And so it began...

With only 1 hour of sleep, a mad freak out as to whether or not I had packed everything, and a sudden isolation of all my limbs, (possibility that the move was beginning to affect me) I was on my way to the airport.

Let me introduce you to the first sibling to enter my blog - Mathew - AKA - Gumby!

In true fashion, Gumby had been left behind, so deep in sleep, one of my sisters prodded him (or for better choice of words - thrashed him) over the head with a broomstick to get a response, and still no movement. So we left without him. Of course, in my isolated limbs freak-out I was not aware of his absence until we were well on our way, and I was not sure if I'd get to bid him farewell or not.

Bags were checked easily enough, considering I had packed right up to the maximum of 23kg per bag! New camera was purchased through duty free (keep posted for some fab pics to pop up here over the next few days) and we (Mum, Kate, Bec, James, Dan, Vic, Will, Razo & Steph - but no Gumby) parked ourselves at a restaurant to say our final goodbyes over a few glasses of bubbly.

Mum was giving her final words of advice, "don't wait to say goodbye to Gumby, he won't get here in time & you need to utilise the free Qantas Club pass I gave you."

Gotta love my Mum. Always thinking about what's important, right before I leave my family for God knows how long. As it so happened, I did miss out on the Qantas club, which meant missing out on any food passing through my mouth at all that day.

My flight was boarding at 12.20pm; it was already 12.05pm and Gumby had called to say he was hopping out of the cab NOW! This gave me 15 minutes for final goodbyes, customs, bag search, picking up duty free purchases, and running to the gate!

I made it in perfect time. But no Qantas club = no food = STARVED!!!

With only 1 hour sleep from the night before (or should I say that morning at 5.30am) I was out like a light half an hour after take off. Only waking up at the smell of food a little while later. It was the best plane meal I had, and I'm still trying to work out if it was because I hadn't eaten in about 16 hours, or if it really was good plane food???

My usual consecutive movie marathon was far from that. I kept falling asleep through every movie I started, managing only to watch one full movie, I love You Too. So much better than I was expecting.

I had slept through so much of the 14 hour flight that my arrival in to LAX came very quickly.

$65 USD to get myself to the hotel. I managed to get an early check in at 12pm. I opened my computer to send word home that I was safe, however mid-email I had crashed and was out like a light, with sprawling limbs over my MacBook, and my neck propped in a horribly twisted position, (which I regretted later that day) and I did not awake until 4.30pm that afternoon.

1st day in LA...gone...