G'day Mates 2-20-2013

G'day Mates!

We have been here in Australia for nearly a month and love it!

Whirlwind

After spending Christmas in Michigan, we returned to California, said hello to the motorhome still in storage and set ourselves to selling my family home. Sad, but we cannot keep it as a pet forever. In nearly no time the house was cleared and had a bit of a facelift -- painting, new light fixtures and so on. And then the stagers arrived. Wow. Amazing, the difference!

Very quickly we had people driving by, arriving at the door, in the house. We found them in the back yard, peering into our bedrooms while we were in the family room. They were everywhere at all hours, invited or not. At first it was fun, but very shortly not so much. After less than two weeks we had 17 offers over the asking price and we sat down with the realtors to hear them. In the end, there was no decision to be made really. One offer was the clear winner at a jaw-dropping price. Excellent job Patti Robison and Ursula Cremona of Alain Pinel!

In my last moments with the house, I walked slowly through the rooms turning the lights out one more time. My footsteps echoed in the empty rooms. My family, as I knew it, was gone. A new one would be there soon and the world keeps turning.

We are off!

We flew first to Honolulu and spent the night. It had been -- well, let's just say a very long time since I was there in my flight attendant days. The Ilikai where we always stayed was still there on Waikiki, but I couldn't see it through the forest of high-rises there. Honolulu was not improved by all the changes and we did not especially enjoy being there.

The flight the next day was just fine. Very comfortable and really didn't feel like the 10 hours it was. I read a little, watched our progress on the big screen in front of us -- Altitude 39,000 feet, Air speed 588, Outside temp -62 degrees, passing over Pago Pago. I watched the clouds below us form the towering structures that I remembered when I last flew over these waters. And then somehow, we were losing altitude to land. We circled low over Sydney and saw breath-taking views of Sydney Harbor, the iconic coat-hanger bridge and Opera House. The whole coast, including my first view of where we would be staying, Cronulla, was laid out below us. I took pictures, but alas, they seem to have disappeared when I changed the Sims card in my phone.  This is as good one, but I can’t claim it.

New South Wales

Then we were down, duly sprayed with insecticide, passed through immigration and customs. I had worried I might unknowingly have something they could find fault with in my suitcase, but the judge of all that turned out to be a perky little beagle who trotted by and indicated her boredom with our things.  We went on to pick our car. It was now dark outside and we were nervous about the whole driving on the other side of the road thing. We were upgraded to a Nissan four-wheel drive something -- Nissan Ox, maybe? It was huge.  And everything in the car is switched left to right -- steering wheel, turn signals, etc. -- and of course the GPS wasn't working inside the parking garage.  Nothing to do but to just plunge in and take off.

It was a rather hair-raising ride with the windshield wipers flapping away often -- look out, Americans driving! The GPS kicked in and took us to the office where a key to our apartment awaited us in a lock box. Not there. Hmm. No phone. Hmm. Ah, something familiar: Domino’s Pizza. The only time I have ever been especially glad to see one of those. A call was made and shortly, the girl who forgot to set the key out arrived at the office, conveyed there by her mother, who viewed us with deep suspicion. We did, however, arrive at our apartment in Cronulla without further incident -- after the key incident.

The apartment

The apartment is four blocks off the beach, three blocks from the rather charming tourist shopping outdoor mall, in a residential area where the real people of Cronulla live, the non-tourists, the non-millionaire big penthouse folks. I love that. It was an old building -- possibly circa 1950. It has the narrowest driveway I have ever seen. It requires the pulling in of side mirrors and even after weeks here, concentration is needed to navigate our Nissan Ox through.

The entrance up a staircase was rather smelly and scary. We are nervous again. But the apartment is wonderful! Everything newly renovated, sparkling clean and spacious. We were tired, but happy.

And ready to explore...