Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Auspicious Beginnings

The start of my second trip to Japan is starting off much better than the first. For starters, on the way to the airport my flight wasn't cancelled which, for those who fly a lot, is a huge pain to deal with.  I got to the ticket counter for Japan Airlines the recommended 3 hours early. Well a tad more than that and the counters were devoid of helpful staff. Just a sign stating check-in would begin in ... well, 15 minutes. That wasn't too bad!  I spent my time watching the ants mill through the TSA lines. Poor people that don't get the PreCheck on their boarding passes that have to go through all the song and dance and long lines. Some are comically nervous when they get to the TSA agent and their wallets, boarding passes, purses, babies, etc. go flying and falling to the ground. I kid about the babies falling to the ground, but the amount to chaos caused at the agent is astonishing.  After a few minutes of entertainment a half dozen smartly dressed, young women come streaming around the corner as if summoned by some silent alarm the dozen travelers waiting in line are also not aware of.  They confer behind the counter in hushed tones momentarily and flow out in front of the counter, space themselves equally in front of us, bow and greet us in Japanese saying "Welcome and good morning!"  (Much better than the agent a the counter on my first trip basically telling me: "Too bad. Go over to this other airline and buy a ticket last minute and once your whole intineary closes, THEN we'll refund you for canceling your flight. Buh bye now.")  I'm politely handed back my passport, luggage claim tags, and boarding pass. Those that have been to Japan know how they hand items to you...  With more than a little trepidation, I noticed that there no bright, cheery TSA PreCheck staring back at me on my boarding pass. Anywhere. Well, my GlobalEntry will get me to the TSA agent without having to wait and he confirms my suspicions: if it's not printed on your boarding pass, you need to remove your shoes, laptop, etcetera like everyone else. Oh well, a relatively small hassle. Avoiding the long line was the key thing.

Now I'm in the JAL Airspace Lounge enjoying my "layover" until boarding time. This time is a non-stop to Narita on a 787 Dreamliner. I had this chance last year but opted for the upper deck of a 747. It was a good choice and I recommend it if any of you get the chance.

Monday, April 6, 2015

Bucket Lists and Big Sheep



     Easter Weekend.  A huge deal here down under.  A four-day public holiday.  Nothing open, except for occasional restaurants that want to pay their staff hefty wages for working weekends AND holiday pay.  So, there’s no one in the offices, most of the work is wrapped up and what isn’t needs the in-country people to be engaged with us to work through issues.  So here we have our quandary.  US people don’t have days off for the Friday and the Monday, but can’t do much.  So … what to do?  Thursday night we started pursuing one of my bucket list items.
     Now mind you, this is Thursday night before the four-day Easter weekend in which in entire continent takes a holiday and schools start a two-week break.  Chances of finding cheap accommodations, airfare, or anything like that would be very slim.  My goal: The Great Barrier Reef.  There’s a tour company that offers a day of snorkeling the Reef, then a night out on a pontoon under the stars 40 nautical miles from shore, more snorkeling and diving in the morning and then back into shore around noon with meals included.  With my heart set on that and those in my small group of two others, someone looked at airfare into the Whitsunday area.  Flying into Hamilton Island was $1,600 roundtrip.  Welp, there goes that bucket list item for this trip.
     Not one to give up so easily, I took the proverbial reins of the ipad and told the others to continue their wine and beer drinking whilst I worked some 1s and 0s magic (maybe).  A relatively quick look at a couple other locations to fly into (and after closing the 87 apps the person had open on their iPad) had me looking at round trip flights for $208 USD, car rental for $72 USD and a two-hour drive from Mackay to Airlie Beach where we needed to be.  Doable?  Hell, yeah.
     One of the group wanted to book the flight and car right then, but I wanted to wait on the dive/snorkel availability first.  So, in the morning, she was going to call at 8am and check the availability on the ReefSleep tour.  Well, sadly, that was a bust, all sold out for Friday night.  However, there was a day trip available that was $80 USD cheaper.  I’d miss out on seeing some incredible star gazing, but still get the major reason I wanted to go.  So, we all dove in… see what I did there?  5:00 PM flight to Mackay, on the ground by 6:30 got dinner, and we were at the hotel around 9:30, just before the downpour of the hour.
     The next morning, I was awash with excitement.  It would be a two and a half hour fast boat ride to Knuckle Reef.  During the ride we met two interesting guys (from Orange County no less!) who are working on a movie that is being filmed at Gold Coast.  I can’t say much here on the interwebs, but I will tell you all in person when I see you. ;)  Needless to say, it’s a big movie.  They’re off for a week or two as well and getting some diving in at the Reef.  There was a gaggle of college students from all over the States studying at the University of Brisbane.  It was neat to chat with all of them.
     So, I really didn’t “dive” the Reef in the sense of using SCUBA equipment.  However, using the term “dive” in the sense of swimming under water, then I dove the Great Barrier Reef.  I spent as much time under the water looking around as I could.  I didn’t have cash to fork over for the dive lesson/equipment rental/etc.  Instead, I spent about five hours swimming around the Reef.  A very moving experience to say the least.
Sunset in Airlie Beach.
     One of the tenets I try to live by is that I would rather regret doing something than regret not doing something.  I have no regrets at all other than it was a bit expensive to do the trip.  It will be something I cherish for as long as I can remember.  The cost of the trip will fade from   The fact that I was swimming with lion, trigger, parrot, angel, damsel, and all sorts of other fish, interacting with giant clams, looking at some pretty bright colored coral in places, and in general seeing one of seven natural wonders of the world, I was humbled by the whole experience.
memory.

     The next day, we had to travel back to Mackay and fly back to Brisbane since I had a flight from Brisbane on Monday morning to Sydney.  So we decided to see the beaches down there.  It was Easter Sunday.  Here is what my Easter Sunday looked like:
Me at Blacks Beach, Mackay.
Eimeo Beach.  Crowded, eh?
     I’m writing this from my new digs in Bondi Beach.  My apartment is 3-4 minutes’ walk from dozens of restaurants and shops.  Another couple minutes brings you right to Bondi Beach.

     The words to a song have been running through my head since I landed here that some of you may know:  “Here we are in New South Wales.  Shearing sheep as big as whales…”.  Well, signing off from New South Wales:  cheers!

Sunday, March 15, 2015

Binna Burra

Rainforest hike: check.
Seeing Australian animals in the wild: check.
Not being bit by snakes in Australia: check.
Seeing a snake: check.
Still not being bit: check.

How did you spend your weekend?  Did you get to see an Antarctic Beech tree?  I didn't think so.  Eat your heart out, Rich...  While not a Jeffrey, Ponderosa, or elusive Foxtail Pine of the Sierra, just the name alone to me says that this tree would have been rare.  Unfortunately not.  It was everywhere.  The rainforest was FULL of them.  Its ancient heritage is from Antarctica apparently.
So, yes, my first day off in this beautiful country I went 110km from Brisbane to the Lamington National Park into the Binna Burra rainforest.  One item off my bucket list: walk in a rainforest.  A couple of minutes into the hike there is a small little station that you can sanitize your shoes.  That is a clever little idea not to bring nasty pathogens into the ecosystem.
     After duly sanitizing my shoes, I head up the trail.  We don't have a ton of time for the trails and can't make it to a waterfall that is 11km away, but that would be a great destination.  It would be a negative hike too and not having my boots for the hike would have made it a bit uncomfortable. FYI: negative hikes mean your destination is lower than your start so going back to your car is all uphill.
     All told, we walked a nice loop with a side trail to an interesting rock formation and then went to look at some what they called "caves" which are really just rock outcroppings that made my hands itch to climb.  The views were nothing short of stunning.  To borrow words from another author: "There are moments that will live with a person for ever."  I have pictures, but as most who have been to majestic places have been, they really pale in comparison to being there.
     Certainly one of the highlights will be seeing a pademelon.  Unfortunately, the lighting and the timing of the shot I was able to get only afforded me a blurry shot of vegetation.  Still a cool experience.  The other wildlife experience was marginally benign.  The snake was merely sunning itself and slither away harmlessly.  I did see about half a myriad of butterflies and many, many very small lizards.  It seems they either don't grow very big in the rainforest there or get eaten once they are a bit bigger.
     Lunch at a bunch of rock formations they named caves was a very cool way to end my outing in the rainforest.  The view out over the valley was incredible and quite worth my first day off in this country.  My loose plan for my weekend next week is to have Friday off for a Football (Rugby) game (Broncos versus Cowboys) which should be a good rivalry game I'm told.
     I got home in time to catch the last vestiges of the setting sun.  This is my view for the next few weeks at night:
Nearby is a very cool pedestrian bridge to south bank that I decided to see if I could meander and find.  No worries about finding it at all.  The views are spectacular, but better pictures will be posted when I have them.  Apparently there was a smudge on the lens for all those shots.
 

Sunday, March 8, 2015

A Quick Way Down

So, a typical Monday: dealing with secure data issues, high profile problems and then the email pops in the inbox with a simple subject "Australia" and an almost even equally brief body: "Call me when you get a chance."  Hmmm.  Intrigued to say the least, I sign out of the secure area I'm in as I get no phone communication capabilities when working what I was doing at the time and extricate myself from the NORAD-esque concrete structure and go see if there's daylight still in the real world and get cell coverage again outside.

My cell phone call was, to say the least, very informative.  "They" (I will use "they" to protect the innocent or whomever I deem I want thank you very much).  Anyway, this pronoun of "they" want me in Australia and apparently want me on that plane now, now, now.  Why am I still here?  Umm... Can... can I do laundry first before I go please?  Yes, apparently I can.  So with a little conversation I'm given some details I've asked politely for.  "Where in Australia?" being one of them as I believe it is a large CONTINENT with most of it being classified as outback.

A day later I have all I need, the exactly where (sort of), the exactly when (sort of), and how long (sort of).  I book flights, apply for visas (oh right, Kari's joining me down under at some point), and a service apartment for the month-ish that I should be there.  Apparently last minute flights half-way around the world book up quickly and I wasn't able to get anything until Sunday afternoon.  Actually there were flights earlier, but since they'll let me fly business and the only thing available was economy, I put my foot down and said "there wasn't anything reasonable available flying out on Friday or Saturday."  They said, "OK, come out Sunday and we'll see you on the ground here on Tuesday morning."  Crikey.  So, while you all get to enjoy gaining your hour of Daylight Saving Time, I get to enjoy my losing a day of sitting in an airplane.  Well, it will be in business class, paid by work so I probably will garner no sympathy from anyone here.

As for how long I will be gone and where?  That's the real question. You see, I *should* be in Brisbane until April 10, but that all depends on how things go over the next few weeks there and what the team sees when part of it goes to Canberra on Tuesday.  I could be going down there for some time.  In short, I could be in one place for a month or in several over several weeks.

I do plan to update this space with my sojourns but I have been told that what I am going into is a veritable maelstrom of crap meeting a deadline of monumental stature so my free time may be very limited resource.  However, I have told them that I am flying my wife down to meet me when the work is finalized to enjoy a vacation and they're all fine with that.  I just need to find out when "work is finalized" and where I will be so I can fly and meet Kari somewhere down under.

An edit from the airport:
Just a word of caution to my friends and family who may be reading this: if you'd like to avoid any issues checking in for an international flight to Australia, a) make sure you have completed the visa process online like I did and b) however, not like I did, make sure that the line for your "given name" on the form is indeed your first AND  middle names. This way your granted visa matches your passport and your check-in process will be more of a breeze.  It was not a huge deal here at the commuter terminal at 3:15pm on a Sunday and a matter of a simple code a supervisor needed to supply ("SXA", consider yourselves empowered) and I was on to TSA check. No Pre-check for me this time (why did I get Global Entry anyway?).  No matter, I was the only one in line and they were all joking with me and each other. Very lax.  Much better start than my September 18 trip to Japan if you all may recall started with it being canceled as I was 20 minutes from the airport.

Well, thus starts my meteoric wait for a commuter plane to LAX kicking off a stellar layover until my 10:30pm flight to Sydney. At least I will be able to get into the United Club and be a bit more comfortable there.