Our flight out of Fiji wasn't until 10pm so we were glad to be able to use the hotel room during the day for last-minute gadget charging, an afternoon snooze and a refreshing shower. We got a taxi to the airport (he asked twice the price we'd been told by Mama and then looked sheepish when we questioned him on it and took the offered $10) and had a smoothie and a pie before having a last brief look at tacky souvenirs.

We weren't relishing the 10 hour flight in the company of Air Pacific as (being blunt) their food is crap and their service isn't much better, and, in order to beat jetlag we had to try and stay awake for the whole flight. We were a little late taking off as the air-con needed fixing but eventually got on the way.

I was sat next to Edith, a lovely French lady in her late sixties who didn't speak much English and, having been sat at Nadi airport for ten hours with nobody to talk to, poor soul, was quite delighted to give my rusty French a bit of revision. I surprised myself with my ability to explain broken air con, various cabin announcements and how to fill in the US customs form. I laughed at her disgusted face when she tried to identify what the pale looking things were in the meal box (some sort of inedible chicken wrap and about a tablespoon of pasta and cheese). It was nice to hear about her travels, and her grandchildren. Suffice to say that my vocabulary is all still there, even if my grammar, tenses and pronunciation were a little wayward.

We made it to LA and entered the cattle market that is LAX arrivals, security and immigration. We were herded around by bossy people until eventually we got through to a desk. Despite a formidable reputation the customs official was friendly and asked 'couldn't we have picked somewhere a little closer than Fiji to visit?!'. He helpfully suggested Barbados or the Maldives for next time and sent us towards the bedlam that was security. Feeling more than a little conscious of time we were pleased to find that we breezed through relatively easily. We made it to check in JUST in time and finally arrived at the gate with 15 minutes to spare, feeling a little dishevelled and ready to sleep.

We got seated on the B747-400 and enjoyed the wonderful British service from the BA cabin crew (take note Air Pacific) and settled down to some sleep that came in fits and starts. Gradually the hours crawled by, our backs and bums looking forward to a sofa or a hot bath and I started to imagine what I'd most like to eat at home... Heinz soup or maybe a fluffy baked potato with salad. And sweetest of all, a night in MY BED.