thebaldgeek

The plane we were suposed to catch from LAX was declared out of service, so they had to fly a different Jumbo down from San Francisco….so, we had a nice little 3.5 hour delay while they did that. We ended up taking off at about 1.30am.
The flight was not all that smooth, lots of little jolts, not as bad as our flight over in 2004, but not as smooth as the flight over last month.
It was about 2 hours too long for Amy and I, we both got very quezzy at the end, we found that if you look at the side window with your eyes shut, the head does not spin quite as much on landing and take off as sitting looking forward, that helped, and the ginger tablets are fantastic as well!
There was a 45 min delay for some reason when leaving Sydney….anyway, the nice result of all that was that we only had to wait about 15 min for the shuttle bus at the airport instead of the 2.5hours we were expecting…..so for once the delays worked out (could have done with the wait in Melboune instead of the LAX floor!)

The dog was VERY excited to see us all, I think she really missed us, she did not settle down for hours!
The house was in very good condition, the house sitter did a great job, the car is filthy!, the garden needs a tweak, and the lawns are not too bad, so all in all, things survived the time away, which is great. Really appreciate Milly and Brian taking care of things for us.

The bike started first hit, so that was great, it was nice to ride it again……really, really nice, I missed it more than I realized!

So, in conclusion? Was an interesting trip, there are some really neat things to come out of it that I will talk more about when the time is right. We saw a lot, we drove a lot, we talked a lot, we got very little sleep, Freddy is on the mend, Amy is borderline with the throat thing, Terry is a little jet lagged, but we are all really glad that we did it.
I am looking at either getting an online photo thing working, or doing a web page or two with some of the photos we took on it, probably do the web page thing as its quicker for me….. so hang on for that some time soonish.

Thanks for your comments, support and following along, it was an eventful trip!

Chow for now,

Ben, Freddy, Amy, Terry and Cassie.

We had a very enjoyable afternoon tea and dinner yesterday…… It was about the most peaceful and relaxing day we have had since we got here. The kids got to hang with Brittany in the evening and went to see a movie (Which one, I just forget).
The only downer of the day was that we spent some time trying to chase down the new Leatherman Charge TTi, and did not find anyone with one in stock, so, again it was pretty disappointing, it seems that more and more stores are moving to online only, not sure what people like me are going to do….. Im sure I am not alone in wanting to hold, or try on what I am going to buy.
Its raining here at the moment, the first time in a long time according to the locals. I don’t know how much we have had, but its nice and peaceful, just a nice steady shower…. weird thing is that 90% of the houses here do not have any guttering, so it all just runs straight off the roof and chews out the gardens that are around the house. Also I have seen very few water tanks on houses.

Today is packing day. We have the large shoe collection to pack and a few extra clothes that we have picked up from here and there.

So thats about that. We will spend the day just kicking back having a holiday with Jason and Brittany. I will mess with the Linux laptop that I bought them for their webcam, hope I can get the wireless card going, it has not been a case of plug and play, so thats annoying, but somewhat typical of Linux…….

Chow for now from the US of A.

Ben.

Here’s a tip……
If you are 40+ years old, don’t go paintballing, do a full day at Disneyland, then Legoland and expect to bounce out of bed on the 4th day……. Yikes! The old legs are a little stiff and sore! (In case you were wondering, the back is fine)
The paintball marks are fading, its not them that are sore (well, each welt is a little sore, the kids have been having fun ‘pressing my buttons’), its just a general overall tired and sore. Its a nice feeling in some ways, in others it would be great to have a solid 8 hours sleep!

So, in a vague way that brings you up to date with our activities.
Disney was great, the kids are 4 years older than when we were there last and so were able to go on, and really enjoy all the ‘adult’ rides. Turns out we are all becoming roller coaster junkies. We really want to go to 6 Flags / Magic Mountain to have some real fun, but we just do not have time, so we are telling the kids that it will be a next trip treat.
Legoland was a little disappointing for Terry, he was sssooo looking forward to it. Its a nice park, and it was not busy, so we got to do every thing, most rides had no lines at all. Its just that its really for say, 4 to 8 year olds. Terry (and the rest of us) is a little to big for most of what was there. We wanted to do the Mindstorm thing, but its a 45 minute class, they take it really slow, we will just have to check it out on the web and see if its what we want to do. I think Terry is ready to take his Lego to the next level, and it seems to be the logical way to go.

Anyway, we are having our first ‘down’ day of the trip today, the kids are watching a movie (or three), Freddys in bed (still not good at all), and I am getting a bunch of outstanding work done (emails and the like).
We have to drop Amy off at a friends house for her last overnight stay at 4pm, so we need to leave here at 3.
Then we have a dinner engagement.

Tomorrow I think we are going a bit quite too. More work I suspect, then off to a friends house for afternoon tea, then pick Amy up, then to another friends house for dinner. I think since just Terry will be with us, we might try and fit in a game or three of laser tag with him, and I still want to try and track down a Leatherman for him.

Friday we pack and leave in the evening.

This may well be my last blog….duno, we will see if anything blogworthy happens.

Chow for now.

Ben.

Whoa, what a day….paintballing for the first time ever and then we went to Griffith Observatory.

The paintballing is way scary, its a pretty full on event these days, lots of high tech, high power gear. (Unlike the rental guns, which are low power, low accuracy….and yes, they call them ‘markers’ not guns). Our first game was a 3 on 3 speedball, we (Steve, Terry and myself) lasted about 10 seconds. The second game was a little better, it was about 2 minutes, and the 3ed game was the best, it was about 4 minutes.
From there Terry had had enough, it was just way too full on for him, so Steve and I left him at the target range and we went up to a bigger field and had quite a few good games. After that the full on guys arrived and it all got a bit over the top.
I have some good welts to show for the mornings ‘fun’, Steve hardly got shot, well, he did, but they were all head shots, because of my back I could not get as low, so I took a few in the chest and legs….. its pretty mad, gives you a bit of taste to war and bullets…… You can see them coming, and hear them as well, and they sure hurt when they hit! Its a weird feeling having about 10 other guys looking to kill you and every one else on your team.
Terry tells me that he wants to stick with laser tag, hes a pretty sensitive kid, he did not want to play because he did not want to cause any one else any pain if he hit them, at lest with the laser tag he knows that they will not get hurt if he hits them……

From there it was home for a shower and a bite to eat. Then it was off to the Observatory. We booked in for the planetarium show as soon as we got there. I stood looking at ‘the big picture‘ wall for a bit, makes you feel really really small and unworthy. Then it was time for the show. Wow. Mind blowing. It was the best show I have ever seen!!! The digital projector shows bright pin point stars, not fuzzy blobs like the one in Melbourne. The show was just staggering with the mix of real footage and digital effects. The clarity was fantastic as well. They covered the story of the universe from big bang to what we know now, it was very moving and exciting, I wish every one could see it. They have put a lot of work and time into the show, it was worth every cent, they really have a world class instillation. Its way better than IMAX even!
Terry and I just got to see their Tesla coil after the show (which is not in resonance, so its not really a true Tesla coil, and the girl showing it had the most crazy mix of truth and error about what Tesla was really up to), thankfully there was a security alert in the middle of her presentation and the whole building had to be evacuated…… we left happy and caught the bus back to the car park (there is no parking allowed up there any more since they rehashed the site, I have no idea why that is the case).
Back to Steves for dinner and a kick back. Nice end to a great day!

Tomorrow, its the ‘Happiest place on earth’….thats right, Disneyland! (hmmmm)

Chow for now.

Ben.