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and last updated September 7th.,1998.
Well, I'm back in Australia, almost two weeks now, and still not what I'd call settled in!.....
Nobody warned me I would keep on thinking in American...and dreaming in American, and waking up in a panic that I wasn't still there..
Or that my car battery would be flat and my cheque-book and Credit Union statements missing ...
Or that my hostess in the flat in Leeds, GB., would have sent a phone bill that took into account calls made after I had left, and the next months rent and forward charges.....
Or that the new bathroom being created from my old would have the cupboard doors opening the wrong way so that I had to climb into my new shower to access the cupboard contents...
Or that the basin is so deep, in a three-feet deep room, that I have to suck in my considerable girth sharply to pass between it and the door...
Or that my husband would have had builders, painters, plumbers, and a housekeeper in here in my absence, all expecting someone, (ME) to clean up after them.....
OR THAT I WOULD BE FEELING THE COLD SO TERRIBLY AND MISSING CALIFORNIA SO MUCH!!!!!!
And how was the actual departure?
And I talked to family and friends online, and reassured one friend I did, indeed, have transport to the airport, and didn't need his help, and said some sad goodbyes, before I finally packed the laptop away into its case and took a quick bath and zipped everything up before straigtening the room..
And though I had booked it twice, once when making the reservation, and once when checking in, there was no record of the shuttle actually having been notified that it was needed..
And when I went for seat allocation, the clerk was really surprised to find I had an aisle seat since he said the flight was so full and everyone wanted one...and he wanted to know who my friends in high places might be...and I said I had friends in low places, which was always much more useful..and he agreed!
And the plane was very full as far as Auckland, but I had good company...a very talkative young man from Rotorua, going home after two years away, (now I REALLY had run the gamut of world accents), and a much quieter young man from Chicago, making his first trip to New Zealand, so the time passed as pleasantly as 18 hours or so can on an overnight flight...
So it was all very familiar!
And I wasn't feeling TOO bad, not really , when we climbed off at Auckland...
Well, in preparation for an 18 hour flight, I slept late, made my own breakfast and then headed to Manhatton Village to collect photos, envelopes to send them in, some Maybelline nailpolish, in a color that wouldn't show plane-acquired chips.... then to United Airlines to get a new ticket printout and check on delays..(NONE, dammit!!), and to various card counters to find cards just right for some important people in my life there....and to a B Dalton bookstore where I used my membership discount card to buy (heavy) computer books not easily obtainable in Australia, but which would push my luggage up into the three suitcases/excess charge bracket......*gloom*!
Then back to Enterprise Cars with my best friend to regale the staff re. my adventures since they last saw me..Guess you can imagine how they laughed when I actually climbed into the passenger side to drive to the checkup area...sat for a moment noticing something missing, (the steering wheel) before I realised, and climbed out, redfaced.
It was only later that I realised I had left my favourite pen, and my new sunglasses in that car's console, and they had been so quick to collect it to have the scratchmark repaired that the clerk could only promise to have my things sent on...but I don't think he really realised where Geelong IS!!.
But I had been online longer than I should have, so my leisurely dinner to use up all the food didn't look likely to eventuate..and because I have this horror of leaving everything to others I walked over to doublecheck that the airport shuttle was, indeed, coming for me
So I said a few words, just a very few words, and they agreed to call a taxi for me, in plenty of time to catch my flight..!
So I asked for someone to help my with my luggage, but they said everyone had gone home, (this was around 6.45pm) , and so I found the luggage trolley and womanhandled everything from the unit to the office in full view of the Happy Hour people...and wondered why I had told my friend not to come for me, but remembered that if one is leaving the country one can't have anyone see one off..
But I had brought my tub of Ben&Gerry's icecream from the room with me, because I was darned if I was going to leave THAT for the hotel staff, along with all my other supplies from the three months...so I sat in the foyer and ate that while I waited for the taxi..
And the taxi was on time, but the driver seemed a bit vague about how to give the hotel a receipt or where to go...
And he was a South African, so we could compare notes on our impressions of America..
But he took me to the Domestic Terminal instead of the International Terminal, and set me out there with all my luggage, and I was glad I had tipped him rather well, because it wasn't all that easy to get him back, and my luggage reinstalled, and try to make the International terminal on time...
Which we did, but I couldn't get anyone to help with my luggage there, either,the one visible porter being already occupied, and the other somewhere about but nowhere in evidence...and it seemed even the large tip wasn't enough to persuade the taxidriver to stay with me..so I put American money into the trolley- release machine and womanhandled that luggage again, feeling very experienced now...
And I tried to find where to go to check in for that flight, and everyone kept saying vaguely, "There's a line... and I got sick of trying to find this line, or where it started and ended, because it just looked like a crowd of people standing around in circles, talking..
And I asked the nearest badged person where I could find the end of the line for Australia....and he laughed and said " Follow Me" and took me to this empty check-in counter, beside another empty checkin counter......and I WATCHED my bags being labelled and sent on their way....or so I thought!!
And then I saw that LA airport, which must be the oldest, shabbiest airport in the whole world, actually allowed its passsengers to have friends see them off, because there was a lot of hugging and kissing going on, right up to the exit door!
And remember, I had told one very affectionate friend not to come see me off!
Think that is the first time I have ever watched three movies with barely a pause, but it was interesting seeing Odd Couple 2 from the new perspective of having been lost on those very same roads Walter and Jack were blundering through...
And wasn't As Good As It Gets set in suburbs I had stayed in?
And that one about Fallen angels in San Francisco had the heroine killed on one of the roads to Lake Tahoe...and hadn't Webweavr and I explored that very spot??
Not to mention NOSTALGIC!
It was an unearthly hour of the morning, there, but the airport looked bright and cheerful..and new.. and clean..unlike the one I had just left!
And the plane from Auckland had spare seats and room to spread, and I spent a lot of the time trying to repair the ravages 20 plus hours in the air had created, trying hard to look like someone my family might like to have back!
And the plane even landed EARLY, without crashing once, and I figured nothing else could go wrong, now......but then I waited, and waited, and waited for my luggage Which, to cut a long story short, the belief was that it had been left in Los Angeles...all three suitcases!
WITH most of the software for my computer, since I had figured that, at this late stage, there was no pressing need for me to keep it at hand..
So it was a less-than-cheerful Robin who pushed her one solitary bag through customs to greet the waiting, long-suffering husband..and we wondered if driving across Melbourne to see the new baby was really a good thing to do, especially at such an early hour (still only around 10 am.,) since son and daughter-in-law are not early risers, being in the nightclub business..
And the son put on videos of the baby's birth and of our time in London and his time in Leeds and Liverpool and Bangkok, and I did finally get around to holding the baby..and burping the baby..and taking digital photos of the baby being fed..but everyone kept wanting me to DO things, and look at things...and I wasn't functioning very well at all...
But I called my son and he said to come, and I said I would if he would make me the first proper cup of tea since England on June 15th...and let me use his phoneline for the laptop.
And he was actually out working in his garden when we arrived, but came in and set up a line for me, and I got straight online to Webweavr in the States, before I had even seen the baby, to let him know I had arrived safely..and to advise him that I might need his help tracking down my luggage, knowing how he LOVES to make CALLS!!
And husband and son worked out phone numbers and called the airport and found the luggage had been located and would be in Australia in 24 hours..and they reassured Webweavr, who told them to make me a cup of tea and let me rest..
And despite the fact that my son seemed surprised I knew my way around a baby, I actually got Astra to sleep, which meant the new Mum was going to have a sleep, too..because SHE wasn't coping real well, either..
And that was one of the nicest cups of tea of my ENTIRE life!
And that night, instead of using my common sense, and going to bed with a hotwater bottle and lots of warm memories, I decided to log on, and transfer work from one computer to the other, and as though in sympathy, the end prong broke off the Laptop's modem plug, always a weak link in this machine, but I used the big IBM to get online, and busied myself copying files from three months away onto floppy discs, and loading them into the IBM..
So next morning I called the computer guru and explained the situation... and he pointed out to me that he had wanted to take everything off the Toshiba's hard-disc and start again, before I left, because of hopeless program disagreements, and that I hadn't let him!
So I drove in to see him, next day, on the other side of the road, getting confused only by indicators and wipers yet again... and ordered the modem plug, but said I needed the laptop, with everything intact, while I was still working with the digital pictures, but that I would bring it in when he had the plug for me and let him have his way with it....
And I did some supermarket shopping on the way home, and was horrified by how small my local supermarket, one of our biggest, seemed, now, and how little it seemed to have on its shelves..
But when I tried to install the Iomega Drive, and set up the file to file transfers Windows said, ENOUGH!! and refsued to continue, and asked to be reinstalled....
And my car wouldn't start when the husband tried it, so he went out and bought a new battery but didn't put it in because he said the old one was only suffering from a bad connection.
Which seemed like it was just something catching that day!!.
and he couldn't, for the moment, remember exactly what kind of modem he had installed, or what the plug looked like..
And I had the feeling this was starting to sound expensive...
And I was aghast at how old and sluggish my ten-year-old car seemed,after the zippy hirecars in the States, even though it has only done 64,000 ks....
But I gritted the teeth and set to work and spent four days on both computers... and by Thursday I had everything working, including the Iomega Drives, and was transferring files to and fro with great abandon..
But my luggage had arrived by this, and sat untouched, and all the boxes I had sent from various parts of the world began to arrive..and to pile up... .
And things were pretty dreadful because I was still trying to get the house tidied up, and unpack..and because I was so terribly tired, and because I was dreaming about America every night and waking in a panic because I would feel I needed to be doing something there..
And on the Sunday, which was Father's Day in Australia, my daughter visited with her husband and two youngest children, and they looked at all the photos and souvenirs , and the kids tried on the San Francisco shirts and hats I had brought them...
And, in the meantime, my car battery went from almost flat to very flat..and died, because it wasn't the connection at all... it really WAS a dead battery..quite deceased!
And I was feeling so very COLD, folks..after all that time in Northern California!
But I was going through the motions..cooking and some cleaning, and trying to get ahead and drag myself together!
But it wouldn't be ME if I didn't bounce back at last..and I had a nice long online talk to friend Rudco, in Vermont, and that made me feel better..
And then we rang Webweavr, in California, because I was concerned that I hadn't heard from him for several days, and it seemed strange not to have him nearby, and we ALL talked to him, that is, when he had gotten over his surprise that the daughter and I sound so alike on the phone.....
And after they had gone , I talked to Webweavr until HE had to go to bed..and it was almost as though I had never left Australia and never spent all that time with him..until I looked at my suntan and thought about my Bank-balance, that is....!
So I took the Sunday papers to my bedroom rocker and rocked a little and thought a LOT!!
So, to those of you asking.. Is it good to be home?
The answer is.."I'm not really sure"....
I'm still asking MYSELF that, folks..
BUT...I'll keep you posted!
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