London to Malibu, California.

Our taxi arrived at the house at 6.30 am to drive us to Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport to catch the BA flight to Los Angeles.

We arrived just after 7.15am and so had plenty of time to spend in the BA Lounge rather than the airport, courtesy of Wendy, who has just qualified for Silver Membership of BA's Executive Club. So, while I remain 'only' a Bronze Member, I will have to keep in her good books, if I am to be 'invited' as her guest to the BA lounges!

The flight today was scheduled to be about 10 hours thirty minutes, as we were flying on a Boeing 777, as opposed to the usual 747's that BA flies to LA. Still, a good thing we discovered about the 777 is that the seats in Premium Economy are a great improvement on the seats in the 747's. They give more leg room and a greater recline of the back of the seat, so that you are able to achieve a reasonably comfortable position when you want to have a sleep. Another plus is the size of the video screen in the seat back, which is 50% bigger than those in the 747's.

We both watched The Iron Lady, with Meryl Streep. It was a much better film than we were expecting and we can see why Streep got the Oscar for Best Actress.

A brief explanation about our short stay in Malibu before we leave on Sunday for Scottsdale, Arizona. My first priority will be to make sure the car is all set to go. It's been parked in the garage since early November and will need a full check-over. Then, we have to go to the AAA Club to get all our maps and guide books for the states we are driving through. The Triple A issue members with excellent books and we have used these on all our drives in North America to find hotels, restaurants and places of interest to visit. On Friday we drive down to LAX to pick up Bob & Thelma and then we have Saturday to pack the car ready for a very early start on Sunday. The drive to Scottsdale is the longest of the whole drive, just under 500 miles.

We arrived twenty minutes ahead of schedule, which was very welcome after a ten and a half hour flight. Our daughter-in-law had rearranged her work schedule so that she had the day off, especially to meet us and take us up to the house. Thanks a million, Kate!

We reached the house at about 3pm, 11pm London time. Let's hope we have a good sleep tonight and get over the inevitable jet-lag of an 8 hour time difference.

I'll post again before we leave on Sunday with all the latest news.