BOS to SYD via LAX and NAN

Apparently airlines are able to change the scheduled departure time without informing their customers. Our 11.30pm Air Pacific flight actually left at 10.30pm. Our Boston flight was delayed by about an hour due to some comical baggage handlers who thought it would be fun to put the bags on the plane, take the bags off the plane, then put them back on again. This was actually caused by a deluded passenger who thought she mistakenly put something in her bag she shouldn’t have.

Whoever flew the plane from Boston to LA is my hero. He got us into LA by 9.30. On arrival we were confronted with a plane blocking the gate but he barreled back around and into an open position and we were free and at the Air Pacific counter by 10pm.

Interesting side point on human behavior; there were 6 people on our plane that had to make the very tight Air Pacific connection. The flight attendant, sympathetic to our plight, suggested that everyone should remain seated while we rush to get out of the plane. Not one person remained seated.

So we walked right onto the Air Pacific plane at 10.15pm and off we went. And here I am, somewhere halfway between LA and Fiji. Despite the cramped conditions, I can’t completely open my laptop and it’s slicing my gut in two, I am a very happy person. Avoiding the potential hell of losing two days of our vacation in LA (no offense but LA just isn’t a city I want to be stuck in) almost makes me want to thank Someone.

We accidentally had a pair of scissors in our carry on baggage that were completely overlooked in Boston but picked up in LA. Guess Boston isn’t the model of TSA screening after all. One other thing the Fijian flight crew is obsessed with my blackberry, but worried that since it functions as email, internet and telephone it is the ultimate flight radio disruption device. I was just asked whether I thought turning it off was enough. I guess I could offer to open the door and drop it out. I need another whiskey.