The blog is going to try an change in format. We (i.e. Eddie) has learned how to post photographs, so we’re going to include a few of those – recognizing that looking at someone else’s vacation pictures is not always exciting, we figure if you’re reading this you won’t mind a photo or two. We’re also going to do some postings based on activities / events rather than simple chronological recitations.
That having been said, our activity for Saturday (January 31) was a day trip through Pinnacle Travel to the Margaret River area. This is south of Perth on the western Australia coast. It started being developed as a wine region about 40 years ago, and now has a significant number of wineries here.
The bus was great. A big “greyhound” type by Volvo, it was very comfortable and had a unique feature – a television up front over the aisle, so that everyone could have a driver’s-eye view of the road. Most of the time, of course, it showed little of interest, but I can see how it would be very handy for allowing a sudden and spontaneous intake of breath by everyone on the bus if some little critter suddenly made an unsuccessful dash across the road.
We had an hour and a half on the bus and the driver gave us the usual tidbits of information. There are 1.5 million residents in Perth, but only 350,000 in the entire rest of the state of Western Australia – even less dense than, Utah, Nevada or New Mexico, once you cut out the big cities there.
The highway south out of town had an interesting feature. Originally, it’d had two bus lanes down the center median to bring commuters in from outlying places about an hour away. That’s now been replaced with light rail service. Lots of “park and ride” lots around. Think about that – you could climb on a train and go to Charlotte from Hickory without having to drive yourself. Internet is available on the trains, too, from what I gathered. If only we could become so civilized.
The time we’re here is at the end of the school summer vacation. Last Monday was “Australia Day”, their equivalent of our July 4 holiday. The result is that we’re doing this tour on roughly the Saturday after Labor Day weekend, meaning that crowds are way down.
The terrain here is about like I’m used to in Western Oklahoma. Some of it flat like toward the panhandle, but as we went along and got closer to the coast there were short trees and scrub, along with some more varied terrain. Think Kiowa County. For those not familiar with Oklahoma – please forgive my references. Even after 9 years I don’t understand North Carolina’s intricacies well enough to do specific equivalents.
Even the soil is very sandy with red clay overtones, much like western Oklahoma. Some things are universal – in the heat of the day, the cows find the one tree in the field and stand in the shade. It’s very hot.
We stopped about an hour into the trip for “morning tea”. Fortunately, they also sold coffee although at the little Quick Trip we were at the kid who waited on us, about 12, looked incredulous when we asked what a “Large White Mug” was. Turns out, it’s a large coffee with steamed milk in it.
The rest of the trip was somewhat inauspicious, with one exception – I never could get used to the fact that every time we rounded a corner my heart would suddenly skip because people were in the wrong lane coming at us. There’s good reason that we don’t drive in foreign countries.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Saturday - VERY early
Saturday Morning – VERY early
We got in yesterday and got settled without any problems. The hotel (Novotel) is in the CBD (Central Business District) and is quite obviously geared toward business people who are trapped and have little choice.
The front desk staff weren’t especially helpful. The guy acted like we were imposing on him to check in, only gave us one key (HELLO! THERE ARE TWO GUYS HERE CHECKING IN FOR A WEEK!!) and didn’t offer any instructions about anything.
We got inside and nothing would come on – no air conditioning, no lights, etc. On top of that, the room was about the size of a shoebox, with a queen size bed. Us plus sized folks don’t care much for queen size beds, especially when we’re already tired. We figured out pretty quickly this wasn’t going to work for us, so EB went back downstairs to see what else could be done.
When he returned, we had a room on the 8th floor with a sitting area and kitchenette. It’ll be worth the difference in price to have a bit of space to spread out. To get anything to come on you have to put your card in the light switch, which apparently trips a circuit breaker or something – that part is actually pretty smart in my opinion. Had dad known about them, we undoubtedly would have had them installed growing up! The other thing – all the electrical outlets have a switch on them. Thus, you can cut everything off by just flipping the switch. If everything weren’t 220 I’d be tempted to figure out how to get some of those for our house.
After we got settled and showered, we met up with EB’s teammates and went for a walk and to dinner. We were all trying to stay up so we adjusted to the new time. You can tell how well that worked by the fact that he was writing at 2 in the morning and I’m here at 5. We can’t both be on the internet at the same time because, of course, it’s a wired system and there’s only one outlet in the room.
In retrospect, Indian food, even good Indian food like we had, was probably not the best choice on our digestive systems after 2 days of airplane / airport food. On the other hand, any vagrant germs floating around the airplane that we might have inhaled didn’t stand a chance by the end of the meal.
We made it to 9:00, floated through the 7 television channels available (5 dedicated to sports, and 2 being duplicates) before we crashed. The internet and the card in the room talk about 14 TV channels – the rest seem to be inoperative. We had the forethought to set both of our Blackberrys as alarms so we didn’t happen to oversleep, since we’re both excited about the Margaret River trip today.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have the foresight to make sure that my blackberry was set for the appropriate time zone, and about 11:15 p.m. (local time), it decided that it was, in reality, 6:15 a.m. (probably Los Angeles time) and went off. Alarms at strange times are hard on middle aged men.
We got in yesterday and got settled without any problems. The hotel (Novotel) is in the CBD (Central Business District) and is quite obviously geared toward business people who are trapped and have little choice.
The front desk staff weren’t especially helpful. The guy acted like we were imposing on him to check in, only gave us one key (HELLO! THERE ARE TWO GUYS HERE CHECKING IN FOR A WEEK!!) and didn’t offer any instructions about anything.
We got inside and nothing would come on – no air conditioning, no lights, etc. On top of that, the room was about the size of a shoebox, with a queen size bed. Us plus sized folks don’t care much for queen size beds, especially when we’re already tired. We figured out pretty quickly this wasn’t going to work for us, so EB went back downstairs to see what else could be done.
When he returned, we had a room on the 8th floor with a sitting area and kitchenette. It’ll be worth the difference in price to have a bit of space to spread out. To get anything to come on you have to put your card in the light switch, which apparently trips a circuit breaker or something – that part is actually pretty smart in my opinion. Had dad known about them, we undoubtedly would have had them installed growing up! The other thing – all the electrical outlets have a switch on them. Thus, you can cut everything off by just flipping the switch. If everything weren’t 220 I’d be tempted to figure out how to get some of those for our house.
After we got settled and showered, we met up with EB’s teammates and went for a walk and to dinner. We were all trying to stay up so we adjusted to the new time. You can tell how well that worked by the fact that he was writing at 2 in the morning and I’m here at 5. We can’t both be on the internet at the same time because, of course, it’s a wired system and there’s only one outlet in the room.
In retrospect, Indian food, even good Indian food like we had, was probably not the best choice on our digestive systems after 2 days of airplane / airport food. On the other hand, any vagrant germs floating around the airplane that we might have inhaled didn’t stand a chance by the end of the meal.
We made it to 9:00, floated through the 7 television channels available (5 dedicated to sports, and 2 being duplicates) before we crashed. The internet and the card in the room talk about 14 TV channels – the rest seem to be inoperative. We had the forethought to set both of our Blackberrys as alarms so we didn’t happen to oversleep, since we’re both excited about the Margaret River trip today.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have the foresight to make sure that my blackberry was set for the appropriate time zone, and about 11:15 p.m. (local time), it decided that it was, in reality, 6:15 a.m. (probably Los Angeles time) and went off. Alarms at strange times are hard on middle aged men.
Friday, January 30, 2009
PS
I'm officially "old." My ankles swelled enough during travel that by the end I well resembled Miss Piggy. Unfun.
It's 3:10 am Here
and EB's awake. I dropped into bed last night at 8:30 pm or so Perth time. Lord knows what time it was back home. We aren't even looking anymore....don't wanna know.
The one "mishap" that LJ left outta yesterday's blog was the fact that after dragging our asses into the hotel after 37 hours of travel I immediately went for a shower. The shower itself was fine...it's the falling out of the shower that was the problem. When I reached for a towel I slipped and fell out of the shower on both knees. I don't mean that I fell softly....I fell all 250 lbs on both knees. Nothing broken I don't think...but geez......both knees now look like Tonya Harding took a club to them (like she did to Nancy whoever she was at the olympics a number of years back).
We are off today for a full day trip to Margaret River. That should help us further acclimate to this time zone.....our pickup for the tour is at 7:20 am. So I have a few hours to waste.
The one "mishap" that LJ left outta yesterday's blog was the fact that after dragging our asses into the hotel after 37 hours of travel I immediately went for a shower. The shower itself was fine...it's the falling out of the shower that was the problem. When I reached for a towel I slipped and fell out of the shower on both knees. I don't mean that I fell softly....I fell all 250 lbs on both knees. Nothing broken I don't think...but geez......both knees now look like Tonya Harding took a club to them (like she did to Nancy whoever she was at the olympics a number of years back).
We are off today for a full day trip to Margaret River. That should help us further acclimate to this time zone.....our pickup for the tour is at 7:20 am. So I have a few hours to waste.
We Arrive!
En Route – 1 hour out of Sydney
Well boys and girls, we’re an hour short of Sydney right now. You might think, “Whew!! The travel is about over”. Not so, Mary Lou – remember we’ve got a 2 hour layover and then another 5 hour flight to Perth (think Atlanta to Los Angeles or so again).
Flying on Qantas (there’s no “u” in it) is a significantly different experience than flying on US Airways. When you board this double-decker behemoth, there are two gangways – one for the upper that serves 1st class, business class and premium economy, and one that serves Coach, which is largely on the lower level. We were in Premium Economy, which was about as nice as first class on a typical US Airways plane. We are in the bulkhead row on the right side of the plane. Configuration is 1,2 3,4,5 6,7, and the aisles between the groups as well as the space between the rows is very comfortable. Although Qantas brags about the attention they give their passengers, we got extra doses because of the 36 or so seats in our section, there are only 10 passengers. As such, we were invited to move wherever we’d like although we stayed in the seats we had.
The other thing that’s very nice is that there’s a “glove box”, essentially a bin large enough to hold our day packs that’s immediately next to the seats. This gives us an added shelf to use that’s about 8 inches wide. This was good because the overhead storage bins are a bit smaller than what you usually encounter on an extended flight.
Dinner was pretty good for airline food. It’s not a 5-star restaurant, but it was pretty good, especially since it was accompanied by a nice Australian Shiraz that was poured freely.
We decided to try and stay awake for a while (despite the fact that we’d both been up for almost 24 hours at that point with little more than a couple of catnaps) to help accommodate to the new time zones. Thus, a little television after dinner and we dozed off without either seeing the end of our programs.
One thing that I hadn’t anticipated was TURBULENCE over the Pacific. Apparently it’s not all that uncommon, but according to the flight attendant we had a double-dose. The first time we woke up, about an hour after we’d initially zoned out for the night, we decided to call on King Ambien to help with sleep. It’s a good thing – because even with that, we were awakened at least half a dozen more times by announcements for everyone – passengers and crew – to take their seats and buckle in. On top of that there was an announcement of a medical emergency and a request if there was a physician on board, but we heard nothing more of that.
The seats are pretty good – bigger than coach, they recline a bit more and have a footrest like a recliner that comes up. They’re not quite long enough, though, to accommodate me (much less Eddie), so most of the time we ended up with our feet propped on the magazine rack on the bulkhead. Blankets were a dream by airplane standards – almost the size of a twin blanket, with a sheet sewn to one side, and nice and heavy.
About 4 in the morning (Sydney time, again – I’ll try to give times locally unless I point out they’re something else) there was some stirring in the cabin so the attendants came around, offered coffee and snacks. Since 4 a.m. isn’t an unusual coffee time for us, we started moving, too, although we both dozed back and forth until breakfast about 6.
Breakfast was the best meal we’ve had on an airplane – egg frittata, spinach (which I could do without!), steamed tomato, bacon (which they apparently don’t cook crispy), a muffin and bowl of fruit. It’s so nice to get a little tablecloth, real metal silverware and dishes to eat out of, rather than having to take the plastic wrap off of your dinner.
The rest of the flight was uneventful. Putting stuff back in our bags, neatening up, filling out the customs forms. One minor bit of panic – they ask if you’re bringing any food in, which has lead to the question of whether they’ll make us get rid of the chocolate covered Oreos that we were given as a travel gift by someone, not to mention the trail mix, gum, candy, etc. that were stuffed in the bag as well. It’ll be disappointing if they do, but I suspect that commercially prepared items will be allowed.
One thing we did well, but need to improve upon for next time – we packed a change of clothes in our carry-ons, so during the time in Los Angeles we put on comfy sleep pants, T-shirts and, most importantly CLEAN UNDIES! You wouldn’t think that your delicates would get so, umm, “shopworn” just sitting there, but nice dry BVD’s were very good. The mistake there was not packing two pair, since it would’ve been nice to change again on the plane before the last leg of the trip. Wear a day, air a day hardly works when the first pair’s been packed back in your luggage without the chance to air out!
We’ve decided that jet lag is a mindset. We’re not going to let it bother us, and as soon as we get on a plane to go elsewhere we immediately change all the clocks and begin eating on that schedule (the advantage being that you get extra suppers added in there!)
Time to power down for this leg of the trip. We’re almost there.
UPDATE – we got off the plane to be greeted by a sign indicating that we’d already missed our connecting flight (since we had to get our luggage, go through customs and then take a shuttle to another terminal), but we were going to be rebooked on the next flight – the difference only between 10:10 and 12:00 (Noon), so that wasn’t bad.
Once again, we couldn’t help but notice how infinitely more friendly customs and government officials are here than in the United States – something that I’ve commented on before about Italy, Canada, Hungary, Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic, among others. Like our TSA folks, it seems that once they’ve got that job security there’s no longer a need to be polite or courteous.
A quick lunch in the airport and enough time to decide that a handiwipe and yesterday’s undies might be an improvement over the ones I’d been in for the last 18+ hours took up the balance of the time. New rule – for every 10 hours of travel time, fresh dainties are a must. Another thought – those little microwaveable sponge baths they have at the hospital might be kinda nice, too.
It’s the height of summer here, and accordingly very hot. Fortunately, Australians seem to believe in air conditioning more than Europeans do, so the terminal is quite comfortable.
Almost time to board. Just another 4 hours to our final destination; we’ve already reworked the shuttle service thanks to the wonders of the internet and EB’s blackberry. Mine, unfortunately, seems to have failed to go to sleep on the plane like I tried to tell it to and is therefore out of commission until I can get to an outlet. Thought I’d swipe power here in the terminal to grab a quick charge, but everything is 220 – and our adapters are in checked luggage, because obviously who would need them in our carry on!
Update – Sydney to Perth
I love babies. Anyone who knows me knows this. There are at least 7 children under the age of 4 on this plane, though, and at least one has cried nonstop since before we boarded the plane. Maybe it’s the wear of having travelled 36 hours at this point, but I could quite easily open the door and set them on the wings like an empty milk bottle and sleep well tonight.
Haven’t these people ever heard of Benadryl????? Don’t they know what it’s for?? What’s the points of pharmaceuticals if you can’t do something as simple as make a baby stop crying. After all, it’s more humane than shaking them until they quit making noise, right?.
Service on Qantas is amazing, even on the domestic flights. The attendants, which are easily double what would be expected on a similar US Airways flight, are cheerful and courteous. After bringing lunch and drinks (which are complementary), they then brought around ice cream bars! No wonder their clientele are so loyal to them.
Friday’s Final Update
After 37 hours of travel, we arrived. More about the hotel tomorrow, suffice it to say that we felt MUCH better after a hot shower. Went to dinner with the other members of Eddie’s team, took a walk around Perth and calling it an early night. It’s now right at 9:00 p.m. Friday in Perth, which means, if my calculations are right, its right at 7:00 a.m. Friday in Hickory.
We’re here, were’ fine. Tomorrow we have to meet the bus for a trip to the Margaret River (wine country) at 7:20 in the morning. Lots of sleeping to do between now and then.
Well boys and girls, we’re an hour short of Sydney right now. You might think, “Whew!! The travel is about over”. Not so, Mary Lou – remember we’ve got a 2 hour layover and then another 5 hour flight to Perth (think Atlanta to Los Angeles or so again).
Flying on Qantas (there’s no “u” in it) is a significantly different experience than flying on US Airways. When you board this double-decker behemoth, there are two gangways – one for the upper that serves 1st class, business class and premium economy, and one that serves Coach, which is largely on the lower level. We were in Premium Economy, which was about as nice as first class on a typical US Airways plane. We are in the bulkhead row on the right side of the plane. Configuration is 1,2 3,4,5 6,7, and the aisles between the groups as well as the space between the rows is very comfortable. Although Qantas brags about the attention they give their passengers, we got extra doses because of the 36 or so seats in our section, there are only 10 passengers. As such, we were invited to move wherever we’d like although we stayed in the seats we had.
The other thing that’s very nice is that there’s a “glove box”, essentially a bin large enough to hold our day packs that’s immediately next to the seats. This gives us an added shelf to use that’s about 8 inches wide. This was good because the overhead storage bins are a bit smaller than what you usually encounter on an extended flight.
Dinner was pretty good for airline food. It’s not a 5-star restaurant, but it was pretty good, especially since it was accompanied by a nice Australian Shiraz that was poured freely.
We decided to try and stay awake for a while (despite the fact that we’d both been up for almost 24 hours at that point with little more than a couple of catnaps) to help accommodate to the new time zones. Thus, a little television after dinner and we dozed off without either seeing the end of our programs.
One thing that I hadn’t anticipated was TURBULENCE over the Pacific. Apparently it’s not all that uncommon, but according to the flight attendant we had a double-dose. The first time we woke up, about an hour after we’d initially zoned out for the night, we decided to call on King Ambien to help with sleep. It’s a good thing – because even with that, we were awakened at least half a dozen more times by announcements for everyone – passengers and crew – to take their seats and buckle in. On top of that there was an announcement of a medical emergency and a request if there was a physician on board, but we heard nothing more of that.
The seats are pretty good – bigger than coach, they recline a bit more and have a footrest like a recliner that comes up. They’re not quite long enough, though, to accommodate me (much less Eddie), so most of the time we ended up with our feet propped on the magazine rack on the bulkhead. Blankets were a dream by airplane standards – almost the size of a twin blanket, with a sheet sewn to one side, and nice and heavy.
About 4 in the morning (Sydney time, again – I’ll try to give times locally unless I point out they’re something else) there was some stirring in the cabin so the attendants came around, offered coffee and snacks. Since 4 a.m. isn’t an unusual coffee time for us, we started moving, too, although we both dozed back and forth until breakfast about 6.
Breakfast was the best meal we’ve had on an airplane – egg frittata, spinach (which I could do without!), steamed tomato, bacon (which they apparently don’t cook crispy), a muffin and bowl of fruit. It’s so nice to get a little tablecloth, real metal silverware and dishes to eat out of, rather than having to take the plastic wrap off of your dinner.
The rest of the flight was uneventful. Putting stuff back in our bags, neatening up, filling out the customs forms. One minor bit of panic – they ask if you’re bringing any food in, which has lead to the question of whether they’ll make us get rid of the chocolate covered Oreos that we were given as a travel gift by someone, not to mention the trail mix, gum, candy, etc. that were stuffed in the bag as well. It’ll be disappointing if they do, but I suspect that commercially prepared items will be allowed.
One thing we did well, but need to improve upon for next time – we packed a change of clothes in our carry-ons, so during the time in Los Angeles we put on comfy sleep pants, T-shirts and, most importantly CLEAN UNDIES! You wouldn’t think that your delicates would get so, umm, “shopworn” just sitting there, but nice dry BVD’s were very good. The mistake there was not packing two pair, since it would’ve been nice to change again on the plane before the last leg of the trip. Wear a day, air a day hardly works when the first pair’s been packed back in your luggage without the chance to air out!
We’ve decided that jet lag is a mindset. We’re not going to let it bother us, and as soon as we get on a plane to go elsewhere we immediately change all the clocks and begin eating on that schedule (the advantage being that you get extra suppers added in there!)
Time to power down for this leg of the trip. We’re almost there.
UPDATE – we got off the plane to be greeted by a sign indicating that we’d already missed our connecting flight (since we had to get our luggage, go through customs and then take a shuttle to another terminal), but we were going to be rebooked on the next flight – the difference only between 10:10 and 12:00 (Noon), so that wasn’t bad.
Once again, we couldn’t help but notice how infinitely more friendly customs and government officials are here than in the United States – something that I’ve commented on before about Italy, Canada, Hungary, Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic, among others. Like our TSA folks, it seems that once they’ve got that job security there’s no longer a need to be polite or courteous.
A quick lunch in the airport and enough time to decide that a handiwipe and yesterday’s undies might be an improvement over the ones I’d been in for the last 18+ hours took up the balance of the time. New rule – for every 10 hours of travel time, fresh dainties are a must. Another thought – those little microwaveable sponge baths they have at the hospital might be kinda nice, too.
It’s the height of summer here, and accordingly very hot. Fortunately, Australians seem to believe in air conditioning more than Europeans do, so the terminal is quite comfortable.
Almost time to board. Just another 4 hours to our final destination; we’ve already reworked the shuttle service thanks to the wonders of the internet and EB’s blackberry. Mine, unfortunately, seems to have failed to go to sleep on the plane like I tried to tell it to and is therefore out of commission until I can get to an outlet. Thought I’d swipe power here in the terminal to grab a quick charge, but everything is 220 – and our adapters are in checked luggage, because obviously who would need them in our carry on!
Update – Sydney to Perth
I love babies. Anyone who knows me knows this. There are at least 7 children under the age of 4 on this plane, though, and at least one has cried nonstop since before we boarded the plane. Maybe it’s the wear of having travelled 36 hours at this point, but I could quite easily open the door and set them on the wings like an empty milk bottle and sleep well tonight.
Haven’t these people ever heard of Benadryl????? Don’t they know what it’s for?? What’s the points of pharmaceuticals if you can’t do something as simple as make a baby stop crying. After all, it’s more humane than shaking them until they quit making noise, right?.
Service on Qantas is amazing, even on the domestic flights. The attendants, which are easily double what would be expected on a similar US Airways flight, are cheerful and courteous. After bringing lunch and drinks (which are complementary), they then brought around ice cream bars! No wonder their clientele are so loyal to them.
Friday’s Final Update
After 37 hours of travel, we arrived. More about the hotel tomorrow, suffice it to say that we felt MUCH better after a hot shower. Went to dinner with the other members of Eddie’s team, took a walk around Perth and calling it an early night. It’s now right at 9:00 p.m. Friday in Perth, which means, if my calculations are right, its right at 7:00 a.m. Friday in Hickory.
We’re here, were’ fine. Tomorrow we have to meet the bus for a trip to the Margaret River (wine country) at 7:20 in the morning. Lots of sleeping to do between now and then.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Departure Day -- Wednesday, Jan 28, 2009
Travel day today -- FINALLY!
Luggage is sitting by the back door waiting on our ride to the Hickory Airport. Taking the Hickory Hop (shuttle) from Hickory down to Charlotte -- to clarify for you non-locals.....that'd be a van...not a plane.
Luggage weighs 47.5 and 48.5 lbs. We know this because we received a handydandy "luggage scale" as a departure gift last evening. EB gets the prize for the lightest luggage -- lighter by one lb.
Finally last night, I sat down and calculated the time we'll be in transit....a mere 31 hours. Here's how our trek will proceed:
1. Hickory/Charlotte via Hickory Hop
2. Charlotte/Los Angeles via USAIRWAYS -- arrive 7:15ish pm
3. Los Angeles/Sydney via QANTAS -- depart 10:30ish pm (our 1:30am-ish; arrive Sydney approx. 15 hours later
4. Sydney/Perth -- the final leg of the flight across Australia to Perth departing at approx. 10:00 am
5. Arrive Perth on Friday approx. 1 pm their time (which is really 11pm Thursday USA EST).
All of the above is considering that we hit all flights as planned.
Send us positive energy on our connections!
eb&lj
Luggage is sitting by the back door waiting on our ride to the Hickory Airport. Taking the Hickory Hop (shuttle) from Hickory down to Charlotte -- to clarify for you non-locals.....that'd be a van...not a plane.
Luggage weighs 47.5 and 48.5 lbs. We know this because we received a handydandy "luggage scale" as a departure gift last evening. EB gets the prize for the lightest luggage -- lighter by one lb.
Finally last night, I sat down and calculated the time we'll be in transit....a mere 31 hours. Here's how our trek will proceed:
1. Hickory/Charlotte via Hickory Hop
2. Charlotte/Los Angeles via USAIRWAYS -- arrive 7:15ish pm
3. Los Angeles/Sydney via QANTAS -- depart 10:30ish pm (our 1:30am-ish; arrive Sydney approx. 15 hours later
4. Sydney/Perth -- the final leg of the flight across Australia to Perth departing at approx. 10:00 am
5. Arrive Perth on Friday approx. 1 pm their time (which is really 11pm Thursday USA EST).
All of the above is considering that we hit all flights as planned.
Send us positive energy on our connections!
eb&lj
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Pre-trip - January 24, 2009
G’day Mate.- January 24, 2009
OK, maybe they only talk that way on television. It’s hard to tell because we haven’t left yet, but if the contacts we’ve made so far are any indication, the conclusion is usually “cheers”. We’re deep in the throws of preparation to leave. Newspapers have been stopped, lists have been made of last-minute errands, expectations are (hopefully) managed among clients, coworkers and others. Now the devil is in the details.
First, we have to manage the time change. Saying that one is going to Australia is a lot like saying that you’re going to the US – it is a huge country, and we’ll be spanning it from Perth, on the far west coast to Melbourne, Cairns and Sydney. To give you some comparisons, imagine flying across the ocean, landing in
It’s also summertime there, which means getting our summer wardrobe up and running during the off season. Fortunately, most things don’t get packed too far away. Our goal is to have the bulk of our clothes in one carry on each. We got nifty new bags for Christmas that have a zip off day pack that holds laptops and other essentials. We’ll have to take a checked bag, too, primarily because of Eddie’s suits that have to come along with us. Overall, though, our goal is to travel light and fast. Disposable clothes will be coming along, and, as in
For right now, there’s lots of little things to do. It escaped me until this morning that their electricity is 220 rather than 110, and thus a converter has to be secured to go along with the ever-burgeoning list of electronic gadgets. Eddie got a new digital video camera for his birthday, and we hope to be able to supplement the blog with movies this time. I’ve also found the cord to the camera, so maybe we can actually download some pictures as the trip goes along as well.
Excited doesn’t begin to describe our attitudes. Eddie’s planning and working the net for months is going to pay off in the activities that we’re going to do – more about those later. Right now there’s things to do and daylight’s burning.
Cheers.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)