Uncle Traveling Matt: Arrival in Southern California

May 19, 2005

Arrival in Southern California

View of Downtown Los Angeles from the window of a Air Tahiti Nui A340

Well I'm back in Southern Cali again, and hot damn, it's well... it's really really hot actually! It seems a lot warmer than last year—and you have to worry when the temperature gauge in your friend's kitchen says 30°C when it's only 8:30 in the morning! lol.

The picture to the left is of downtown Los Angeles on approach to LAX, from the window of the Air Tahiti Nui A340. I have however photoshopped out most of the haze/smog to make it look a bit nicer ;)

Still getting over a slight case of jet-lag at the moment, and the cold I seem to have caught en-route thanks most probably to the recycled cabin air. Planes up until the early 70's actually brought in fresh air from outside the aircraft, which is better for you than mountain air and 100% sterile. However, to cut fuel usage and costs during the 70's oil crisis aircraft started to be designed that recycled the cabin air. The Boeing 727 incidentally was the last plane made that used 100% fresh outside air.

Intermission in Tahiti was good, (no Tangy Fruits though I'm afraid), what little of the place I saw was very nice—definitely want to go back there for a proper stay at some stage. The airport terminal is kinda funky looking, think a cross between island huts & gardens and the Hamilton airport from the early 80's, and you'll get the general idea. One thing I did notice though was Tahitian French is a lot slower than that used on the mainland. I could easily follow the conversations I heard, although I didn't understand all the words—really need to do some French vocabulary building before I head back that way!

Currently I'm staying over at my friend Mike's apartment up in Sherman Oaks which is north of Beverly Hills and in the San Fernando valley. It's the same suburb where the singer Pink lives, if you wanted some useless trivia, lol :) I also happened to see a squirrel running along power lines outside the window today, but he (or she) had scampered away by the time I got back with my camera! So I didn't bother posting my squirrel-less photo of the alley way behind Mike's house!

The place is fairly nice considering how expensive it is to live here, though the lack of air-con is a bit of killer. Food here is really expensive too, I don't remember it being this bad last year, although I was eating at friends' places a lot—it's about 3-4 times the cost of what the same item would be in a Pak'n'Save back home! Now where did I leave my "Will Work For Food" placard, hehehe, lol :)

The meat here there also carries the reassuring message: "May contain bacteria that can cause illness", good to know, not! ...needless to say, I'm cooking the meat I bought extra-well-done, lol!

I'd forgotten that the everything in American is big, and back to front—switches here are down for off, and up for on. The stove and fridge in the kitchen are huge, a good metre and bit wide. Amazingly though, Mike's fridge is remarkably empty. It did however contain a large punnet of mushrooms, LOL. In the week before I arrived, not knowing I was bringing my own, Mike also bought the small 50g jar of Marmite pictured beside mine; it cost him USD$8.00! (about $11.50 kiwi) ouch!!

Got quite a bit of work stacking up at the moment, so it'll be back into that tomorrow. Till next time, later and have a good one :)

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Posted by Matt at May 19, 2005 1:11 PM