Tuesday the 15th January - lets do that again!
Having had my week back at work I'm away again for a bit now.
Yesterday morning, which is technically also this morning (it makes sense somewhere), I headed off from Albury, with my traditional mix of excitement, trepidation, and sadness at leaving the cat to get all confused.
Sydney was a fascinating mixture of sitting and waiting and not doing. I got to Sydney by 11, and organised onto the transfer bus. By half past I was at the international terminal. Which would have been fine, except then I had to sit around. I finished Wil Wheaton's "Memories of the Future" and read a bit of Penn Jillette's "God, No!". Eventually I got fed up with sitting around, so I went to check when I could drop my bag in. 2.20 at the earliest.
I wandered into the pre customs eatery and grabbed lunch, then went and read more God, No. Eventually got into the queue and straight through customs. Got money back on my ipad from customs (sweet). Wandered around thinking "nope, I don't want to buy 2.25 litres of booze to put aside for when I get back." Bought an extra adaptor so I can charge both my phone and ipad at the same time. Considered a bunch of other things and realised "no, money's for foreign lands!"
Got to the gate early, then Got to stand around for forty minutes extra while watching security people looking board and flight attendants shrugging extravagantly. At least all the other people in the queue were patient and calm, and I was quietly sarcastic.
Got on the plan and waited anxiously to see who I would get stuck in a seat next to. Delighted to announce that it was mr nobody. Unfortunately the chairs have their controls in next to your leg, so I ended up continuously having the chair slip back, which I think was bugging the guy behind me. But then the woman and baby in front of me tilted back so I had no choice but to do the same.
I feasted on the lamb hotpot and checked out Looper. It's a very good working of a classic sci-Fi scenario.
Tried my best to get to sleep, but frankly I'm not usually sleeping with headphones and eyemask, so that didn't really work out great. I think (not having a watch I'm not certain) that I got about four hours sleep. Ate some scrambled eggs and yoghurt for breakfast, and watched 30 Rock until we had to give up the on board entertainment. Bit bumpy coming in to land, but got on the ground ok.
Fuller out my paperwork and seemed to get through customs nice and easy. Met the transfer bus, got lei'd (this joke is not going away anytime soon, peoples). All loaded onto the bus. Of course I managed to get the last hotel on the transfer bus's list. Drove the twenty minutes with the driver making all sorts of Aussie references "hey, here's the Outback Steakhouse, you can go get a fosters, but they don't have any of that kangaroo piss VB (Very Bogan)". He was good fun, he knows how to get everyone up for more tips.
We drove around Waikiki, getting a rough sense of how it's laid out. Eventually it was down to me and a woman from WA who still needed dripping off. Unfortunately this is when we got into an hour+ traffic jam. For he next hour I got to here the bus diver and this woman discuss their notions on immigration, reparations and the question of welfare. Eventually the driver noticed I'd been quiet. I made one general moment and tried to guide the conversation away from that.
Thankfully he received a call from the depot and explained he was stuck in the jam with two very patient people, and we got onto how rude Americans on vacation can be. As the driver described it, he saw the reputation Americans had internationally and didn't understand it. Then he started driving holiday makers, and now he gets it.
(Incidentally I just caught some of the Honolulu news, looks like there was a shoot out involving some police in the early hours of the morning.)
Still after a mere few hours in the bus I got to the hotel a last. My room wasn't ready yet. Checked some bags with the porter and wandered round the nearby blocks, getting a sense of what was nearby. ABC Stores for a start. They're at Seven Eleven in Melbourne levels of ubiquity around here. Packed full of basic grocerIes and Hawaiian souvenirs. Only problem with those souvenirs is many of them are wood. But I'll wait and pick up some of that stuff in the way back thru Hawaii,
I wandered a couple blocks looking at the restaurants (Jimmy Buffett's Cheeseburgers in Paradise, Cheesecake Factory, PF Changs, Duke's, so many things I could check out). On the way back had a look at the International Marketplace. Lots of terrible jewellery and cheap phone cases. But also great many aloha shirts. Have acquired three more today. It's only gonna get more extravagant.
Returned with my booty of shirts and learned my room was ready to get into. Got in, had a shower and changed and had a lie down for a bit. Once I had gathered some energy I went back out and explored further. So many awesome shops, mixed in with so many shops I couldn't care less about.
After working my way over to the beach and down to the Royal Hawaiian (a fantastic old building with the most expensive Aloha shirt place I've found thus far), I grabbed a chicken burger for lunch and walked back up to the hotel. Stopped at an ABC store to get sunscreen. Then saw another cool looking aloha shirt place, all new p and coming designers. Neary as expensive as the one at Royal Hawaiian. I'm not saying I wouldn't buy them, but certainly haven't gone spending 70+ on shirts yet.
Watched Castle (marathon on TNT), and read over a bunch of flyers I'd acquired throughout the day. Made plans to go down to the tour booking place tomorrow and set up a few things: sunset cruise, trip to the Polynesian cultural centre. Also gotta check out Ala Moana (2nd biggest shopping centre in the United States, I understand.)
Went down the street to grab dinner at Big Kahuna, a good Tiki bar/restaurant. Had a couple of maitais and a pulled pork sandwich with Hawaiian BBQ sauce. Quite tasty. Realised I hadn't taken my gout meds today, so came back via yet another ABC store and got water. And ice cream.
Got in, read more guidebooks. Castle was still playing. Then flicking through channels landed on Family Guy. And now Robot Chicken is on, and my whole "go to sleep" plan has gone awry.
Of course, there's no wifi in my room, so by the time I post this all kind of other stuff may have happened. Is there any point including that information on here? I don't know, but that's for tomorrow Ross to sort out.
Edit - tomorrow's Ross ran on Hawaiian time. Thursday Ross getting round to posting.
Next couple days to come.
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