disclaimer:
since this is my blog, what you are about to read is vacation larry’s account of the events related to larry and linda’s adventure in oz. please note, that the opinions expressed may not represent those of lz. furthermore, i take no responsibility for any advance story telling. if you are linda’s friend, and would like to get the lz version of the story before any other (as she would like it), please contact her and arrange a suitable date for said ramblings.
otherwise, read on….

thursday, january 19, 2006
day 1 – travel day
the reality is, thursday was just a continuation of wednesday, and a mad dash to get everything organized for the trip. I did a quick weigh in of my luggage, just to see what I was at…a limber 25 kgs….no idea what linda’s was like, but it was likely slightly less since her bag was significantly smaller, and well, she’s a smaller person. at any rate, it was clear that both of us had overpacked, but since we didn’t really know what to expect, everything came with us. I had checked the limits on quantas, and our requirements didn’t seem to bring any issues.
my bro drove us to the airport, when we finally headed out – probably about45 minutes past the originally agreed to time, but we got there with no issues.. check in was not really an issue either, sdince we went straight to the airport. we then settled into our favourite / only place to eat in terminal 3 international – the dreaded “friday’s”, a dumbed down version of the us chain “TGI Fridays”. everytime i have been on vacation in the last 5 years, I believe I have left from terminal 3, international, and have been subjected to fridays for food, since there is no meal service on the plane. as usual, and as mentioned, we failed to get to the airport early enough to get food at another establishment. so down went the crappy burger. linda decides that there should be some last minute calls to work, and she takes care of business on the pay phone.... i wonder if this is going to be the trend over the whole holiday...hope not...

finally on the plane, and I am once again reminded of why I hate flying american (which quantas has code-shared with for the Toronto to LA flight, instead of running their own plane). crappy service, crappy seats that are squishy, etc etc. at any rate, we made it to LA safe and sound, so I guess we need to give them credit for that.

so now we are at LAX, and originally, we had planned to meet up with dave and monica at the airport and grab some “dinner”, since it was now suppertime in LA, and we had a 3 hour layover before our 15 hour non-stop express to melbourne. it became clear to us after checking in, that we would only be able to meet for 45 minutes or so before we’d have to go back into the secure zone, so we nixed that idea. its kind of a good thing, because the next few hours were some of the most hectic I’ve ever experienced…..

first, we decided to stop off and eat something at the food court, since it was unclear to us when our next meal would be, and we were told, that we should stay up for the first 7 hours of our flight to melbourne. so we get to the food court, and both of us realize, that we have no US dollars. we had gotta Australian, but neither of us had the foresight to think that we might actually need some US cash. we then realize that, surprisingly, the dirty japanese place in the food court takes credti cards. nice! saved!

so then, it is mission #2. I had a canon USA rebate form that I wanted to mail from the US, since you are supposed to be residing in America to get the rebate. so I wanted to take no chances and ensure the stamp was a US stamp. oh crap. wait. we have no USD. so I ATE IT and went to the ATM and took out some cash. as finance geeks, I know you want the numbers, so I looked them up and here they are. the trading rate that day was 1.1719. our rate from the bank was 1.1977, a fairly reasonable 2.6% markup (or $1.50 for the 60 bucks). I’d expect the standard credit card exchange rate to be about 2% marked up, so this wasn’t too bad, and considering the small withdrawal, it doesn’t amount to much. but wait! we got hit with an international ATM fee of $3.00. on my $60 withdrawal, that translated into a net mark up of 7.6%. let the unexpected expenses begin! in the fever of looking for US cash etc, I decided to open up my overly stuffed backpack. sifted through some stuff, and closed it back up. more on that later.

figuring that the airport is one of the usual place for buying last minute postcards, writing and mailing them, I figured LAX would be no problem to buy stamps and mail them. try again. we looked everywhere and there were NO places that sold stamps, and no mailboxes on the LAX premises. they had plenty of postcards, but no stamps, and no mailbox. however, the stranger part was that when we went to the first vendor, and asked if she sold stamps (which I have bought at plenty of convenience stores in the us before), she looked at me like I was some sort of deviant. she told me, “ain’t no mailbox here. no, no stamps heya…”…ok lady. so we went to the next store down, and he was slightly more helpful….they used to sell stamps, but not anymore. maybe information has some, but definitely not the stores. off to information – he helps confirm with us that there is indeed, no mailbox in LAX, and no stamps sold anywhere. but that there is a post office about a mile down the road. we can’t walk, but maybe take a cab and get him to wait for us. he was slightly concerned and asked us how much time we had. we figured we had about 1 hour now to get there and back, a fairly comfortable time, and enough to give it a shot. if you are wondering, it was a $600 USD rebate, and needed to be postmarked before we got back, so it needed to get done. so we go outside to grab a cab. go to the taxi stand, and ask the first guy in line to drive us to the post office. he LITERALLY IGNORES US. I ask again, and he motions us towards a cab that has just dropped someone off….ask him…..ok – so I guess he doesn’t want the small fare….fine….so we go to the next cab….slightly more helpful…..it’ll cost you at LEAST $20 to go there and back…starting cost is like $4.50, and the waiting time etc….BUT, its right beside the hertz rentacar lot, so why don’t you just grab the shuttle to the hertz. Linda was slightly concerned with the use of rental car shuttles for reasons that I couldn’t understand, but in the end, we decided it was our best option – given it was free, and direct to the area we wanted. when we got there, I realized what Linda was concerned about….car lots at airports are usually in lockdown. you can’t exactly easily walk from the side walk into the lot. conve3rsly, its not too easy to walk OUT of the lot. its usually got some barbed wire and fences, and this was no different. so we’re walking around the lot, wondering what the hell we should do. fenced into a parking lot and time ticking to get on our plane. I want to hop through the open gate when the shuttle goes through, but Linda refuses, since she doesn’t want to get in trouble. finally, I ask the hertz person, and they tell us to go through the BACK gate….so we walk to the back, and have to walk all the way around the lot, cross the road, and get to the post office. probably around 30 minutes passed at this point, so things are getting a little tight.

we go into the post office, which is quite large, and the queue is at least 6 people. there are about 3 people at the desks assisting customers, but apparently, these are the 3 slowest people ever to work at the post office. time ticks off, and I look for the automated stamp machine, and find it, but the dollar bill part of the machine doesn’t work….so its back to the line…tick tick tick…more time rattles off, and some people, who had gotten to the front of the line, and then were sent back, because they don’t know how to fill out the forms, jump the queue in front of us….i am in near panic now, as there is probably around 50 minutes now til the flight LEAVES. finally, our turn, we buy our ONE stamp, mail the damn thing, and dart out of the building, run across the road, back around the parking lot through the back gate, and just MISS the shuttle going back to the airport….shiet….look at my watch….feeling OK, since there are 45 minutes to go….but still not great….since we have already gotten boarding passes in toronto for this flight, its just a matter of going through security….

we get back to the airport, consider taking a picture with the info booth guy who helped us, but decide there is no time….so we head to security…they look at our boarding passes and tell us that we need to RE-CHECK IN with quantas….WTF? what is the point of checking in in the first place if we have to re-check in….retarded….so luckily,. no line, and we get through in another 5 minutes, and get through security, about 15 minutes before boarding….we worry slightly about our baggage, which could have been withheld, since we didn’t check in til late, but since its out of our control, we just sit and wait.

finally on the plane….and exhausted….we haven’t even started going to Australia yet and having retarded moments….oh what will this trip bring?

photos: 5
cash inefficiencies: $4.55