Getting you up to date.

I spent 45 min last night writing this out and the computer crashed right before I posted so here goes again.

Yesterday in Cairns:
Checked out of the hotel, dropped off the car and grabbed a cab to the airport. I meet a really nice Aussie, Rodney, who is the sales manager of a VW dealership in Townsville, south of Cairns. He and I talked for about an hour and a half about a ton of different things. Great guy to hang out with. He offered to buy me a beer but at 11am water was all I needed. Thanks Rodney for showing me what a true Aussie is like.

I hopped on the plane and headed for Sydney. The food and service was great. So much so I went to tell the flight attendants how much I loved Quantas. They where so happy to hear it. I talked with three of them for about a half hour. I would have talked longer but we had started our decent into Sydney. A few minutes later one of them came up to me and said they where so happy that I told them how good there service was and she slipped me a nice bottle of Australian wine to take with me. You catch more flies with honey. All three of them where so nice to chat with. We talked about my trip, places they had been in America, how I lost all the weight and just random stuff like vegemite (some awful tasting yeast product they seem to like. But then again they put beets on hamburgers here.)

I had to make a change to my ticket so when we landed I went to the British Airways counter to make the change. Instead of going back to the arrival area to catch a cab I waited for one at departures. What a serendipitous choice that was. I got what I consider my best cab ride ever. He and I talked the 30 minutes it took to get to my hotel (more on this later). He told me places I had to see and what I could avoid. Another great Aussie.

So to all the people I meet and talked with yesterday. Thanks for showing me the true side of Australians. Kudos to all of you for making my day so nice.

Now the hotel. The book called it first class accommodations. Sure if you are homeless it would be first class. To say it was first class is like saying Motel Six is a 5 star resort. It sucked plain and simple. I was in a room that was on a busy street and I got very little sleep because of it. Every time a truck or bus would come by it would wake me up. Or the idiots above me who keep opening the sliding glass door that shook my room. So since I couldn't sleep I went down to use the computer to write this. Of course it crashed right before I was going to post. 45 min (10 bucks) wasted. I finally got to sleep around 4 am. The idiots upstairs decided to open the sliding glass door at 6am waking me up. Now I was pissed. I like and need my sleep. This is no shock to any of you. I went downstairs and told the guy at the desk I wanted a new room for the next night. He was not sure what to do. So I went back upstairs called my travel agent and had her book me a new hotel. The Swissotel, a very nice place. Oh yeah I forgot to mention the fire alarm going off and having to evacuate the building. More fun, but it is behind me and I can't change any of it so time to move on.

So here I sit, using Swissotel computer, for free I might add, as I wait for them to get a room ready for me. It's 9:30 am right now on Friday. I am going to try and get my cabbie from yesterday to pick me up and drive me around the city for a few hours and act like a tour guide. I did this when I was in Dublin and found it was one of the best ways to see a city. If not I am going to just do a walking tour. I need to see the Sydney Opera house, the harbor Bridge and Bondi Beach. Everything after that is gravy. I leave for Singapore tomorrow around 5pm so I have a day and a half to check this place out.

My brother Kevin seems to like seeing his name appear on the blog because he sent me 5 bucks for a Guinness when I get to London.. of course it will be 5am but what the heck, they give to new moms in the hospitals in Ireland so why not. That brings his grand total up to $25.05, good on ya mate.

A side note to Bob and Cathy Auten - get the hell out of Florida aka "Gods waiting room", the place is the just like the movie "Groundhog Day" and you know it. Come back to New Jersey, we all miss you. I am sure pop can find you a nice place that he would only charge a modest rate for. Or move in with Tom Howtiz (sp?), I sure he would love the company and help finishing off his house. (sic) If not, I will buy a place and you can move in with me. We can sell more crap on ebay to pay the rent.

As for my Dad and Janet who are currently in New Zealand, how about an email telling us about your travels? I would love to know your thoughts on the food and the places you have been.

I hope everyone is doing well and I look forward to boring you all with the 30 odd rolls of film I have taken so far.