and back again.
back in australia – at least for the moment. 
last day in san francisco was shopping madness – clothes are so very very cheap over there. i also manged to find another bottle of absolut new orleans, as well as an elusive bottle of absolut red (absoluts’ old overproof vodka) – sky high prices, but i figured i probably wasn’t going to get another opportunity. last stop was at the borders shop on union square for reading material .. i ended up getting wicked – a story of the life and times of the wicked witch of the west – by gregory maguire. it’s a pretty good read! 
somehow i managed to pack all of this in to my suitcase and lug it through the rain to the bart station, then on to the american airlines check in desk at sfo. the tsa queues were mercifully short this time, and i once again found myself in the broom closet admirals club at sfo for pre-flight drinks and nibbles.
the flight to lax was delayed (big surprise there), but otherwise uneventful. i finally worked out how to get to the tom bradley international terminal building, got through the second round of security checks and was completely disappointed with the duty free selection. good thing i had already made my purchases! after wandering around the terminal for a good 15 minutes, i finally found the qantas pub – up an unmarked flight of stairs. had some dinner and a shower – possibly the best thing you can do before a long flight – then wandered downstairs to the boarding lounge when the flight was called.
the flight itself was uneventful, but about 3 hours before the flight was due to land the pilot came on the loudspeaker and advised we’d be diverting to sydney, as there wasn’t enough reserve fuel to get the plane down safely if we got caught in a holding pattern above melbourne. fun!
finally got off the plane in melbourne and had an entertaining discussion with the nice customs man about how much alcohol i had with me (375ml over the permitted limit). he grumbled about it for a bit and then decided to let me go, but told me i wouldn’t get lucky a second time. whoops!
it’s weird spending an entire weekend at home – first one in over a month – but it’s sure good to be back.
- zac.