Poor Peter. He has a severe tooth ache and has been trying to find a dentist in every small town we go through. He is ready to pull it himself. We are on the phone this am trying to find an office open on a Saturday, but it is proving difficult. A chemist gave him some medication but it is really not helping all that much.
After we finish breakfast at the hotel here, we are heading down to the beach to say goodbye, then up inland on the way back to the airport. Below are a few shots of the beach and our hotel in town.
Here is our room's view at the Airport Hilton. We have a nice room and a great view of the airport.
Bill and I are chilling tonight. We had salmon at the very contemporary Hilton restaurant and then walked over to the airport to shop for some gifts. We just talked to Peter's wife, he had an bad tooth and they had to pull it. He is now on pain medication and doing much better. What a trooper. he complained very little even though he was in tremendous pain.
We had an afternoon workout. Some treadmill and a few laps at the pool. We could only muster a few minutes in the steam room. Australians could only muster a few minutes with our shirts off. The music played on the speakers in the gym might be considered rated "R."
There is an old saying "A mind once stretched by new ideas can never return to its original dimensions." Well, I have been stretched on this trip. Traveling internationally has really shed new light of many old concepts and beliefs. I will not come back with a tan, I might have lost a few pounds, and I may have a new disdain to seeing Bill eat, but inside I have become a different person. That is always worth the trip.
Day Ten
Day Nine
A whirlwind morning trying to get out of the Novotel Glen Waverly.by 7:30. Just met Peter downstairs with no minutes to spare. The day started rainy and a little cold. But as we drove down by downtown, the clouds broke and the rest of the day gave us sunshine and 60-65 degree weather.
We hugged the coastline for more breathtaking scenery. The “
We spent the second half of the day tours the "Twelve Apostles." These are a series of offshore rock formations that sit hundreds of yards from the shoreline and protrude over a hundred yards into the air.
We decided to be daring and took a helicopter tour which lasted about 20 minutes flying up and down the coastline. We took some awesome images but they are on Peter's camera, so we will have to wait until we get them off his camera.
Here is a shot from my digital camera. We were very high up at this point.
We are now in our hotel room, after a nice dinner at a local pub. Peter has us watching a cricket game on TV. I am blogging and Bill is studying for a Bible study he has next week. Tomorrow we plan to take it easy. Late breakfast and an easy drive to the airport hotel. We should see some cool country on the way and have lunch with Peter's daughter at university.
Day Eight
Stayed in bed till 7:30 this AM. Getting ready for Peter to take Bill and I out and see the country side. We are going to look at some wildlife and neat areas by Melbourne.
What a great day today. We drove through some totally awesome scenery on the way to a wildlife sanctuary outside of
Peter drove us to some nice villages in the mountains with tea shops and gift shops. We even saw a lookout point overlooking all of the
Once we reached the zoo, a government sanctuary of native Australian wildlife, we walked through a maze of plants and animals that caused Bill and I to stop many times to study the new features we were witnessing. We even got to pet a kangaroo and see a non-sleeping koala. An exciting “Birds of Prey” show gave us the opportunity to see some amazing birds in action. I believe Peter got a real close shot of a fly-over right over our heads.
The evening was capped off with a nice dinner and a movie at Peter’s lovely home. We BBQed some Kangaroo meat and chicken on the back porch. Afterwards the entire group sat by the fire and watch an Australian classic movie titled “The Castle.” Its a hilarious movie about a simple family who lives by the Melbourne airport and are being run off by land developers. With their simple outlook on life, they can't imagine how money could replace all they already have in their small home of 30 years. Meant to be a main-character narrated comedy, it has some basic lessons on family and contentment that really hit home. My favorite line goes something like this, "Dad says life is 90% hard work and 15% luck."
Here is a picture of Peter and his lovely family. Cornelia (wife) and daughters, Carla, Grace (not shown here), Eve, and Mary.
Peter's family tried to explain "Vegemite" and Bill and I tried to explain "Spam." We learned some rude Australian sayings and told funny stories of raising kids. I am sure they had much more fun planned for us, but Bill and I gave out around 10:30 pm and asked to go home.
Day Seven
Slept in all the way to 5:30am. The crow on the window seal is back. They do not sound like our annoying black birds, they are far worst. Sort of like "a drunk on a kazoo." It drives me nuts. But the other bird sounds and their beauty makes up for these worthless creatures. I am googling the Australia fine for killing one of these things right now. $400 and a night in the slammer or below will have me seriously considering.
I am taking the morning off from working out. You can only be so buff. I am getting a little tired of the stares in the elevators (Lifts here). Bill normally runs around the hotel each morning. Come to think of it, I should google "public lewdness fines" too. I hope he has on more than the Texas-flag windshorts he wore yesterday. His new, yellow, Rugby headband did look nice though.
Our breakfasts have been very good. Once again, bacon is not real bacon. Not sure what the sausages are made out of. But the eggs and potatoes look and taste normal. You have to ask for catchup around here. And then the waiter asks if we mean "tomato paste" and then walks off mumbling something about Americans. But in 4-5 minutes a small amount of catchup will actually arrive at your table.
Ok, I'm off to start the day. Ill update soon.
Here is a small video outside my 6th floor hotel room.
Here is a small sample of the Cricket games I keep finding on the Tele.
Also, I found a great picture of Chuck on his trip down here a few months ago.
Take a look at all the images (click in the Nav) from Joan's retirement party. We had a great time. It was at a wonderful hotel.
Bill ate even more today than usual. Keep him in your prayers.
Day Six
Just got in the office. The weather here is great around 60-80 each day. It takes a calculator and 15 minutes for me to figure out the conversion from Celsius.
There are parakeets outside the window at the office. Cool.
Bill and I had a great meeting with Peter today. We got to discuss the LongTail and web strategies for IFL and IFL Australia. I believe we have some good walk-aways from our meeting and good agreement on the next steps of action.
The weather was perfect again. I can’t wait to drive down to the coast in a few more days. Be sure to click on the pictures in the nav-bar and view all the images I uploaded. You will see Peter and his family and some images around the office.
Just got finished with the long tail... Fun! Fun!
I woke about 5am this morning and went to workout in the gym. Don’t know why I can’t sleep, as I am very tired throughout the day. I guess it is adrenaline that is keeping me going.
The food is wonderful. Where the USA has fast food places and large Wal-Marts, Australia has great small family style eateries with great tasting, fresh food. Lots of options. I have not seen or eaten a hamburger yet. And there are very many small specialized stores… Store fronts that just sell fruit or flowers or seafood or meat. It would be so great to have these type of stores in
The other interesting thing I have enjoyed looking for is the school playgrounds and sport complexes. Where our high-schools have basketball goal and football fields, their schools have 4 tall post on the end of the pitch for Australia Rules Football. And you see cricket setups too. The people’s looks and the language are very much the same as the
Here is the front of our hotel. It is very nice.
Day Five
Just woke up here on a Monday morning. My room clock lost power, so I thought it was 7:10 but it was 5:45am. I did not learn this until I was the "only" person down in the workout room and wondered why I was yawning every few minutes.
After a great breakfast, Peter came by the hotel to pick us up. Like a dumb American, I walked to the driver-side door and tried to sit in what I thought was the passenger seat. Peter said "How about I drive?" I then explained that in America it is good luck to walk all around the car before driving down our roads. :)
Driving down the left side of the road is still making me nervous. I assume that with 30+ years of driving history, Peter knows what he is doing!
We are finally at the office. Here is an image of the ladies working.
Here is my new desk. I am enjoying having my shirt untucked and still getting work done. I guess even the remote Australia office has standards. No sweat pants at their office either. (Note to self: Find Bible verses showing disciples preaching and ministering in their workout clothes. Might go a long way to help implement an IFL Fila gear workday.)
Bill has eaten "ANOTHER" piece of cake today, but he did it with his shirt "on," so I guess I can't really complain. Had a great lunch at a small corner deli. (Note to self: Australia Bacon is more like thin ham and not crunchy)
Day Four
Still on the plane. The flight monitor shows land below us now. But at 38,000 feet, I can't see anything but clouds out the window. Shows we are going 550 land mph and it is -50 degrees out there.
Bill must be hot on this trip. This is his 3rd public display of "shirt off Bill." I wonder if the people in first class appreciate him jogging through their area? He has made some interesting friends this trip. One of them had my "Out" magazine.
I believe they said this plane seats 500 people. Wow. I believe it. About 400 of them are standing inf ront of us lined up for the restrooms. Those vegetarian omelettes looked a few days old. The nice gentleman seating next to me must have a good pharmacist. He slept at least 11 of the 14+ hour trip. In the middle of the night I gave him the breath test and "accidentally" elbowed him to see if he had any signs of life. He just offered me his blanket if Bill would please cover up with it.
The stewardist is nice. She has two kids, one of them is 15 months old. She flies to LAX or Hong Kong once a week from Melbourne. The money is good for her and she only works 3 day out of each week. She has been doing this for over 20 years. She sits in front of us for takeoff and landing. Very friendly, not too heavy of an accent.
The good Lord has blessed us at every step of the way. Even the 1 1/2 hour drive from my sisters to LAX in rain and Friday rush hour traffic only took 25 minutes. He have not waited at one ticket counter or been delayed in security.
Just got picked up at the airport. We are now in our hotel room.... After I sleep, I will update.
Just noticed an awesome gift bag IFL just gave us. WOW.
This is Peter and his lovely wife. They came to the hotel for a great dinner and conversation. I am getting excited to learn more about Peter and the area. Bill ate dessert and I did not. (BTY)
Day Three
Not sure when the day actually started. We boarded the plane right before midnight and have been heading south and west for a long time. We got GREAT seats, right near the restrooms and exit row. These have to be the best seats for legroom on the whole plane. We each have personal TVs that flip up in front of us. Lots of choices. Movies, TV shows, Music, Flight monitor, Radio, etc. I watched part of a Jessie James movie, The Bee Movie, and Beowulf. Read a little and slept a little.
Bill slept a lot more, then he admitted to taking some "extra" pills (which he did not offer me until he woke up. I am sure there is a verse about this, which I plan to find later).
We just flew near Hawaii. I sort of wish we had plane troubles and could emergency land in Bora Bora. But that is just wishful thinking.. and dangerous.
We have been blessed with many small perks along the way. The lady at the LAX ticket counter gave us a "VIP lounge" ticket and Bill and I were able to sit in a nice room for 3-4 hours before the flight and eat and drink at a buffet style counter. We meet a nice man from Australia and discussed gun laws and traveling. He was a Jehova Witness. He was the third person on this trip that was suprised to learn that I could leave my front door and truck unlocked and have been doing it for over 8 years. I guess most Californians and Australians think Texans rob and steal from one another daily.
This not a real day three, as Bill and I are already on Day 4 (Sunday) but to my friends and family, this is our thrid day way, so there is your update.
Happy Birthday Addison. I love you very much. Hope you had a great day roller skating.
Day Two
Great night of sleep last night. Bill stayed in the game room and I took Tex's bed. We woke up, ate a bagel, and hung out in the kitchen. After we cleaned up, we headed out to Montrose to look for some last minute travel items and to get a bite to eat.
Bill wanted to stop by the local Yoga shop and pick up some literature.
I found a great magazine, something about a closet and busting out of it.
We then went to a great Japanese restaurant to hang out for a few hours (seemed it)
Bill then wanted to get a bite at the famous California weight loss ice cream shop.
Day One
Day started at 6am. Bill was in my driveway at 7am. We made it safe to the airport and had little trouble getting Bill through security. Good thing for aliases. Had to remind Bill that they only wanted his shoes off walking through the scanner, not his shirt.
We did have our flight delayed about an hour, while sitting on the runway. Not so bad, when sitting in first class eating hot nuts and rubbing my hands with a hot, moist towel. However, we touched down only 45 minutes late in Burbank. Tanya was waiting for us and drove us straight to a doctors appointment for my niece. Bill and I went to a nearby ice cream shop, where Bill decided to see if rich, dark, California chocolate might be acceptable on his diet. Being so health conscience, I had a fruit smoothie.
Drove by Billy Ray Cyrus, Kevin Costner, and Angela Bassett's houses. I remember when I had to live in small house too. Made me a little sad for them.
My sister's family lives on Palm Drive, thus the pictures of the trees. They made Bill and I some welcome signs. Ron was in Porta Rico, so we just took pictures of his pictures.
Spent the rest of the cloudy, drizzly day in The Pearson/Myers house talking, eating, and watching the Apostles of Comedy DVD. Reagan showed us a few of her dance routines and Tex and I played "I Spy" for a while.
Learned that I am going to take a picture of Reagan on my trip for a school project. I need to take pictures of Australia with her image in the picture. Sounds like fun.
Got to bed at 11:30 Texas time.
Melbourne Australia Trip
Trip Itinerary:
February 21 - Leave DFW 11am, arrive Burbank 1pm
February 22 - Hang with Tanya and family, leave LAX 11:15 pm
February 23 - Wasted day on plane
February 24 - Arrive Melbourne 9:30 am hotel and sightsee
February 25 - Work at IFL Australia
February 26 - Work at IFL Australia
February 27 - Work at IFL Australia, dinner retirement party
February 28 - Sightsee Australia
February 29 - Sightsee Australia
March 1 - Sightsee Australia, check into Airport hotel
March 2 - Leave MEL 12:20pm. arrive LAX 7:30 pm
March 3 - Leave BUR 1pm, arrive DFW 6pm
My ticket information:
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