About half the people wanting  to come home have been put on a 747 they have found. We are luckily on this flight but its going to be chockers.

Our flight was to leave at 2:00 PM so we got to the airport about 11:00 AM we went straight to the lounge to continue last nights hospitality…We have been given a special private room in  the first class lounge.very special, handy the people you know. Pop diva Diana Ross had this exact room to herself just hours ago.

So much free beer and food…time keeps being pushed back, that means more time for enjoying the hospitality. First 2 then 230 315 and now 445 pm…Its starting to become a long afternoon, …its 3:14 and we are on Ashai no 13, and that’s not counting last nights fun….think we will sleep well tonight.

Don’t need any more beer,, better start getting into the complementary bourbon!!! – Makers Mark, Jack or Jim…lets do some of each!

At this rate, it looks like we will get into Tullamarine at some ungodly hour probably 2 or 3 am…be fun trying to get home.. might need to visit the all night bar for a few hours!

This picture shows our poor old Scarebus A380 going no where.

As there was nothing happening tonight we decided not to wait in the long queue to find a hotel and go get one ourselves. We found a cheap hotel a few blocks from LAX airport. Plenty of beer and bourbon in us so we easily some sleep while the others searched for something much more luxurious. Its not going to be easy at  2:00AM boys.. who needs a choice of pillows at that hour. We took the best option, we  didn’t have to sit and wait with 500 whinging and unreasonable  Qantas travelers and we didn’t end up in the ‘special’ (and we mean ‘special’)  hotel like our friends  found an hour away, it was much better our own 90 bucks and move on.

The story of whats happening is a bit sketchy, the ground crew dont really know whats going on.  We see another Qantas 380’s land this morning and it too is grounded here at LAX.

We still have no idea when we will be moving. the internet news suggests a 747 is being organised… The Australian news sites seem to know more than the ground staff here. I would doubt we would all fit on so it might be an extended stay.

They eventually announced that they had found a 747 to take us home, looking at it, I think it came from the aircraft graveyard.

**Footnote to this story, Qantas sent us a $600 voucher for all awful the pain and suffering they put us thru..mmm stuck in the first class private lounge eating food and drinking free beer and bourbon… The tragic hardship we will take many months to get over.  Life’s hard, now we need to work out where our free holiday will be!    Only real issue was my luggage came home two days after me.

We left the complementary mini bar and headed to board but only boarded a few rows before they grounded the airbus due to some engine bits falling on some poor Indonesian’s head. So its back to the Qantas lounge for some bourbon and Asahi… looks like we are here for the night? Australian web and TV is telling us more than Qantas… they have just said we have a delay. news.com.au says we are here for at least the night….. spose I better go back to the bar! and Gary was disappointed he never tried the Mc Ribwich…. might be breakfast if we don’t see a breakfast burrito first.

Went for a drive down the coast, beautiful blue skies, I have never seen Los Angeles like it, every time I’ve been here it is full of pink eerie smog. the coast is so blue and beautiful… it’s about 30 degrees. We hit a monstrous outlet mall with plenty of bargains.. forgetting the US dollar against ours, things are so cheap, shoes, t shirts, jeans all the brand name… filed all our bags and headed to LAX  to catch the big A380 for the ride home. Goodbye USA

Location:World Way,Los Angeles,United States

We decided the best bet for us was to hire a car and drop back at the airport. That way we would have somewhere to keep our bags and get around. we decidedto go for a drive down disney way and check out he disney downtown area…it was a bit crap but was worth a look. A couple of the others were planning to go to a shopping centre close by and they had a limo organised for $280, we felt sorry for them and put them in the back of our Camry.. There was some lovely cucci and cartier stuff in the boot on the way back…. very tasteful.

Back to the beverly wilshire on rodeo drive for a steak and back to the rooftop bar for beers, and a cast of…dunno.. lets just say a cast.

We showed one of our guests around hollywood while the others were sleeping off their hangovers and working out what to do about their lost titanium credit cards, missing bank funds, nite club booth fees etc. Well back to hollywood, we walked the walk of fame, saw the kodak theatre where they have the oscars, saw manns chinese theatre and even spiderman…thats all there is in hollywood..the rest is pretty crap. It took 7 mins, someone spent 5 times that in the cap shop wondering whether to buy a red one or the blue one. We finished with a trip to universal studios city walk which is a touristy collection of fun shops cafes and bars..we found the brewhouse…yummy the evening we caught a steak at the beverley wilshire ( the hotel from pretty woman)..very fancy on the corner of rodeo drive and wilshire. Our hotel was only up the road and had a great rooftop bar and pool….great place for a nightcap or 17.  This photo is the rooftop pool…pretty flash!

well we nearly did it go the whole trip with out crap american beer, there are some delicious beers over here but they are not the mainstream miller, bud or coors. being in the microbrew districts of washington and oregon gereat beer was easy to find. i still remember this black one which was as black as a black dogs,..well you know where im heading, it contained coffee and some fancy real dark chocolate..delicious.. other beers we have enjoyed are fat tyre, an ipa vstyle beer and blue moon which i his magical pale ale which includes coriandar and orange peel..it a bit like hoegarten but better, its served with a slice of lemon. prices are pretty good they have usually been cheaper than aus, and they come in big pots or scooners for under the price of our pot. they dont do slabs at take awat there are dozens but 6 pac is the go..even a shitty 7/11 will have 30 varieties. vegas..well you can pay $8 a beer plus tpi and tax in a fancy bar..or go to one of the not so fancy and pay $1 ..good to wash your 18 inch $1.29 hot dog down with. vegas you can even drink on the streets and they do..8 am you will se some girls sucking on a metre high eifell tower shaped margereitta or a guy drinking beer from a gallon bucket which cost him about 5 bucks…ypu just wonder how they will be looking at midnight. the 21 drinking age is stricktly enforced everywhere,, we have even had to sho age id on a few occasions…make us feel real good.

well back to our first bud…there free so they dont count..so making the best of hem. in th airport lounge..fantastic free beer (and we go ther 4 hours early) free food and nibbles and best of all a shower where we can freshen up berore we jump on the big double decker….hope it works better than the qantas one which we just watched make an emergency landing in singapore a few minutes ago….

Well we finally hit Vegas.. and met up with the boys (bad bad boys) we had a collection of ‘special’ friends and a heap of their friends.. the two of us saw some of Vegas unlike most of them who hit the nightclubs til dawn then bed til sunset, there were a few very sad and sorry boys leaving Vegas on Monday morning for a 10:30 flight… nightclubs closed at 7…. little wonder some of them were asleep all Monday arvo and most of Tuesday…. bad bad boys.

Vegas is an amazing place, and totally over the top, you would go mad here if you are here for more than 3 or 4 days the excess is out of control, and it attracts every type of person from the battler to the mega rich and everything in between. Its fun to watch the glamour gold digging aunties latching onto anyone they think is rich. This is the halloween weekend so things are even crazier, with many people wearing costumes… some quiet elaborate and some containing less flesh cover than a hanky.

The new hotels are out of control we are at the wynn, they have 2 new rolls royces on hand for limo service, they domt move for under $300 and that would only get you to the corner. rooms are huge with 2 king beds, huge panaramic windows and even a tv in the bath. but not as flash as one of the guys suites, has a huge bar, mirrors on roof of lounge room and a massage room..why i dont know. Most of the hotels have luxury shops like dolcie, cucci, rolex, lois vouiton.. etc ours has even has ferarri dealership and has every model on display.. cost 10 buck to enter but they took it off the $600 000 price of the car if you purchased one.

We caught the Beatles Cirque du Soleil show again at the mirage..it is truely amazing and no one visiting vegas shold miss it. We saw it when we were here 2 years ago and it has lost none of its amazement. The music with 7 speakers a person, the stubts and skills of the performers and the magical technology is breathtaking. Sunday night after dinner at the german hofrahaus we went to another Cirque du Soleil show at new york new york, this time it was a very X rated burlesque caberet show but the almost nude performers were incredible with there acrobatic skills. compared by a drag queen who looked like a taller liza minnelli and cast of near naked women and guys with socks planted down the front of their dacks to inhance the bulge, and even an acrobatic dwalf the show had it all. Probably would have been more suitable for couples instead of three guys (one dressed in a firemans suit for halloween). Talking of couples ther were two very pretty boys just down from us who made a speactacle of them selves with very exotic halloween costume, a few ostrich feathers, a little sparkly pouch covering the rude bit (nothing covering the butt) stars on the nipples and a cape… very interesting.

Went to an aussie pub in Vancouver known as the moose down under. Here is our pie and chips. VB was available but we went with a local brew.

after two misrable days the sun is out and what a great day it was…we took a drive up what is the most scenic route i have ever been on (no joke) to the winter olympic town of whistler. the drive took about an hour and the scenery just got better and better as the sun burnt away the fog and cloud of the last few days. its the off tourist season and things were very quiet but the weather was beautiful although crisp, snow on peaks for sight seeing only and the colored autumn leaves were amazing…dont know why it wasnt packed with tourists…not that we were complaining.

we took a boat ride on a tiny ferry to granvile island which was one an industrial island, today it has transformed into a great fresh food market and a lot of arts and craft centres. we found the breweryand sat down to a delicious pumkin ale…yes pumkin ale…but the silly liquor licencing rule would only alow one beer per customer….bummer