• North America Trip–ADL to LAX

    United Airlines plane at terminalMy trip to Canada and USA has begun. My alarm went of at the early time of 3.45am, left me enough time to get ready for my ride. My sister and brother-in-law very kindly offered to give me a lift to the airport. My sister is doing a travel agent course at the moment, so she’s been able to use me as a bit of a case study and look up my flight details, which has been fun. It was also nice that I got to give my youngest daughter a final hug goodbye as I managed to wake her up in my tromping around the house. Not sure if she went back to sleep, or made the most of being up before her big brother and sister.

    I discovered when checking in at Adelaide that my bags would indeed be checked through to LAX. I wasn’t sure about this when booking. Also no dramas with carry-on bags. I was worried that my (quite old) laptop might push me over the weight limit.

    I wish I could say my flight from Adelaide to Sydney was uneventful, but that would be ignoring the friendly, but slightly inebriated passenger who had trouble picking up his cup of hot coffee off of the tray being offered by the flight attendant, and promptly spilled it down my leg. A small scald mark on my shin – just glad it didn’t land in my lap. Spent the rest of the flight with cold compresses on the burn area, and it’s settling down a bit now.

    Arriving at Sydney, then transferring to the international terminal. Wow, is that a crazy place. Managed to find the United desk (right up the other end from where we were dropped off), and sailed through check-in and the border control/security stuff. Got to my departure gate with time to spare, so was able to make a couple of calls home.

    Looking back over Sydney HarbourBoarding United Airlines was straight forward. I ended up in “Economy Plus’ somehow – not complaining! My sister again was able to do some digging and informed me that I was the only one booked in my three seats. That didn’t last, as another traveller decided he’d move to the seat across from me to share some of my elbow room. That’s ok, there’s still an empty seat in between.

    I’d heard that some United planes didn’t have individual entertainment/tv consoles, but I’m pleased to find that I must have one of the more modern ones – my own screen on the seat in front, and there’s also power under the seat (and the other guy doesn’t seem to need to use it – bonus).

    So now another 12 odd hours until we land at LAX (Los Angeles International Airport). I hope that goes as smoothly (if not with less coffee precipitation) as everything else has gone so far.

  • When you’re a koala..

    Koala looking back through rose bush

    take some time to smell the roses.

    Yes, never a dull moment in our backyard. Not just lizard fights, but the odd koala passing through too. Not to mention Narelle had a baby brown snake trying to come in through the sliding door on Friday. It’s all happening!

  • Blue-tongue battle

    A bit of excitement in the Gardiner backyard this afternoon, when two blue-tongue lizards had a bit of a ‘rumble in the jungle’.

    I assume it was a bit of a territory thing. I’d seen what I thought was one lizard sunning itself on our back steps, and noticed another one across the other side of our yard near our lemonade tree.

    The latter one must have decided to go visiting because all of a sudden it was also near the steps and the first lizard wasn’t too happy about unexpected guests.

    Two lizards facing off

    Two lizards entangled while fighting

    Two lizards tumbling down steps while fighting

    After a bit of biting and hissing, the visitor made a quick getaway – but not before attracting the attention of our 3 bantam chooks (enjoying some ‘free run of the backyard’ time), who were most intrigued by the lizard and “escorted” it back across the back lawn to the garden near the lemonade tree.

    Chooks look on as lizard runs away

    The “steps” blue-tongue then retreated back to its spot, upon which we noticed that there was actually another lizard there too. This one must have been friendly as they both then slid behind a rock without any concerns being raised.

    Blue-tongue lizard heading back to steps

    Glad to say that our backyard has now returned to relative peace – that is unless you’re a worm or slater, in which case I think you’d be a bit stressed that the chooks are out to eat you 😀