Well, this is actually our fourth day home, I just haven't had the time or
inclination to write anything until now.
We had an uneventful trip home on the 29th. I think I'm getting more used to
these long-haul flights, the time went pretty quickly. There is much to be
said for Qantas' in-flight entertainment system. And Melatonin tablets.
We had a good, jam-packed three weeks in Australia.
We landed on a Sunday morning, at around 8am. Sarah's Aunty Glenda picked us
up from the airport, and we stayed with her for the week. We caught up with
two sets of friends on the Sunday, and managed to last until the evening
without crashing.
I spent the week working from the Sydney office. Jetlag is a wonderful thing
for making me into a temporary morning person. I was at my desk by 8am every
day. I'd forgotten how early the sun got up in Australia in the summer time.
Monday in Sydney is Sunday in California, so Mondays are blissfully quiet
and great for getting things done. The beauty of getting in by 8am meant I
still caught Mountain View from about about 1pm onwards for the rest of the
week, so that was good. I got a lot done while I was in the Sydney office.
On Tuesday morning we went to the US Consulate to sort out Sarah's visa
renewal. It was a no-brainer, and our passports were back at my parent's
place within 48 hours.
Thursday night was the Sydney office Christmas party. The Friday night we
flew out of San Francisco was the Mountain View office one, so it was good
to be able to catch a party somewhere. Got to love working for an
international company. Photos here.
Sarah spent the week in Sydney pottering around and catching up with
relatives. Every night was booked out with dinner with friends. Photos from
the week in Sydney are here.
Next stop was Canberra for four days. We stayed with different friends each
night. We'd really come to appreciate how bug-free California is. Apparently
Canberra was having a particularly bad fly season this summer. They were just
about carrying us away.
We stayed a night with Rusty and Alli on their farm out at Majors Creek,
which is always a nice getaway. It was great to see how the place is coming
along. We won't recognise it next time we're there.
At Canberra airport on the way to Brisbane, totally by chance, we bumped
into our old upstairs neighbour Melissa, from when we lived in Turner. Her
and her husband and kids moved to Brisbane around the time we moved from
Turner to Ainslie, and we hadn't done a very good job of keeping in contact.
To cap it off, she ended up sitting in the seat across the aisle from us on
the plane, so we had a good old chinwag for an hour and half. Photos from
Canberra are here.
Then we got to Brisbane and did the family thing. It was good to see my
family again, and show them all of the photos of Joshua and just spend time
with them. Brisbane traffic has degenerated significantly in the last 12
months. The Gateway Arterial Motorway near the airport is a complete mess.
There's a lot of construction going on for the new cross-city tunnel they're
putting in.
Probably the highlight of the trip was the mass outing to Australia Zoo. It's been a couple
of years since we've been there, and boy, does that place just keep getting
better.
My hot tip is to save yourself a fortune, and a precious couple of hours,
and avoid purchasing food from the catering area. It's sheer bedlam, and
very expensive. The zoo is getting so big, that you really need all of 9am
to 4:30pm to see it all properly, so you can save a lot of time by bringing
your own lunch, or getting a pass-out and getting lunch from somewhere
nearby. Photos from the zoo trip here
The weather in all parts of Australia that we saw was pretty grey and wet
for the most part. I'm not complaining, we need all the water we can get. It
was sounding like most of the rain was falling outside the catchment areas
though. It was nice to see Canberra not looking all brown and dry though.
Photos from the time in Brisbane here.
In a brief fit of spontaneity we decided to sign up for Qantas Club
memberships. I'm really kicking myself for not getting lifetime membership
back in 1999 when I sold my share of our business. I've done so much
travelling since then, and it'd have really come in handy. As it happened,
we got good use out of it this trip. The flight from Brisbane to Sydney was
at 8:15am, so we left my parents' place at about 6:15am, sans breakfast or
showers, and breakfasted at the Brisbane airport, and showered in the Sydney
airport, as we had about 5 hours to kill until our flight to San Francisco
departed.
