From Instagram: Part 2 of a 55 hour journey back to Sydney!
Part 2 of a 55 hour journey back to Sydney!
Part 2 of a 55 hour journey back to Sydney!
Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park – lots of German food there for some reason
American’s trademark ice cream sundae!
LAX-LHR on one of AA’s new 777-300ERs! Tons better seats in the B cabin than their older planes.
Part 1 of a 55 hour journey back to Sydney!
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Warriors courtside!
Survivor: Blood vs Water was one of the most entertaining seasons of Survivor I’ve seen. The theme really gave the season a totally fresh dynamic.
Tyson was the clear leader from about midway through the season. Gervase, as his right hand man, never had a chance. Tyson ran the show, finding both hidden idols, winning immunity challenges when it most mattered, and threading the needle with his social game. I felt he had a bit of fortune in that his alliance never had the imagination or skill to make a big move and turn on him as it became clearer and clearer he would win a final tribal council. But credit to him for managing to gather the right group together.
I was really impressed with Ciera in her last few episodes – she went from being this young, wet-behind-the-ears player to someone who final “got it” when she flipped over and tried to make a move. She even won an individual challenge at a key moment. Unfortunately, it didn’t pan out, but she converted a near-certain immediate demise into a 1 in 3 shot, forcing Tyson into a rock-draw that would have put her in pole position to win. She did and said all the right things with Hayden in the couple episodes afterwards, but they just couldn’t sway Monica, who is this season’s resident #3. The emotional, unpredictable, irrational player who doesn’t know they simply don’t have a chance in the final vote. Had Monica flipped a few episodes earlier, it would have blown the game wide open again.
But as things stood, there was nothing surprising about the final outcome, except that the vote was 7-1-0 instead of the 8-0-0 I was expecting.
It’s really expensive to fly back to Sydney these days, especially around the Christmas/New Year’s holiday period.
United holds a monopoly on the non-stop SFO-SYD route, which it flies using a really old Boeing 747. On the dates I wanted to fly, almost 15 hours of pain without a seat-back TV in economy would set me back more than $2,400.
After that, it’s really slim pickings. Transiting through LAX with Virgin Australia is still almost $2,200. That’s the last credible option.
Apart from that, you can pick up a ticket on China Eastern Air for around $1,500, but then you commit to a 50-hour odyssey (one way), routing through Shanghai and Nanjing before you get to Sydney. No thanks.
So I decided instead to buy a much cheaper ticket to London and redeem a few airline miles to get me the rest of the way on a couple airline products I’ve wanted to try out for a while. This is the route I ended up booking:
That’s SFO-LAX-LHR on American’s new 777-300, LHR-CAI-DXB on Egyptair, AUH-SYD on Etihad, SYD-DXB-LHR on a Qantas A380, and LHR-LAX-SFO on the same American 777-300.
The outbound journey is going to take up a whole weekend, but I do get to spend half a day in London, half a day in the UAE, and the rest of the time vegging out reading, watching TV, and getting fed.
I’ll let you know how it goes.
My flatmate Sonny and I were shopping at our local Safeway when he suddenly grabbed my arm, turned me around and said, “Hey that’s Meg! Take a photo of us!” She obliged! #hp
stuloh Just got told by a flight attendant that @AmericanAir just got approval for mobile phones to be left on gate-to-gate. Sweet!
A toilet with a view…
I bet you international travel for this dude is not fun
Lunch at the absolutely stunning Ithaa underwater restaurant
A little island out in the Indian Ocean…
Ok let’s do this. Off to Singapore!
| 117 days spent in current location | |
| Previously | Copenhagen, Denmark |
| » Currently | San Francisco, CA (5/12/25 8:34am) |
| View full itinerary... | |
1:41pm 
