DAY #1 - The Flight

17th June, 2009 - 11.55am

As I write this, I am currently half an hour out of Brisbane flying at a pants seam-shredding 924km/hour at 9.4 km above the Pacific Ocean. The first thing I must remark upon in this situation is the intense entertainment device mounted into the back of the chair that is in front of me (and the guy in the chair just tilted his chair backwards, thus bringing this LCD screen thingy even closer to my face). The touch screen system allows you to listen to music and watch films all at the touch of a button. An on demand system for almost every taste. It even has a public text chat room for bored passengers to text-talk to each other in between meals!

The plane is pretty full of people from all nationalities. For some reason the Captain in his welcoming address said that because we're flying through US airspace for the majority of the trip, the Dept of Homeland Security requests that we're not to gather in groups on the plane. Obviously, aisle parties are now well out of the question!

All I can see out the window now is a few clouds and nothing but ocean. As I write this, we're 376km away from my World Secret Headquarters and some 11180km from LA. As I scoot away from the eastern coastline of Australia whilst rocking in my seat due to the turbulence, I've chosen to listen to Powderfinger's "Odyssey Number 5"" - a somewhat fitting rock musical tribute to leave my home in search of adventure (and sound recording craziness).

17th June, 2009 - 7.46pm

Have managed about an hour and a half of sleep so far, despite setting my wrist watch to LA standard time in an attempt to acclimatise to the timezone. It's too noisy in this plane for me to sleep, plus the young child behind me is about to experience pure terror if he kicks the back of my seat one more time!

It's now 4.5 hours until we arrive in LA. I can't wait to get out of these miniaturised seats and hit some solid ground. I'm finding it hard to believe that it'll be 7am when we arrive. I've got some serious sleep to catch up with as I only had 3 hours last night after enjoying a sausage sizzle (and a visit from the kind guys at the Windsor Fire Station who had a call out to where the sausage sizzle was at due to all of the smoke from the barbecue... no joke).

17th June, 2009 - 06.10am (Los Angeles Standard Time)

Cue the time warp! This day has been going on for almost 36 hours due to the international timezone thingies.

Approaching the rising sun after flying literally through the night across the Pacific Ocean. There's just under an hour until we touch down and my feelings of apprehension are being replaced with genuine feelings of excitement. I've had to fill out a plethora of US Customs paperwork to hand in to the customs officer as we enter the USA. I am now

17th June, 2009 - 09.38am (Los Angeles Standard Time)

A non eventful trip through US Customs (for me). One of my colleagues had mandarins in his back and was stopped by security man and his sweet sniffer Beagle, which provided some amusement for seconds on end. I feel a tad bit off my face due to sleep deprivation. PARTY TIME coupled with delerium!

Across the Pacific in a North Easterly Direction...

I've always been the sort of fellow that has felt that unless I have explored every nook and cranny of my wonderful homeland of Australia, I have had no need to travel beyond these shores to visit our global neighbours. I've been asked to go to Mongolia and China for work however I turned these opportunities down in preference for a warm cup of tea in my home.

That is up until now. I've taken on recording sounds for a feature length documentary called "My America", and in a little over 15 hours after posting this blog entry, I'll be sitting back on a Virgin Australia Boeing 777 and enduring mind-snapping 12 hours and 55 minute economy flight (or there abouts) to the throbbing madness of Los Angeles International Airport. From an Australian winter to an American summer. From a city of 1.77 million people to a city of 9.62 million people.

Now, I've never been a good traveller. In fact, I pretty much hate leaving my home - even if it's to head up to the shops to buy a kebab (although I love a good kebab, and they are worth leaving home for every now and then). I am an ultimate home-body, a computer slave, a lounge room captain and a backyard adventurer. Every now and then I've had to head away from my secret world headquarters in the name of earning a buck, and whilst I've had fun on these various experiences over the years, I've always been comforted by the fact that if worse came to worse, I could always walk home. There is no comfort in knowing that if worse came to worse this time around, I'd have a very long 11,550km swim.

None the less, after a week of very good counsel from very good friends, lots of loving support from my sweet Lisa, plus the eventual formation of a solid plan from the production company I'm working for - I have turned my emotions from dread to those of extreme excitement. Mind you, I'm having to take the odd Temazepam to relieve feelings of anxiety. Hey, I'm a first time traveller - so I reckon I can be forgiven for having pre-travel jitters.

I've got a US media Visa so I can swing my boom in the streets of the USA without fearing imprisonment. We are visiting Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington DC and New York city to mention but a few places - but I'm pretty sure it'll be 31 days of intense documentary shooting action. I found out today that I'll have Internet access for the duration of the trip, which is fantastic - thus hopefully I'll be able to take those two or three people who read my blog along with my for a textual journey (which will hopefully be accompanied by the odd photograph or two).

Until then, cheers - and I'll catch you from the other side of the Pacific Ocean as soon as possible!