Where and How to Start? Post-trip recap Episode 1
0 Comments Published by Oh Wayward One on 12 April 2010 at 4/12/2010 02:59:00 pm.
I don't even know the answer to that so I'm just gonna start by saying I just heard a major "THUD" coming from the living room floor over by the fireplace and that's normally the sound of a big lizard dropping from the ceiling (maybe or maybe not always resulting in death or concussion before being pounced on by a dog) so I went over to investigate and yes it was. So I tried to save him by catching him and throwing him out before the dog-treatment, and he wiggled so much that I accidentally yanked his tail off. Which then proceeded to flop around sans-lizard for at least 5 minutes after I tossed it out the door. The lizard got out too, by the by.
Yeah so we're back from down under and there is SO MUCH TO REPORT but I'm in a bit of a slump because there's no-fun stuff to attend to (miles of emails & work backlog not to mention thesis-related hoo-ha) plus a house with no groceries, no maid (E's husband is back in Zim for health reasons and has taken a turn for the worst so she's left to go to him) and about 2 kg to work off of the waistline. For some reason that always gets me down, even though now I know how to do it successfully - but still, it affects my positive outlook because eating is just so.... HEAVENLY AND AWESOME (you can tell I've been doing a LOT of it these past 2 weeks, and not just because of what my scale tells me - it's all I can think about!! CURSES!!!)
Actually, yes, I could write this whole Episode just about the food we ate. ugh...... frustrating!! And now my stomach is so stretched out from having thrown caution and portion sizes to the wind, I'm just hungry every time I THINK about it!!! I need a good fat injection of positivity because everything just seems so "uphill" from here.
But pushing on...
So we arrived in Sydney after a big fat 14-hr flight or some such, and were promptly reminded of what a backass cow town we live in here! You just stroll out of the airport and are met by an orderly queue for a taxi... complete with orderly barriers and orderly information signs hung in an orderly manner along the well-signposted walkways. Some kinda freaky "taxi-butler" waved us into a "standing bay" or whatever, based on the fact we had an infant with us, and lo and behold a "special needs taxi" materialized out of nowhere within 2 seconds, complete with baby seat and credit card capabilities. Actually, you can pay by credit card in any taxi in Aus - this was just something that I had forgotten from 8 years ago and was reminded of and dually impressed by.
Fast forwarding on....
We got to our hotel in S-city and made contact with the Ubster (who I had missed dearly for the whole last year since she left us) and strolled around the waterfront to show The Mr. what he'd missed having never been there before. Ubs showed up later that night (The Mr. & I didn't sleep for shyte on the airplane so we were all pretty jetlagged and running on 1 hr sleep but threw the baby into the babybed and covered it up with towels and she was out like a light) and we got pizza and just played catch-up in the hotel room til midnight or so. Then U. shoved off and we crashed BIG TIME, and woke up to receive our buddy El Stevo (of S&M fame) the next morning.
Which was fantabulous because he is a local boy so to speak and gave us the grande tour of his stomping ground which included all the good old standards like the opera house and bridge and neat and orderly mechanisms that make this giant city groove like a well-oiled cog.... or however you might wanna put it. Lots of very, very white, very orderly people. Now see, I forget these things!! So we wandered a bit, then picked up our rental car, then stopped at our first shining example of outstandingly amazing food, for good value.... "Thai Restaurant" (not its real name) on the way out of town, where we all ordered from the $9.00 menu (that's AUD $) and were blown away, of course. mmmmmmmmm
Drove up to Newcastle where El Stevo and Madge live, with their darling little pollywog, Mr. B, and terribly adorable pupster, Sir Bucklington, Buckles, Bucky boy, Schmoopyfacebuckleton (the dog's name is Buckley, but I'm a little bit way-too-far-into this whole pseudonym mode here). Spent 3 nights there which was really good because not only did it hit the spot for a much-needed intensive catch-up with them, but they are also in a really easygoing location which meant we didn't have to play overtime-tourist, but at the same time could make it up to the Hunter Valley (famous wine region - not to mention famous for my favorite white and favorite red varieties.... Semillon and Shiraz, respectively) for a day trip without too much drama, so didn't feel the guilt of being TOO lazy!! Went on a couple runs (to combat all the naughty deliciousness that had already been consumed by the 4th day of vacation) and were just blown away by how lovely all these damned neat and orderly bike paths and running trails were. Really something I totally took for granted all my years in good old Aussie. Anyway those few days were really great for settling back in, offloading the jetlag, and just hanging out and feeling out the part of New South Wales that I always kinda ignored while living there.
Then it was a sad goodbye and back down to Sydney to fly up to Darwin. I was skeptical about this flight b/c it wasn't a jumbo jet like we'd had on the way over, so LJJ was gonna be confined to one of our laps for the 4-hr redeye flight (ok not real redeye but 8pm to midnight - sure as hell felt like a redeye). But she was tired enough (her bedtime is 8 anyway) that she fell asleep for nearly the whole thing, on our laps so that was successful. De-planing in Darwin was a blast from the past from the time we flew from Melb-LAX and stopped in Fiji during the middle of the night.... you walk out and BAM! Get slapped in the face by this dramatic wall of heat & humidity (which I don't really mind having grown up in Ozarkian heat and humidity!) so much so that it nearly gags you.... but it was great! I miss that kind of wet air.
T. (of T&A fame.... yes, so far, it's all "S&M" and "T&A".... 'cuz that's how we roll. All sexual-innuendo-like and such.) picked us up and we went back to their pad.... WHICH IS SO PIMP!!
hang on..... can someone just tell me WTF am I supposed to do without a maid for the next "undetermined" expanse of time??? I am sitting here and I see laundry hanging out on the line, that she hung out before leaving today.... am I supposed to DO something with that?!?!? Bloody hell!!
anyhoo.... yes, T&A live in pimpville - this swanky 2-storey apartment/condo thingy overlooking the beach with palm trees swaying outside their GROUND FLOOR veranda, which sits underneath their UPSTAIRS master bedroom veranda... It's 3 bedrooms which is good b/c T's dad just happened to be there the same weekend (it was Easter) but that was fine because that meant babysitting was on the menu. Mmmmm..... mennnuuuu.....
ugh. So YES Darwin was hot, and YES it rains all the time, but hell if you live like that - oh wait, I didn't even explain that the boardwalk, which is chock full of restaurants and greek tavernas and fish restaurants and shops and anything you could ever want, is just RIGHT across the street from them. We just hopped on down there in the morning (after A. made us dreamy espresso coffees in his swank-ass espresso gadget) and picked up stuff like fish, oysters, pastries, you name it - you can walk to it in Darwin (well, their part of town anyway).
OMG I'm so tired of typing I just can't do it anymore..... will attempt Episode 1: Continued, tomorrow. I gotta figure out what to do about that laundry....
Yeah so we're back from down under and there is SO MUCH TO REPORT but I'm in a bit of a slump because there's no-fun stuff to attend to (miles of emails & work backlog not to mention thesis-related hoo-ha) plus a house with no groceries, no maid (E's husband is back in Zim for health reasons and has taken a turn for the worst so she's left to go to him) and about 2 kg to work off of the waistline. For some reason that always gets me down, even though now I know how to do it successfully - but still, it affects my positive outlook because eating is just so.... HEAVENLY AND AWESOME (you can tell I've been doing a LOT of it these past 2 weeks, and not just because of what my scale tells me - it's all I can think about!! CURSES!!!)
Actually, yes, I could write this whole Episode just about the food we ate. ugh...... frustrating!! And now my stomach is so stretched out from having thrown caution and portion sizes to the wind, I'm just hungry every time I THINK about it!!! I need a good fat injection of positivity because everything just seems so "uphill" from here.
But pushing on...
So we arrived in Sydney after a big fat 14-hr flight or some such, and were promptly reminded of what a backass cow town we live in here! You just stroll out of the airport and are met by an orderly queue for a taxi... complete with orderly barriers and orderly information signs hung in an orderly manner along the well-signposted walkways. Some kinda freaky "taxi-butler" waved us into a "standing bay" or whatever, based on the fact we had an infant with us, and lo and behold a "special needs taxi" materialized out of nowhere within 2 seconds, complete with baby seat and credit card capabilities. Actually, you can pay by credit card in any taxi in Aus - this was just something that I had forgotten from 8 years ago and was reminded of and dually impressed by.
Fast forwarding on....
We got to our hotel in S-city and made contact with the Ubster (who I had missed dearly for the whole last year since she left us) and strolled around the waterfront to show The Mr. what he'd missed having never been there before. Ubs showed up later that night (The Mr. & I didn't sleep for shyte on the airplane so we were all pretty jetlagged and running on 1 hr sleep but threw the baby into the babybed and covered it up with towels and she was out like a light) and we got pizza and just played catch-up in the hotel room til midnight or so. Then U. shoved off and we crashed BIG TIME, and woke up to receive our buddy El Stevo (of S&M fame) the next morning.
Which was fantabulous because he is a local boy so to speak and gave us the grande tour of his stomping ground which included all the good old standards like the opera house and bridge and neat and orderly mechanisms that make this giant city groove like a well-oiled cog.... or however you might wanna put it. Lots of very, very white, very orderly people. Now see, I forget these things!! So we wandered a bit, then picked up our rental car, then stopped at our first shining example of outstandingly amazing food, for good value.... "Thai Restaurant" (not its real name) on the way out of town, where we all ordered from the $9.00 menu (that's AUD $) and were blown away, of course. mmmmmmmmm
Drove up to Newcastle where El Stevo and Madge live, with their darling little pollywog, Mr. B, and terribly adorable pupster, Sir Bucklington, Buckles, Bucky boy, Schmoopyfacebuckleton (the dog's name is Buckley, but I'm a little bit way-too-far-into this whole pseudonym mode here). Spent 3 nights there which was really good because not only did it hit the spot for a much-needed intensive catch-up with them, but they are also in a really easygoing location which meant we didn't have to play overtime-tourist, but at the same time could make it up to the Hunter Valley (famous wine region - not to mention famous for my favorite white and favorite red varieties.... Semillon and Shiraz, respectively) for a day trip without too much drama, so didn't feel the guilt of being TOO lazy!! Went on a couple runs (to combat all the naughty deliciousness that had already been consumed by the 4th day of vacation) and were just blown away by how lovely all these damned neat and orderly bike paths and running trails were. Really something I totally took for granted all my years in good old Aussie. Anyway those few days were really great for settling back in, offloading the jetlag, and just hanging out and feeling out the part of New South Wales that I always kinda ignored while living there.
Then it was a sad goodbye and back down to Sydney to fly up to Darwin. I was skeptical about this flight b/c it wasn't a jumbo jet like we'd had on the way over, so LJJ was gonna be confined to one of our laps for the 4-hr redeye flight (ok not real redeye but 8pm to midnight - sure as hell felt like a redeye). But she was tired enough (her bedtime is 8 anyway) that she fell asleep for nearly the whole thing, on our laps so that was successful. De-planing in Darwin was a blast from the past from the time we flew from Melb-LAX and stopped in Fiji during the middle of the night.... you walk out and BAM! Get slapped in the face by this dramatic wall of heat & humidity (which I don't really mind having grown up in Ozarkian heat and humidity!) so much so that it nearly gags you.... but it was great! I miss that kind of wet air.
T. (of T&A fame.... yes, so far, it's all "S&M" and "T&A".... 'cuz that's how we roll. All sexual-innuendo-like and such.) picked us up and we went back to their pad.... WHICH IS SO PIMP!!
hang on..... can someone just tell me WTF am I supposed to do without a maid for the next "undetermined" expanse of time??? I am sitting here and I see laundry hanging out on the line, that she hung out before leaving today.... am I supposed to DO something with that?!?!? Bloody hell!!
anyhoo.... yes, T&A live in pimpville - this swanky 2-storey apartment/condo thingy overlooking the beach with palm trees swaying outside their GROUND FLOOR veranda, which sits underneath their UPSTAIRS master bedroom veranda... It's 3 bedrooms which is good b/c T's dad just happened to be there the same weekend (it was Easter) but that was fine because that meant babysitting was on the menu. Mmmmm..... mennnuuuu.....
ugh. So YES Darwin was hot, and YES it rains all the time, but hell if you live like that - oh wait, I didn't even explain that the boardwalk, which is chock full of restaurants and greek tavernas and fish restaurants and shops and anything you could ever want, is just RIGHT across the street from them. We just hopped on down there in the morning (after A. made us dreamy espresso coffees in his swank-ass espresso gadget) and picked up stuff like fish, oysters, pastries, you name it - you can walk to it in Darwin (well, their part of town anyway).
OMG I'm so tired of typing I just can't do it anymore..... will attempt Episode 1: Continued, tomorrow. I gotta figure out what to do about that laundry....
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