G’day, Mates! Yep, WE MADE IT!! And BOY, is that a LOOOOONNNNGGGGG trip to make! So…to “officially” start from the beginning of the Ever-Wacky-Brucato’s trip to OZ, 2007…
It is SUCH a long flight (I know, I know, get over it, girl, you’ve already said that…) Flights to OZ leave the (DARN…Robert just RABBIT RABBIT RABBIT’D on me for November 1!!!!) West Coast in the evening; ours, on Monday night. So, we decided to leave early (it must be me…early morning on Sunday, when we could have slept in…). At any rate, we rented a car to get us to the Tucson airport (No way we were going to ask anyone to schlep us at 5 a.m., even though we had several volunteers; thank you, Laura and Joanne!); fortunately there is a Budget rental car place just down the street from us, which makes it easy! Dropped the car, waited in a VERY long queue (why would anyone want to leave Tucson at all, let alone early in the morning?) for security, and caught our plane to LAX. As an auspicious beginning to any long trip, apparently I had forgotten to rent a car there, but fortunately, my buddy Kimberly was working that morning at Thrifty, and she fixed us up with a lovely, new blue PT Cruiser!! (For some reason, I tend to look beyond the LA experience … really cost us one time, as I’d forgotten to book our FLIGHTS to LAX, which cost us a pretty penny…so this is definitely better! We did have airline reservations!) Got to Art and Anne Vaughan’s about 10, to be greeted by wonderful homemade tamales from the prior morning’s Farmer’s Market! YUM! Read the newspapers [and when people ask if there is anything we miss other than the people, we always say 1) LA Times; 2) Bristol Farms…] and caught up. Anne and I went out in the afternoon to an open-house at Motif (a lovely store!) but actually didn’t buy anything – neither of us! How odd! Back home and then dinner. It had a New Mexican theme, as Art and Anne had recently been to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. A FABULOUS green chili and cheese soup with chicken, and beef brisket with tortillas and all the fixings; an amazing cake – one layer, very dense, with saffron; orange glaze with raspberries for frosting, for dessert; AMAZING! Lisa, Jon and Margaret Rose and Ava Louise were there, as were Chris, Lori and Claire. We had a super evening; lots of great food and noise! Got a good night’s sleep, and up early to walk and bathe. Anne and I went out to Distant Lands (R said we needed a new TSA lock…they seem to walk away from us on a constant basis…) (and, for the FIRST time on record, we got out of there without any BOOKS!) and LUSH, the store I first found in Victoria, on Colorado Blvd…needless to say, left LOTS at LUSH, which now resides in the Vaughan’s extra bedroom closet…Then, back to the Vaughan’s. Had a nice lunch at the Pub in Sierra Madre with Anne, then back to the house to gather ourselves for the flight. Arrived in good time at LAX (taking the “old” back route, mainly avoiding freeways…) and checked in at Air New Zealand. Absolutely NO wait to check in OR go through security! YEA!! Just lovely! We were, however, in Terminal 2, which isn’t exactly known at LAX for its variety of services! So, as the Monday Night Football game was on TV (GB vs. Denver) we settled in to Wolfgang Puck’s place, ordering an excellent pepperoni and mushroom pizza, and R drinking lots of wine. The plane was late – supposed to take off at 9 p.m., but didn’t get out of LAX until 10 (late arrival of equipment). FULL 747, but we were EXTREMELY lucky!! We got an exit row, right next to the bathrooms and with NOTHING in front of us! And, while the seats were a VERY snug fit (R insists the seats getting narrower; couldn’t be that we’re getting wider, could it?) we were at least not boxed in, and then we found the great video of Air New Zealand! Just lovely! Movies and TV on demand, as well as games to play! How fun! I wasn’t able to get any of the games to work (probably me, as I’m not very games savvy) but I could manage the video! Watched two versions of the “new” Miss Marple; the remake done several years ago for the BBC – Nemesis and At Bertram’s Hotel; the former being pretty awful (VERY unlike the book) but the latter, while not being too much like the book, at least had some of the same characters, and was very well done! Then turned to movies – saw No Reservations, which I didn’t like at all – classified under comedy, but I didn’t see much funny about it; way too sad! Then Ocean’s 13, which was MUCH better than 12, although not as good as 11. And finally (this is a LONG flight, remember…) Nancy Drew…which I LOVED! Cannot understand why it got poor reviews! The story was good, the acting OK, and I thought Nancy was hilarious! STILL weren’t there yet (and the Miss Marple,s were full-length movies) so started a re-watch of Nancy…and FINALLY, there appeared NZ – 12 ½ hours later! – we were, of course, connecting through NZ to Sydney…(don’t ask…has to do with cost…) As our plane was running late, we had a really tight connection to make, but they had announced earlier that while some people we being rebooked, our connection was being held for us, which was GREAT news! Have to say, the Air New Zealand crew members were just wonderful; VERY nice folks! They were even looking for us as we got off the plane, and personally walked us down the corridor, back through security and right to our next gate, where actually they were just finishing up their boarding! We had an exit row here, too, but fortunately the flight wasn’t really full, so R moved up a row, and we each had an exit row to ourselves! (Couldn’t really spread out, though, as those exit row arm rests don’t move…) Beautiful views, though, taking off and landing! This was a 3½ hour flight, and something about it – don’t know what, really set me off sneezing and blowing my nose! Amazing! I went from perfectly OK to totally stuffed up in a period of minutes! And of course ran at least one of the bathrooms out of Kleenex! Was able to take an antihistamine, which helped just a bit, but wow, it was like I’d walked into something that I was REALLY allergic to! Landed in Sydney, and voila, there were our bags! Cleared customs like a dream; even managed to get out without having our luggage x-rayed! (Could it be our honest faces, or possibly the bags under our eyes??) Headed for the train into town; nice and convenient. Got off at Town Square, and walked just a block to the Swissotel (I know…with everything I’ve ever said about Switzerland…) (and editor’s note: I notice that as it is now 3:15 a.m. OZ time, Word automatically corrects my spelling…definitely a good thing at the moment!) It was, by now, 10:30 a.m. on Halloween morning – so the big question, that has been bothering Robert for several days now – WHAT HAPPENED TO TUESDAY??? No idea…not sure I’d have noticed it even if it had been there…Our hotel room, of course, wasn’t ready yet, but we were able to go to their spa/health club up several floors and SHOWER and CHANGE CLOTHES!! YEA! Then, being squeaky clean, we left our luggage there and headed out. First stop was the Queen Victoria Center (QVC) just across the street (we’re in a great location in town!) –and it’s all decorated for CHRISTMAS! Apparently the Ozzie’s don’t do anything for Halloween – I did see one person all of yesterday with red paint on his face – but as R pointed out, he might have that red paint on his face for some other reason! – but Christmas, WOW! (Obviously no formal “Thanksgiving” either, as no sign of any decorations other than Christmas!) The QVC is a HUGE stone building from the late 1800’s, ornately decorated, with shops on four floors around the outside with an open atrium leaving the center exposed, with lots of wrought iron and huge old-fashioned elevators. We sat for a few minutes admiring the view – the Christmas tree goes up three floors and is decorated in Swarovsky crystal! Having cokes and Perrier, then headed out to catch the bus to Circular Quay (pronounced: KEY). Circular Quay in Sydney is THE place to be –all the boats from the harbor begin/end there; lots of restaurants and shops, with of course the incomparable view of Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House. And yes, they are still there!! Got to our favorite place, Peter Doyle’s @ the Quay just after they opened, and got a lovely window seat overlooking the busy harbour, which is just amazing! Between the ferry boats, the Harbour Cruising boats, the jet boats for tourists, the water taxis AND the freight traffic going past, there is even the occasional private water craft, sail and power, heading past, all bobbing up and down in the waves! Incredible day! Incredible place! So, on to lunch—which was GREAT! We split a starter salad – tomatoes with marinated onions and mozzarella and basil – the tomatoes were a bit hard, but were absolutely delicious! Then entrees – R had grilled John Dory (also one of my favorite fishes) with perfectly cooked veggies, and I had their fish and chips. The fish is flathead, and is GREAT! For dessert (yes, a lunch-time splurge, which worked out well, as it turns out…) R had a rhubarb and raspberry crumble, and I had warm Sticky Date Pudding in caramel sauce with homemade vanilla ice cream…YUM! We then wandered back to Circular Quay and caught a bus back to the hotel. Our room was ready now (which was good, as it was 1:30 p.m.) and we headed up. A bit disconcerting to find someone else’s suitcase in our room – in fact, as we were trying to get in the door, the front desk was ringing us – but, as they say EVERYwhere here, No worries! Bell staff dropped off our bags, and took away someone else’s … and here we are, on the 23rd floor, and we can even see the Harbour from our room! Lots of nice amenities; THREE channels of sports TV!! And a HUGE bathtub and huge walk-in shower! Settled in, and R logged in to get email. I put things away, and then settled down for a nap – setting the alarm clock right NEXT to my head for 5:30 p.m. (We’re on the executive floor, and we didn’t want to miss the canapés and wine!) … but we did…According to R, when the alarm went off, I didn’t BUDGE; not a movement! He turned off the alarm and being the 1) very smart man he is, and 2) not suicidal in the least, left sleeping wives sleep ……I woke up somewhere around midnight just briefly, and finally, (looks like for good) at 2:30 a.m….12 hours! But then I did not sleep at ALL on the plane…so, thank goodness for 1) apples being left in rooms, and 2) three 24-hour a day sports channels! So, decided that I would get up and start this incredibly LONG blog (sorry about that, folks!). It is now 3:35 a.m., and NO breakfast in sight until 6:30 … however, there is a 7/11 down the block just a bit, so all may not be lost! We do have a minibar in the room, but there is only a bar of Toblerone in it – lots of drinks, but I’m not THIRSTY, I’m HUNGRY! So…as I say, R woke up in time to Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit first (not good…) and has been up since…so jet-lag strikes again! Today we’re going to spend riding ferries in the harbour, walking to the Royal Botanical Gardens to see the flying foxes, and probably have dinner tonight in Manly, at one of our favorite places! So, take care folks – sorry for this being so long! Bob, we’re SOOOOO glad to hear that your surgery went well, and hope you or Katy lets us know when you get home! So, lots of love from “down under” (would love to be able to write those letters upside down, but probably not possible…) until our next post!!
m
