transit

i made it to victoria after a long but ok trip (i think i spent about 30 hours in transit between melbourne and victoria and went something like 34 hours without sleep). unfortunately my bag didn't make the final flight from LA to vancouver (i was happy at least i made it though since i'm sure there were several people behind me at the security lines that didn't make connecting flights). at least my bag wasn't lost (the guy who eventually delivered my bag said his was once lost for over a week!). they notified me and 3 others on arrival in vancouver that our bags hadn't made the flight and they would be coming up in a few hours. i was heading to victoria right away so my bag was flown to victoria the next morning and then delivered to the door that afternoon. fortunately i always carry at least my tooth brush, deodorant and underwear in my carry on and my mom had some brand new fuzzy pjs for me to sleep in.
the reason my bag didn't make the vancouver flight was the computer systems in LA. i'm travelling as an australian (my canadian passport expired 9 days before i left) so i had to do the whole bio-whatever scans (electronic fingerprints and photos) in the usa. the system kept overloading and freezing up with the huge numbers they had to deal with so it was taking ages to get each person thru. if i had been travelling on a canadian passport i wouldn't have had to do the fingerprint/photo thing so i would have just had my passport checked and gone through (and then i would have got my bag and moved it to it's new spot earlier and it would have been transfered to the other terminal in time for the flight)
the flights were good (other than the very bland food but at least they did a good job of knowing what to serve vegans it just tasted like nothing for the most part). my long haul one had the seat back tv screens with probably 40 or so movies to choose from (everything from new releases still in theatres in australia to classics to independent ones) and tons of tv shows (kept me entertained for 14 hours-- i can't really sleep on planes, especially when my brain thinks its day time).