Back to Melbourne

Jan 17

We said goodbye to the Quest on Dixon at 10am and walked down to the central railway station to use his Sydney pass for the last time (it gives you a free round trip to the airport as well as everything else). It was not a long walk but it was humid and John was sweating and complaining to me about my weight again. I haven't gained any weight! grrrr. In fact, I am only this weight because I am carrying his heavy laptop.

Anyway, after finding our way to platform 23 we waited for the train to the airport. It came along shortly and was very nice...like the double decker GO trains, only new.

The airport was the third stop. We got off and found our way to departures. It was too early to check in because the flight didn't leave until 1:20 so John looked around for someplace to eat (he had run out of shredded wheat the day before). All he could find was this little stand, so he bought a lemonade and a cheese and veggie roll. The roll was covered in puff pastry. He ate it hungrily.

When it was time to check in, he did and the flight was pretty routine. Except for the landing. The pilot had said it was windy but John could tell that it was a very strong crosswind (the plane was crabbing severely into the wind). The pilot plonked it down hard. The passenger area bounced at least three feet so that would mean that the plane bounced a good eight feet when it landed.

When they got off the plane John could understand what happened and realized the pilot's landing had been very skillful. The wind was definitely gale force. There are no jet ramps at the Avalon airport so you have to walk down the stairs they roll up to the plane. We were pushed sideways by the wind when we stepped outside; it was that strong! And it was only 18 degrees. It really felt like a storm was coming.

A day or two before Janice had emailed to ask John when the flight was due in and she had lost the paper. John had written back that he thought it was 3:30. But he was wrong. It was 2:30. It was his own fault that he had to wait an hour for Janice to arrive. And she had been held up by road work. Luckily for john he had a bus shelter to wait in as the gale blew all around.

He was very happy when he saw her car coming up the drive as Avalon is in the middle of nowhere.

Janice made fried chicken, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes and peas for dinner. They watched Miss Congeniality 2 on TV. John was happy to lay down in his bed and drift off as the rain started to pour on this parched land.

TRB