on arrive!

[jawnbc]

A mostly uneventful journey Down Under. Our flight left 2 hours late because of de-icing the wings. Trust me, you always want your airliner de-iced if anyone thinks it's a good idea. Winds made the trip to HNL about 45 minutes longer, so we arrived in SYD just under 2 hours late. No upgrades, though we both slept fine thanks to little blue footballs.

querrelle got snarky with a snarky customs agent and was strip searched. I pretended not to know him and waited in the kiss-n-cry, where the Lebanese-Australian families amused me by double kissing every new person in their entourage of 2 gazillion people. Now wouldn't it be funny if whomever they shower with flowers and balloons (they had lots of both, trust me) quickly scanned the crowd and said "where's Mrs. Habbibi?" and pouted? Hilarity, no doubt, would ensue.

We got to the hotel entirely too early to check in, but we did shower in the pool area. mynumber1 booked it for us as a prezzie, and we were upgraded to a 1BR from a studio. Excellent base for 9 days, thanks Marko! We then joined Marko and the sexy Pol (who is submitting his dissertation this week, how exciting) for a great brunch at Morgans in Darlinghurst. Great meal, great service,and a great (and ginormous) flat white. We then went to settle into our room before each doing our bit for international relations. Tonight it's dinner at Battuta (our "local" for after work meals on Fridays) then Sunday at the Shift with Marko.

Oh, and I totally predicted it would be Stephane Dion for the Liberal leadership--months ago. I am so frickin' smart...

Comments

[mikeybill.livejournal.com]

so you sure querelle didn't arrange to be strip searched? ;-)

Welcome back to the better hemisphere boys.

[chen-tokuryu.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I totally predicted it would be Stephane Dion for the Liberal leadership--months ago. I am so frickin' smart...

Yeah, yeah, don't be too smug about that. ;-P

Hope the both of you have a great time enjoying the summer, or close to it anyways.

[garpu.livejournal.com]

Yeowch. Granted my international travel has been limited to Canada, Mexico, and Spain, but I've found non-US customs agents to be decent. Customs in Spain involved an agent smoking a cigarette and looking vaguely interested in my direction. US customs agents are just assholes. I'd like to be pleasantly surprised by a decent one.

[dragonweir.livejournal.com]

Welcome home boys.

Hugz

[scream4noreason.livejournal.com]

The only time in my life I ever had trouble anywhere in the world in customs was returning to Sydney.It is staffed entirely with uppity white trash,and remember,"Border Security" is the highest rating show in the entire country,which also consists of liberal amounts of uppity white trash.Sipping lattes.

And plz come to Melbourne.

[querrelle.livejournal.com]

Dead right. Uppity white trash. With bad breath.

I was very restrained - tempting though it was I didn't drop my best line for these situations: 'Careful sweetie, people might see your erection'

[feygele.livejournal.com]

You're in Australia now, you can stop with the French ;)

So, what are little blue footballs?

Enjoy your trip!

[bluebear2.livejournal.com]

> So, what are little blue footballs?

Isn't that when you haven't had sex in a long time?

[feygele.livejournal.com]

If it is, then how would that help you sleep on a plane?

[bluebear2.livejournal.com]

Well, if they were tanuki balls then they could become any useful shape. Or so I see in the cartoons anyway.

[pythagorarse.livejournal.com]

gak. jealous. home sickness just struck...

[bluebear2.livejournal.com]

Celine Dion won the Liberal leadership? Cool!

[foresterx.livejournal.com]

and I am so going to miss you guys in Sydney by about 3 days - BUGGAR - oh well - enjoy your visit guys and I hope the guy that strip searched querrelle was cute at least (and that it was a guy) lol

[austinw04.livejournal.com]

sheesh I think I missed the posts even talking about you guys heading out that way for a trip!! Sounds like are having a great time. I do however, selfishly, wish you were around at home lounging so I could ask you a few questions- I want to apply for a faculty position at one of the colleges out here and needed a tip ;) I will pick your brain when you get back- enjoy your visit!!

[sunsmogseahorse.livejournal.com]

No way. Did he really get strip searched? That's pretty harsh for getting snarky.

[jawnbc]

hyperbole

[sunsmogseahorse.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear it. Such things are better saved for role playing scenes and such.

Have you seen www.loveandrespect.us yet? It's causing a lot of meow-meow-meow in the interweb.