Brisbane for Breakfast

The flight left LAX at about 10:30PM PST and as soon as we levelled off, dinner was served. I watched a movie while dinner was served but didn't finish it. Not 2 hours into the flight I hit the magic button that told the seat to go completely flat out 180. I completely passed out but awoke wondering "did I fall asleep"? Am I...for the first time ever going to have trouble sleeping now? I thought to myself, I should have listened to Colleen and take some drugs! I laid there half awake wondering about my sleep plan....about how am I going to spend my free day recovering from travel? The deck 2 cabin was black and I thought to myself, I might be the only one awake! I grabbed my phone and lit the clock up....It said 9:50 AM LA time! I had been unconscious for about 8 hours! I was shocked at how great I felt! I figured my snoring must have kept everyone around me up until they just couldn't stay awake anymore.... so they all just passed out. Minutes later I was drinking my first cup of coffee. Two hours later everyone was up and anxiously awaiting breakfast.

Then the announcement came: We have good news and bad news, the good news is that we are ahead of schedule, the bad news is that Sydney will not let us land until 6AM local time due to an airport curfew, and....we don't have enough fuel to circle Sydney while we wait for the airport to open! Sooooooo.... ladies and gentleman, we are going to Brisbane International Airport! They will not let us off the plane to walk around there (customs was not prepared for our clan), but they will give us some fuel!

So we landed in Brisbane, were served breakfast on the ground, and were entertained out the window by the guys who rolled out of bed a bit unexpectantly to come and re-fuel our plane. When the process was done we rolled back out to the taxi way. It was light now so we could see outside and it was rather clear to me that the taxi ways, runways, and the entire airport in general, didn't seem made for 747's. I was sure our wheels were going to hit the mud!

We did make it out though and United was kind enough to hold my plane in Sydney so I could get to Melbourne. They did make us hustle though, the airport looked like an upscale mall but I missed most of it on the run. I was doing great until I was randomly selected to be make sure I wasn't carrying any explosives as I went through "international carry-on bag transfer". It is now 10:40 AM local time Saturday morning August 27th. Don't ask me where Friday August 26th went, but we are about to land in Melbourne. Good morning Australia!