Updated 09JAN2000
Big Mac Meal Index : NB their "medium" meal is really, honestly, equivalent to our Large
| Sydney Big Mac Meal | In $US | Los Angeles Big Mac Meal | Including tax | Cost of Living vs Sydney |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $4.95 | $3.16 | $4.79 | 8.5% = $5.20 | 64% higher |
From the time the sun rose while over the North Pacific, there was a thick layer of cumulo-nimbus clouds below us, reaching, oh, about 6,900 feet. It absolutely looked like cotton wool, I swear. By the time we'd finished decending I'd grown impatient at getting my first glimpse of what was way over the other side of the big pond, and by the time we broke through to the other side of the overcast layer, I can see why God wanted to cover it up with cotton wool to leave the sky all blue and white above it. It was a typically smoggy overcast "fine" day in New Year's LA, and as I walked out of the Tom Bradley international terminal I could just smell that gas. Ah. Totally new country. Soot included.
I must say, LAX, I've heard of it, but it's not much to speak of. Tom Bradley had about as much size and shops as Sydney International in the 80s. And the same decor. At least I could find an internet terminal that had Windows all nicely packaged so you could jump straight into telnet and it would give you a trial period with pop-up warnings; all you had to do was swipe your credit card, but it cost $US2.50 per 10 minutes. If you gave it your email address (note: a perfect opportunity to use your own domain for email), it even let you keep spare bits of 10 minute segments. In the transit lounges, I found plenty of payphones with data ports ... I'd definitely recommend taking your laptop to the US if you've got one small enough. These "Payphone 2000" AT&T sets had CRTs, not LCDs, curiously :-)