Our 1st Proper Halloween - Universal Leg **COMPLETE 1/10** About This Page:

[Big Sister]

Our PTR (including introductions) can be read here

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Wednesday, 26 September 2012: The day we had been waiting for all year

Woke up at 4.30am and couldn't get back to sleep, as my phone was sounding its low battery alarm. While I was up putting it on charge, I turned the TV on to the cartoon channel, which was playing the jazz radio station till 6am, so I couldn't hear any weird noises (that's the effect watching so many horror movies has had on me ), and just layed there. The time went surprisingly fast.

My alarm was set for 6am, but I ended up getting up earlier, as Kib was on super early shift and I wanted to say bye. Once he had gone, I got ready for the day Nest and I had been waiting all year for, and attached name tags to our luggage, secured the zipper tabs with locks, and gave Johnny our contact numbers for when we'd be away. I was tying some bright pink ribbon around my suitcase handles, when I heard Johnny, our driver for the day, bimp his horn. Apparently I was taking too long - he had places to go and people to see after dropping us at the airport.

Suitcases piled in the back of the car, off we set for the airport - a jollier carload of people you wouldn't have been able to find that morning. Random conversation topics brought on by the excitement of the trip, included:

· Johnny telling us how our young cousin, Laura, had screamed the place down when he had pretended to eat one of her Burger rings;
· I tried telling Johnny (as Nest already knew) that that morning, Louie had drawn a pelican. He said, "What?!", to which I repeated myself so loudly, the cyclist outside would've been able to hear (Louie is a cartoon about rabbit who draws pictures. The show has a really infectious theme tune, which Johnny can't stand me singing. As it was, that morning I was doing impressions from Pinocchio, and he told me to shut up );
· While Nest was txting a friend, his predictive txt wanted to write cheesebale instead of cheesecake. Since when has cheesebale been a more regularly occuring word than cheesecake?! Cheesebale doesn't even appear in my dictionary! ; and,
· At one stage, Johnny beeped his horn for fun, and a woman walking a dog turned around really quickly looking really guilty, as if she had been up to something.

As we drove along through peak hour traffic (it was 7.30am by this stage), I thought how lucky we were to be setting off on a wonderful adventure, while we passed people waiting at bus stops for transport to work or school, where they'd most likely have a pretty ordinary day.

Johnny dropped us off super fast at the airport, only stopping to help us unload our luggage, as he didn't want to be hurried on by the security guards on duty. I saw the look of mischevious delight in his face as he literally leant on his horn once in the safety of his car, before driving off (the horn echoed really loudly in the space we were in.)

Canberra Airport has changed so much since I first started travelling back in 1998. Even in the two years since I was last there, it was unrecognisable to me - it all used to be so nice and simple! It wasn't self-explanatory where to go on entering the building, so I had to ask. There was no line waiting in the direction we were pointed, which was good. Even better, was that none of our four suitcases (yes, four suitcases for just 19 days! When we went for six weeks last time, we only had three suitcases - go figure! ) were overweight, so we thankfully didn't attract any surprise excess baggage fees like last time. Luckily, I didn't have to pay any excess baggage fee on myself

Luggage taken care of, we set off in search of gate number two. No gate number had been printed on our boarding passes, so the staff member had written it on our boarding pass. Before going through Customs, we stopped off at the Currency Exchange for some Mexican pesos, but they had none in stock.

Thank goodness we had plenty of time till boarding, as we spent around twenty minutes looking for a non-existent gate! The staff member had mistakenly written two instead of twelve - I found this out when finally thinking to look at the information board. Nest and I got a window seat at our gate, where we sent txts to family and friends while waiting to board. One of my favourite songs from my youth was playing over the radio at the time - Rush by Big Audio Dynamite. This definitely added to the excitement of the moment. Nest had a chicken mayo sandwich for morning tea, but I was surprisingly not hungry. We looked quickly through a newsagent for puzzle mags and reading material, but decided not to make any purchases till Sydney.

We boarded our flight to Sydney at 9.30am. It was a bigger plane than we're used to for this kind of route (we're used to a really tiny one.) We were seated in the middle of the economy section. We had the row of three seats to ourselves, which enabled us to look out the window without feeling self conscious. Snacks were a large museli cookie, and a choice between juice or water. I stuck to just water, as I felt my stomach was on the verge of playing up due to all the excitement ahead. The flight was over before it had even started! We didn't plug into the inflight entertainment system, as it was just a news bulletin (haven't seen one of those in yonks! There was massive flooding in the North-East of England at the time), followed by a comedy set by Carl Baron. He looked crestfallen as we left the plane - it was as if we were leaving his show early because we didn't like it. The only thing I paid proper attention to in the news bulletin, was the weather section - we were both excited to see it was sunny and 26 degrees in LA!

It was a nice feeling being able to casually walk through Sydney Airport towards the international lounge - usually we're rushing and stressing out. The lounge wasn't crowded at all (another relief.) There was a show about pregnant teenagers on as entertainment?! Pretty soon, the outside doors were open and we were the first to get on the bus. The drive to the international terminal didn't take long at all.

Got through Customs, and stocked up on puzzle books, gossip magazines and snacks (a packet of strawberries and cream lollies, and some peppermint Tic Tacs) from the newsagents. Then we found a Currency Exchange that finally had some Mexican pesos in stock. I asked for 200 (meaning 200 pesos, as we weren't planning to do much shopping while in Mexico), but ended up paying AUS$200 for 2400 pesos?! I was so confused , and Nest thought that the outcome was hilarious!!

Afterwards, Nest spent ages in the bathroom, while I minded our hand luggage. I'm glad he took a long time, as that meant I got to have numerous goes in the massage chairs lining the corridor - what a brilliant idea to have them there!

Our gate was really crowded, so we waited in a vacant gate nearby with a view of the city, which included Sydney Tower, while eating some lunch we had picked up from a cafe we passed by. For lunch, we had delicious roast beef, swiss cheese, lettuce and semi sun-dried tomato rolls with water. We also picked up a packet of pretzels for an emergency savoury snack option on the plane. As we had been being served at the cafe, another infectious song came to my attention - I Like To Move It by Reel 2 Real. As we were eating, numerous messages were being played over the tannoy. We both started laughing when a passenger was being called for, and the staff member incorrectly pronounced it as Honeyarse. We knew that was incorrect, due to the same passenger being called a couple of times afterwards, but by a more appropriate sounding pronounciation.

We were excited and curious about our flight, as we'd be flying premium economy for the very first time. We were in the first group of people to board the plane, and certainly weren't disappointed with our seats - they were awesome compared to the general economy we've only previously flown. We had loads of legroom, were able to tilt our seats back to a sleepable position, and had thick padded blankies. Our comfort packs included the usual socks, eyemask, toothbrush and toothpaste. While the aircraft was boarding, Nest was treated to a glass of water, and I had champagne. We hurredly took photos and sent last minute txts to Kib, before it was time to go offline.

Nest and I were in a brilliant mood thanks to our awesome seats. As we taxied down the runway, we poured over the entertainment guide (there was so much I wanted to watch!), and wondered what would be for lunch (despite already having eaten.)

For a while, all I could do was lie back in my chair and relax, taking in the atmosphere. Soon, the writing that needed to be done, began to nag me, so I got to it before allowing myself to watch anything. The pre-lunch snacks were curried almonds and wasabi peas, which Nest got me to try and I didn't like. Only afterwards, did he tell me that they make your nose go crazy. To drink, I had a bacardi and Coke, and Nest had an apple juice. The stewardess spilt my drink all over Nest, but he happily laughed it off.

I was all set for yummy red wine braised beef cheeks with field mushrooms, pearl barley and steamed vegies with a side of baby cos, radicchio, and frisee with merlot vinaigrette, plus cheese and biscuits, but they had ran out by the time they got to me Nest had white cut poached chicken in chilli and ginger sauce, fragrant rice, and choy sum.

While waiting ages for an alternative meal to be found for me (I can't eat chicken), Nest and I had a mango and cream Weis bar. Couldn't believe it had instructions on how to open it, printed on the packet! Who needs those kinds of instructions?! You may be interested to know that "it was in 1959 that Les Weis combined sun-drenched Australian mangoes with a delicious strip of fresh cream to create the Weis Mango and Cream Bar. It has been an Australian favourite ever since."

For dinner, I ended up having a toasted baguette containing turkey and greyere cheese - it was so yummy. Beverage-wise, I thought it wise that I stuck to water for the time being, seeing as I had already had two magic drinks in the short time of being on the plane.

I tried watching Prometheus first up, which I had been really looking forward to, but ended up going to sleep big time. I stopped watching it and changed over to a classical music listening station. It was only 6.10pm Aussie time, so I don't understand why I was suddenly feeling so tired for. I watched most of Cars 2 after a while, to familiarise myself with the characters in preparation for visiting the new Cars Land in Disney's California Adventure Park.

Thank goodness Nest woke me up when the midnight snack came around - they were super yummy cheese and mushroom pizza subs! I couldn't eat mine fast enough - it tasted delicious, and the smell was mouth-watering! Even Nest loved them, and he usually detests mushrooms.

Snacked on pretzels and strawberries and cream lollies while watching Louis Theroux do a documentary on dementia in Phoenix (I found it really depressing), then cheered myself up watching the Mount Fuji episode of An Idiot Abroad, as well as the series follow-up episode. I actually started to drift off once again during the follow-up episode, but still entered into a four episode marathon of Mr Bean. I went to sleep to the laughter of the studio audience. The noise cancelling headphones in this class are excellent - you really notice the difference when you take them off.

I was woken from my lovely sleep to the announcement we'd be landing in LA in two hours (can't believe the flight only took 12.5 hours! I had originally been expecting 15 hours, then it went down to 13.5 hours, before actually being 12.5 hours), that breakfast would be served, followed by the filling in of customs forms. I didn't feel like breakfast, so just picked at a small muffin on Nest informing me it tasted like hotcakes, and had some water. Nest had muesli, a small muffin, and some fruit salad.

Once all that was sorted, there was only 45 minutes till landing. Couldn't concentrate on doing anything during that time. I couldn't believe I didn't read any of the mags I had picked up from the newsagents. At least I have something for the trip home (though the gossip will be greatly out of date by then!) Nest managed a bit of a puzzle, and watched Mel Gibson's brilliant Get the Gringo, followed by a whole lot of Family Guy and The Big Bang Theory.

As the landing time got closer and closer, I wasn't able to believe that we'd be on our most favourite Universal Studios ride before the day was up, and wondered if it would be like we never left it.

Our transfer from LAX to the Hilton Universal City Hotel was seamless. We were among the first to leave the plane, and took as many travelators to the first security checkpoint as we could (it conserves energy and gets you to places quicker.) We didn't have to wait for our luggage, as it was already going round and round on a baggage carousel reserved for premium economy and the higher classes. I held the trolleys while Nest hauled our cases off the belt. On through the last security checkpoint, we were finally free to leave the airport, first stopping for a bathroom break, get small denomination notes (the ATM was alarmed at first, and wouldn't stop beeping!), and urgent water purchases. And from this point onward, we were also on high alert for Twinkies

We lined up at the Super Shuttle stop, and one arrived for Universal in around ten minutes. The drive to Universal only took 25 minutes. It was weird - we had landed at 9.35am, and didn't catch the shuttle until 11.15am, but it didn't feel like we were at the airport for all that long.

It was a simply fabulous feeling driving up to the entrance of the Hilton, where we had absolutely loved our stay two years ago. We were three hours early in checking in, but they found a room of comparible value, that we could check into straight away. We were so relieved, and made our way to room 2066 up on the 20th floor (there are 24 floors all up, but no floor 13.) I was amused to read that the fire safety instructions on the back of our door said not to jump out the window in the event of a fire. Hello, we're on the 20th floor?! In the bathroom, there were really nice Peter Thomas Roth toiletries, such as shampoo, conditioner, body wash, body lotion, mouth wash, and cute little boxes containing a deluxe grooming kit (2 round cotton cleansing pads, 2 cotton swabs, 1 emery board, 1 dental floss applicator), a quick fix deluxe mending kit ("Must haves for quick mends on-the-go: four pre-threaded needles with black, brown, tan & white threads, 1 safety pin, 1 straight pin, 2 buttons [different sizes, both opaque white], 1 mini scissor"), a deluxe shower cap, a moisture infusion facial bar, and a big shower soap (which was in the shape of a shower head, which I thought was cool.) Unfortunately, the soap brought me out in a little lumpy rash on my arms, so I left the toiletries up to Nest after the first day.

As soon as we had settled in, we ordered lunch from room service. Nest had a 12 inch grilled beef and parmesan pizza - sliced beef tenderloin, olive oil, roasted garlic, shallots, parmesan and arugula. The meat in particular was delicious. I had beef and chicken satay sticks with super yummy spicy peanut sauce (I gave the chicken satay sticks to Nest), and spring rolls with a small dish of plum sauce, and a small dish of chilli 'n ginger sauce. The satay sticks came with an unusual pineapple, cucumber and onion salad, which neither of us ate. For drinks, Nest had a choccie milkshake, and I just had water.

Once we had showers (Nest went to sleep during mine), I tried to write while simultaneously looking at the awesome views until Nest woke up. I tutted at peoples' crooked parking down in the lot below (not that I'd be able to do any better at this point in time ), and noticed a guy walking with a cat umbrella (it came complete with cute little cat ears!), which would've really annoyed Johnny (he's not a cat person, while I love them to bits ) Also noticed a massive B on the Hollywood Hills, and wondered what the story was behind that. (On my return to Oz, while I couldn't find an exact story on that particular 'B', I did find out that hillside letters are common in the American West, and that there are up to 91 in California alone!)

We got walking to the park at 3.30pm. We felt a bit guilty about the late start, but we really needed a refreshing break. It was so fantastic being back in the park we both knew and love. It was also totally awesome seeing the props up for the Halloween Horror Nights around the place. We decided not to take any photos or buy any souvenir photos today, and just concentrate on experiencing the rides and taking it easy (instead of going crazy and stressing out about getting everything done. Though Nest did bring his small blue camera for emergency shots.) It was the hottest US day we had ever experienced, and my recently washed hair dried in no time at all. There were fans set up and going in the ride queues, and water misters at certain parts of the park - they were so refreshing and much appreciated - such a wonderful idea! It was also the most crowded we'd experienced the park, but everything we lined up for, was definitely well worth the wait.

As we made our way through the Upper Lot to get to our favourite ride in the Lower Lot, I detected the yummy sweet scent of churros, yet we only stopped to get a water from the Water World cart, as I was suddenly dying of thirst.

Naturally, we headed straight for our favourite ride, the Jurassic Park River Adventure. At 3.54pm, we boarded it for the first time in two years - we were both besides ourselves with excitement! As we were sitting in the boat waiting to set off, water mist drizzled over us, which was nice and refreshing. It was the same wonderful experience we knew and loved from years passed. The only differences I noticed, were some refreshing paint jobs, two new little green and purple dinosaurs to our left, the large hidden dinosaur to our right that springs up from under the water and sprays you had had a makeover, and the jeep no longer crashed down from the top of the building. Due to the hot weather, they must've upped the splashing, as we got soaked, but dried in no time. It mustn't have been enough splashing for some people though, as they were deliberately splashing each other with handfuls of water at the beginning of the ride. We immediately re-joined the end of the queue to ride again. This time, we had two little girls sitting in our row, and they were cowering next to me by the end of it!

Rode Revenge of the Mummy next. I knew I loved this ride, but I had forgotten how much until today. The ride seemed the same in every way, yet I felt perhaps it was a little faster than usual ... unless it's just old age, and anything quicker than a snail's pace, is 'fast'

We were going to ride Revenge of the Mummy again, but decided to go on the new Transformers 3D ride for the first time ever! Even though I know nothing about these characters or storylines, I found the ride really awesome. As we queued through the long windy headquarters setting, we loved how the acronym of the place was N.E.S.T., and were absolutely thrilled to find such t-shirts in the attached gift store! When we got to our ride vehicles, we boarded the simulator van, put on our 3D glasses, and helped Evac and Optimus Prime stop Megatron and the deceptatrons from stealing the allspark (I have no idea what I just wrote , but it made sense to Nest! ) I loved the sensation of going really fast, and the missile and heat effects were great too - when you do a lot of flinching during the ride like I did, you know the effects are realistic! I thought it was really clever how the designers fit such a big and realistic city panorama into such a small space.

We collected our belongings from our locker (had to pay $6, as we stayed over the one hour free period ... this time I didn't lock all our money and ID in the lockers like once before - DER! ), and went back to the Upper Lot to ride The Simpsons. We had to wait for so long, but it was so worth it. I really felt the effects of the motion this time round. While queuing for the ride, I loved how Lisa and Bart were going to Homer repetatively, "Are we there yet?", while they were standing in the middle of a queue going nowhere, and Homer suddenly explodes, "Yes, we are right where we want to be!"

Wandered around most of the shops afterwards, seeing what goodies were available (but still not finding any Twinkies.) I spied a few t-shirts (including some awesome Halloween Horror Night ones), and loved the "Bort" number plates in the Kwik-E-Mart, after seeing the video segment about them in the Simpsons Ride queue.

It was 6.30pm by this stage, and the park closed at 7pm, so we made our way back to the Lower Lot and rode Revenge of the Mummy until 7pm! We were allowed to ride four times in a row without getting off, which was just so awesome! We were so sad when we had to get off 'Spose it was for the best though, as my head was beginning to feel a little shaken up! (It was great how the queue was non-existent this time round.)

We were delighted to find the California Grill still open, as we had noticed they sold chilli cheese fries, and were busting for some. Unfortunately, they had sold out for the night, so they gave us cheese pizzas instead, which we ate on the way back to the hotel.

Once back at the hotel, we watched the new season of Survivor which hadn't yet begun in Australia, set in the Philippines (I think it was episode two.) Unfortunately, I fell asleep big time, even though it was only 8.30pm. On cross-checking Nest's journal to make sure I hadn't left anything out, right at this particular stage of the evening, he wrote he was "really bored" , but didn't want to change the channel in case I woke up (he wont let me watch Survivor at home )

Ordered a late dinner from room service, while watching Supernatural. It turned out to be the final episode that had just screened in Australia, which we had only recently watched. For dinner, Nest had stir fried chicken with noodles, beansprouts, green and red peppers, onions, carrots and soy sauce (it smelt incredibly irresistable! I so wished I could've had a plate of my own!), a diet Coke, and a slice of New York cheesecake with raspberry sauce. I had my favourite stir fried beef with broccoli, and a Coke. Our Mandarin cuisine came with green tea and soup of the day, which I guessed on an exploratory taste, to be chicken, mushroom and tofu.

After dinner, we continued to watch random TV while trying to write. Demetri Marin was funny - loved his story about how a neighbour's kid dressed up as a cat's tail for Halloween, and Demetri thought he was meant to be a pipecleaner! Also loved how his son went as Dr Coconut!

We also enjoyed some of the ads. Byron would've gotten a laugh out of the Bear Grylls one. It was for super effective deoderant for very active people - the more active you become, the more effective it works. To illustrated the point, Bear put a fat guy in a giant hamster wheel, threw him a salmon to hold, and then added a hungry brown bear. We also like some of the Direct TV ads - especially the one that goes, "If people see you wearing an eyepatch, they think you're tough. When people think you're tough, they want to know how tough. Then you wake up the next day in a ditch."

Got to bed at 2.10am, as we kept on being distracted by the TV while trying to write, even though the shows were ones we normally wouldn't be interested in, such as a documentary on how there are only three power grids in America.

Next entry: Where did the day go?