So, here I am

Safely ensconced in a motel in Oceanside, which is closer to San Diego than to LA central. Seems a pretty enough place so I'm not too bothered about it. Plus there's a train line close by so I can easily get to LA if I need to.

All in all it took almost 24 hours to get from home to the motel check-in. A fair bit of that time was spent standing in queues at Melbourne and LA airports.

The flight was drama free but quite uncomfortable. I didn't have an aisle seat and access to the aisle was limited due to Aisle Man sleeping most of the time. Man in front kept leaning his seat right back too, which further limited my space and movement. If I have any funds left at the end of this adventure I might upgrade to a better class to guarantee a bit of space.

LAX is enormous. I walked for miles before getting out of the place.

Taxi driver at LAX didn't know where Oceanside is so I ended up getting a shuttle bus to my motel. Pricey but it got me here. Best Western Oceanside Inn, Oceanside.

Watched a bit of French Open tennis and snoozed a bit once I got to my room. Have since ventured out to a supermarket, Ralphs, to get milk and a few other bits and pieces. They use that awful coffeemate powdered muck here to make white coffee, so I bought some proper milk. Alcohol at Ralphs is cheaper than the duty free price offered on the plane. No duty free shopping at LAX - maybe for departures there is, but nothing for arrivals. Strange.

I keep looking the wrong way to check for traffic when crossing the road. I'll just get used to checking things the wrong way round in time to go to England and have to switch back to doing things the right way round!!!
So much traffic here. Already seen one freeway pile up this morning.

Motel is comfy and has enough space for me. I have a little balcony, where I sit to have a smoke. Couldn't work out why the view didn't look 'foreign' until I realised..... the trees are all Eucalypts. Came all this way to see the same trees as in the backyard at home. Go figure :)

It's got dark here now so I think I'll just veg out for the rest of the night and venture out tomorrow after a decent sleep.
To paraphrase Pink Floyd, "I've got 76 channels of shit on my TV to choose from."

So far have taken no photographs. Hope to get some tomorrow. Might start with the Eucalypts :)

The bath tap is dripping. I can hear it without the TV on. Must get them to look at that as it'll drive me nuts. Saw more wastage today with a bunch of sprinklers being used on roadside grass. Don't know anyone at home who waters grass anymore.

So here I am. So far everything's cool, no dramas. Early night beckons and then I'll start venturing out tomorrow......