Canberra

On a Whole Lot of Firsts

The Fort at MIT Ballpark, 2018

Thursday, January 25, 2018

Brisbane Bandits vs. Canberra Cavalry
The Fort at MIT Ballpark
Australian Baseball League
Narrabundah, ACT, Australia
7:05 PM


Outside the Game:
This was a long and profoundly weird day for me. It began early after a blessedly sound night of sleep. I got up a little early because of the train strike, checked out of my home for the last two weeks, and headed to get a train, which were running at a reduced schedule because of the "labor action."

I stopped off at my hotel for the next night and dropped off my large suitcase, taking only my backpack and game bag with me to Canberra for the one-night stay. Then, I was back on the short-schedule trains back to Central Station to get my bus to Canberra, not currently subject to strikes.

I initially had a choice to take a train or bus to Canberra. The train inexplicably took longer, and after asking around a bit, the consensus was that I should probably give the bus a go. So I had secured a return ticket on Murray's Bus for the journey.

I got to the station with time to spare, moved my ticket for the next day up to earlier in the morning to get more of Australia Day in Sydney, and then queued up for my first real bus trip in Australia. We boarded easily, though I was seated next to a teenage kid who just reeked of pot smoke. For this, and other, reasons the three-hour drive seemed much longer. In addition, it rained sporadically throughout the trip, making me worried that the one trip that I really didn't have a contingency for might get rained out.

Eventually, a few naps later, we pulled into a sunny afternoon in Canberra. I got out of the bus, confirmed at the terminal that I had to make it back here to the same place tomorrow, and then grabbed a quick cab ride to my hotel. I checked in without incident, and then decided I should at least do a little walk-around to see what the capitol of Australia had to offer.

Canberra is roughly equivalent to Washington DC, in that it is a created municipality to house the government of the nation. My hotel was part of the "ring" of streets around the government centers, most of which were closed down for the impending Australia Day holiday on Friday.

Commonwealth Place

It was a hot, hot day, but I gamely took the walk past the Australian Capitol Hill, passing the Old Parliament House and the Aboriginal Embassy by it, the closed museums lining the way, and walking down the ceremonial Commonwealth Place by the river's edge. After walking around a bit, and especially because of the heat, I beat a retreat to the hotel and ordered up some room service and grabbed a shower.

As my food arrived, I got a text from Greg, who showed up to escort me to the game after work. He was happy to wait down in the air-conditioned lobby as I scarfed down my food and went to meet him. He took me along to the bus stop right by my hotel, and we took a brief jaunt over to the stop by the park, and after a short walk and a tour of the outside, we went in to the craziness to await me.

After the game, Greg's friend drove us back to our respective places, and, in a daze, I showered, packed up, and went to bed wondering what in the hell had just happened.


The Stadium & Fans:

Home plate to center field during the game

The Fort and MIT Ballpark was relatively close-by the center of Canberra, as ABL parks went, though only buses went there, and it was a bit of a walk. As per normal, it was part of a larger sports complex that had a suburb grow up around it, and next to the park were more baseball facilities that were used by the club teams. It was in a park in a suburb, and there wasn't much around it (as with most ABL parks), but it was one of the nicer facilities in the league, having been recently renovated.

There is one entrance to the park beyond right field, with a classic ticket booth guarding the entrance. You walk down outside the right-field line to get to the main area of the park behind third base and home plate. A low, long, one-story building runs along the third-base line, housing the clubhouses, toilets, and main concession facilities, with a large mural painted on the side. The redone main grandstand behind home plate has the expensive seats under a large awning, with the press box sitting up at the top. The picket fence-lined "Bunker Box" luxury seats are right behind the plate, and a picnic area sits in left field, with a special section of bleachers facing home plate located in right. Rows of bleachers run behind the first and third-base dugouts to form the cheap seats, and a beer concession sits between first base and right field. A simple digital scoreboard sits out in left-center field, but it is clearly in need of a little love, as it was on the blink for the entirety of the game I was at.

Sarge and Fans

The crowd was easily the most involved that I saw in Australia, so the people really like the Cavalry. They seemed invested in the game, even more than the clutch of drunk Brisbane fans that had made the trip to sit in front of us. Mascot Sarge is out and around throughout the game in the stands, and your garden-variety minor-league interludes made their appearance between innings, with races and quizzes and the like.


At the Game with Oogie:

Your humble proprietor

I don't even know where to begin for this one. When last we talked about it, Greg had said he was probably going to be able to arrange a tour of the park before the gates officially opened, and he promised a free ticket for me, and all of that was certainly true, and, frankly, more than I was expecting at this point. As we entered, I was just interested in getting a ticket stub so I would have my entire set for all the ABL teams, so that was my level of expectation at this point.

As we walked into the game, Greg casually mentioned that the person who was supposed to do the first pitch was unable to make it, and that after talking to the promotions guy, I was going to be throwing it out instead.

This caused a lot of things to blow through my addled brain at once, but the primary thing that surfaced was, "You cannot, under any circumstance, bounce this pitch." Visions of Fifty Cent at Not Shea flew through my head, and even as we got to our seats in the covered grandstand behind home plate, I was starting to loosen up my arm and try to remember how to throw. Greg lent me one of his Calvary jerseys of one of the more popular players in the franchise history to wear, along with a gift of a Cavalry hat.

So focused as I was on remembering how to throw a baseball, a vaguely remember being introduced to the promotions manager and the on-field announcer, both of whom I seem to remember being American. Also, I got told at some point in there that the broadcast team wanted to interview me during the top of the fifth inning, and it was all starting to slop together in a weird amalgam of incomprehension.

When the time came, I went out onto the skirt of the field (fully the second time I had set foot on a professional baseball field in my entire life) and talked with some of the players, who were American. One of them was even from New Jersey, I think. A lot of this is a big blur. The catcher who was going to catch my first pitch threw a ball around with me a little, and I sort of remember getting announced and them talking about my trips (as this last stadium in Australia happened to be number 175 for me), and I threw the pitch. Perhaps not a strike, but it made it on the fly, and I got to keep the ball afterwards.

My thrill and panic over, I tried to settle into watching the game with Greg and his friend. It all is hazy. They graciously offered to get me some food at one point, but I couldn't contemplate eating at that point. The top of the fifth inning came, and a bounded up to the broadcast guys with my scorebook, and I remember even less of the interview, except that I know I continued to score during it. That part was a complete blank in my memory. I know a video of it exists; I know I don't want to see it.

After that, it all settled in to more or less the regular game of watching and scoring, but the experience was 100% more surreal than anything else I've ever done.


The Game:

First pitch, Bandits vs. Cavalry

My last game in Australia was perhaps a bit of an afterthought given everything that happened, but it was another game with strong pitching performances, and it saw the Bandits and Cavalry face off in just about 2.5 hours.

The Bandits started the top of the first with a one-out walk and then a two-out ABL-special home run to left field, giving Brisbane a quick 2-0 lead. Canberra came right back with a leadoff single, but he was erased on a strike-'em-out-throw-'em-out double play. The next batter singled, and the next hit a towering homer to left to tie up the game at two-all after an inning of play. Brisbane started the top of the second with another homer to left and then went in order, with a 3-2 lead. Just to make it fair, the Cavalry began the bottom of the inning with a homer to center, and then stranded a two-out double to tie it again at 3-3 after 2.

The game sped up after that. The Bandits only had a two-out double in the top of the third, and Canberra went in order. Brisbane went in order in the fourth, but after two quick outs in the bottom of the inning, a new pitcher gave up a Cavalry solo shot to right to give Canberra their first lead, 4-3. While I was being interviewed in the top of the fifth, Brisbane got a leadoff double and a one out single, but the runner on first was picked off and the next batter struck out to strand the runner at third. The Cavalry just had a walk in the bottom of the frame.

Both sides went in order in the sixth, but Brisbane bats came alive in the top of the seventh. A leadoff walk scored on a following triple, and then a double drove in that run with no outs. A bunt moved the runner to third, but Canberra shut them down for the remains of the inning, leaving the Bandits with a 5-4 lead. The Cavalry just managed a walk in the bottom of the seventh. Both sides went in order in the quiet eighth, and Brisbane only had a baserunner on a muffed grounder to short in the top of the ninth, but he was quickly erased on a routine double-play. In their last licks, Canberra only managed a one-out walk before the Bandit's closer struck out the remainder of the side, sealing the 5-4 victory for the visiting squad.


The Scorecard:

Bandits vs. Cavalry, 01/25/18. Bandits win, 5-4. 

I was again using the BBWAA scorebook for my last game in Australia. There were the requisite disproportional home runs, but doubles, errors, and walks were more in keeping with average.

There weren't many odd plays, but there were two notations that will probably not be repeated. I missed the umpires announcement because "doing first pitch," and a star note in the top of the fifth inning denoted the fact that I went for my interview on ABL TV.


The Accommodations:

Hotel Kurrajong Canberra

For my one-night stayover in Canberra, I was at the Hotel Kurrajong Canberra, a hoity-toity hotel in the government district that apparently is the choice for foreign potentates and the like. It was, in fact, very fancy and very close to the seats of power, so I could see how that might be.

My room had a pretty reasonable rate, all things considered, although it was a proper hotel room as opposed to the apartment hotels that I had grown accustomed to throughout my stay. A giant king-sized bed sat against a padded wall on one side of the room, opposite a large armoire for clothes and with a refrigerator and food service. On the adjoining wall was a glass desk and flat-screen TV. Around the corner from the bedroom was the long bathroom, with too-cool fixtures and glass rainfall shower.

All-in-all, I didn't spend much time in the room, but it was very nice what time I did spend in it.

On Australia Day

This about sums it up.

Friday, January 26, 2018
Sydney, NSW, Australia


Outside the Game:
The day did not begin auspiciously, as I slept incredibly poorly, especially since a loud storm raged throughout the night, waking me up several times despite my best efforts. The only plus side to this was that I was up early and got down to breakfast right when it opened. I took advantage of the ludicrous hotel breakfast buffet to absolutely gorge myself, especially since I hadn't had a proper meal since the room service the afternoon before.

I ate myself calm and then went back to the room to finish packing and went down to check out and order a cab to the bus station. I had moved my bus reservation up to 9 AM to make the most of Australia Day back in Sydney, and I got to the bus station incredibly early. Since there were even more buses than normal scheduled to ply the way between the capital and Sydney (especially with the train strike), the first 9 AM bus to Sydney actually was ready to leave on 8:30 AM, and I was early enough to be on it. I trudged half-awake to a seat next to a guy clearly going to the airport and spent most of the trip catching up on sleep that the night before was not kind enough to provide.

Over a half hour ahead of schedule, we pulled into Central Station, and already people were walking around with Australian flags and what I would discover were Aboriginal Nation flags. This immediately set it apart from the Fourth of July in the US, where anything other than the stars and stripes were likely to land you in a physical altercation. A quick train ride up to Wynyard Station, and I was checking it at my hotel and retrieving my big bag.

I took in the extensive fancy room, but pretty much just dropped my stuff off and headed out into the Australia Day festivities. I walked around The Rocks before heading down to Circular Quay. I found one of many stations handing out brochures of all the events going on, as well as Australian flags. Thus suited up, I went into the "no alcohol" area of the Quay for a while, grabbing lunch at one of the food truck parks set up for the day, and watching the various street performers, sailing ships in the Quay, and some of the smaller acts on smaller stages throughout the area.

One of those stages in First Fleet park housed some Indian dancers teaching Bollywood moves. They were trying to entice people to come up with them and learn. They only had a couple of outgoing children who joined them, and then they said, "It isn't very Australian of you to not try new things," which was apparently enough chastisement for a large crowd of adults to flood the stage to learn some dance moves. I don't know what exactly about it was so appealing to me, but, as with many small events throughout the day, I thought that spoke very well of the country.

Bollywood Dancing Classes

After seeing the early entertainment at the Quay, I took the train over to Darling Harbor to see what was going on there. And the main event was an in-person concert by the Wiggles. A huge part of Tumbalong Park was gated off for the show, which you could still easily view from outside the fenced-off area. In fact, the back of the stage wasn't even cordoned off at all, and when I walked behind it, I was probably as close to a Wiggle (heck, all the Wiggles) as I would ever likely get again in my life.

Wiggles in the wild

It was a hot, hot Australia Day, so as the afternoon started to turn, I beat a hasty retreat back to the hotel for a nap on the couch while I put some laundry in the machine in my room, and then took a celebratory shower before heading back out to Circular Quay.

The main event of Australia Day was a show on a floating stage in the middle of Circular Quay. The show started at 6:30 PM, but the TV program didn't kick off until an hour later. Sometime after 5, I went to another of the food carts near the Passenger Terminal Station to grab some dinner, and then I found a place near the fences on the Quay and settled in for the rest of the night.

The show was hosted by who I assume to be three Australian stars whom I had never seen before or had any idea about. There was a half-Aboriginal man on the main stage, a smarmy white guy on top the Passenger Terminal, and a white lady who was at the main stage, which was across the Quay for me at the Opera House. As the pre-show started, the host on the main stage did an interview with an Aboriginal person for some reason or another, and I found out a very on-the-nose fact about Australia Day.

The holiday celebrated the landing of the First Fleet, and, much in the same way the Native Americans now have some conflicted feeling about the first Thanksgiving, it turns out the Aboriginal population of Australia don't view Australia Day in quite the same way as the white folk.

They call it "Survival Day," as in "Hey, way to not be killed by the whites for another year." I found that profound. The fact that it was part of the official celebration and that nearly every public ceremony now begins with the acknowledgement of the original tribes that held the land, and this celebration began with an Aboriginal cleansing ritual shows how far Australia has come from the "White Australia" policy that only died 40 years ago, and, consequently, how relatively little real progress America has made. It wasn't the only such thought I had during my stay.

Aboriginal boat leads the way

The pre-television show featured a parade of boats around the Quay and performances from the Australian Army band, which consisted of R&B and rock numbers, which was a bit of a jolt to someone used to only seeing official army bands performing marches or classical music.

Part of the festivities was the award for Australian of the Year, which was another ceremony I quite liked. Each state also had their person of the year, and then one was chosen as the overall winner. In addition, they also had youth and elder Australians of the year. With the exception of a young soccer star, all the recipients were scientists and educators, another bit of information that made me feel a pang of embarrassment at my country.

Australian of the year awards

The TV show commenced with the purification ceremony and a very Aussie jet ski procession, flanked with two guys on water jet packs flying the Australian flag. The evening was largely cutting between performances from other Australian celebrities I did not recognize on the main Opera House stage, with performances in the Quay or on the water stage.

Perhaps the most Australian thing of the night was a skull race by the female lifeguard teams from the nearby Sydney beaches. They raced into the Quay and ended the race by the water stage. The winning team had barely crossed the line when they pulled up beers that they had brought with them in the boat and had a drink. The losers did as well. There you have it: beaches, sports, and beer. Aussie, Aussie, Aussie.

There was also a bit almost unimaginable in America. Australia legalized gay marriage at the end of last year, and as part of the official celebration, they had an old Australian singing star on stage with a drag queen chorus singing some song about love or another while heart-shaped fireworks went off overhead. Can you even, for the slightest moment, imagine this happening at the Washington DC July Fourth fireworks? No. No, you cannot.

The finale fireworks were a nice build-up to the a crescendo of explosions at the like, and just like that, the evening was over.

End with a bang

And that is when the problems began. There had been plenty of ways to get onto the docks on the Quay at the start of the night, but for some reason, they closed off many entrances at the end of the night. People kept moving towards the entrances where they came in, and people were starting to get tightly packed in dangerous ways. Eventually, things got moving towards the open exists, but it was touch and go there for a while, and even when I was able to get myself moving towards the exists, there were people trying to break open or climb the exit gates that were inexplicably closed at the end of the party.

Grateful to be out of the crowd, I headed down some back streets just to get away from the crowd and weaved my way thankfully back to the hotel. Upon reaching there, I found that the drier in my room was broken, so I put in a maintenance call and went to bed, not knowing what was lurking this evening.

I had my tea out on the balcony and retired to the bedroom properly exhausted.


The Accommodations: 

Living room in my first apartment at The York

 For my last stay in Sydney, I was staying at a hotel near The Rocks called "The York." You know a hotel is fancy when they have "The" in the name. I pretty much splurged for my last couple of days and went for a luxury apartment hotel right in the heart of the city center, because why not?

It was easily the biggest room I stayed in while in Australia, and it may have been bigger than my apartment back home. The entrance hallway split off three ways. One led to my bathroom with a giant tub and washer/drier; the other led to my separate bedroom, that had its own AC, desk, TV, and closets; and the other led to the living room.

The living room had a full kitchen with all the regular appliances on one side, next to a couch, end table, and entertainment center, and on the other side of the room was a dining table and a desk. This room also had an exit out onto the balcony, with a plant and outdoor table and chairs.

While it was all nice and good, there were early indications of problems that would manifest over the night. The drier in the bathroom stopped working nearly immediately, there was still trash in the kitchen from the previous guests, the safe didn't work, the curtains were dirty, and something wasn't quite right with the bed.

On Sydney on The Rocks

Convicts memorial in The Rocks

Saturday, January 27, 2018

Sydney, NSW, Australia


Outside the Game: 
One of my last days in Australia did not begin auspiciously. I got nearly no sleep at all through the night because I eventually found out what was weird about my bed. The headboard was broken, and it wasn't connected to the wall, so it made loud noises every time I moved in any way. There was also some weird, repetitive noise in the room that woke me up at regular intervals. I eventually abandoned the bedroom and went to sleep out on the couch, where I was able to get some sort of sleep.

Needless to say, I was up early and pissed, so I went down to the front desk to complain about things. And the thing about really nice hotels is that they take it seriously. The lady behind the desk showed more and more concern as I relayed all the things that I went through in my cranky, not-sleeping way, and she immediately took me up to another floor and showed me some new rooms to choose from. Now, outside of some maintenance issues, the first room I was in was large and nice, but these two were just ridiculous in their opulence. After checking the status of the headboard of the bed, I chose one, and went to ferrying all my stuff up to the new room before heading out to enjoy one of my last days on vacation.

The hotel was right by The Rocks, so I spent the day wandering out there. I had lunch at a sandwich shop, and then took advantage of a market in the streets. I bought a crap-ton of merchandise, from finally caving to buying (real) boomerangs, to getting a hopping wooden kangaroo, to getting some Australian Christmas ornaments, to buying some historic Australian coins, and much more. Most of these items were immediately carted off with what little else I had to be mailed to my work address back home at the post office before heading back for some more cultural adventures.

The Rocks Discovery Museum

I had one or two museums left in me, so I went to The Rocks Discovery Museum and the archaeological Big Dig before heading back to the hotel to do some laundry, nap on the huge couch, and shower before the evening. I also noticed that I had lost half of my tattered Sydney map that had taken me through the city since I arrived two weeks previous. I was a bit disappointed about that.

I headed out to go on The Rocks walking tour that I had attempted to attend before heading to Canberra. I was more successful this time, having only to walk to get there, and I eventually huddled up with a bunch of tourists from other parts of the world, and we headed off on a tour led by an impossibly thin grad student. It was an entertaining ramble that included the Emu War and the history of the various attempts by gentrifiers to obliterate The Rocks into something more "modern." Thankfully, it survived long enough to become the hippest area of Sydney, forever safe from bulldozers, if not hyper-gentrification of the previous working-class area.

The Rocks Walking Tour

The tour ended back in The Rocks, and after tipping the guide, I stopped in for dinner at an Italian restaurant in the area, stuffing myself full of pasta, for some reason, and wine (for an obvious reason). I had a leisurely walk back to the hotel, where I put all my laundry through the drier while I had a soak in the tub, and then had a robe-donned tea out on the balcony, enjoying the summer evening.

Eventually, I retired to my new bedroom, where I had a much more successful night than the one previous.


The Accommodations:

My new living room at The York

So, after my first disastrous night at The York, my new room was much more up to snuff. There was again a long entrance hallway, with a big hall closet to make it feel even more homey. The bath facilities were off either side of the hall, split up to the shower and bath and washer/drier (with soak sink) in one room, and a vanity and toilet in another.

The somehow even larger bedroom, with wall-length closets and desk and TV was further down the hall, and then opened into the kitchen and living room. The more modern kitchen with all the appliances was on the left of the room, and just beyond it was the kitchen table and the work desk. Separated by a five-piece couch was the living area and the entertainment center. There was an even longer balcony with furniture, looking over the church next door this time, and there were entrances to it from the living room and the bedroom, which I used to my advantage and excess throughout my stay. Once I was cocooned in the fluffy robe, I was wandering all around the apartment, as is rightful for a king of his domain.

On the Last Day

Luna Park Sydney

Sunday, January 28, 2018
Sydney, NSW, Australia


Outside the Game:
Catching up on sleep after the night before, and in my luxurious new room, I slept in as late as I managed so far on the trip, not even waking up until 9:30 AM. One of the things that the hotel had was actual food in the refrigerator, not just mini-bar food. They had a "breakfast box" that was pre-packaged with cereal, sides, and a drink that I cracked open for my last breakfast. I assembled the breakfast and then took it out to the balcony for some hotel-robe al fresco dining, watching a sleepy Sydney creep to life on a Sunday morning.

After eating, I did some desultory pre-packing, and perhaps not unexpectedly at this point, found myself unable to check in with Qantas for my flight home. I eventually showered and headed out to The Rocks for some last touristy stuff.

In keeping with my one beer a year policy, I stopped in at the Endeavor Tap Rooms and had their Australian IPA with my lunch. On this muggy summer morning, it was quite appreciated. I had a lazy lunch and people watched before heading back out. The market was still going on, but having shopped myself out the previous day, I just stopped in to get some corn-on-the-cob from a vendor, and promptly got some all over my shirt. Because that is the way that sort of thing always goes.

My beer for 2018

I had never crossed the Sydney Harbor Bridge all the way, so I made the most of my last opportunity and hiked over the length of it in the early afternoon. I decided to visit the Sydney Luna Park to see what I could see. It didn't have an entrance fee to get in like the one in Melbourne, so I walked around, disappointedly finding they didn't have any old roller coasters.

But, they did have a turn-of-the-century Coney Island Fun House, and inside was a host of old fun house rides and, more importantly, a ton of antique coin-op games. I quickly went back to the entrance to get a funhouse-only ticket and went in and spent a lot of money on old pinball games, fortune tellers, and arcade shooters for yester-year, taking time to cringe at many of the extremely unsocially aware art on many of the 60s and 70s pinball games.

Coin-ops inside the Fun House

I decided to take the ferry back to Circular Quay, and I managed to arrive just as one was ready to depart. A short sail later, and I filled up by transit card for the trip to the airport the next day, and then went back to the hotel, for my now-standard laundry, couch nap, and shower.

I got re-dressed and went out to Darling Harbor for dinner. For my last night, I completely toursited it up and sat outside at a fancy steak restaurant on the water for my last supper, such as it was. I ordered the most expensive aged cut they had and some whisky. The experience was a little ruined by a few things. One was the constant fending off of seagulls that prevented them from stealing food from your plate. Another was a truly awful pour of the Scotch I ordered. And finally, there were the Chinese tourists at the table next to me. You try and avoid stereotypes as much as possible, but these people were the spirit and image of the “awful Chinese tourist.” They were loud, impolite, entitled, and pushy. They all piled onto a table smaller than their party, and as the staff was trying to accommodate them, even more of them showed up, and they just pushed tables together over the protestations of the staff, who just gave up trying. Throughout the meal, they were aggressively loud, and kept feeding the birds over the protests of the staff, to the detriment and additional protests of the diners all around them.

My last sunset in Australia

Annoying as this was, I was trying to just concentrate on my steak and watching my last sunset in Australia. I took a walk around the harbor and then had a leisurely stroll back to the hotel, where I had a soak in the tub, finished up the laundry, and completed packing while watching Australian sitcoms.


The Accommodations: 
I spent a lot of time in the new room today, but outside of being wistful if I had managed to have a non-broken room for my entire stay, there wasn't anything particularly noteworthy, except the realization that I really need a balcony in my life to properly appreciate said life.

On the Longest Day in the History of Days

Duty-Free at Sydney Airport

Monday, January 29, 2018

Jersey City, NJ, USA


Outside the Game:
All good things, etc., etc.

Perhaps ironically, I was up early after a solid night's sleep as I was heading out of the country. I finished packing and cross-checking the apartment before heading down to check out and grab the train to the airport.

And the good news about the trains was that the strike had been resolved over the weekend, so I had no odd schedules or delays to deal with. I was even able to grab a direct train to the airport from Wynyard station, allowing me to get a seat.

The trip to the airport was quick and uneventful. I tried to check in for the flight at the kiosks, but again I ran into issues, so I had to wait on a shortish line to get myself sorted out. They took my large carry-on, gave me my boarding passes, and I was off on my way.

I decided to grab breakfast at a unique Maccas at the airport. All the orders were taken at the counters at the "ground" floor, while the kitchen was on a higher "floor", with the completed orders being sent down a conveyor system to the ground floor for distribution. So, breakfast and a show.

The future, soon

It was eventually time to board, and we got on more or less on time. One of the flight attendants was Russian, which she spoke with a halfway Russian, halfway Aussie accent, which was pretty distracting. This was compounded with "mechanical problems" on the plane, which had us departing late.

The good news is that I was in a row with an unoccupied middle seat. A guy from Miami was in the window seat of the row, but we didn't talk a whole lot. The flight was a pretty unremarkable series of naps, forgettable TV and movies, and food that ended with us getting into LA on time-ish.

However, as all hope and good dies in LA, we had to get off the plane, get our bags, go through security again and re-check-in. Land of the free, home of the brave.

At this point, it was still Monday morning. Although there had been 18 hours or so of flying, we crossed the international date line the other way, and we reset to Monday. The jet lag hadn't hit me quite yet, but the morning sun was playing tricks with my brain.

We boarded late at LA, because LA. The flight, however, was not heavily booked. There were just scattered people and lots and lots of empty seats. They even mentioned it on the PA before we took off. I was in one of the only full rows, sitting next to two Aussie women for the moment.

As soon as the fasten seatbelt was off, I went back a row or two and grabbed a completely empty row to stretch out in. I slept most of the flight rather comfortably, with a pillow stack and a couple of blankets keeping my cozy. I was even a little sad to have to go back to my seat for the last half hour of the flight.

We landed about an hour late because of all the delays, at about 5 PM ET. My body wasn't even ready to deal with what day or time it was, but I was able to get my bag after some drama. They unloaded a dozen or so bags and then stopped. They started to close up and move on before everyone on the plane started to get uppity about it. Eventually, one worker seemed to have an idea, and talked to someone on a walkie-talkie, and then announced that they essentially decided to let the non first-class bags be distributed as well, which we thought was sporting of them.

I eventually did get my bag after a suitable delay and called for a limo service to pick me up. Thanks to residual traffic, I got home around 7 PM. I mechanically started to unpack a little, made sure that everything wasn't on fire, popped a Zzquil, and regrettably went to sleep at home again for the first time in over a month.

The Hat, in Retirement

The Accommodations:
Jersey City, sweet Jersey City, after over a month from home.

Click here to see all the pictures from this trip.

2017-8 Australia