DAY 205 WEDNESDAY 2nd April 2008

Los Angeles, CA (Miles to Date: 20100)

Last Sunday we received an email from British Airways to tell us Laura’s flight back to the UK from Los Angeles had been cancelled. This was not entirely unexpected as we had read about the problems they were having back in London at the new Terminal 5, where Laura’s flight was due back into. Luckily we were able to get her on the same time flight on the following day but it meant staying an extra day in Los Angeles.

Mark is a long suffering air traveller and has experienced delays and cancellations for a myrriad of reasons so does not get so frustrated when things don’t happen as planned when it comes to flying, so he was phlegmatic about Laura’s flight changing. But worse was to come!!

Before leaving Maui we had half a day to do some more exploring. En route to the airport is the largest sugar production plant in Hawaii, and a museum – the Alexander and Baldwin Museum. Samuel T. Alexander and Henry Perrine Baldwin, were the founders of the company in the 1870’s. The museum is a testament to the significance the sugar industry played in the development of Maui – immigrant workers travelled from all around the world; China, Japan and Russia to name a few. This flood of immigrants created the diverse, cosmopolitan communities we now find in Hawaii. The museum is small but perfectly formed and has a wonderful collection of exhibits, papers and photographs across the years. We also get to see an interesting video that explains to us the process by which sugar cane is planted, grown and processed. As we are leaving the museum the lady behind the front desk just happens to mention that Aloha Airlines had stopped operating the day before. Well as you might have guessed we were flying on Aloha from Maui back to Honolulu to catch a connecting flight back to the mainland. Panic time!!! As it was now lunchtime and we were concerned about where our next meal was coming from we quickly detoured to Costco to pick up a snack meal from the food bar there and beetled our way across the Maui Airport, not knowing what was in store for us. As you can imagine things were very confused but fortunately for this day only Hawaiian airlines were honouring Aloha tickets so we managed to get onto an earlier flight than planned across to Honolulu. Of course in all the panic we had forgotten a few of the basic principles of airline travel – like removing water bottles from our hand luggage so we got a bit delayed going through the security checks. Karen suspects that the ban of liquids through security is a plot between the airlines and water and perfume companies to boost flagging sales – who knows ,such conspiracy theories often have some basis of truth in them. At least we were lightly dressed being in the tropics so there were no 20 layers of clothing to remove as there would be in New York at this time of year.

Having made it to Honolulu well in time for our connecting flight we started to relax, and the flight was even running on time. So we were happy when we were in our not -so- comfortable seats on the Continental flight back to Los Angeles and pulling back from the gate.

Not so fast!!!

The plan stopped taxiing and sat there for several minutes – we sat there patiently expecting that there was some air traffic control issue or some other relatively mundane factor preventing our take off. So we sat and sat. This flight was very full so we had been split up. Mark had the unfortunate pleasure of being seated next to two young teenage girls. Even as we taxied one of them managed to throw-up (fortunately into a sick bag) and then proceeded to make a joke of this with her friend by wafting it continuously under her nose. At times like this Mark is glad to have no sense of smell, closed his eyes,and turned up his iPod volume to drown out their inane conversation. We prayed for a quick resolution to the problem, but no such luck! It was a technical problem and after a good number of minutes of the pilots trying to clear the problem we had to return to our gate. There was a problem with one of the sensors connected to the fuel pump of one of our two engines (four engine planes always give you more comfort in such situations) so the technicians were called out. They continued to work – but things were looking bad. In a moment of compassion or more likely a matter of safety while they tried out the repair work by running up the engines we were allowed to disembark the plane. Now Honolulu airport at 11:30pm does not have much to offer, with all the retail shops locked up and workers safely at home tucked up in bed. In fact it was a ghost town apart from us poor travellers and a few, marooned airline staff. The prospect of another night in Honolulu loomed. Luckily the technicians performed their miracle and the problem was fixed and we cheerfully, at least as much is possible in the context of 4 hour delay on an overnight flight, returned to our seats. This boarding was, as you might expect, total mayhem as we all shuffled back to our positions in no particular order. It might have gone better if the surly Continental flight crew had been more helpful with people trying to carry their sleeping children and possessions back to their seats. Eventually all were on board and we finally took off. By this time we were all knackered and could not even bring ourselves to watch the in-flight movie – Mr Magorium's Magical Emporium, starring the wonderful Dustin Hoffman.

Four and half hour later our ordeal is over and we land in Los Angeles at 7:30am, having had little or no rest. Thankfully our bags turn-up and we catch the shuttle to the long term parking lot to retrieve our car. Wearily we load our bags, climb in and turn the ignition. Nothing!!! We try again …. Not a peep from the starter motor. The battery is totally flat. Amazingly very few expletives were used at this point – we were too tired to even swear. Karen managed to find a kind man who worked at the parking lot who fetched up his battered Datsun and we managed to jump start the car but soon as we removed the cables the engine died. So it was time for the cavalry so we called AAA and they sent out their recovery man – who ,to his credit, was with us within 15 minutes. A man of few words (perhaps he had just flown back in from Hawaii as well and was consequently grumpy) he got us started and we followed him a few miles before pulling over and pointing us in the direction of a garage. It turned out our battery had seen better days so it was time for it to go to the great, but environmentally safe, battery dump in the sky, and for it to be replaced by a newer, younger model to take us on our way.





So now firmly on terra firma we have now a day to kill in Los Angeles but to be honest we are too tired to do anything so we chill out until we can book into our hotel room in mid-afternoon. Soon as we get into our room the bags are dropped on the floor and we hit our beds for a couple of hours snooze. When we wake it is about 6pm and we are getting hungry. Our plan is to go to a restaurant we visited last time called C&O Trattoria down in Marina Del Rey by the beach. This is a pasta restaurant, but does the nicest bottomless garlic balls appetiser and an honour system for the wine – also the atmosphere is fantastic as it is always busy. At one point during the meal they crank up the volume of the entertainment system and put on the classic song “Amore” – everyone sings, Jack and Emily particularly like the line “when the moon in the skies reflects in your eyes like a large piece of pie … Amore!”. The waiting staffing have at this point stopped serving and are mingling amongst us with a glass of wine clinking glasses and saluting with the patrons. A good end to a long day.