It’s All True – I Found It On The Internet

OMG! This is all true LOL!

In other news, the Brooklyn Bridge is for sale on Craigslist.

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  • Molecularly speaking, water is actually much drier than sand.
  • The term “bank teller” originated in the wake of the 1929 stock market crash, when banks began hiring low-paid workers to “tell” throngs of frantic depositors that their money was gone.
  • The brand name “Jelly Belly” was created in 1982 after Nancy Reagan made a much-publicized quip about her husband’s 20-pound weight gain.
  • The Internal Revenue Service audits 87 percent of women who claim breast implants as tax deductions.
  • Scandinavian berserkers used to cut out their eyes before battle to spare themselves the sight of the carnage they invariably wrought.
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Sweet Rain

I awoke yesterday morning to the sweet sound of thunder: it was raining! I’d seen some of that in Australia but around here it had been a while. Yesterday evening’s stormy weather didn’t dump any rain, but the winds were freakishly strong. The horizon looked eerily menacing, with black clouds swirling as if alive. If only those clouds had offered any rain.

The home weather station reports that yesterday we received an inch of rain, at times falling at 1.5 inches per hour. That brings my rain gauge’s yearly total to 4.76 inches. That’s far below the average of 12 inches this time of year, but at least its more consistent with RDU Airport. Last year our house received 5 fewer inches of rain than the airport.

Herb Sendek Moves On

The news this weekend is that Herb Sendek has taken a job at Arizona State. He cited the disgruntled fans as the reason.

Good for Herb, I say. Some so-called Wolfpack fans don’t deserve a coach of his caliber. He’s getting a fat raise and a new beginning at Arizona State.

Now the Pack will spend the next three years “rebuilding,” while Dook and Carolina roll to more championships. No need blaming anyone else: the Pack gets what it deserves.

On a related note, I take issue with Ned Barrett’s implying all Pack fans wanted this, which is not the case. Maybe Ned wanted a comedian to interview after the games. All I wanted was a coach who wins with class.

So long, Herb. I wish you all the best. You may not be a comedian but you’ll most certainly have the last laugh.

Home Alone

I’m awake and happy to be home, though the family isn’t back yet from Virginia. I’ve been spending the time unpacking and cleaning up the house a bit.

I went to bed around 3 after making a 2:30 AM run to Harris Teeter. The night manager eyed me suspiciously, and I can’t say I blame him. I don’t suppose they get many customers that early in the morning. It wasn’t difficult waking up at 9 this morning, either. Guess if I have to get used to a time difference its a good thing that daylight savings is happening this weekend.

It won’t be long before the family comes rolling in and we’ll all be together again. Woot!

Home On Saturday

Looks like my plans to be home on Friday have been sunk. My plane was delayed again, pushing the boarding time to ten past midnight.

At this point I’m too blaise to care. On the other hand, I’m closing in on thirty-one hours of travel. Its taken so long to get from LA to Raleigh, I could have actually made it back to Sydney by now!

Wheee!

Australia Wrap Up

One thing that Useless Airways offers is SkyPower on their Airbus planes. Thus I get a chance to do some writing in my four hour trip to Charlotte.

Australia is in the rear-view mirror now. I certainly enjoyed my visit there, though with the exception of the weekend I worked every day there. The beauty of the country was more of a tease than anything else. I had time to take pictures of some things, but not much else. I’d have loved to do more “bushwalking” (hiking), for instance, but duty called. I wasn’t sent there to have fun.

Though I really missed them, I’m glad that Kelly and the kids didn’t join me as they would have not seen much of me. I would have gotten off of work to find out they went to some really cool thing and I didn’t. The only way to do this would be to take three or four weeks and really plan things out. I got more than one offer to let us stay at someone’s house or hotel the next time we’re visiting, so there should be no shortage of places to stay. I warned everyone that I just may take them up on those deals, too! I understand my mates the Hibbles may be going down in November. Perhaps we could join them.

The information given on our return flight was a little confusing. The entertainment center’s “flight path” channel had New York as the destination, and listed both the distance and “current destination time” as such. Yet, the “remaining flight time” was calculated to Los Angeles. Then the pilot announced that, because we crossed the International Date Line, it was now Thursday morning. In fact, for us it was once again Friday morning. He then went on to say our plane wouldn’t be continuing on to New York but would return to Sydney. This spurred The flight attendants to repeatedly correct him.

I had wondered if our delay leaving Sydney might push the pilots over the limit of their regulated work hours. Maybe it should have.

A few things I learned about Australia:

  • The beer is bad. I never thought I’d long for American beer but I actually did. Fortunately, their wine is much better.
  • Sydney is an Asian city. Asians there are everywhere.
  • I could count on one hand the number of Aborigines I saw during my entire trip.
  • 220-volt irons and coffee makers heat up faster than 110-volt ones.
  • Most electronic gear from the States works just fine on Australian power.
  • Aussies choose tea over coffee. Tea itself can describe lunch, dinner, or the drink itself.
  • Except for some coffee I had in Melbourne, I can see why they like tea better.
  • Aussies can shorten any word, no matter how short. Freemantle is “Freo.” Football is “footie.” Breakfast is “brekkie.” Television, “telly.” Barbecue is …well, you know.
  • Grilled tomatoes make for a tasty brekkie. On the other hand, Australian bacon could crawl off the plate.
  • Surveillance cameras seemed to be everwhere I looked. From one spot in a food court I spied sixteen different cameras, mostly used to prevent employee theft I assume. Speed cameras dot the highways as well.
  • A drive from Sydney to Melbourne will take you nine hours. Don’t expect much excitement.
  • Sydney and Melbourne have world-class public transportation. Both have numerous taxis, efficient trains, and light rail systems. Sydney also has a monorail. You can get just about anywhere without a car, and a walk is also very pleasant. In spite of this, Melbourne purchased a fleet of a thousand Toyota Camrys specifically to shuttle visitors around for the Commonwealth Games.
  • Tipping is optional. Unless the service is outstanding, the only tippers are clueless tourists.
  • VoIP is all the rage. With some hotels charging $8 AUD per minute for calls to the States, its easy to see why.
  • Flights to and from Australia didn’t seem as long as expected.
  • Australia is a big country that’s full of small companies. America has much bigger businesses than Australia does.
  • One of the nicknames for Sydney’s Harbour Bridge is “the Coathanger.”
  • Australian TV shows parts of American movies that would earn hefty fines if shown on American TV.
  • Aussies don’t like the cold. Anything below 50 degrees Farenheit is cold.
  • For such a big country, real estate can be surprisingly expensive.
  • Aussies are incredibly social and generous people.
  • It really does rain in Australia.
  • Australians think everything is big in America.
  • Australians think Americans are big because we use drive-through windows for everything.
  • Australian newspapers are printed on very wide paper. They aren’t easy to handle.
  • The first kangaroo you’re likely to see may be listed on a menu or covered with tire tracks.

I’m sure I’ll add more once I catch up. Now its time to get unpacked.

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Not Almost There. Add Two Hours.

Who would’ve thought that when I’d made it to Los Angeles my trip wasn’t even halfway done? My scheduled departure at 9:50 didn’t occur due to the incoming plane being delayed by bad weather in Indianapolis. My trip to Raleigh won’t begin until 11:45. I won’t get home until Saturday morning.

As of this hour I’ve been traveling for 28 hours straight. It’s been Friday for 34 hours now. Boy do I wish that Delta’s nonstop service between Raleigh and Los Angeles began this week instead of in June.

Fortunately for me, Charlotte has free Wifi in the food court area. And a wonderful pianist named Emily Roland who has been keeping us food court campers happy.

[Update:] I just got word that my plane will be at the gate a little past eleven. That means I could conceiveably be on the ground in Raleigh before my long Friday ends.
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Almost There

I’ll try to recreate the post that Boingo ate. Here goes.

I’m in Los Angeles now after a longer than usual trip from Sydney. As a result I’ll get home three hours later than I expected.

Clinton dropped me off at the Sydney airport this morning a good two and a half hours early for my flight. I walked into a crowded airport, with people lined up in queues as far as the eye could see.

I found my way to the correct queue and asked what was going on. A family from Perth on their way to Disneyworld told me the airport had suffered a power outage. Though the power was on at the check-in counters, the baggage system wasn’t working and the check-in process had come to a standstill.

We chatted for a while until I looked up and saw the displays above the counters flicker to life. My applause was premature, however, as the baggage system was still dead. At least I got a chance to see the displays boot into some Red Hat-flavor of Linux.

The queues got longer, reporters interviewed weary travellers, and airline staff passed out free water and cookies. The mood remained upbeat, mostly. Still the time dragged on.

It took me two and a half hours to actually reach the check-in counter. In other words, the first 100 meters of my trip took two and a half hours. I still had fifteen million meters more to go!

The original departure time had come and gone by the time I reached the gate. People weren’t boarding yet because the majority of passengers hadn’t yet checked in. That tacked on another 20 minutes before boarding began.

The flight was an hour late before I reached my seat. As the power outage had caused a pileup of departing planes, we had to wait to get a tow to the taxiway. Then another wait for the flight data to download into the plane’s computers.

We left Australian soil over two hours late.

Fortuntately, the pilots hauled ass across the Pacific. We made Los Angeles in a little over twelve hours, travelling at ground speeds of 650 miles per hour! Gotta love having the jet stream for a tailwind.

Still, it wasn’t enough to make my connecting flight, which left Los Angeles before I had even cleared Customs. I had another 30 minute wait to get booked on another airline, a 20 minute walk to the US Airways terminal, and 5 minutes for “special screening” once I got there.

Now my US Airways flight to Charlotte is boarding. From Charlotte I fly to Raleigh, getting in around 11:30 if I’m lucky.

That’s twenty-two hours of travel, thirty hours without significant sleep.

At least I’ll be home soon, and shortly after with my family. Woo!