A Long Way to Bed

London-Washington-Chicago-Los Angeles: 24 hrs in planes to bed! (In Malibu though, which is some consolation) 

I arrived in LA later than scheduled as my D.C. - L.A. flight was overbooked, and after I sprinted through Dulles airport to catch it! So after re-routing through Chicago, and with a $200 cheque in my pocket (compensation - can you believe it?!) I rejoined my bags (which had been searched - maybe they were slightly concerned by the axe?) rented my lovely car - a Chevy Malibu, and gingerly took the freeway through the dark city to... Malibu! I saw the name of the car in the car park and could hardly choose anything else, could I?

I was amazed to discover that once my paperwork had been processed, Alamo let me loose in their car park to choose whichever car I wanted from the compact section - none of which were compact cars! So I've got a nice big boot - er, I mean trunk.

All was not well on the motel front, however. Even after being up for 24 hours straight, my body was still thinking, "It's morning - I don't want to sleep!" - a situation which was not helped by two things: thin walls and teenage partyers for next-door neighbours! 

So there I was at midnight, feeling like such an old man/responsible (grumpy) adult, but I got up and knocked on their door. The kid who answered was apologetic (like he was being told off by Dad) and said they would keep it down. They didn't, but by 1:30 relative quiet was mine to enjoy. Hopefully a peaceful resolution can be found today...

So here I sit, having just eaten eggs benedict (a plate the size of Mars) for breakfast, wondering how I'm going to live here for three months and not double in weight. However, the sun is shining, the food is tasty (and plentiful) and I'm ready to enjoy my first day on the ground in the land of nips and tucks...