Fingers crossed

Feeling a little apprehensive. I've just booked my flight to LA, leaving Edinburgh on the 28th of June at 5.50am, with a 3 hour stop-over in Schipol before the flight to LAX. I'm feeling apprehensive about it because I've booked and paid for the flight without my passport in hand. Now, ordinarily, that would be the stupidest thing to do. But in my defence, tickets for the 28th of June via Schipol or Charles de Galle are fast running out. Perhaps it's the start of the holiday season, or there's some big event in LA around the end of June, but whatever the reason, 28th June tickets on Expedia suddenly disappeared, and those on the KLM and Air France sites have shot up to over £700. Also, that's the very last day I dare leave it to before my time's up on the visa (I have to report to someone within a month of my official start date, which was the 1st of June). So here's hoping my passport has been stamped and sent back without any problems.

On the apartment front, I've found one within walking distance to UCLA. With any luck, I can arrange to pay the deposit to secure the flat (still have to make a conscious effort to type apartment) within the next couple of days. For the curious, it's located here. Looking at the satellite version of the Google Map, it looks like a short skip and hop to UCLA and has the bonus of being close to some greenery. On the other hand, I've not seen any photos of the studio and am hoping it's as nice as described. But hey, there are laundry facilities in the building (that's an American oddity, not having washing machines in the flat), and the studio is DSL ready and furnished, which would save me a visit to IKEA so soon!