Day 1 Wednesday

Having planned to have an aisle seat I ended up being shoved in the back corner with a window against a bulk head so the seat wouldn't even go back. Having looked up towards the end of the flight from watching Hugh Lourie patch up someones head on house I saw some teenagers forehead explode and blood piss down his face and the stewards trying to find a doctor on the plane, having found one to look after him the kid had to stay laying on the floor landing and if I have had the aisle seat he would have been right at my feet.

After the usual long wait to get my photo taken and finger prints scanned at customs I must have failed a question as I got sent to a secondary interview and security check in a deportation area staffed by guys who seemed to have been hired on the basis of having necks the width as their heads. After spending about 20 mins sitting and wondering if this was going to be my shortest trip to the sets yet it was time for my interview so I used the same method I normally use when dealing with American cops and bouncers and put spending most of my life living in the home counties to good use. I put on the most well spoken, soft Hugh Grant esq. voice I could and answered a series of annoying questions about what I was doing, what I do back home, what qualifications I hold, how I know the guy I was staying with for the first night and even what my dad did as a job before stamping my passport. I also had to reanswer the "how much cash do you have on you" part as it turns out the first interviewer hadn't worked out that when I said $50 in my pocket and plenty more in my bank account that you can withdraw money from a bank account with debit card.

After that the final Houston to San Fran leg was relatively painless minus a baby right in front of my seat who altinated between crying and playing games with me and this time the window seat paid off with a stunning view.

Once I arrived I managed to borrow a phone off a stranger to track down Yosef and met him at a Bart station to be presented with a record list of stuff he had on hold for me at 1234GO! records so I arranged for him to pick a few of them up for me but had to pass on several as I couldn't afford to drop $40 on the Devour pressing of 9 Shocks - Zen and the art..... but an $8 comp with Born Against as well as a few Voorhees 7"s to have as doubles in my collection made up for it.

After dinner with him, Erin, Brand and eventually Ryan E I headed back to Yosef's to spent the night and give him a present of various records and shirts I'd grabbed for him and he gave me a whole ton of stuff he was getting rid of including a ton of CD's to keep me going in Australia until my records made it over as well as a stack of cheesy euro straight edge 7"s that he knows love but most importantly the triple Unbroken lp he picked up for me. I also arrainged to buy Reality 2 and 3 comps as well as a few others and most importantly get first shot at his Gehenna - War of the.... CD that I have been after for a long long time. After that I crashed out.