Friday, December 12, 2008

GreetingsFromAmerica

Greetings from America and forgive me if the jet lag hampers my fluency and my ability to edit myself. It is warmer and sunnier than back home in freezing England. Leaving home it was cold, dark and icy, arriving here I was greeted by a smiling uniformed man who greeted me with the words, “Welcome to Los Angeles, we hope you enjoy your stay!”

I know its corny, or as we now say in England, cheesy, but it is much more pleasant than the people at terminal 3 of Heathrow who informed me that I was at the wrong terminal as if I should know this by telepathy. Apparently I am not alone in my ignorance, as according to the United Airline ground staff, this error is being repeated all the time. But no one cares, in fact it seems as if the mistake amuses him or her.

The whole trip is made even more pleasant by the fact that I have finally been able to accumulate enough miles to obtain free tickets to America and been able to do so before the benefits expired!

Arriving early the flight was informed that we would be bussed to another building because “Immigration” was not able to deal with us. It was as if our planeload of passengers were a total surprise to “immigration”, which does seem strange as the flight in question are daily and have been running for many years. But you know what jokers these airline people are. The huge line facing the passengers trying to get through the customs hall proved this. It was as if we were in a huge Disney line with the only difference being that there was not going to be any great rides a the end of the line.

Better organized this ordeal could have been half as long and much more efficient. Official America lets itself down by the way it treats its visitors with such disdain, but it’s still a great place.

Everything was made wonderful when our daughter, Sarah, along with her children picked us up without attracting a parking ticket from the traffic cop hovering over anyone daring to pause curbside for more than a second or two. Now I’m sitting in her living room, trying to adjust to the time difference without passing out but fully aware that I will be awake about 3 in the morning, so it would be good if it could be fun.

Perhaps I should indulge in the Night Cold remedy, which could fix my cough and cold and allow me the chance to simply fall asleep. Forgive me if I sound sleepy, normal service will shortly