Where in the World Is Alan?
I left at 7 am in a stretch limo for Boston. Traffic was horrible and almost two hours later, we finally arrived at Logan Airport. (This is why I make it a point to leave much earlier than is required almost all the time.)
A redcap arrived at the limo’s trunk before I even opened my door. He informed me that as of one week ago, American Airlines can curbside check any bag to any global destination. Five minutes later he had checked my passport and Australian visa, and marked my bag for Chicago, Los Angeles, and Sydney. (Let’s hope a later post here reflects its positive fate!) He was great. I tipped him ten dollars and he actually gave me a slight bow. He then directed me to the first class security line, inside.
Security required about five minutes, and I settled into the Admiral’s Club, about a minute from my gate. I began writing, was advised by Flight Tracker on my iPhone that my flight was slightly delayed (which was a lie), and charged everything I own that has a power cord.
I was served a burger (my choice) in first class, and we bounced all over the skies coming into Chicago, where it’s been raining and is seriously overcast. A lot of flights were cancelled. I had allowed a three-hour layover, just in case. But my LA flight has left on time. I’m not writing this at 36,000 feet, waiting for my dinner—an enchilada—and munching on cashews with my vodka tonic. This is a big, honking 767, and the seats are so complicated that in attempting to open the tray table I knocked over my seatmate’s drink glass which, thank the fates, was empty.
I plan to write two complete book chapters during this 10-day trip to Sydney and Melbourne, which will finish my co-writing responsibilities with Omar Khan for our new book, Who’s Got Your Back? I’ll then have a four hour layover in LAX until my Qantas flight on the giant A380 to Sydney. I’ll hang out in Qantas’s club, which memory tells me is pretty good.
My lap top is plugged into a seat power strip. I have three books on my iPad I plan to finish during the trip. I’ve just finished the outline for the Art of the Referral Workshop on November 30 in Newport (it’s going to be fabulous, almost 100 percent experiential). I think people will be quite pleased with it.
Dinner is coming, I’ll be back later. Right now I’ve been awake for 12 hours and have been traveling for 7 hours.
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I was waiting for the rest room and talking to three of the flight attendants when a black dog walked through our gathering. It was a service dog we had seen board the flight, but his vest was off (“working dog”) and he is clearly not meant to wander the aisles! I’ve never seen this before. I wonder if he was looking for a fire hydrant.
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I’m ensconced in the Qantas first class lounge, Huge assortment of food, which is tempting but a bit of an overload since the flight will have all kinds of food. I read somewhere that only 1,000 Americans fly to Australia on any given day, which is considered quite low. (The plane holds about 500, but obviously not solely Americans.)
I tried to get on Hulu to watch some TV on my computer, but I was told that they aren’t allowed to broadcast outside of the country! I guess this must be Australian soil within LAX!
I’ll travel roughly10,000 miles today before I’m finally in a conventional bed again. Yet I watch the airport bus drivers transporting us between terminals late at night, and the security people at 24-hour airports, and the employees of concourse shops open until midnight—and I realize that their day is a lot more wearying in a lot more ways than mine, despite traveling halfway around the world.
I changed money outside the club, and for the first time in 30 years over 16 visits, the Australian dollar is stronger than the US dollar. My compliments to the Aussies!
I’ll be back here tomorrow, if I don’t sleep the entire day.
© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.
