Crikey!

This is a recap of my trip “Down Under.” It is long-winded (much like me) and will probably bore you to tears.

*It would be best not to read this while operating heavy machinery! :p

Also, I will try to do this in weekly segments...so stay tuned for more updates!

Wednesday, Nov. 18th
-Jenna takes me to the airport! The Continental Airlines check-in people are probably the nicest I have ever encountered. :) They have me looking forward to the long journey.

me & Stanley with the luggage before leaving Indy

-The flight leaves Indy without any problems. I have a seat to myself in a little puddle-jumper. It’s a 1 seat, 2 seat row. The flight to Newark is made a little interesting by the non-English speaking Latino flight steward. He was terrible, but we all survived anyway. Haha
-Leaving Newark proved to be quite a problem! We started out with a 30 minute delay. Next we were informed that it would be yet another 1 hour delay due to mechanical problems on the plane…lovely! They finally tell us that they are replacing the door seal. Although I don’t want to be sucked out of the plane as we’re flying over goodness knows where…I’m thankful it’s nothing more serious! I make friends with a couple from Tampa and a lady from Cleveland. The hours tick by and still no progress is being made towards us leaving. Apparently they have the C squad on the door seal replacement!?! Argh! Finally….5 hours AFTER we were supposed to depart, the plane has been pressurized and we should be boarding soon. Oh wait! Now our flight crew is unable to fly due to legal constraints on their time. Luckily 6 of the 12 flight attendants waived their legal rights, and they brought in 6 new ones. Only 1 of the 4 pilots was still able to fly, so we “stole” 3 pilots from the Tel Aviv flight…sorry for them, but not really! Haha
-The flight from Newark to Hong Kong was my first international flight. I got a little nauseous on the VERY long 16.5 hour flight. :p I did well until after dinner. We were served a snack late in the night…and the smell of everyone opening their food at the same time did me in! After that point, I just couldn’t handle the food on the plane or the enclosed space. I was still feeling hopeful for the next flight.
-We finally made it to Hong Kong! Of course by this point, it meant I had missed my connecting flight to Perth. I was feeling a little anxious about how to handle getting a new flight and getting on my way! All those fears disappeared the minute we landed! I have to preface this next part by saying that Hong Kong is the most efficient airport I’ve ever been to. :) When we disembarked, several employees were waiting with signs for locations and passenger names. After our little group was all together, our hostess walked us through Immigration and led us to the hotel, Regal Airport Hotel. The hotel is definitely a several star hotel and is connected to the airport, so you never even leave the terminal. While the hostess checked us in, I had time to become friends with the other 3 people headed to Perth. (Claire from Ireland, John from Bermuda (originally US), and another gentleman from WV who is a permanent resident of Perth)


Friday, Nov. 20th
Yes, you read that right…Thursday didn’t really exist for me as I was in the air! There is a 13 hour time difference between Hong Kong and Indiana.
-Managed to get to our rooms around 3:30am. I slept for a glorious 5 hours in my own FREE room. :)

my lovely FREE room in Hong Kong

-Found my way through the airport…seriously, you don’t know BIG airports until you see one with aisles for every letter of the alphabet that serves as the check-in counters!! I got checked in with a different airline (Cathay Pacific) and wound my way through Customs. By this point, I was already feeling like a pro at navigating new places!
-The flight from Hong Kong to Perth made it off the ground on time. Woohoo! (it’s the simple things that make me happy! Ha) This flight went much more smoothly. It was about an 8 hour flight. Food was a little better on this flight and I had requested an aisle seat so if I was feeling nauseous, I wouldn’t disturb anyone. ;) (notice: I did NOT get sick on this flight!)
-Landed in Perth and made my way through Customs. This time my bags were checked and I experienced someone yelling “Quarantine!” because of my belongings. It wasn’t really anything I was worried about…they yelled it because I had granola bars, Combos, and Pringles packs in my carry-on bag (which I declared so I wouldn’t get in trouble). I was quickly cleared and finally made it to the exit to find Pete waiting on me! It was soooooo good to see a familiar face! :)
-Pete helped me load my bags and we were headed toward South Bunbury. He commented that I didn’t have as much luggage as he thought I’d have! Haha (I seem to have heard that more than once, along with all the check-in and security people commenting how great my luggage looked for easy locating! Duh! Why do you think I picked polka-dot luggage?)
-We made it to Pete and Karissa’s house…P woke K up to say hello. It was good seeing her, even if she was half asleep and lil Gab was zonked in the room next to the guest room. A real bed in a real house never felt so good! I slept straight through the night, what few hours there were to the night!


Saturday, Nov. 21st
-Started the day off early. Somehow I seemed to have bypassed any form of jetlag. (I have no clue how that happened?!) I woke up about 20 minutes before Gabriella woke up. It was so funny hearing her wake up. She has her own little party in bed before K goes to get her out of bed.
-I got ready for the day while P&K got Gab ready for the day. We spent time at the house that morning, catching up and playing with Gab. She’s too freakin’ cute!
-Pete took me for a drive while K stayed at home during Gab’s nap. Just a SHORT, SHORT drive from their house and I got my first glimpse of the Indian Ocean! We made our way along the coast…not too far from their house and I got to see where they used to live on Whale View. Then we stopped in at his mum’s house…I hadn’t had the chance to meet Carol when she visited the States, so it was fun getting to meet her! She is such a fun person. I definitely see where Pete got his personality! ;)
-After getting back to the house, it was time for Gab’s swimming lessons. The hospital is truly a unique place. The pool area is a wonderful resource! It won’t be long before Miss Gabriella will be a little fish. K and I watched while P got in the pool with Gab and the others. It surprised me that mostly dads were in the pool with the little ones, but a good surprise as they all sang along to the songs with the instructors. It’s a cute idea and I can definitely see the benefits of such a swim “lesson.”

Miss G loving swim time :)

-Once Gab’s swim time was up, we headed to good ol’ IGA to get groceries. I was amused that “igga” was so popular in Australia! They are literally everywhere!! It was fun to walk through the store and see new brands and unheard of items. Much of the store was similar to what you’d find at your local grocery.
-Home again, home again! Gab took her afternoon nap while the “adults” (aka grown-up kids) had lunch and watched the 40 Year Old Virgin. Haha That movie never gets old!
-Karissa and I didn’t make it too far into the movie before we decided to go downtown for some retail therapy. [there is more that happened right here, but those details cannot be revealed until a later date due to secrecy...sorry folks!]
-I spent the evening at home with K for some girl time. Pete had his high school reunion AND his work Christmas party. So while he was out cavorting with old friends and his work mates, Karissa made yummy spaghetti Bolognese for dinner and we watched tv/I got caught up on email. I slept so hard that night; I didn’t even hear K leave to go pick P up! Haha (Carol dropped him off and he was tired of waiting on a cab to pick him up.)