Yesterday (was it only yesterday I left? Wow) Kathy dropped me at the airport ready for my flight over to Melbourne. Check-in went nice and smoothly, Air New Zealand have a self check-in thing now so I didn't have to wait around at all, was notified I'd been seated in the exit row again. I'm not sure why but I seem to get seated in the exit row quite often. For those of you who don't fly regularly, to sit in the exit row you have to be over 15, of good health and be willing to help in an emergency and in return you get a little more legroom. Dropped my bag off and I must have done a good job re-packing because it was under the 23kg weight limit. Also, carrying it in, it felt so much lighter on my back, my shoulders are so grateful. One boarding pass and a declarations form later (I had to declare my PG Tips, I was scared they'd take them off me!) and I was passing through security into the realm of duty free. In all honesty, I don't really see why people go crazy at duty free, it's not -that- much cheaper and most of the stuff you can buy it complete tat. But, now that I was in need of a new camera and on a very tight budget, I appreciated it a little more.
I browsed around for a while, then found the camera I'd been looking for, a new 16mp Sony thing. I'm still not quite sure what happened next, all I know is I was approached by a salesman in a very nice suit who wouldn't look out of place in an Abercrombie catalogue. Okay I'm very sure of what happened, a very hot salesman convinced me to buy a different camera with relative ease. But, in my defence, the new camera was $100 cheaper than my original choice! I don't claim to know much (or anything) about cameras, but I'd always suspected that the more mega-pixels the better, apparently I am wrong. According to Sexiest Salesman of the Year 2011 even though the new camera was only 10.2mp I'd get a much better picture because of the kind of lens it has? I wasn't totally convinced, but then he said he liked my t-shirt and I was sold. Feminist friends, don't be mad. I know I've single-handedly set back women's rights by about a hundred years in a single eyelash flutter, but don't judge me too harshly, I'm sticking by my excuse that I'm in a foreign country and I'm consistently confused and disorientated. So disorientated that I even let him sell me a memory stick because Sony cameras aren't compatible with normal SD cards apparently. Doh.
After a coffee to recover from the hard sell, I went to Gate 1 to wait for an hour before boarding. After throwing away the camera packaging and having a play, I decided I quite liked it, even though it wasn't my first choice. We finally boarded after an hour and a half, and I took my usual seat of 11F, predictable 747s. I'm starting to wonder if my travel agent has suggested me for exit row seats... not sure if that's a compliment that I'd be good in an emergency or an insult that I'm disposable, ha. I'm not complaining, I like the extra leg room and I especially like having the window seat. I also like Air New Zealand because their in-flight entertainment is always really good, not to mention their funny safety video featuring the All Blacks.
After the safety video, I always start to get a bit jittery. I'm not afraid of flying, I know I'm more likely to have a car accident than to be in a plane crash, but there's that 'what if' feeling. It's worsened when you sit in the exit row, because the flight attendant comes along to check you're clear about what to do in an emergency. Like I say, I've sat in the exit row so many times now that I know I have to pull off the plastic cover, take the door by the two handles, pull it inwards then throw it out the gap that's left. But to check if there is smoke or fire outside first and not to open the exit if there is. AND to not act unless the evacuation notice is given by the crew. But I still don't know how I'd react in an actual emergency. Anyhow, my jitters don't usually subside until we're up in the air at cruising altitude. Yesterday, I distracted myself quite well however, by watching Crazy, Stupid, Love from the second I sat down. Butter chicken for lunch (Air New Zealand do good food too) and my other two hours of the flight was filled with writing. I tried to edit my gapyear.com article but got distracted and ended up just rambling on abut family and stuff in a random word document. I don't know what comes over me when I'm in the process of actually travelling from one place to another, I get all philosophical and reflective.
Flight over, baggage claim and straight into a taxi.. that's how we like it. Sure, the taxi to Williamstown cost me $60, but there's many reasons I'd rather pay that than get the bus/train. First off, I have a 20kg+ backpack to lug around, not fun. Secondly, I had no idea how far I was from Melbourne CBD let alone Williamstown which is a suburb. Thirdly, even if I did know how to get to Williamstown I had no idea where the street I was looking for was. All in all the taxi was the best option. I'm HelpX-ing again by the way, to three lovely children called Jarrah, Stella and Griffin. When I arrived they were all watching a movie, so I hung out with their Mum Eliza, her partner Ashley and their friend who was visiting. Turns out this friend is pretty full-on... she's a stripper who has just returned from LA and is off to Thailand next month for a boob job and botox. So that was a fun conversation. Anyhow, Eliza and Ashley seem great. I then found out that Eliza is a bit of a celeb. Well, quite a lot of a celeb I guess. She used to play Danni Stark in Neighbours in the early/mid-nineties, pretty cool huh? Got me thinking what unexpected twists and turns this trip takes me on. Who would have known that I'd be staying in the house of a former Neighbours actress? Craziness. I ended up having a pretty early night, since the time difference here is -2 hours, it was technically half eleven for me when it was only half nine here.
Up at 7am this morning, which was actually quite refreshing. Tea, shower and nutella on toast pretty much set me up. Spent the morning helping the girls with their painting and keeping Griff entertained. I'd set aside today to sort out my transport from Melbourne to Sydney for Christmas/New Years and also to apply for my Vietnamese visa. I only got a little of either done. I looked into transport and basically have to choose between the bus and the train, yet again. I'll most likely go for the train, it's an hour less and pretty much the same price. From my experience, the train is more comfortable, so it'll be 11 hours direct to Sydney. I could pay extra and go overnight in a sleeper car... that'd sure be an experience. Then I looked up my visa stuff, and the embassy was less than helpful. They don't publish visa prices because they are "continually changing", basically they make them up on the spot, so I have to call to find out how much money to include with my application. But it's Sunday, so no luck. Then they want me to attach a passport sized photo to the application form, so I have to go get one of those taken. And on top of all that, even though this is regular practice, they want me to send my real passport. This is why I want to get it done soon, so I can have my passport back before Hayley and Cheryl's arrival on the 15th, I'll need it for ID! So even though I didn't get anything concrete done, I did gather lots of information. I ended up walking the girls to the shops and getting myself a lovely vanilla latte earlier, but it's pretty cold here today, I mean I have jeans and a cardi on, so we didn't hang about for long.
Tonight, Eliza and Ashley are going out so I'm working tonight for an extra couple of hours off tomorrow, in which I might do the 20 minute train ride into Melbourne CBD and do a bit of exploring with my new camera, weather permitting. I did find an awesome site of Free Things to do in Melbourne and I've got a good list of not-so-free things to do from Brad so I'm going to try and immerse myself into travelling again, because I've been lazy of late and not really embraced that keeping busy, exploring side of it all. Plus, I've got less than 12 weeks until I'm home, I need to make the most of this. Also, there's a piano in this house, yay!
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| This was me today with my new camera. |
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