Two perfect mangoes with carefully carved cheeks and slurped stones, two over easy fried eggs, a slice of wholemeal toast, a cup of tea chaser and an all important coffee were the day’s pre dawn foundation. The fridge volume was a little lighter and final garden and kitchen tidying activities were happily fuelled. (Tick) Recycling and a chaos of unclaimed things remained from my fellow travellers’ last minute packing before the 2.45am shift changeover. My flurry of the kitchen tidy of floors, bins, rubbish, recycling, sweeping, tossing, returning things and wiping came and went. The dawn light saw the last bail of sugar cane mulch spread. The compost worms got fridge leftovers, a cover and soaked newspapers to help with the blazing days ahead. Garden items and tools were gathered, security tasks and last minute notes … all done in a fashion.

Aggh 5.30am departure and my fellow travellers didn’t eat the breakfast things in the fridge as they wanted extra precious minutes of sleep. They so should have packed earlier. The best laid plans of mice and men … and the worms missed out. Sorry guys. The airport lounge breakfast (No 2) featured a slice of wholemeal toast and proper continental breakfast offerings of big German style cheese slices, overly large ham slices, strangely solid bircher muesli, fruit juice and an excellent cappuccino, a true friend. The fruit salad looked delicious too but sadly time was not on my side.

The airline breakfast (No 3) on the connecting flight to Sydney was frankly strange – four small jelly mould shaped muffin style eggy things served in a small cardboard packet – two with bacon bits, two with spinach. You were supposed to rip open the packet along perforations to reveal your own cardboard eggy muffin thing receptacle. I know it was economy but really – you need to pick up your game Qantas. They tasted a little better than they looked but the lines between eggs, muffins and jelly moulds should not be blurred.

After crossing the International dateline, the American Airlines Breakfast (No 4) between Hawimg_3489aii and Los Angeles was a different story. The scrambled eggs were excellent described by my youngest as amongst the best he’d eaten. There was the perfect volume of egg (2-3 eggs worth?), generous but not OTT, fluffy, light and packed with flavour, served with delicious potato in liquor on the side with two short cuts of bacon underneath. Now that was an excellent airline breakfast. The beverages were generous too. Well done American Airlines.

The final breakfast (No 5) was the buffet at our airport LAX day hotel kindly offered gratis, as our day room was being prepared. Perhaps the exhausted bodies didn’t add to the amenity of their lobby. It was just so hard to find something remotely healthy and inviting. I guess by breakfast number five, you get picky. The juices looked the typical volume, sugar and preservative packed offerings with a slightly acidic taste to the orange juice and overly sweet, thin apple juice. The yoghurts said sugar. The bank of waffle makers just looked depressing – full of sugar and carbs and devoid of nutrition and pleasure. Where’s real maple syrup or a few juicy strawberries when you need them? There were a wall of sugary cereal options and lots of bread styles from bagels for eating fresh or toasting but none of it looked inviting. Perhaps a tired brain registers carbs above all else. The spreads table were all carbs too sadly with at least four butter and margarine options, lots of styles of jam and honey with peanut butter my only stand-out. My heart sought vegemite. There were reportedly sausages somewhere but I didn’t spot them. In the hotel’s defence there were apples, oranges and bananas on the way out (very picked over) and I eyeballed boiled eggs after the spreads table but the moment has passed by then. The filter coffee looked great too, real heart starter material but not for a body about to snooze. I settled on one slice of wholemeal toast with peanut butter and herbal tea and couldn’t finish my sweet, sweet apple juice or yoghurt.    …. I hate food waste. So ended breakfast number 5. Sleep beckoned.