Bonnie Blue Down Under

Well, this is the beginning of the adventure (rawther, this is what I have so far):

Friday started slightly earlier than my custom. Toodled along Bluebell Road in the icky mist at 3.15 am, collected luggage and then sat underneath the overhang at the Climatic Research Centre and waited for bus (slight nervousness as bus was late and was beginning to think that was supposed to catch it from elsewhere, but it eventually arrived). Slept most of way to Heathrow and woke up approx. 4 minutes before arrival (clever internal clock).

Air Canada makes you check yourself in at a little computer screen (this concluded after 5 minutes of wandering around Section D). After being instructed to turn passport upside down for verification of my person in the machine, delivered baggage to counter person. Who gave me varying information regarding the presence/absence/next-day-existence of my flight and told me what a wonderful time she had had in County Galway, Ireland when she lived there as well as commentary on Knock Airport :) Following inquiry from myself regarding my short time in Vancouver and concern about customs procedures, herself and another helpful lady confused me even further, resulting in my plan to just go with the flow and whatever. This is generally a good plan…

Exciting 3 ½ hours past security in Heathrow. Second time I have been requested to remove jewellery (slightly stupid in my opinion), but managed to skirt around the random ‘please have your shoes x-rayed for further discomfort and inconvenience’ section by not making eye contact with the guy selecting people and appearing really interested in Perfume World on the opposite side.

For some reason, have developed habit of being unable to correctly read seat numbers and so had to be asked to move by some vexed French people (sorry! gaaaah!). Ended up next to v. charming gentleman, Mr. D. Saxon, from Vancouver (originally born in Yorkshire and family still there, although he has lived in Canada for 27 years and was returning from mother’s 80th birthday celebration), so moving was actually good – except that conversation prevented my staring from my window seat at the landscape during either take-off or for the next four hours.

Developed fairly severe crick in neck from turning to left. Discussion topics included: the travesty of UK car rentals; extreme lack of road signs in Britain; how unfortunate his childhood locale has become; nutritional horrors of British food, esp. breakfast; his travels from Dubai to Australia to Asia to Mexico; the climate; energy usage; his 13 year old daughter; knitting; his 16 year old son; his wife; their dog; American’s lack of knowledge of their own country; and, naturally, American lack of knowledge of the world; British media; British television; television in general; how silly Europeans are to be alarmed by guns in US and Canada, when there is such significant violence person-on-person in Britain; pros and cons of the pub culture; rugby v. footie; places to eat in Vancouver when I return in September; and many other exciting and intriguing topics J V. fun person to sit next to.

Although, whilst I personally enjoyed visiting, the woman in front of him felt the need to turn around about 30 minutes into the flight and ask him to keep it down (sour old cow); we were both rather vindicated when later in the flight a group of boisterous mid-twenties guys were shouting and interrupting her reading. She did not, however, ask them to keep it down (shrew).

This flight, similar to January, took us over Arctic and was v. interesting to look at amazing canyons and fissures and tracks of ice flows.

Arrival in Vancouver (v. nice airport, btw) involved fast-walking to customs; then re-direction to US Customs (? whatever); then ‘collection’ of baggage - quotation used here since only one bag came through the connecting flight re-claim area (and that 15 minutes prior to flight departure); then second US customs checkpoint; then re-checking of baggage onto conveyor belt (all four of preceding locations within twenty feet of each other – terrific goat-roping waste of energy and not contributing to security in any way I can tell); then the joy of re-entering secure area, along with 150 other people, and from which vantage point was able to spy second suitcase (containing all of my work clothes) on arrivals carousel on bottom floor; exit from security (successful) at 5 mins prior to flight departure; helpful airport people, though, were walkie-talkie-ing to flight so it wouldn’t leave without myself and about 20 others trying to do this ridiculous change-over; then ran a mile to flight and collapsed into lovely emergency exit row seat – fabulous to have some leg room for exquisitely long flight.

Again, good seat mate – lady named Seema, originally from Pakistan and who now lives in Toronto. Excellent chat with her for couple of hours before we both kind of ‘slept’ after our meals. Flight landed in Honolulu; forced off of plane with all carry-ons and into terminal (although not allowed to remain in waiting area for 15 minutes for some daft reason). Airport is open! It was humid and warmish, but it had rained and was breezy. 9.45pm local time, but 8.30am in UK (I think) on the Saturday morning, approaching 30 hours of travelling time for my poor brain. Allowed back in waiting area and then finally onto plane, whereupon, were served sad little snack and after re-outfitting myself in eye cover, blanket (Air Canada likes to keep you frigid) and earplugs, promptly passed out again. Woke 4am Sydney time and stayed awake for rest of trip to 6.20am arrival.

Australia is exceedingly concerned about customs and foreign items entering their country. After arrival at the gate, we all had to stay in seats while cabin crew opened overhead bins and sprayed something in throughout the entire plane (this leads me to great concern for persons with perhaps a respiratory sensitivity or allergies). While whatever this nonsense was settled into our lungs and belongings, we had to sit there for 5 minutes before being allowed to deplane. Immigration v. smooth, lots of small sniffing doggies everywhere wearing little maroon uniforms. Following this, stood next to incorrect baggage carousel for about 15 minutes before realising was supposed to be in entirely different section altogether. Sniffy dogs all over the place here as well, and one dog located banana in an elderly lady’s bag and got to play fetch with it as reward. By the time I got to correct area, it wasn’t terribly exciting, as my clothing bag had apparently not been rescued in time by Vancouver ground people (although they did give it a good try) and was still there on a short holiday. Customs rather more intensive, similar to security checkpoints, but I was fortunate in only having some chocolate and so was allowed through without having my bags searched.

Figured out train (hoorah!), bought week-long pass for red and green zones, and dragged self to hotel. No room in the inn (the Holiday, that is), and was directed to shopping centre for purpose of acquiring clothing for appointments yesterday. And ridiculous things like shampoo, contact solution, brush, etc. So much fun. Esp. when one’s brain slightly delayed-reactionish due to something approaching 48 hours without real rest J Have lovely red Chinese-type top, black trousers, new underpants, blue and white striped pyjamas with hyper flower design and two pairs of shoes (one for pending wedding requirements). Also bought some milk, because at this point, well, I needed some! (Air Canada’s milk leaves a great deal to be desired.)

Room finally ready upon return, bathed and drank milk out of carton, talked to E so’s he could be jealous of gorgeous weather and temperatures, and passed out about 4pm. Woke only to eat and talk on Skype a bit more and returned to sleep – this seems to have prevented jet lag, so quite pleased with that.

At moment (Tuesday morning, 8.48am), am on three-hour train to Newcastle for a visit to University of Newcastle. Have managed to spill coffee on gift wrapped item for colleague, but other than that fairly good trip. …until 59 seconds ago, when realised was supposed to change trains here in Gosford to get to Newcastle as my train was returning to Sydney (all the people getting on were turning the seats back around to face the other direction)! Moral: It is good to talk to little elderly ladies :) Dear me – heart pounding, as that would have been ridiculous event. Fortunately, they pointed me to train on opposite platform! Whew – breathe. Breathe…

Yesterday, visited the University of Technology Sydney (which is a very modern and glass architecture urban campus -- kind of similar to UEA in some of its design) and then had late afternoon to toodle down to Darling Harbour and do a little relaxed investigating of area around Chinatown (the whole time I thought I was actually IN Chinatown, not realising was just walking the perimeter until heading back to station for train back to hotel – grrrr. However, this gives me a place to go back to on Friday afternoon and/or Saturday.). There is a really larger multi-national Asian population here than I expected. V. interesting.

Saw bizarre birds (although no kookaburras). City feels quite comfortable. Attire extremely relaxed. School uniforms – some are normal plaid skirt/white blouse combos and then some are these little shirt-waisted dresses (kind of like little housemaid outfits – not seedy ones, but ones in old movies) People quite friendly.

Architecture I would attempt to define as Victorian Colonial, but have no idea if this is just stupid. Older buildings lovely, but in a stern and purposeful sort of way, not grand and elegant. In the older sections of town, there are terraced houses, but they just look blockier than in UK and quite similar to, say, St. Thomas or something like. Colourful stuccos, quite a few with balconies. Away from the city centre, there are a good deal more detached houses and there is a lot of green throughout the city. It is approaching autumn, but to me weather feels like California – not too humid, breezy from the ocean and perfect temperature. GORgeous flowers and lots of tropical trees, too. How do pigeons get everywhere on this planet? Seagulls are smaller here than the steroid-ones in Cardiff.

Today’s train ride has shown rocky, mountainish (this is a step-down from ‘mountainous’ in classification) landscape, really interesting smooth-barked twisty trees (maybe these are eucalyptus?) and these weird black nesty-looking things in some trees. Do not look like bird nests, but more like some sort of horrid insect. Have gone over quite a few waterways as well and seen lots of marinas. Trains are quite clean, although lack of tables is a little disappointing.

In the tourist shops, there are kangaroo skins for sale. You can also eat kangaroo – there are apparently a lot of them and they are farmed for meat. Trains have three levels on them and seat backs can be moved to face direction of train. Stand/walk/drive to left and pass on right. Clouds are up in sky at ‘normal’ height to me. If you ask for a coffee, people look blank; if you say ‘just plain brewed coffee with milk’ they look at you like you asked for a kilo of crack (I know this from my frequent requests for kilos, you know) – if one wants a regular coffee, one requests a ‘flat white’ and one gets a cappuccino, basically. They are really quite lovelier than plain coffee anyway J

OH MY GOSH – I think I just saw a small kangaroo out the train window!!!!! I may faint now. Okay will stop writing now and make self dizzy and sickly trying to see everything out of window. Or maybe it was a dingo; at least I don’t have a baby… hahahaha. (‘Maybe a dingo ate your baby…?!?!?’ for those of you who may miss this reference and become concerned for my mental health. Again.)

[At this point, I must retire to read myself to sleep, as it is now nearly 9pm. Only returned from Newcastle at 8, complete with my new friends: 3 blisters on left heel. Posting previously composed item and locating a few amusing links has wearied me. More tomorrow :0]