Thirty three or so hours after leaving Melbourne I arrived this morning to massive cuddles and kisses and content in the knowledge that I will not be boarding another aircraft for a long time.
All considered though it was a very smooth trip.
No long lines or waits in customs. No delayed flights, a little turbulence but that was just as the Valium kicked in so it helped rock me to sleep. A few movies, some silly little games, a lot of Heinekin (spl). Also airline food has actually improved an awful lot since I last flew. What that basically means is that it is now fit for human consumption. AMAZING.
My flight stop was Melbourne to Sydney. Only I could drive for 10 hours to Melbourne, only to fly back to the city I've been living in for the last 5 years. Uneventful, except that I had a window seat and noone next to me.
After clearing customs I boarded one of the new Airbus 380's for the trip to LAX. It was pretty cruisy, nothing special. Set foot on American soil for the first time ever and before I knew it I was outside. No Visa, no nothing. Looked in my passport and I had a visa waiver telling me to be out of the country before the 28th of July...I think the person was too lazy to reset their stamp. Nice folks there. Some protest against swine flu...or the health care system or something. So yeah, a few hours of chain smoking and wondering what note/coin I should be using to pay for stuff and I was off again.
This time British Airways to Heathrow. Cleared customs after getting my carton of Marlboro and my bottle of Chivers and again, nice flight. Flying over the US and Canada during the day was REALLY nice. It's a beautiful country from 33,000feet. Saw the Hoover dam. Even from that high up it's impressive and the Colorado River looked gorgeous! Could see the grand canyon out of my window which was incredibly impressive. The Rocky Mountains off on the horizon with their snow capped peaks was an incredible sight to see. The further north the more amazing it got. Snow covered woodlands, frozen lakes, salt plained deserts. It was amazing.
Not long after this I went to sleep for a few hours. The girl sitting next to me might have been early 20s. Asian-American girl who managed to curl into a ball in her seat, which gave me a little extra leg room, and the bloke sitting next to her gave me his Alternative Press mag once he'd finished with it. Apparently I look punk rock or something.
After we landed I was outside the airport within about 4 minutes looking at Miranda as she had a smoke. Charged up, dropped my bags everywhere and had crowds of people gawking at us as we hugged and kissed. Was worth the million hour trek to see her again.
Tube back to the place that her and Liss have been staying. The best shower I've ever had and some lunch. Helped her move her stuff to her new place and now here we are in a coffee shop across the road, on an incredibly slow computer with a busted spacebar.
It doesn't feel real yet, but it does feel great.
Will be updating when I can again. For now. PARTY TIME IN LONDON TOWN! w000000t!
cheers
Alex
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Actually travelled
So late last night I set out on my big adventure by driving all the way to the distant lands of Melbourne, my previous home of 23 odd years.
I have some gripes about the journey.
First of all. In future, please do not close the only entrance to the M5 that I even know exists. It makes me take wrong turns, do laps of the airport and then end up following a truck in the rain because he looks like he knows what he's doing.
Second...Gundagai! What makes you (and your road) so special that you get a ridiculous song written about you. Worse yet, I know part of the song, but not enough for it to be fun. No, it gets stuck in my head on the small part I do know then somehow transforms itself into Led Zepplin's "Stairway to Heaven". I can't even think right now if the two songs sound similar or if my brain was just fucking with me.
Next.... Holbrook. What a stupid town you are. You have the H.M.A.S. Otway (a submarine) parked IN CONCRETE in the middle of town. Now I'm no geologist, or geographist, or which ever "ist" deals with waterways and landmarks etc, but I do know that this submarine wasn't sailed to it's concrete resting place. In fact, with the aid of google maps I have now learned that you are probably a good 250 kilometres to the nearest part of Australia's eastern coast, and that's in a straight line. Sorry Holbrook. Your gig is up.
While we're on shit towns, Benalla. I didn't stop at you this time, but you deserve a big fuck off for the time I did have to stop there 7 or 8 years ago....don't think I've forgotten about your round pool table or your rip off merchant radiator shop.
Hume highway roadworks. I don't think I need to elaborate. You are a pain in the arse.
High beams. Hey folks, just because there is a rather large area between the north and south bound lanes with some scattered shrubs does not mean you aren't still blinding me. I hope you all burnt out your headlights leading to fiery deaths.
My biggest gripe of the whole journey was after the lovely "Welcome to Melbourne" sign however. The western ring road is great, avoids all the congestion one used to face coming down Sydney Road. My problem with it is the sneaky fucking cameras placed every couple of miles. Making the roads safer by placing a camera somewhere with a big sign saying "HAI THERE!!! WE HAS CAMERAS YOU KNOW?" is one thing. Sticking them every where with no warning is pure revenue raising and makes me sick. Well guess what Victorian Government. If I got caught, I'm not paying. I'll be about 10,000miles away. Add it to my bill. Especially if it was the one placed behind the tree. Sneaky bastards.
Also traffic. Fuck you traffic.
Finally to Triple J. Pick a damn frequency. Or have some sort of "trip planner" available so people can go "oh, so we're past Yass, now we tune to 94.2" or whatever so I don't have to put the radio on scan then get assaulted in the ears by a guy calling the dogs at 3am (fucking Holbrook). WHO'S LISTENING TO THE DOGS AT THAT HOUR!!!? HUH!?
But after all of the above I have made it safe and sound. I am here and it's a beautiful day, which I will spend in bed. Energy drinks deserve a big thank you from me. Cheers to V, Redbull and Mother for helping me get through this, my heart hates you, but the rest of me is grateful.
Thanks to Miranda for the sms conversation (illegal and unsafe while driving I know, but it kept me occupied). Thanks to Yass for always making me laugh with your McDonald's sign.
And finally thanks to my shitty old Subaru for not being as shitty as you've been in the past and getting me here in one piece.
Cheers
Alex
(edit)
P.S. One more point for Holbrook I just remembered. In the toilet of the service station I stopped at for fuel there was a sticker someone had placed on the wall stating "White Men Can't Funk". In true country town Australian style scrawled underneath it in texta was "PIGZ ARSE!!!". Fucking brilliant, in an incredibly sad way
I have some gripes about the journey.
First of all. In future, please do not close the only entrance to the M5 that I even know exists. It makes me take wrong turns, do laps of the airport and then end up following a truck in the rain because he looks like he knows what he's doing.
Second...Gundagai! What makes you (and your road) so special that you get a ridiculous song written about you. Worse yet, I know part of the song, but not enough for it to be fun. No, it gets stuck in my head on the small part I do know then somehow transforms itself into Led Zepplin's "Stairway to Heaven". I can't even think right now if the two songs sound similar or if my brain was just fucking with me.
Next.... Holbrook. What a stupid town you are. You have the H.M.A.S. Otway (a submarine) parked IN CONCRETE in the middle of town. Now I'm no geologist, or geographist, or which ever "ist" deals with waterways and landmarks etc, but I do know that this submarine wasn't sailed to it's concrete resting place. In fact, with the aid of google maps I have now learned that you are probably a good 250 kilometres to the nearest part of Australia's eastern coast, and that's in a straight line. Sorry Holbrook. Your gig is up.
While we're on shit towns, Benalla. I didn't stop at you this time, but you deserve a big fuck off for the time I did have to stop there 7 or 8 years ago....don't think I've forgotten about your round pool table or your rip off merchant radiator shop.
Hume highway roadworks. I don't think I need to elaborate. You are a pain in the arse.
High beams. Hey folks, just because there is a rather large area between the north and south bound lanes with some scattered shrubs does not mean you aren't still blinding me. I hope you all burnt out your headlights leading to fiery deaths.
My biggest gripe of the whole journey was after the lovely "Welcome to Melbourne" sign however. The western ring road is great, avoids all the congestion one used to face coming down Sydney Road. My problem with it is the sneaky fucking cameras placed every couple of miles. Making the roads safer by placing a camera somewhere with a big sign saying "HAI THERE!!! WE HAS CAMERAS YOU KNOW?" is one thing. Sticking them every where with no warning is pure revenue raising and makes me sick. Well guess what Victorian Government. If I got caught, I'm not paying. I'll be about 10,000miles away. Add it to my bill. Especially if it was the one placed behind the tree. Sneaky bastards.
Also traffic. Fuck you traffic.
Finally to Triple J. Pick a damn frequency. Or have some sort of "trip planner" available so people can go "oh, so we're past Yass, now we tune to 94.2" or whatever so I don't have to put the radio on scan then get assaulted in the ears by a guy calling the dogs at 3am (fucking Holbrook). WHO'S LISTENING TO THE DOGS AT THAT HOUR!!!? HUH!?
But after all of the above I have made it safe and sound. I am here and it's a beautiful day, which I will spend in bed. Energy drinks deserve a big thank you from me. Cheers to V, Redbull and Mother for helping me get through this, my heart hates you, but the rest of me is grateful.
Thanks to Miranda for the sms conversation (illegal and unsafe while driving I know, but it kept me occupied). Thanks to Yass for always making me laugh with your McDonald's sign.
And finally thanks to my shitty old Subaru for not being as shitty as you've been in the past and getting me here in one piece.
Cheers
Alex
(edit)
P.S. One more point for Holbrook I just remembered. In the toilet of the service station I stopped at for fuel there was a sticker someone had placed on the wall stating "White Men Can't Funk". In true country town Australian style scrawled underneath it in texta was "PIGZ ARSE!!!". Fucking brilliant, in an incredibly sad way
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
oh also.....
How the hell do I find and add people on here? Do I need to know their URL or can I search by display name or real name or what?
This all looks hard for someone as slow on the uptake as I tend to be sometimes.
This all looks hard for someone as slow on the uptake as I tend to be sometimes.
And so it begins
I had farewell drinks on Saturday and one of my good friends suggested a Blog to keep people up to date on what's happening. Great idea I thought. I also thought "I never know what to write in these things". I thought, "is this the new wave of livejournal?" I hope that's not what I'm doing.
I'm determined not to make it that.
So I thought with less than 2 days until I leave for Melbourne and less than 10 days til I fly far-far away I'd get started.
Today is the first day where it's been hard to be leaving. I had a nice dinner with the girls (and Jon) of Bucknell street. It was a little sad. Saying goodbye to Bridget was tough. I really have looked to her as a little sister for a while now and I worry about her. Stay tough Bid, you'll be fine and we'll see you in a matter of months.
Today Jarrod came over to get Saba from me. Saba is my carpet python that Jarrod is going to take care of for me. Thanks Jarrod.
The about 10 minutes ago my ex came to get Maggie and Baxter. My beautiful boston terriers. I fucking miss them like crazy already. The saddest day I've had in quite some time. I hope my kids are ok. So up top is a picture of my dogs, thinking of you kids, hope you're ok.
So tomorrow night I'll probably begin the long drive to Melbourne to say a last goodbye to the family. Won't be posting here all the time but will try to keep anyone who wants to read up to date.
Cheers
Alex
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