, ...Oh golly! - how I needed to pee, but couldn't. We had to wait until the rest of the crowd had been processed, before they then decided to deal with us.
I'll admit I became concerned when they flitted a husky female guard within the group and I saw her nodd, eye me and say, "I'll deal with it" - I feared that I might have to submit to a finger up my butt strip search if I wanted to get in to the country, or at the very least a squat and cough. Things were starting to get frightening....but then she disappeared and the first grumpy-bum that double-sentance-interrogated us at the desk commanded me to follow the group of guards and Aimee, (but NOT TO TALK TO HER!! ) Oh dear, I thought, ... what now?
More than four guards marched us down separate escalators to collect our checked luggage and then through the door that says "do not enter".... I feaked out. This is it. Guantanamo Bay, here we come. It was HELL intimidating. Poor us!
Behind the "do not enter" door was just a room with a bunch of mini-conveyor belt and desk areas. Thankfully it was not the secluded, sterile, rubber gloved room I feared!
Aimee was marched far enough up to at least three conveyor-belts away to not be in earshot so as we could not "conspire"..
They searched our luggage and further questioned us, separately, to double check our stories. Eventually the original grumpy bum must have returned to back up to his grumpy desk.
(*edit- I've since found out, they only searched my luggage but not Aimee's?? - am I the dodgy one then? - oh crapstix! - , ... um,... I still got it?)
Then , laughably, the rest of the guards seemed to be having a good giggle that we were in the country for a pole-expo, one guard wanting to know if I could teach him some moves? - I told him, "no, I couldn't - I was there as a tourist, and not to work so he should know better than anybody that I couldn't" - as it turned out, Aimee told me later they were telling her they thought it would be fun to go to the Pole Expo too. Had they wasted an extra hour of our journey all for s***s and giggles??... well I hoped they liked my sexy underwear and pole shoes... I have a feeling they might have, expecially since I wasn't allowed to shut the case straight away after the search...
Gah!
Anyway, after all of that and finally making it through customs much later than all else, we were feeling pretty over it, decided to treat ourself to a cab instead of a shuttle and came straight to the hotel with view of the Hollywood sign. Glad we did. The cabbie was lovely and the cab smelt nice too, that's always a bonus.
It's good to finally be at our hotel. A blonde american lady I met in the lift with her small toy-dog informed me I'd missed out on the filming of "Shameless" that day in the hotel, but all the same it's nice to be able to finally rest up. Time to relax with a budweiser and then off to see Baby Daddy filmed this evening at CBS studios.
- comments
Dee What a hassle, but how exciting all at the same time. Living vicariously through you, Sha. Have a freaking amazing time!
Sha Hi Dee! we should aim for this next year! https://www.facebook.com/pages/East-Coast-Pole-Cruise/333224110086194?fref=ts We can take our kids too!