Feb 18-20 Abandoning Anna.
Well, we’re off! Brisbane, here we come! The day started off with mad cleaning and dashing about for last minute errands, and then the journey-ing began. One short flight to L.A. and one long flight direct to Brisbane. We left Seattle at 5:30pm and the first flight was mostly….uncomfortable. We sat all the way in the back of the plane, no reclining, screaming baby and the flight staff kept making intrusive announcements. The flight seemed to pass by fairly quickly, though, and soon we were in LA. LAX to be specific. Ha! What a zoo. We got off our plane, walked in a circle around the terminal before asking someone how to get to our gate. First the person told us we had to go out of security, then the guy next to him said “No, no! they need to get on the shuttle.” So they sent us to this unmarked door with a bunch of other people sitting in front of it. Signage was by word of mouth. There was one little soft spoken woman attending it. After about 15 minutes of just standing around, not even sure we were in the right place, the woman attending the door directed us to this VERY sketch waiting area just up some stairs from the tarmac. It felt like they were shipping us off toward something sinister. Well, turns out the shuttle got us exactly where we needed to be and we spent the next 2 hours hanging out at a little Mexican restaurant where they had the Olympics on.
The next 14 hours were actually quite comfortable. The company sprung for business class seats and by some fluke, the plane hadn’t quite been retrofitted with the business class seats yet, so we ended up with first class seats. The chairs reclined to an almost fully horizontal position. The food tasted quite good and the service was really great. Napkins with food, champagne upon boarding, wine with delicious dinner, blankets, noise reducing headphones, socks, toothbrush and toothpaste, and our own on-demand video display. The time passed quickly and after another delicious meal for breakfast we were on the ground.
Feb 20 Day 1 Saturday
Customs was easy and after collecting our bags we went on to immigration where we had to declare practically everything but electronics and clothes! All my packed-along food was examined as was my prescriptions and boots. I got scolded because my boot were dirty (they washed them) and they took away my backpackers meal cause it had dried turkey in it. Oh, well…it was soon done and both Ali and I were heading out toward fresh air! A friend of ours, Mitch, who transferred from our office 2 years ago picked us up at the airport and proceeded to introduce us to left-handed traffic while fielding our numerous questions. I had known about the wrong-side-of-the-road driving (left-handed driving), but it was really odd – especially in the parking lots. We got checked into our hotel and proceeded to take a tour of the small shopping area near our hotel and stop by the supermarket for a few items. From there Mitch took us to South Bank which is a lively area on the weekends with restaurants, shops, farmers market, “the beach”, and monster boat races in the river. Since the actual beach is about an hour from downtown Brisbane, there are several man-made pools in South Bank that have sandy beaches that serve quite well in place of real beaches.
After spending most of the morning and afternoon together, Mitch left us on our own. Since it was about 2:30pm (BNE time) and 8:30pm (SEA time), Ali and I sat at the edge of the pool and pretty much chilled for a while…exhausted. After some rest and drinking of water and caffeinated soda we were ready to be on our way again, we walked the farmers market and hopped on the City Cat – a commuter boat somewhat like a city bus that runs up and down the river. Soon we were back to our hotel and Ali wanted some exercise, so I tagged along. Mine was a run-walk, hers was mostly a run when not waiting for me to catch up. Along the way we saw tons of Lorikeets (sp?) and cockatoos and other really beautiful birds. There are so many brightly colored, beautiful plants and animals here! And spiders, the spiders are huge – and Mitch tells us we haven’t even seen the big ones yet.
Following the run, the biggest goals were 1 – to stay up until 9, 2 – get some dinner.
Feb 21 Koala reserve. Sunday
Mitch had offered to take us to the Koala/animal reserve with his son, so we took him up on it. We left about 9:30am and got there just in time for the lorikeet feeding. The reserve is somewhat of a mixture between a zoo and a rehabilitation/reserve for injured or endangered species here in Aussie. The lorikeets are brightly colored wild birds that are dominantly green, orange, red, and yellow and are slightly larger than parakeets. The reserve staff makes up a lorikeet meal that looks like oatmeal and dispenses it in several bowls on sticks, once they’ve filled up the bowls, you can go on an pick on up. The birds know what’s coming, so they just swoop on down and start eating. So cool! I only got pooped on once (on my hand), my head became a perch only once, and I only lost 5% of my hearing. They are loud, but so beautiful and it was fabulous to see them so closely. I got to examine them less than a foot away from my face! The rest of our time at the reserve was great as well…baby lambs to pet, snakes, lizards, really large lizards, koalas, Tasmanian devils, wombats, kangaroos, really weird birds,
Feb 22 First day. Monday
Work….well, it was a lot of paperwork and safety training and meeting people.
Feb 23 Defensive driving. Tuesday
Location: 45 min north of the city (from where we are staying). Can I say L. O. S. T. Bad directions. No signs. We finally made it…and to our immense delight this was not your normal defensive driving class. We had about and hour in the classroom and then we ‘popped’ into the yutes (could be spelled utes…I don’t know) and then took a drive around the country side. We drove on paved roads (called bitumen, not asphalt here) and then did a little off-roading through one of the parks with huge beautiful gum trees. The view from the mountainous drive was beautiful! The class finished off with a stopping test to show how to most effectively use your brakes in the case of an emergency. Yes! We literally got up to 35 or 40 mph and slammed on the brakes to see how fast we could stop. Really fun. After the class we drove on out to the coast and took the scenic drive home…after dipping our feet into the unbelievably comfortable water! Not too warm and not too cool.
Feb 24 A bit of a bang-up job. Literally. Wed.
Today was a rough one for me…we had our second driving class today. It was supposed to be a 4 wheel drive class way out in the boonies…and sounded quite fun, but the fun didn’t even have a chance to start. Long story short, as I followed our instructor and Ali to the course (they were in the 4 wheel drive vehicle and I was in our tiny rental car – kind of like a geo metro), I forgot to double check right and pulled out into an uncontrolled intersection. Smashed myself right up. Poor truck (like ford ranger) didn’t have a chance to stop. T-boned me right in the driver door going maybe 30 or so. I walked away without a scratch and am feeling quite fine aside from a sore neck and some scratches from the glass. I don’t plan on doing that again…the paperwork mountain was terrible and still not over with. I thank God that it wasn’t worse and am happy to say that I’m still alive and praising Him. Love you all…just cause I don’t say it often enough.
