...in the USA, until November. (Probably after November too, of course, but I'm going back to New Zealand then for my friend's wedding.)

I could tell I was going overseas by the way my mother kept asking, every thirty seconds, "Have you got [whatever]? Did you pack a [whatever]? What about your [whatever]? MAKE SURE YOU HAVE [whatever]." After a full day of this, I couldn't resist mentioning that she does this every time I go anywhere, for any amount of time, and IN ALL THOSE YEARS she has never once heard me answer "Oh wow, yeah, I forgot about that, I'll go pack it now." She even did this the time I was packing to go work on the sailing ship, and in that case I had a printed checklist of about twenty items which I was required to bring, and was not allowed to bring anything else.

The flight was suck. They showed four movies. When they announced what movies would be screening, the first two they announced were "Trapped" and "Abandoned". It would have been perfect if the other two had been entitled "Bored" and "In Pain". In fact, this wasn't far from the truth, as they turned out to be "The Banger Sisters" and "The Four Feathers". The people who choose movies for airlines realised long ago that the audience cannot walk out and demand their money back halfway through.

I watched "The Banger Sisters", which was utterly repellent, and "The Four Feathers", because anything with stiff-upper-lip British soldiers in pith helmets and red jackets running around in the Sudan has to be good. It was good, until it turned into the Movie That Wouldn't Die. You just kept thinking "OK, closing scene. No, it's still going. Oh, right, THIS is the closing scene. Wait, no it isn't. How about NOW? Or NOW? OK EVERYBODY IS DEAD SO *THIS* HAS TO BE THE CLOSING SCENE but it isn't. SOMEBODY MAKE IT STOP AAARGH." It seemed to last almost as long as the *actual* British Empire did, and was less interesting.

I ended up bringing one cabin bag and one ordinary-sized suitcase. At the last minute I added a shoebox full of James Bond books. There was much less airport security than last time I came to the States (in August), but I still got picked out everywhere to have my stuff hand-inspected. On the other hand, my checked suitcase, which contained actual weapons capable of being used against a person (legally imported, of course), was never opened. I know this because the case had a rope tied around it to compensate for a dodgy zipper, and on arrival in Denver the knots were exactly as I had tied them.

I couldn't sleep much on the international flight but I did from LA to Denver. Flying over the snowy mountains was just gorgeous. There is enough snow on the ground in Denver (IN FEBRUARY! the MIDDLE OF SUMMER!!) to make me happy, but it isn't really very cold. It's just add-a-sweatshirt weather, which is much less intimidating than I had expected.

I'm probably just going to spend the next few days hanging around at Dave's house during the day and getting various minor details sorted out to do with living here. Then I'll start looking for a job. It's very exciting and I'm very happy to be here.