It was time to board soon and I walked in as seating area 2 was called. David had booked lovely aisle seats for long flights. The walk through the first class, business and then onto Economy is really a tease! In a while I saw a couple come up and stood infront of me. Mary, had a lovely soft and peaceful smile. Our eyes met… I kind of gestured: Are these your seats? Mary softly replied: I’m afraid so! Soon we were taxing for take-off and we were air-borne. It was noisy! But Mary and I got chatting and much before we knew… we were cruising over Fiji at thirty-four thousand feet, very close to sunset as I noticed through the small window next to Chuck, Mary’s husband. Sunset hues over relatively unpolluted almost pristine air is breath-taking. These are things a photographer craves to capture. Unfortunately, I couldn’t shoot any picture during my flight but I wasn’t very keen either!
Monthly Archives: March 2006
Leaving for America
It was the 3rd of March 2006, the day of my travel to America. I was all packed and ready to go to a land of new experiences, new adventure. I was about to embark on a journey that would take me coast to coast, southern to the northern Hemisphere, over the great wide pacific, the international date line, and meet many amazing people. David had taken half day off from work to take me to the airport. On reaching the airport my heart raced faster. I was leaving Australia, soon I would walk past the immigration line. Oh I can be a worry wart sometimes(only very rarely), in this I do justice to my dad. We had a nice Oporto meal and soon enough it was time to part 
– excited, yet sad, nervous yet happy. I checked in, I could see David wave me goodbye. The lady checking me in asked if I’d packed my bags myself, Of-course i didn’t. I never do. LOL. soon I got 3 boarding passes. Sydney to San Francisco was the first one… Wait for the rest.. 
. It was time to go through the immigration now.
Welcome back morning tea
I joined back at work today… I had been pottering around at home yesterday except that David and I had a lovely breakfast at Mosman and an awesome dinner at the All India Restaurant in Balmain with Honyea the night before… It was nice coming back to work an meeting friends and colleages and as I had forgotten to mention I was going to be away at the Café I usually go to, so they all went Aamiiiiiiit where have you been? (well almost). And that gave me the chance to rave on about the snow and the dizzying altitudes of Yosemite, the bears of High Sierra that eat your snacks and drive away in your car(should you leave the keys in), the grilled quesadilla dinner with Cate Blachette’s neighbour from Hunters Hill, the southern accent the Golden Gate bridge, shopping at Lord and Taylor in Chicago’s prestigious magnificient Mile and twilight supper at Ritz Carlton… Later in the morning Paul organised morning tea for me and Nita who got a promotion in the company. That was really nice and thoughtful. What can I say I am spoilt rotten. People have been saying I look rested and well, now that is a bit of a worry, does that somehow mean I look haggard before my sojourn? I need more anti-aging creams! Now there is a whole lot of catching up to be done with friends and colleagues, it is kind of embarassing to get all this attention but at the same time it shows that people care and that is a very comforting. Alright, enough said, my lunch break is almost finishing, time to lap up some hot curry and soak up some sun in the park. Oh I have missed curries and latte! I am sure I’d make up for it soon though.
Back in Sydney now
I got back from my three weeks long holiday in the US yesterday and God I loved it so much. Would go back there in a flip! In a nut shell, I went through San Francisco, Washington Dulles, the triangle of Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Pollocksville, Maysville, New Bern, Kinston, Chicago, Memphis, Austin(Texas), flew over the Grand Canyon, onto Las Vegas, Death Valley, Ridgecrest, Fresno, Bakersfield, Oakhurst, meandering criss-crosses on the Merced river a bit of the High Sierra of the Southern Sequoia National Park, Wowona, Yosemite, the Tolumne grooves onto Manteca, Tracy and then the gorgeous San Francisco. Normal life will resume soon and I hope to put up some images and snippets of my travel soon-ish. In the 19 days I travelled through 7 states. No jetlag going in or coming back. Not bad huh? Not to mention the lovely people I met during my travel.
What’s your…?
Creativity has many wild forms and all of them are mostly unique… here is Yasuhisa Hasegawa’s quick reaction to say Cheese, whats yours?
In Austin Texas now
The flight from Raleigh Durham North Carolina was nice. It was sad to leave Nan. We have had a great week indeed and good length of travelling too. Hopefully there will be more of it. This afternoon I boarded the narrowest plane ever known to man (no thats not a complaint). If I stood in the aisle and stretched my hands I would be able to touch the sides of the plane no kidding. It was an American Eagle an alliance of American Airlines.
I like that thang
We all ended up at Nan’s school to see the young’uns and we had a grand time. I reckon there was near ’bout 150 kids in that school. And they all wanted to hug and kiss the strange fellow from Australia. Two of the boys Zack and Daniel took me around the school to show me all the thangs. They are fledgling photographers. I met the Secretary Daphne and she told me that she was from South Caroliiiiiiiiiiina and she liked it there, in her very strong southern drawl. Its late here now, off to bed, ya’ll have a bless night.
Snow in Chicago
Chicago is a fun fun city. Oh there is SO MUCH to do in Chicago and so much fun to be had… since we are in Omni on magnificient mile right in the heart of Chicago we could get upto a a lot during the day…
We have to get up early and leave for the airport and we have breakfast with Arun and his family so will keep this short. We fly into Memphis Tennessee with a layover of an hour-ish and then head on to Raleigh Durham and then on to Pollocksville in the coastal county of the beautiful North Carolina. USA is very diverse and friendly. I am bubbling with so many things to write and share but for the moment let me link you to nans update and photoslide for the day.
Chicago – that wonderful town
We’re in Chicago now. Got in here a bit after 11pm last night after all the ordeal at the Raleigh airport. We were delayed by a few hours but we kept ourselves very busy both at RDU airport and on the flight. This is the first time I flew American Airlines a spacious S80 on the exit aisle. The flight was really smooth. Flying into a space totally filled with snow… though I have experienced snow before but never in this abundance and no never in spring… there was a 2 inch(or more) layer of snow on almost everything… we met Arun and he dropped us at the Omni in Magnificient mile where we are now… gosh this is a gorgeous place. We are on 24th floor overlooking a fair bit of Chicago CBD, magnificient mile and soon we will be going out again in the cold and snow but I can’t wait to do it. Its still snowing as I look out the window now. Its an amazing experience to be here in Chicago, the home to beautiful architecture, Sears tower (the tallest in North America), Oprah and so much more…
We’re off to Detroit and Chicago
In less than half hour from now we are off to Detroit and then on to chicago for a few days. more update to follow soon.
Flight to Chicago cancelled due to snowstorm
We are now confirmed to fly into Chicago at 9pm if the weather is good. Snowstorm cancelled our last flight.
In Raleigh Durham now
Update: Sennheiser PXC250. I’m spoilt
Am I spoilt or what? Eli, Neville and I went to Gilroys up the road from where we work and had a rather scrumptious lunch and of course if you go to Gilroys you have to have Kilkennys beer thats a given. On our way back the conversation drifted to wheather I was talking my iPod nano. Well I wasn’t going to but now I am. Trust me when I say I’m spoilt… Eli gave me his Sennheiser Headphones for my US trip. WOW. This is the PXC250 Sennheiser that has the amazing noise cancellation.