Diary of a Trip   Part I

Today the adventure begins. The Penguin and I are at the Hobart Airport ready to go to Melbourne. We have an eight hour wait in Melbourne airport so need to plan the rest of my day.

I have my Kindle loaded. Will finish up the last chapters of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by audio. I may have to alternate ear buds with those little rubber things you jam as far as you can into your ear in case there are squealing toddlers.

Things we plan to do before getting on the Emirates flight tonight for a 9:30 pm departure for Heathrow is as follows. Will let you know if we meet all the challenges as we go.

***Investigate coffee shop and hotel lounge across the street from Melbourne airport, or I should say across the airport walkway. Evidently they have a good cafe with all day breakfast and comfy furniture in reception. I will act like I belong there. However I still need to drag my large case along with me as Qantas can’t cope with checking me all the way through to Heathrow because they said “the flight is too far away”.  Tell me. At least I am not on  Jetstar as that flight is already 30 minutes coming into Hobart to pick people up. 

***After lounging around the airport hotel for as long as we can get away with we will meander over to the airport in Melbourne and try to unload the big suitcase. I always think I won’t travel with so much stuff. You know those You Tube videos that show a composed young woman packing 237 items into a carry on bag and at the end of 3 days of travel everything comes out wrinkle free. One day.

***It might be time to look for the beauty parlour and try to get a manicure and pedicure. That should take up to 90 minutes in a really nice comfortable chair with my feet in hot water. I might give the Penguin an Australian Geographic to read as he doesn’t have fingernails to polish. I can’t trust him around a big tub of water either.

***After that we will find the gate, which is not at all hard in Melbourne and listen to either The North Water, that sea faring book that ABC Book club raved about or The Hollow by Agatha Christie. That is a play ( I did  not realise she wrote plays). We started it in our play reading class yesterday and I really enjoyed it. Trust them to do a really fun play when I won’t be there. I found it on audible.com and downloaded it. I am looking forward to finding out more about these quirky characters.

***I also have The Tempest on download. The play is just over two hours.

After watching QandA on the ABC last Monday evening with John Bell and Germaine Greer answering questions about the relevance of Shakespeare in today’s society I am wanting to reread those plays which were so badly decimated in high school. I know it will be better now.

Also the Tasmanian Museum in Hobart is currently running a large exhibit called The Tempest that is supposed to be wonderful. I would like to go with our writing group in November and take the guided tour as I hear there is so much in it. Riddles, information , art work that sort of thing. It would help if I had the  knowledge of the story in my head to begin with. So sometime along the way I need to finish that.

***Next it should be time for a late lunch. There is a good Sushi bar in the airport so that will take care of itself. The Penguin loves sushi.

***Then a wander into the big bookstore that is there and study all the new release titles and read the backs of all the Booker short list books.

***By then I guess it will be time for some old fashioned people watching. I like to study what people wear, how they do their make up, the latest fashion in shoes for flight and then as the gate fills I can peek at book covers of books that people are reading or listen in on conversations. See what is going on with all of them. Well the flight has been called so must rush. Will get this posted up in Melbourne.  Bon Voyage to me. 

PART II

Have arrived in Melbourne. Beautiful day, lots of sun with visible rain in the distance. Finishing off this post and will try to connect to airport wifi and get it up.

Stay tuned. Only about 30 hours until England is in sight.