Forty-eight hours and counting!

Assuming all goes well and Virgin doesn't run late, this time in 48 hours, my plane would have taken off from Canberra, winging its way to Sydney. There, I'll do a terminal transfer, spend a couple of hours faffing around and then I'll be on my way to LA!

In one of those fabulous moments of head-spinning realisation of how the world works, I leave Canberra 9am Friday and arrive in LA 7.20am Friday – more than an hour BEFORE I left.

Alright, I need to stop thinking about that. And about how Tuesday April 12 is going to just disappear into the ether, never to be seen again.

Focus on the easy to understand stuff, Nicole. Like all the cool stuff I'll be doing. The La Brea tar pits. Seeing the LA Dodgers play. Touring Paramount Studios. Walking down Hollywood Boulevard. Going to San Francisco for a couple of days and seeing Alcatraz. Shopping…

Oh, boy, the shopping. Thank you, Aussie Dollar!!!!!!!!! Keep going, you good thing!

Of course, the real reason I'm going is the Romantic Times Convention, and I'm really looking forward to getting an idea of the American industry, meeting fellow writers and chatting with fellow lovers of romance. And funnily enough, catching up with the fabulous Karen Miller – even though she actually lives only a few hours drive from me, we have to go half-way round the world to have coffee and a chat.

Following the convention, I have a day in Pasadena (with tea with Gail Carriger) and my last day will be spent at Santa Monica before I fly back (and lose Tuesday – no, don't THINK about that. Poor Tuesday).

I want to say this – America better bloody stamp my passport. NZ doesn't, and it's annoying as hell to have already flown internationally on this passport and not have anything to show for it. So stamp, America. Stamp, stamp, stamp!!!