And it all starts with...."The flight from hell"
Turns out I don’t fly well, and I have real bad luck.
Not only were all my flights delayed, my bag is still in SF, and me, well I am in Sydney. So I am waiting on my flight from Sydney to Brisbane sans bag hoping that they don’t call tomorrow to tell me its gone for good.
Also turns out I am starting to have little panic attacks and flying makes me nauseas, how fun for me. I cant manage to muster up tears when my boy friend upsets me but I can cry in front of a plane full of strangers because I may miss my connecting flight, who knew?!
So I get to Sydney, find out my bag is lost, am extremely confused as to where to go, I may have even accidentally skipped through the quarantine line, go to use the pay phone and stand there for 10 mins like an asshole cas I don’t know how to dial the number I have. So I have to call the operator. Man it has been one hell of a trip so far; I guess it cant get much worse, well that is, unless you are me. Who knew I had such shit luck, well I guess I always knew but really thought life was getting better, that I deserved to have things be easy for just a minute. Who knows maybe its all just testing my strength and changes. Well I wont let these stupid things defeat me, and I am not letting stupid things ruin my trip. I just wish I could have found the mince meat pies and not krispy cream and mc-y d’s in this damn airport. Only 2 more hours to go thank god.
And then it all got much, much better...
My bag made it last night so right now I am sitting outside on the grass in my cut offs, barefoot, and make up!! Yea me!!
The last few days have been pretty incredible. Such good food, lots of pictures, relaxing, catching up, just good stuff. The weather is amazing, not too humid, not too hot, just right. Everything tastes exactly how I remember it; it’s going to be hard to go home.
The first day we went to my favorite fish and chip shop just down the road and ate out on the deck and watched pelicans and bats. The fish was amazing, the view was amazing.
Then yesterday I was up at 6am, yes 6 AM, to go meet the trawler for fresh (2 hour caught) prawns. He wasn’t there so we went to run some errands instead. I had my first mincemeat pie of the trip, and boy was it good. Got some postcards and a few presents from the art co-op up the road. We went by the pond where the old men race their RC sailboats to take pictures and Pat got wrangled into driving one. It was pretty neat. When I move here we are going to start a “Bitches with Boats” club and race the old men. After my favorite lunch, sweet chili chips and a ham sandwich, me and Bear went down to the beach and walked around. Saw some crabs, scared the crap out of me each time. Watched the birds and just chatted. Then home for Pat’s homemade Pad Thai with GIANT prawns. The ratio of noodle to prawn was about 1 to 1. If you haven’t heard me talk about her cooking ever, well it is pretty much always amazing! Can’t wait to take that recipe home for the wife to cook.
This morning I woke up at about 7 to the birds outside my window. The birds here are incredible. We have big cockatoos, rainbow parrots, and magpies. While checking my emails the baby magpie came squawking up to the window and was walking right in front of the slider. So I went to get Bear to tell him his friend was at the door. Bear seems to be quite the birder these days, telling the little magpie he will be right back with some food for him and off he goes outside to hand feed the baby. It is pretty much hilarious. So all of you who laugh at the conversations I have with Rukus, now you know where that comes from. The birds come in the yard all afternoon to wash in the bird bath and eat, they are super funny. One rainbow parrot was so determined to get this one seed that was on the other side of the fence that he tried for like a minute to get under the fence, instead of going over. He finally wiggled his way under, it was so funny.
Today we are headed to a town that I can’t remember the name of right now to wander around. We went there last time I came. Tomorrow early I am off to NZ for the weekend. I am going to meet my sister for the first time and see all my family. All of my cousins and my brother have kids now so that will be weird. Me and my mom’s sister are going to the zoo. We go each time I come, at least once. She says I drag her there but I know she loves it. Then I think if the weather is nice we are going to hike this volcano. My knee has been pretty wrecked since I got here so I am hoping it will heal up before hand. Then just lots of visiting with family and hopefully going to Waiheke, the island I grew up on to take pictures. I am so glad my Diana camera made it with my bag!!
When I get back I am going to get together with my cousin Beau who lies here in Auz. Beau and I are the only ones without kids; he said yesterday it is because we are the only ones with sense. He may be right. Also when I get back we are going to the Auz Zoo and this giant pineapple. Pat is real excited to ride the “Nut Mobile”. There is a big art market on Wednesday so we will be there too. I am pretty much not worried what we do, I am just glad to be here.
I am sure I am on the way to getting homesick and I already miss Rukus, but I will just keep stuffing my face and laying in the sun, I should be ok. Things when I get home are looking good, lots of yard work, a trip to the bay, and continuing doing fun things with my favorite new old friend. So take a look at the photos, miss me terribly and I will talk to you after NZ.
XOXOX
amber
Click image for Flickr...
(this is me writing this, on the water, with no shoes on)
(they're cousins, identical cousins...)
