Monday, March 19
7:30 am Life - Sydney, NSW Australia
We arrived in Sydney at 7:30 am and were checked in for our flight to Ballina by 10:00 am.
A check of the weather indicated that Lethbridge is experiencing a "winter storm warning". The weather here is a bit better: +26 C.
10:00 am Literature
Time for a few more de Maupassant short stories.
"Complete Original Short Stories of Guy de Maupassant" (Volume 1)
- "Two Little Soldiers"
- Two close friends meet a milk-maid who comes between them. The one man then commits suicide. Powerful.
- "Father Milon"
- An old French man confesses to killing 16 Prussian soldiers. Simple revenge.
- "A Coup D'Etat"
- A small village deals with the news that France has been declared a republic. But it remains a small village.
5:30 am Life - Ballina, NSW Australia
We are now settled into our unit in Ballina. We arrived via a Virgin Australia plane at 3:35 PM (right on time), and were met by the shining faces of Sue & Steve. It is really nice to be welcomed back as soon as you enter the airport. Our luggage arrived safely, and we had no difficulty renting a car. To top it off, we were presented with a basket of goodies to help us get started. In addition to some food essentials there was a delightful bottle of Australian red wine. We are truly back, and it feels like we never left.
Well actually, it does feel a little strange. I went to the wrong side of the car to get in, and then once we were moving I turned on the windshield wipers instead of the turn signal. Fortunately driving on the left side of the road presented no problems. I have the traffic circles under control (the cars come at one from the right).
We had decided to head off to the Riverside Holiday Apartments by ourselves as a shower was eagerly wanted and then we needed some sleep. The unit is fairly small and has a small fridge but no microwave or cooking facilities. The manager said he would try to get us a microwave tomorrow. That will help.
As we were registering I asked if there was Wireless Internet and was told yes. Great! Well, actually, not totally great. There is an extra charge for the facility (about $70 for 2 weeks). We talked it over and decided to sign up as we want both email and news. The actual process for setting up the account was relatively simple once I overcame the problem of registering. The web site kept rejecting my application because I left the cell phone field blank (we don't have a cell phone as we turned our iPhones off to avoid the high roaming charges). Fortunately there was in interactive chat window on the web site so I typed in my problem and quickly received a reply to type in "na" in that field. After that we were operational.
Then for some food. Once again, surprises. We thought we walk to an Irish Pub about a block from the hotel. On the way we passed a Coles grocery store that we planned on using and noticed that it was closed and boarded up. Then we got to the pub and it had changed owners and didn't look like it was serving food. Also, there were only "blokes" at the tables so we decided to try another hotel on the main street with an outdoor patio. We had eaten there before and this turned out to be a good choice. The food menu does not kick in until 6 PM, but we were only a couple of minutes early so "no worries". That is something else we need to remember - most places that serve food do not begin until 6 PM. There are lots of little differences that add to the experience of being in Australia. Ordering from a blackboard, ordering the food from one place and the beer from another, paying when ordering, and not tipping (there is not even an option for this on the charge card machines) are all little adjustments -easily made and adding to the sense of being in a different culture. Phyllis had chicken parmesan and I had a truly delicious prawn fettucini (honestly, one of the best seafood pasta dishes I have had anywhere!). A couple of beers (in a schooner glass - slightly smaller than a pint. My guess is that it is what our pubs often call a pint) and we were set.
We noticed the following birds while walking to the pubs:
- Silver Gulls
- Pied Butcherbird
- Rainbow Lorikeets.
Not a great birding start, but we were not really bird watching.
We opted to save the bottle of wine we received for tomorrow and quickly went to bed.