Woke up to breakfast on the VA flight (breakfast after 10 hours on a plane never seems very appealing). As we headed into Sydney I watched The Grey (admittedly very superficially with a few periods of dozing off). Overall the flight went pretty well – I managed to get at least a few hours sleep thanks to Unisom – but reports of the older leather seats in premium economy on the VA being a little hard on the butt are totally founded. I found myself fidgeting an enormous amount trying to get comfortable.

When we landed in SYD it didn’t take too long to get through Customs and Quarantine and soon I was out waiting for a taxi to take me home. It always helps to be the first flight to land and I was one of the first people at the border and got waived through without screening.

The drive down the M5 was uneventful at that time and it was good to be home but I headed straight out to get some real breakfast.

It has been a very productive trip – but I am very glad not to have to be back in the office until Monday. Hopefully they will leave me alone.

I was up to all hours last night working on the briefing for Health Workforce Australia and had a little bit of trouble getting to sleep after I finally did get it all finished. So this morning I was glad to get a good sleep in. Indeed it was unfortunate that I actually had to get up to checkout at noon.

When I did I headed downstairs and settled my bill with The Keating and then settled in to wait for the car to arrive out of valet parking for the drive back to LA.

The drive was uneventful. I stopped off at a Walgreens on the way to grab some last minute supplies. Stopping for petrol was entertaining – complete with parking the car on the wrong side of the pump and then not being able to pay at the first 76 station because the automatic pay station needed zip code verification. At the Shell up the road adding a 0 before my Australian post code did the trick.

I dropped the car at Hertz and they were kind enough to drop my off at Terminal 3 at LAX in the E350 rather than putting me on the shuttle bus. I checked in with Virgin Australia quite early and then when I headed to security the TSA guy warned me that there wasn’t much to do at the Virgin America gates.

I didn’t heed his advice and headed through security. Inside it was a ghost town and I wandered around the empty gates taking a few photos before grabbing a late lunch at Burger King. I then found myself a comfortable seat and killed time watching a couple of movies on the iPad as the various VX flights came and went. Crowd watching kept me entertained – but I also made it through both Tyrannosaur and 50/50. Two highly emotional films and not ideal for watching in public.

The flight boarded early and they loaded the ‘premium’ customers even earlier. Felt like we were on the plane for an eternity before it even taxied. So I started watching My Week With Marilyn – a totally gorgeous film and Michelle Williams is just brilliant.

I decided on my usual strategy of trying to stay awake as long as possible and I also made it through Machine Gun Preacher and the god-awful Chronicle after the meal service. I’m going to take a couple of Unisom and try to get some decent sleep. Wish me luck.

Up at a ridiculously early hour this morning and left The Keating to head down to the Gaslamp Hilton for the first meetings of the day. I managed to slog my way through and at the end of the day I had achieved a lot so I cannot complain too much.

After work I headed out to Balboa Park – trying to get in some last minute sightseeing before the trip home. I took sunscreen this time and even purchased a very expensive hat in the gift shop of my first stop – the San Diego Air and Space Museum. This giant hanger is crammed full (and possibly too full) of civilian and military aircraft. Favourite had to be the Blue Angels F/A-18 Hornet. The building it is housed in is interesting too – built originally by Ford for some 1930s showcase. It was styled to look like a V8 engine.

From there I headed over to the San Diego Automotive Museum which seems like a old boys club – with all the old dudes inside polishing their favourite toys.

There are a bunch of amazing buildings in the Park including the San Diego Museum of Man which is housed in this massive gothic building built for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition. There is also the San Diego Museum of Art with its ornamented door and the San Diego Natural History Museum.

Curiously there is the Old Globe Theatre which was built in 1935 as a copy of a Chicago-based theatre – which itself was based on the Globe Theatre in London. The original theatre was burnt down in the 1970s in an arson attack – so the building there today was built in the 1980s and is completely coated in the names of its benefactors.

The highlight of the park has to be the San Diego Zoo. By the time I got up there my camera only had a minimum of battery left. I had left my visit to Monday thinking that it would be quieter – but I couldn’t have been wronger. The place was completely packed. Interestingly (or maybe it is an American thing) the zoo is privately owned. It takes a similar approach to many Australian zoos in that its exhibits are based around particular habitats and they have done a reasonably good job of making some of these seem quite realistic.

From there I headed back into town and met up with colleagues for my last meal in San Diego at a restaurant called Searsucker. Nothing was going to trump last night – but my appertiser of egg + bacon “pork belly” was just great.

When I got back to The Keating I had a bunch of exploratory emails from one of my grant funding bodies that took me several hours to sort out (and I don’t know for sure that I have sorted out anything). I will sleep well tonight (particularly after a couple of Unisom).

Night

Ben isn’t engaging enough to make this a standout

Website: imdb.com
Director: Rob Sitch
Lead: Josh Lawson
Co-Star: Rachael Taylor
Genre: Comedy
Runtime: 97mins
Rating: M
Stars: ★★★

In Any Questions for Ben?, Ben (Josh Lawson) is a 27 year old living the good life in Melbourne. he has a well paid ‘brand strategy’ type job, good friends, lots of girlfriends but nothing to tie him down. There is a fantastic scene in which Ben is grilled by his father (Rob Carlton – who works for Jayco selling caravans) about what he actually does – because he cannot explain it to his mate. Ben isn’t able to give him a satisfactory answer – which is a situation I often find myself in with my parents – but in Ben’s case it is because there isn’t much substance to the marketing jobs he does.

He doesn’t keep a girlfriend for longer than a couple of months; and his jobs doesn’t last much longer. With his mate Andy (Christian Clark) he spends his time planning his next adventure – whether it is nightclubbing or skiing or climbing some mountain.

That is until he is invited back to his old school to join several other ex-students to talk about his achievements. Alex (Rachael Taylor) is a hard act to follow. She is a human rights lawyer working in Yemen and all the kids are interested in asking her questions. When it comes to time for Any Questions for Ben? there are none – it pushes him into a year of soul searching about what he has achieved in life.

During the year he hooks up with Alex but doesn’t follow through; he gets advice from his over the top mentor Sam (Lachy Hulme) and ultimately it is the wedding of his mate Nick (the very sweet – now that he is not a serial killer – Daniel Henshall) and Em (Felicity Ward) that pushes him over the edge to make some drastic changes in his life.

I shall not spoil just what those changes are.

The film is slick and sophisticated when it needs to be and down to earth when required – but the biggest problem for me is that I didn’t like Ben. I liked the people around him but he just never engaged me enough to make me interested in his future. Which is a bit of a let down for this kind of film.

Melbourne looks good though.

Just a short entry tonight because I didn’t get much time outside of work. I was hiding away a little letting my sunburnt skin have a break too. Will I ever learn? Perhaps not.

After work I dropped by CVS to grab some sunscreen so that I can get out of the hotel and not need to hide away over the next couple of days and then headed down to one of the local award winner restaurants called Nobu in the Hard Rock Hotel. Loads and loads of family style dishes for the group – food was great.

Amongst those ordered:

• Yellowtail sashimi with jalapeno
• Washu beef sashimi
• Yellowfin tuna with cilantro dressing
• Salmon tartar with caviar
• Black cod with miso
• Steamed chilean sea bass with dried miso
• Arctic char with crispy brussels sprouts, aged black garlic sauce
• King crab tempura with amazu ponzu sauce
• Lobster with wasabi pepper sauce

Amongst others. More than $1000 for five of us. But so yum.

One of the outcomes for today was a decision on what the Association are going to value my contribution as. Outcome was favourable – although the way that one person in particular hedged his bets really drove me up the wall. Very narky mood – and then having to eat dinner with this individual did not put me in the best of moods.

I have a 6am start tomorrow morning – and have to do a few things before I can get started – so better hit the Unisom and try to get myself sorted out. Need to be up in 5 hours.

A little too simple minded for its own good – but still a few laughs

Website: afewbestmenthemovie.com
Director: Stephan Elliott
Lead: Xavier Samuel
Co-Star: Laura Brent
Genre: Comedy
Runtime: 97mins
Rating: PG
Stars: ★★★

Brit David (the cute Xavier Samuel) meets Aussie Mia (Laura Brent) on a holiday in Tuvalu (of all places) and they impulsively decide to get married. When he arrives home to London his mates are aghast (not only at the fact he walks into his own surprise welcome home party naked). He, along with Tom (Kris Marshall), Graham (Kevin Bishop and Luke (Tim Draxl, head to the Blue Mountains (although the airport in the film doesn’t look anything like Sydney Airport) for the wedding.

The film itself doesn’t take a lot of brain power and the jokes are a probably aimed more at stereotyping Australians in the minds of the British audience than would be ideal – but there are some laughs hidden in amongst this. The most laughs come from the haphazard antics of Tom and Graham including a sheep in drag and the interaction between the the two of them and the local drug dealer with whom they have some misfortune.

The funniest characters for me are Mia’s parents – Senator Jim (Jonathan Biggins and his wife (Olivia Newton-John). Imagine Olivia turning into a coke snorting party girl all while her Senator husband is trying to impress half the Australian parliament at the wedding. The other standout is Rebel Wilson who I actually enjoyed for once.

The film seems to be a bit of a showcase for past and present Sydney Theatre Company actors – with Steve Le Marquand making an appearance as the drug dealer.

A Few Best Men will make you smile without making you think too much about it – a key feature of many Australian comedies.

IMDb

Slept in a little this morning (better get that out of my system since I have work the next couple of days; but the Unisom did its job). This was a day with plenty of time off – so I planned to get out and see a few of the sights around the downtown area of San Diego and along the waterfront on San Diego Bay. So after lying in I headed out to wander around the Gaslamp Quarter.

One of the things that I have noticed about San Diego is that it is largely a ghosttown downtown. There are very few people on the street (during the day) – the only time you come across them is around the Trolley Stations or the bars after dark. As one of my colleagues put it – it is like New Orleans without the art (and if you followed my trip to New Orleans a couple of years ago – it wasn’t my favourite city.

I headed down to the waterfront and started the sightseeing with the Maritime Museum. This museum is interesting – unlike our massive National Maritime Museum in Sydney or the one in Fremantle which includes a vast shed – this one is made up only of the vessels in the collection. The centrepiece is the Star of India an 1863 iron bark. Also included are is the 1898 ferryboat Berkeley, the USS Dolphin – a diesel-electric submarine launched in 1968 and a Soviet B-39 submarine. The collection also includes the replica tall ship HMS Surprise which starred in Master and Commander which gives some insight into how the movie magic was made (eg hidden wheel belowdeck).

From there headed along the waterfront to the next set of docks where the new USS San Diego was being commissioned today. Loads of folks in uniform in a secure area – with the brand new ship (22) sitting at dock. This monster is a San Antonio class amphibious transport dock – which means it basically delivers a full Battalion of Marines and all their gear – wherever they need to go.

On the opposite side of the dock sits the USS Midway which is now the USS Midway Museum manned by a bunch of enthusiastic volunteers. The ship was onces the absolute pride of the US fleet and built during WWII and was commissioned just 8 days after the way ended (seems a bit of a waste); but saw a lot of action during the Vietnam War and the first Gulf War. Famously, she was the scene for a daring escape from Vietnam by a South Vietnamese pilot who loaded his wife and five kids into a Cessna O-1 and headed out to sea. It was only fortuitous that he came across the Midway and was able to convince them to move a helicopter on deck to allow him to land (they originally wanted him to ditch at sea – not knowing his kids were also on board). The captain – unable to get some helicopters off the deck in time decided to push $10m worth of UH-1 Huey choppers over the side so that the family could land. The Cessna is in the museum and its a brilliant story.

The museum itself has a great collection of aircraft from various ships and some of the old guys telling stories are great. It does get a little claustrophobic down in the bowels of the ship – but I guess that is a telling lesson about life on ship.

I walked back to the hotel after wandering through town and grabbing late lunch at IHOP Express. I downloaded my photos and showered before having to head out for an early dinner at the aptly named Red Light District with colleagues. I had a great asparagus and onion soup followed by a rib eye with duck fat confit marble potatoes, grilled asparagus and wild mushroom. Was very nice.

Got a little bit too much sun wandering around today – so lucky that I’m working most of the day tomorrow to give me a bit of space. Need to head off to CVS to grab some sunscreen before heading up to Balboa Park on Monday. Loads more still to see.

Up early this morning before leaving The Keating to head out to do some work. I only had a couple of things to get done this morning ahead of my main meetings on Monday. It didn’t take me long to get things organised and then I had the rest of the day to do a little bit of a driving tour around San Diego.

I started to the north with a drive up to one of the US’s most expensive suburbs – La Jolla. It is just north of the CBD and is a really pretty part of the country. It has a feel of being a small beachside community even though it is just 20 minutes or so up the road. Drove around and checked out some of the amazing real estate – before stopping off at the beach and having a wander around some of the public buildings.

From there I jumped back in the car and headed down to the south of the San Diego CBD to the other beachside community at Coronado. This area is on a peninsula opposite the CBD and is connected to the city by the amazing Coronado Bridge which is 3.4km long. It had to be that long to get the bridge high enough to let the many US Navy vessels to get through. The area itself is also bloody expensive and fairly nice. The local beach has been voted as the second best in the US and on the beach front is the imposing landmark of the Hotel Del Coronado – known locally as ‘The Del’. It was opened in 1888 and in the 1970s was named a National Landmark – being one of the oldest and largest wooden structures in California.

A big thing you notice driving around is the huge presence of the Navy in the city. From Coronado I drove down the coast to Imperial Beach – the southern most beach community in the south – indeed from the community you can easily see Tijuana and the place was full of Customs and Border Security vehicles. Along the way I passed Naval Amphibious Base Coronado and the phenomenal looking Silver Strand Training Complex which is known locally as the ‘Elephant Cage’. It is called this after the Wullenweber located there. What is a Wullenweber? It is a large circular antenna used for radio communications – and the way that the US Navy used to communicate with with submarines – dating back to 1920. These days it is used for amphibious and minesweeping training on the beachfront. Of course anywhere you look in San Diego Bay you see warships as well.

In the early afternoon I headed back into town. I went for a little wander around the Gaslamp Quarter to see what was in the neighbourhood. I had to stop off at CVS to stock up on all of those items that I can’t readily buy back in Australia – like Melatonin and Diphenhydramine. Always a priority on any visit to the US.

The diphenhydramine should come in handy tonight with The Keating hosting some kind of subterranean nightclub under the hotel which seems to be open until about 2am. A little chemical assistance with sleep will help tonight.

So the Virgin Australia flight landed at LAX about 20 minutes early. I really did find the whole thing more comfortable and the crew did a great job of making sure the lights were down and gave us the option of rest – but I really struggled. I got about 6-7 hours of very lights/disturbed sleep. One manifest problem of my industrial is the fact that wearing noise cancelling headphones that engulf the ear become uncomfortable after a while – and I end up sitting listening to all the snoring and other noises in the cabin that everyone else is quite happily blocking out.

We arrived at the Delta terminal and I discovered yet another quirk of the VA experience. The Delta Customs and Border Protection area is bloody bloody small. Fourteen counters only (compared to around 40 up at the terminal where QF arrives); and today they were only manned by about 8 attendants. We were told that two flights had arrived at the same time and there were around 700 passengers to clear – so the entire group of passengers on VA1 were put into a holding area and triaged into the main hall for processing. Its interesting though, because I looked at the LAX website tonight and the only other international flight to land at Terminal 5 was the Delta flight from Sydney 3.5 hours earlier. What was apparent was that they were letting the US passport holders go straight through while holding all the ‘visitors’. They then pulled those with priority screening out of the queue; followed by those on international connections; follows by those on domestic connections – before allowing us ending our journey in LA to proceed.

When I did eventually get to the front of the queue; the CBP agent processing me took a phone call and then sent me back to the line because she thought it was going to take a while. The next guy who got my forms thought I had stuffed them up because it was partly written on. He asked me questions about my employment status; whether I had a job to go back to; and if I was actually paid for this job I did. Good for the self esteem.

While all of this screening appeared manifestly inequitable and to take forever; I was actually out of the terminal in around 24 minutes (quicker than it often takes in SYD and I arrived at Hertz about 30 minutes before my colleague who had landed 30 minutes before me. So seems it was just my post-flight mood that was making it all seem to bad.

Grabbed the E350 from Hertz and was soon on the 405 heading to San Diego. The city itself it the 8th largest in the US and the second largest in California – but it is actually a compact little CBD.

I found The Keating mid-afternoon and checked in. Cute little place. Polished concrete floors; shower open on to the room and Bang & Olufsen appliances. Decided to vege out for the afternoon and try to stay awake to reset my body clock so that I can get stuck into stuff in the morning. No harm in a little bit of relaxation though. Looking forward to so some quiet time during this trip.

Time to head to bed.

Shows all you need in a good documentary is character

Website: theparkinglotmovie.com
Director: Meghan Eckman
Lead: John Beers
Co-Star: Chris Farina
Genre: Documentary
Runtime: 74mins
Rating: PG
Stars: ★★★★

That’s the kind of building that Jesus would have collected parking fees from

Who would have thought that a documentary about a parking lot would actually make for interesting viewing. In the film the attendants lament the fact that some people are so rude as to pretend they don’t even exist – and its a fair enough criticism. How often do we think about these kinds of jobs – I know the only time I have ever really given it any thought was to feel sympathy for the poor person locked up in a tiny box for days on end.

The parking attendants in The Parking Lot Movie are probably not your average attendants though. They work in The Corner Parking Lot in Charlottesville, Virginia. It backs onto the rear of a bunch of restaurants and bars and the campus of the local university. This in itself is a recipe for interest – with a clash of classes played out in the lot. Add to that the hiring strategy of the owner – who tends to employ anthropology graduates and arty types to man the place. This just adds to the attendants attitude when they are spoken down to or ignored (or worse still someone tries to argue or drive away without paying). To be honest – these are the most fun parts of the film!

The documentary takes us through a bunch of the attendants about their motivations for working there and their experiences. Much of it is horror stories of the rude and argumentative people who use the lot. But like any job of this sort there is a lot of time for goofing off and the boys (they seem to all be boys) at The Corner Parking Lot seem to have made hanging out an art form. And the product of hanging out is often art. There are collages made from ticket stubs, art on the boom gate, fliers turned into poetry. Despite the low pay it made it sound like a great place to work.

All in all this is quite a refreshing look at an occupation you might never have given much thought to. Well worth checking out.

IMDb

If kids ever needed reminders to lock their windows at night this is it

Website: imdb.com
Director: Alex Zamm
Lead: Larry the Cable Guy
Co-Star: Erin Beute
Genre: Comedy | Family
Runtime: 90mins
Rating: PG
Stars: ★

The problem with films like Tooth Fairy 2 is the fact that it relies so heavily on Larry the Cable Guy. If you hate the guy (which I do) then the whole thing is a worry from the outset. Add in that the original Tooth Fairy wasn’t that interesting and you know you are probably in trouble before you even get started.

Going straight to video is probably the place for this. Larry the Gable Guy plays (believe it or not) Larry who is a guy who just hasn’t been able to grow up and has has just pissed his girlfriend off enough for her to dump him after he stops off when they are heading out to win a local bowling trophy. A year later he finds out that his ex is now engaged to local businessman turned politician – his arch-nemisis.

Essentially the plot is the same as Tooth Fairy. He spoils a kids belief in the tooth fairy and is punished into having to collect 10 kids teeth to make up for his disbelief. The only difference between the films is one is full of muscle; while this is full of flab. The outfits they put Larry into are just appalling.

Ultimately this is a kids movie – so it is unfair to expect anything complex. It was also made on a direct to video budget – so for what it is – it isn’t too bad.

Up very early this morning because I still had some washing to finish drying before I headed off to work for one of my main committee meetings ahead of my flight to LAX in the early afternoon. The meeting was uneventful and indeed finished early so I was able to head home and finish packing before my Southwestern Cabs vehicle turned up. Everything was a bit rushed and I spent most of the day trying to work out if I had left something behind somewhere.

My cabbie was this interesting (and chatty) dude from Lebanon who has lived in Australia for 45 years apart from some brief stints in the US and Canada. He absolutely loved Australia and was thoroughly sick of people who whinge about the place or put the place down (Tony Abbott included). Was quite an enlightening trip only made dost interesting by the fact that a car had broken down on the M5 and we crawled half the way.

Arrived at Sydney Airport and quickly checked in using the Premium counter. I have swung my loyalty away from Qantas/Oneworld after last year’s ridiculous strikebreaking shutdown and am flying all my trips this year with Virgin Australia (and affiliates). Indeed I’m on my way to having Gold Status with Velocity by mid-year and Platinum by renewal in September. Ideally VA will join Star Alliance at some point and make my frequent flyer experience a little more complete.

All of my current travel plans of course are contingent on the Association properly funding all of the trips I have to make this year and we will working out the logistics of the on Sunday night LA time.

With no lounge access at SYD I wandered around the terminal for a while and took a few snaps. I was happy to see the 777 at the gate was the only one in the VA fleet that has been painted in the new livery. This told me that the aircraft is the one they have recently refitted the interior of – adding additional padding to the Y+ seats which reportedly were a bit hard on the butt after 13 hours in their original form. I still can’t say they are the most comfortable things but still better than QF. It is amazing what an extra inch or two of space will do for you.

Another unique feature of VA is that you have never seen so many shaped eyebrows on boys in your life. If you thought QF flight attendants were camp – you ain’t seen nothing. Service was generally attentive but a little pompous at times.

I settled in to watch a few movies on Red. I watched the quite good Joel Edgerton drama Wish You Were Here which follows the events of a disastrous holiday to Cambodia; followed by British/Australian comedy A Few Best Men. Absolutely loved the ridiculous roles given to Olivia Newton-John and Jonathan Biggins. I also checked out the deplorable Tooth Fairy 2 and the Working Dog talent showcase about a dude going through a quarter life crisis – Any Questions for Ben?. All typical plane viewing fodder – nothing outstanding and only one appalling option. Red is great – no ads, on demand, available from boarding – its only drawback is that it is a bit limited in terms of content. I’m not sure I will have anything to watch on the way home.

Gunna try and get a bit of a sleep before LA. A long drive when I get there.