Road Trip!

So here I am in Dubbo Airport, about to start the fist leg of a trip to Perth that will look a lot like this:

View Dubbo Perth Dubbo in a larger map


I wish I could say it's a holiday, but it's not; it's a busiess trip and I have very limited time. Even so, I hve my camera to photograph the MAMBA. Apparently the Nullabor Plain is very green at the moment.

I'm a bit bummed I have such limited time, because everything between Perth and Port Augusta will be new territory for me. Plus, I'll be in a works ute, not my Lexus, so it won't be as comfy as I would like.

Bugger. QF2043 is delayed. Not to worry, I had a 3 hour wait in Sydney. Now it's a 2 hour wait.

Delays

Flight is 45 minutes late.

The delay could be worse. The plane to Broken Hill has been declared unservicable and grounded due to a faulty smoke detector. Those people have to wait for a replacement plane to be flown from Sydney. Whenever that is.

Sydney

And so here I am in Sydney, Terminal 3, Gate 13, with an hour to kill.

I am doing this easily with a nice hot cup of tea that hasn't been brewed at 17,000 feet, and is therefore properly hot.

My new Asus Zenbook is rather nice. It weighs slightly more than a fondleslab, but has a proper screen and keyboard. It's a lot easier to lug around that the old compaq laptop.

The airport has a 4G connection so my dongle is super fast. I can't wait for the new system to make it out to where it is actually needed - ie everywhere outside a capital city. When I lost my 3G dongle in Perth on the last trip, Telstra replaced it free of charge because I have my landline and mobile with them. The 4g dongle has a better plan than the old 3G dongle, which is nice.

So. Flight from Dubbo.

Smooth, uneventful. Just the way I like it. We landed from the south which meant flying over Botany Bay. "Lunch" was an undientified baked product in cellophane that turned out to be a cube of quiche with a little too much crust. I washed it down with a moderately warm cup of tea, and finished off with a packet of dried fruits - banana chips, raisins, dried lemon cubes and... DRIED APRICOTS! YUM! Curse you, Qantas! You have discovered my kryponite and hid it in a packet of tasty dried fruit.

"Exuse me sir, you seem to be eating the whole packet of fruit at once. And the packet."

OMNOMNOMNOMNOM BRING TEA.