Category: Trip

I’m in Australia. This is my 18th return visit since I left and my fourth in the Australian winter. Yesterday included my 60th crossing of the Pacific, and best I can estimate was about my 62nd day of my life spent in the air (I really need to calculate that more accurately one day).

The 31 hour journey was hell of course; here’s a series of photos taken throughout, one on each plane and one shortly after arriving at my hotel:

It appears the stresses of the journey seem to have elongated my very head!

After arriving I wandered around Sydney like a footloose parvenu, drifting here and there and pausing only long enough to buy $187.20 worth of postage stamps (that’s not a typo).

The locals welcomed me as they always do, but alas the rigors of travel were impossible to ignore even with the energy of a Big Mac meal, four Chomps, a bag of cheese & onion chips, a frozen coke, a chicken kebab and – as evidence of how dog-tired I was – a zero sugar Solo:

I went to my bed with the sun high in the sky, and now am fully awake with the moon not even at its peak. Jet lag is fun isn’t it?

It was below freezing this morning when we woke. We probably didn’t have clothes warm enough for such a chill, so we lounged in the room for a bit, watching Japanese walking videos on the hotel TV.

I ventured out and bought a turkey sub and an avocado bagel around 8 am, and both were delicious. I’ll let you guess who ate what. I didn’t repeat yesterday’s mistake of Mt Dew for breakfast!

There’s an advertising battle in the city right now between the new Ghostbusters film and the new Godzilla film, and it seems Godzilla is winning. I expect the same will happen at the box office as well.

The above is in the window of a marijuana dispensary right next door to a McDonald’s WcDonald’s near Times Square. The plants appear real. I have no understanding of the current legality of pot in NY, but the shops continue to multiply, always look empty, and seem to focus more on things like gummies and edibles than actual stuff to smoke. We both suspect they’re for the tourists, but who knows?

The meals I ate this trip contained, in order, turkey, chicken, bacon, chicken, chicken, turkey and turkey. The above sign is therefore at least 50% correct.

The last postcards have been sent, the last shops visited, and we’re now on the train home. A successful trip it was!

Now perhaps I need to start thinking about the next vacation, to shores farther afield. I wonder what adventures I may have?

I had one egg and bacon on white bread for breakfast, and washed it down with a delicious Mountain Dew. That was probably a mistake.

We did a lot more walking and shopping today. The city was warmer and busier than yesterday but we were older and tireder so events progressed slower.

The above is a mosaic in Saint Patrick’s. The cathedral flaunts unimaginable wealth but at the same time is fascinating and beautiful. I just wish they weren’t so blatant asking for endless donations.

In a loo at the Rockefeller Center a man in a stall was talking loud enough for everyone to hear: “System I contributed my own life but you gave me nothing in return. System why have you abandoned me?” He went on and on, always saying ‘System’ and not ‘The system’. I think he may have been insane.

The fossil/gem shop on 5th Avenue never ceases to amaze, but this T-Rex leg-bone displayed in their window surely can only be purchased by a microscopic few? I didn’t go in to see the price, but I’m sure it’s well into six figures.

We visited a bead shop with an absolutely insane selection. They have thousands of little trays and bags holding every imaginable glass or porcelain or metal bead as well as all sorts of hardware and tools. It was mesmerizing and hard to control ourselves since so many of the beads were very pretty. (KLS used to make jewelry with beads, but most of what we bought today will be sent to SFL.)

I bought that shirt 6.5 years ago at a Kmart in Tuncurry when I went with Sue. I’ve worn and washed it hundreds of times and the print hasn’t deteriorated even by a single atom! It remains as comfortable as the day I bought it, and I will forever regret not also buying the Donkey Kong shirt I saw at the same time.