Arrived in San Francisco
I haven't slept in a bed since Thursday night in Australia. Is is now some 51 hours later, and Saturday evening in San Francisco. After running out of time getting things done Friday night, I finally rushed out the door of Teds just after 4:30am on Saturday morning. The ol' Pootrol was kind enough to reluctantly transport me to the train station with a full minute to spare, leaving plenty of time to remove the high tension lead to enable the immobiliser. A train trip, much coding (I swear most of my development breakthroughs occur on the Newcastle-Sydney train), security, customs, delays, sudden sleep attacks, more delays, several movies and quite a few whiskeys, I arrived in Los Angeles, which proved once again, to be a horrible introduction to America.
The ever-helpful rent-a-cops, I swear were all talking in Ewokian. Try it for yourself, say this in American accent, Ewokian: "What you'll have to do for me is walk around here behind me and just keep walking.", "Just keep walking?", "Just *keep* walking.". Helpful... perhaps she could smell the Whiskey on my breath? At least they're (excessively) proud of their jobs...
After navigating LAX, settling into a taco breakfast (my meals since leaving have been lunch, breakfast, breakfast) with more packaging/sauce/napkins than I had luggage, I snuck onto a plane bound for SFO. San Francisco is an excellent airport, efficient, sparse, clean and easy to navigate. I took the driverless AirTrain (unless you count my silly sole sitting right up the front making train noises and rally-driving the corners) to the BART (Bay Area Rail Transport I think) to San Fran city. As luck would have it, the first street I wondered down coincided with Mason St, and I walked the copy of blocks to the Hostel.
Checked in, and keyed up, I found my room and met two of my room mates, Yu and Cody. Like the many meals I'm looking forward to, I was coated in oil, and enjoyed a much needed shower. I've now made my way to the conference building, the Moscone Center, registered, picked up my bag of freebies, and am now taking advantage of the free wireless. First task was to tidy up some loose ends on my computer at home - I'm unlikely to read any email sent between 4am and now, until I get back. I'll probably read most of it from now on.
I must say, I don't believe QANTAS is worth the premium they charge. I've had much better service from Japan Airlines and New Zealand Air. I wonder how I would have enjoyed my original intention of flying China Air via Taipei. Oh well, all good in the end. I'm here, and things are looking good. I've made contact with lots of old and new friends already, and am now, really looking forward to the conference starting. I must remember to write about my recent impressions of America soon, but for now I have to get back to the hotel, change into some pants that dont have a gaping hole in their arse, and meet up with some Aussies for tea.