Only 2 weeks to go until I'm off to America.

Sure, there'll be plenty of fun things to see and do, but I'm predicting that my most exciting time in America will likely be my first couple hours there. Between the time I arrive in LA, and the time I have to tear-arse across the tarmac and race to (what will no doubt be) the other side of LAX to catch my flight to San Francisco, I have the ever-comfortable window of 2 hours.

"Well that seems simple enough," you say, "what's the big deal? Why, that's plenty of time to check into the next flight AND knit a cardigan with a pattern of a portrait of President Bush Jr. on the back..."

Maybe, but lets not forget about my newly dislocated knee, which will inevitably decide to grind up a tendon or two should I even think about moving briskly. Yup, between my brittle-boned body hobbling through a crowded airport and the security's proclivity for cavity-searching young Australians in the hope that they might find a drug mule, the cosmic consensus is rather dim that I'll make it on time for my flight that day... but I suppose life would be boring if there weren't any obstacles to overcome, or invasive body searches to grit your teeth through.

Strictly speaking, I'll be traveling with Miss A, a friend of mine - but knowing me (as I do), chances are that I'll get sick of talking to her. So in an attempt to stave off any homicidal tendencies that are more than likely to develop, we've enlisted a mascot to be the third member to our road trip menagerie... Barry the Ninja. I expect that Barry, being the camera whore that he is, will feature in a fair few of our photos around America. Miss A was supposed to bring a koala or something like that when she came over to Japan the other day from OZ, but... well... a long and painful story short... we have Barry now.