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WELCOME TO MY DAY..

IT IS NICE TO HAVE YOU SHARE IT WITH ME...

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, US OF A !!,

New Orleans is a city of contrasts, the sleek and shiny rubbing shoulders with the slovenly and sordi, the sleekly modern versus the collonaded colonial .
It is a city of sounds and smells, of soft voices and strident river-sirens, of catfish frying and cajun spices and parmesan cheese....

Now the Parc St Charles Hotel has no room service, but does have a complimetnary breakfast downstairs, IF one gets up in time, which I NEVER did, and was certainly not about to that first morning!So it was fruitjuice from the minibar and off to the Walgreens I had spotted with John the night before, for supplies..the kind of things one can keep in a hotel room. And I was in luck; Walgreens had a special sale of small electrical items for $10.00 (and my American electric kettle had been one of the casualties of my "travelling light" purge...so for $10 I could have tea and coffee in my room..the Aussie traveller's idea of bliss!
And I walked the long way home (okay, had MEANT to take a shorter route but knew where I was all the time..), and got to see a lot more of the city and really get my bearings. From the hotel I could see all the way up Poydras Street, right to the HIlton where the conference was to be held, and I decided to go check that out next day.

So I was pretty well settled in and comfortable before I unlocked the laptop case, no easy task because the lock had turned feral during the trip and my combination code no longer worked. And instead of my usual IBM or Prodigy connections, The Professor had advised me to use NetZero, and that was a bit of a shock to the system, since I am used to being in control of my own desktop, and NetZero is very set in its ways, but i figured "when in Rome" and that it would all be experience, so I logged on.
And found John had already advised the husband of my safe arrival, which was nice of him, and that the Professor and the husband had been exchanging "Have you heard anything yet?" messages for a couple of days, but that noone had notified the Professor that I was okay and he was kind of beside himself.
"I worry too" he messaged me, but then he told me to hang up so he could phone me, and that was nice, my first New Orleans phonecall!
Also, incidentally, the first time I had heard the voice of the man with whom I would be spending a lot of time over the next few days..
He sounded nice.

So the next morning I set out to check the Hilton accommodation, and went........the wrong way along Poydras Street!
Away from the Hilton and the river and towards and past the Bowl..
And found all kinds of eating places and bars and statues and office blocks and stately banks, a tour of discovery that would stand me in good stead later in the week, when I was the guide!
BUT, I also managed to reblister the heel I had damaged so badly in California in 1999, so it was back to the hotel and into the pack of Clearskin dressings I had treasured since then, and tried very hard to find in Australia, without success...
So it was definitely no more walking for THAT day.....but the room was sunfilled and peaceful, and it didn't seem to matter that I was, again, a prisoner of my FEET!!

But on the Friday, heels out of my sandals, I walked the right way along Poydras Street, and confirmed my Hilton booking and explored the hotel, a lengthy task since the place goes on and on and on...several different accomodation blocks, 6 tennis courts, hairdresser, Health Club, a veritable city of meeting rooms and ballrooms and plenty of bars and bistros..and a casino, New Orleans Style, right opposite!!

*****

Now I fancy myself a rather good gambler..slot machines only...and usually win, so of course I had to try my luck ...
...and did very nicely, so nicely that I figured I could afford to try out the rather expensive buffet dinner, too..my first real meal since John and I had eaten supper 68 hours earlier...
And saw ladies' loos so..er..incredible I had to photograph them, which caused a bit of a stir..

*****

And then I walked back down Poydras 'Street in the near-dark, enjoying the warm evening air, for the cold wind had gone at last, and things seemed pretty good to me, with the prospect of a leisurely packing the next morning, before the professsor's arrival a little after 2..

Only to find four voicemail messages from John, each more plaintive than the one before, and the last one downright miserable. He had driven in from Hattiesburg, it seemed, to take me to Pat Obriens, which Irish bar we had loved the year before, and waited, and waited, (and you know how JOhn HATES waiting) and had finally given up and was on my way home. And NOT to try to call him, because he would have his cellphone switched OFF!!

So I called his wife, instead, and she said something that I cannot repeat here, and got hold of him somewhere, and sent him back..

And he was still wanting to go out, though it was now a bit late to go somewhere with a cover charge, so we asked the Night Manager to suggest somewhere that would be still open..
And he suggested Smith and Wollensky's, and, perhaps remembering John from the Wednesday night, motioned us in the WRONG direction...
But my blistering explorations had paid off, for I had passed that very same bar the day before, in my wrong-way wanderings, and so I was able to redirect our steps and take a bemused John right there!!

Where I had one pint of the local beer, and John had two..and talked a lot with the bar staff..
Next morning it would be packing up time for me, and I needed to talk one last time online with the Professor and work out whether I would meet his plane or not.
John was making lots of noise about eating lunch at some Indian restaurant, but since I was telling him over and over that I can't eat Indian food, I figured that could never happen.....
Hmmm...you'd think I'd know BETTER, hey??

But I'll keep you posted!

Love to everyone over 50,and everyone on our side! -from
..Robin

NEXT BULLETIN STILL ABOUT NEW ORLEANS !!!

WANT TO SEE WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?

WANT TO SHARE MY TRIPS WITH ME? 2000 April 7th: 1999 March 22nd: July 18th: July 24th: July 25th: July 31st: August 7th: August 9th: August 25th: 1998 June 4th: June 5th: June 11th: June 13th: June 16th: June 19th: June23rd: June27th: July 4th: July 7th: July 9th: July 13th: July 18th: July 28th: August 2nd: August 9th: August 15th: August 22nd: August 27th: August 28th: September 8th:

WANT TO LOOK BACK.. AT SOME EARLIER PAGES ABOUT LIFE IN AUSTRALIA? April 1st, 2000: March 24th, 2000: March 14th, 2000: February 16th, 2000: January 24th, 2000: January 13th, 2000: January 4th, 2000:

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