Singapore to Melbourne

[ Mood: Sleepy ]
Hurray! My Australian plug adapter works, and my Mac power cord is smart enough to regulate the current and not allow my computer to explode! Isn’t modern technology wonderful?

Melbourne is indeed pretty chilly. According to some weather widget, it’s 10C now, and should climb up to 17C later. Not bad, and actually wonderfully refreshing after spending most of August in Fukuoka. Still, falling asleep in the closed, unheated bar of the Pensione Hotel, waiting for my room to be readied for check-in, means waking up shivering. I’ll type this entry and then go out for another walk, find another cafe and have another hot coffee.

OK, so boarded my next flight last night. First time on an A380, so that was cool. Luckily I was sitting nowhere near the VERY grumpy man who threw a big temper tantrum over something while going through security. Eh, maybe he had a good reason, but I kinda doubt it. Instead my neighbor was Tuan, a nice, chatty Vietnamese guy who works for Ericsson and is on a business trip. We talked quite a bit, especially near the end of the trip.

I discovered that our entertainment center had Kick-Ass! Whoa, definitely been wanting to see that–and yes, very fun movie. Now I want to read the comics.

I couldn’t sleep during the overnight flight. Note to young woman sitting behind me: The back of the seat in front of you is not for kicking, propping your feet against and then suddenly shifting and causing the person in front of you to jerk backwards, or for grabbing onto when you stand up and then suddenly letting go so the guy in front of you is flung forward like some cartoon character.

I got a bit worried about those 100-yen wooden snakes in my luggage when it came time for Quarantine Inspection. Would they be declared possible harborers of insect eggs? Would they be summarily tossed into a fire? Poor little snakies! No problem–the Customs agent said "Oh yeah, those are fine." Or rather "foine." Ah yes, I’m in Australia!

I was going to take the bus into town, but ended up sharing a taxi with Tuan. He’s staying in the Central Business District, which kind of borders on the area I’m in (north of the Yarra River, near the Convention Centre). We said we’d try to meet up for dinner or something at some point.

The plane arrived at 6am, and check-in time is 1pm or so, so I have plenty of time to kill. The eggs benedict at the hotel cafe are pretty good, but it’s looking like this is a small-breakfast-big-dinner town. I’m a big-breakfast-small-dinner guy.

I managed to get a A$10/day price on hotel wifi for the week. Very overpriced, but then hotel wifi always is, isn’t it? By perching my Macbook Pro on my lap, I can stay warm!

superdave