Australian Open 2008 - Day 19

Day 19 is travel day.  That means I will get up, catch a cab to the airport, then spend a good portion of the next 26 or 27 total clock hours in an airport waiting on a plane or in a plane.  There's no easy way to prep for it, and I hate to fly enough as it is.

I called Colleen to surprise her.  I found out that I was going to have to carry our phone back to the US anyway, so I had cell access the entire time until I left the country.

Waiting in the airport for Business Class International is always good.  Free food to nibble.  Free wireless.  I chose to try to work on blog postings, but in the end just tried to catch up on the 1000 email messages I had.  Besides, I was a bit nervous about the flight.  Colleen suggested I have a drink, so I chose a beer to help settle my nerves.  It seemed to work reasonably well.

Getting onto the plane, the line in front of us was tied up by a rock band, Airbourne.  They were trying to load up all their music gear as well as luggage and sleeping bags, etc. for an extended US tour of some sort.  They'll be here in Raleigh in a couple of weeks, I may just have to try to see the show.  I thought it was interesting to watch them try to pull it all together.  They definitely did not appear to be rock stars even though they looked the part.

For some odd reason, I don't sleep well on the flight home.  I think I had a one hour catnap, but I know it wasn't much longer than that and I definitely felt very odd once we arrived in LAX.  It is now 4 hours before I took off and the time shift is surreal.  I did take advantage of the shower in the Business Class lounge again, though, which was very nice.  It did help shake off some of the odd feeling, but of course I know better that I'll take a couple of days to catch up.

I called Colleen from LAX.  It was nice to be able to use my phone again and to feel more connected.  It meant I was closer to home than not.

Got home around 10PM Eastern.  That means it was 2PM on Wednesday in Australia, and it was now 29 hours from when I had started the trip leaving for the airport in Melbourne.  I was exhausted, but still fairly tightly strung.  I needed a little bit of time to unwind before I collapsed.  I took the opportunity to try out Guitar Hero III, which Colleen had purchased while I was gone.  Too much fun, though I am a lousy virtual guitarist as well. ;-)

Once I discovered I was unable to adequately negotiate the buttons on the universal remote, I knew it was time to wander off to bed.  My own bed, with my own pillows and Colleen in the same room.  I only wish it was the weekend, or that she had some time off as we'll really not be able to spend a ton of time together until this weekend.

Still, another safe and relatively sane trip to a venue and a foreign country.  Next stop, the babymoon in Mexico!

Cheers!

Australian Open 2008 - Day 18

Time to shut everything down.  Time to break it all apart and call it a tournament.  I am so ready for this one to be over.  We got through fairly early and it left a good part of the day open to our own devices.

I started out just hanging out in the room doing laundry.  It was nice.  I just hate having to take home dirty laundry when I have access to a reasonable laundry facility.  I do hate the dryer.  It is quite lame actually and requires WAY more time than it should to be able to dry the size of the loads I was running.

After I got done, I decided to head down to St. Kilda Beach.  It was roasting hot, but it was nice to walk along the ocean and I got to snap some photos.  I stopped at a bakery and had a very gooey Baklava and a bottle of water.  It was pretty tasty.  I wished I was able to enjoy the beach more, but it was later in the day than I should have gotten off to explore.

I will take a moment here to diverge.  Tram rides in Melbourne are very much on your honor.  I hopped the tram (after being at a dead run to catch it) and discovered the ticket machine was out of order.  I couldn't buy a ticket, but I didn't want to wait for a working tram.  That meant I wound up taking the ride for free.  I don't know what risk I had run of getting busted, but I assumed it was low.

Got to the tram station and I was early.  So, I thought I'd take a moment to have a pint at the closest pub.  I was off after all.  Of course, it took longer than I had wanted, and I missed the next tram, so now I had to wait even longer.  Got the call on our farewell gathering and wanted to get back to the room to collect my beer and camera for the party.

On the way back, I did purchase a ticket and since it only validates on the return trip, I considered myself square with the tram service.  I paid for more than I used, and in the end did pay for a trip out and back from St. Kilda.

The final night was supposed to be a pizza party on the deck of the hotel.  Once again, the Medina really let me down.  They seemed to be quite uptight about IBM and our assault on the sensibilities of their other patrons, so they shooed us off the patio before we could even get started.  It raised some hackles but in the end, we chose to host at BJ and Mike's room.  Especially since it was the Penthouse suite, there was plenty of room.

Pizza in Australia is very unusual.  Not in the shape or style, but in the toppings and flavors.  I can always eat pizza though, so I didn't complain.  No one knew where we ordered from, so I can't give a plug to anyone specifically.

The party looked to be running late, and I wasn't really all that interested.  I wanted to get finished packing and figuring out how to stuff all my gear into this too small bag.  It worked out for the best anyway as some of the folks partying had decided to raid the mini-bar in a room that was not their own, and I felt it time to excuse myself. :-)

I got back to the room and saw I had almost everything done.  I hate feeling rushed the day of a flight and missing this one isn't really an option.  I can't wait to get back home!  I miss Colleen.

Cheers!