Yesterday I flew out to LA from Heathrow on what can only be described as the most secure flight ever. You had to go through security as normal, then had to put your shoes through a dedicated shoe scanning machine, then get your passport checked again. If that wasn't enough, at the gate itself everyone had to empty their bag, get frisked and had their shoes inspected. That's about double the normal security measures!
The flight itself was fine, although I didn't get any sleep. We got to America without actually crossing the Atlantic; we went via Iceland, Greenland, Hudson Bay and Canada instead. Seeing all the endless sheets of ice was a surprising bonus. I watched The Shooter on the plane, a mediocre action blockbuster and Without a Trace.
A few things made me chuckle. First were the portrait photos of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney in the walkway which you walked down as soon as you landed; I can't see us putting Blair and Brown photos in Heathrow! On the CBS channel on the plane there was a documentary about global warming, which helpfully assisted those viewers who weren't aware of the most basic geography, "In Antarctica, at the bottom of the world, ..." There was also one question on the visa waiver form which was bound to catch out anyone who's up to no good, "Have you been involved in, or are currently involved in sabotage, espionage, or were you involved in any way with the atrocities commited by Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945?".
So I went through customs with no problems, then got a shuttle bus to the hostel I was staying at in Hollywood. The driver was pretty friendly, he was from Belize and had been in the US for about 10 years. Anyway, it took about 30 minutes, but only cost $13, which was a bargain compared to the cost of a taxi. The hostel is pretty basic, but it's cheap and centrally located. By this time my body thought that it was 5am, so I went straight to sleep!
