First Class LA to London:

Remember those first episodes of Weeds? Is Agresic down there anywhere?

First impressions of First Class, however, was that there were too many amenities between me and the window. I'm in it for the landscape.






East LA. I didn't know it was an ACTUAL wasteland. Oh, wait. This is northeast OF LA. I don't advise going there without a camel.

I think this is what is called an alkali desert.









Grand Canyon, or thereabouts.














Chateaubriand. Need I say more? The service was excellent - so much so that when I didn't seem to require anything more the flight attendant asked me if I was all right? It was also the worst turbulence I had ever experienced flying, and I very nearly complained that I didn't think they allowed turbulence in first class, but wasn't certain the joke would really go over all that well.






England. A green and pleasant land. That phrase kept running through my head the entire time I was there. Wonderful waking up to see the green green fields of some of my ancestors unfolding below me.










And I really must introduce you to Isambard Kingdom Brunel, fabled civil engineer and architect of many of the first railway bridges. He's enthroned in London's Paddington Station, where I have arrived by train from Heathrow and am embarking on the London-Bath train en route to Frome in Somerset.