Aneta lands! - Feb 24

Summary: McDonalds – I’m lovin it, is a United flight from Sydney domestic?, Hey – you’re the first familiar adult I’ve seen in a month, dusty Camry bootlegger at the Westin, there are no small roles, the blogger never sleeps

Today is the day – the day I see a familiar face not attached to Alex. We woke up relatively early. Let’s just say that the Carlton was in full swing when I was posting on Saturday night, not when we departed on Sunday morning around 8. My plan was to dawdle around Geelong then get over to Melbourne Airport. With a bike race going on, much of Geelong was cordoned off. Thus, our tour de Geelong (meant to be short) was quite short. We did drive by the waterfront park, which has a playground and a beach. Maybe we’ll be back. Anyhow, we stopped at a McDonald’s for an espresso. This was my first stop at a McDonald’s Australia but it won’t be my last. There are two counters – the familiar one with happy meals and the McCafe one that looks like a normal coffee shop: espresso machine, overpriced baked goods, ceramic coffee cups. We never made it to the normal McDonald’s counter, but the coffee shop part was fully functional. Oh, and then there was the little playland that extended our visit from 5 minutes to about 40. The imagery around the restaurant was not like our US McDonald’s – more like the material my company (Iconoculture) publishes – smiling multi-ethnic, multi-generational faces listening to music. It was something of a running question among prospects why my presentation insisted on having people in their 70’s surfing or wearing headphones. I digress. Australia even makes McDonald’s attractive – that is the key takeaway.

Well, we needed to delay a bit more and the local freeways helped with a dose of construction delays (without anyone actually building a freeway on a Sunday morning, just the construction speed limits). The map said that there was an International Terminal and Domestic Terminal and I was hit with a bit of panic. A United flight from Los Angeles via Sydney – where would you go? Well, the map overstated things as there is one parking lot and the terminal looked about as big as Portland (Oregon, not Victoria) or maybe more like Seattle, so it was not hard to figure out where to go.

And then we saw her (about 5 seconds before she heard us). Much joy, much fumbling for a camera to create an image for the blog, hugs & kisses...it was cool. Still is, although I am the only one who could not sustain an afternoon nap past 8pm. We drove downtown past a big street fair (should we stop? No, let’s drop things at the room, eat, then double back…yeah, that last step is still up in the air 8 hours later). The check in was flawless and as a bonus I discovered that every missing German car in Australia has been valet parked at the Westin. We are right in the heart of Melbourne and can see the Yarra River from our room. If I could post a long video, it would be a hidden camera of the Westin staff unloading my dusty Queenslander Camry. No, they did a fine job, I just get the sense that they’re more used to removing Gucci bags from Teutonic than emptying dusty Camrys packed with bags of night time diapers (built for extra …um… just extra), so much wine you’d think I had been to five wine regions (why, as a matter of fact, I’ve been to six - I am just showing restraint), several normal looking bags, and a big old Coleman cooler to anchor the luggage trolley. Add to that, Aneta thinks I look a little wild and Outbacky. She has threatened to post lots of comments to that effect - and my willingness to feed Alex those little mints from the Adelaide Hilton, allegedly a choking hazard. Let me head things off by saying I do not (yet) sport a mullet nor have I let Alex play with a pocket knife or (more appropriate for Swan Valley, Margaret River, the Great Southern, McLaren Vale, Barossa, or Coonawarra) a corkscrew.

We walked across the Yarra to the South Bank for lunch. This is a walk down memory lane as Aneta had a study here several years ago and grew quite familiar with the center of Melbourne. Good times, although Aneta was hit with the prices the way I was (yeah, prices are way higher in A$ terms and the US$ exchange rate is far lower). Example: in Melbourne in 2003, a long black (Americano) at Starbucks (which in the US was US$2.10) was A$2.10, which translated into about US$1.10. Now (at least in Adelaide) it is A$3.60, which translates to US$3.25. Anyhow, coming out of lunch, everyone not authoring this blog was rubbing their eyes but we stopped by a street performer – an American named Arizona Jones with a rather elaborate routing involving fire, whips, and jokes. Next thing you know, I am one of eight people (2 were Australian, the rest of us were international tourists from quirky, exotic locations like the US and Canada) holding up a pole as this guy is standing 17 feet in the air waving a flaming whip around for an audience of well over one hundred. I held a rope and he lived, so I figure played a central role. Actually, he was a very good performer and the first one I have ever given more than a dollar to – too bad I thought lunch could be accomplished camera free. The images would be good.

We got back and spent well over an hour getting an exhausted, eye-rubbing, tired toddler to sleep in the presence of his heretofore missing mama. As a reward for our efforts, afternoon nap time will be followed by breakfast and I am raiding the mini-bar for cheese and crackers for something resembling dinner. (a few night views from the room for ya)

Lastly, in response to Dave's comment, I have no idea what that pastie brought to mind but I was thinking the same thing when I saw a big sign advertising pasties. "Nice pastie you got there" was the first thing I thought of when I walked in the store, but I was not sure where to point.

Next: not really sure, probably a day walking around Melbourne