Rhonda Bracey: At Random

When I arrived in Sydney at 7:00pm, I discovered that my 8:30pm flight was delayed until 10:00pm (or later). Damn! After comfirming the new flight time and asking about internet access, the VirginBlue counter staff person told me I could get into the Lounge for $30 for a single visit. And that there was food, wine, free internet, showers, etc. Well, I needed no more convincing! What price a decent shower??? And I figured that if I bought dinner and a wine or two in the terminal, plus paid for internet access, I’d be close to spending $30 anyway. So that’s what I did. Bought a single access pass to the Velocity Lounge. Very similar to the Qantas Club lounges, though smaller and lots less people.

First stop – a shower! Then food (nibbles) and wine (3 glasses of Devil’s Lair Fifth leg Shiraz) + nougat and paneforte… Easily $30 worth!! Oh, and free wireless internet access, though it was a bit flakey. Actually, it was really flakey. It worked once for about 2 minutes, then died, and I couldn’t reconnect except via dial-up.

So here I am in Sydney Airport waiting for a late night flight to Brisbane… I doubt I’ll get to the hotel before midnight, and I have my first meeting tomorrow morning at 8:00am.

I had a bite to eat at the Dome coffee shop inside the VirginBlue terminal (Yes, TFP, I had Dome’s Caesar Salad – and it was GOOD, though the bowl was quite small. Lots of hot chicken, bacon, and shaved parmesan. Yummy!). Then I hung around until the flight.

Uneventful flight to Sydney; listened to more podcasts on the drive up and on the flight. Nothing to get excited about – just techie/geekie stuff! And read half of a book, and listened to a couple of albums while I read, plus did some work. Everything on VirginBlue costs – $10 for Foxtel programming, and you pay for food and drinks. I’d eaten at Dome and had paid an exhorbitant $3.60 for a Diet Coke at the cafe in the departure area before boarding the plane, so I didn’t buy anything on board.

I’d checked the info on the internet about long term parking at Perth Airport, and it clearly said no bookings were required. When I got there, the first sign for Long Term parking indicated that only 24 bays were available. So I dutifully followed the signs, only to go by three Long term parking lots all of which had the FULL signs out! So it was back to the Overflow parking lot way in the back of beyond to find parking. The good thing: It was only $25 for unlimited parking, compared to the $55 I was expecting for the time I needed to be there. And it was secure – well, there was a fence around the lot… A shuttle took me and another guy to the airport at no cost (that would’ve been rich!) but via a very circuitous route – first the driver stopped at his car to get his water bottle, then at one of the full parking lots he stopped to undo the chain and padlock to let a guy out, then finally we got to the terminals. Lucky the other guy and I weren’t in a hurry… Such a hick town approach, compared to airport shuttles in the US.

The parking situation at Perth Domestic Airport is atrocious and getting worse by the day. With so many fly in/fly out workers, there’s just no space for Long Term parkers. While many catch a cab to the airport or get a lift from their partners, not all of us can do that (especially when we live some 3.5 hours drive from the Airport!). I don’t know why Perth Airport has this ‘thing’ about wide-open spaces – it can be the only reason they’ve never put in a multi-storey carpark, which is sorely needed.

Someone on one of my lists wrote about eucalypts in Israel, then someone else from San Francisco compared their smell to cat pee… Here's my response:

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If you've ever been to California, you've probably seen eucalypts. They're everywhere there… From southern California to areas north of San Francisco, you can't drive too far without seeing one of those big trees we call "gum trees". An Australian export that has now populated many parts of the world, including South Africa, the Middle East, and the US. And then there's eucalpytus oil which you can probably find in your supermarket or drug store – great for all manner of things, including clearing sinuses and getting scuff marks off shoes! (seriously)

Of course, if you've ever been to Australia, that's about all you see! I don't know how many varieties of eucalypts there are, but it's a lot! The blue of the "Blue Mountains" behind Sydney is a result of the massive amounts of eucalyptus oil given off by milions of trees – it creates the bluish haze. And that oil is what makes them burn so well.

The cat pee smell thing… Never thought of eucalypts like that, but then I've lived with the smell all my life without even knowing it's there. When I lived in Canada for a year, I took some vacation time and drove down the entire west coast of the USA. Somewhere in northern California I came across a stand of gum trees by the side of the highway. I stopped the car, got out, and just scrunched up a heap of leaves in my hands and sniffed long and hard – that smell was wonderful and reminded me so much of home. I ended up tearing off a small switch and keeping it in the rental car for days, having a sniff every so often. It'd been at least 6 months since I'd smelled a eucalypt. Then when I arrived in Sydney after 13 months away, the first thing I smelled as I came out of the airport was eucalypts! I'd never noticed the smell in the air before, but being away for so long without the smell, it really hit me on arrival… so much so I burst into tears! <sob>

More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucalyptus
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Question: How come can I pay $40-$80 a night in a US motel and get FREE high-speed wireless connection, but I can't get the same from the thought police and rip-off merchants that masquerade as 4 or 5 star tourist hotels in Australia, even though I'm paying well over twice the price for the room?

I asked the check-in clerk at the Rydges Tradewinds hotel about internet connection and yet again felt that some of these places seem to thrive on ripping people off. We had been told there was wireless access from around the pool and the lobby (but NOT in the rooms). When I asked about getting access I was told that it was via a pre-paid card at – wait for it – $7.00 per HOUR!! Unbelievable. So I asked about local call charges thinking I'd do dial-up as I have a number that's a local number throughout Australia – and the hotel charges 95c per call. Standard Telstra charges for a local call anywhere in Australia is around 25c, so they are marking up this rate by close to 400%. Unbelievable. I know that hotels charge more for calls, and I know that they have to have monitoring systems in place to produce itemised call lists when a guest checks out, but 400%???? It's a bloody rip-off! And the $7 per hour charge for wireless? Even more of a rip-off as you have to lug your laptop and power down to the lobby or pool area (now there's a thought – let's encourage electrical equipment near a pool full of water!) and do your connection in a public place without the benefit of a desk. Thanks Rydges, but no thanks. Reluctantly I'll do dial-up and pay the 95c per call.

A very lazy day today. Dropped Dave off in Cairns early in the morning as he's presenting a half day pre-conference workshop. Packed. Dropped off rental car. Read a bit. Waited until 2:15 when the shuttle bus picked us up and took us to Cairns to the conference hotel – the Rydges Tradewinds on the Esplanade. Unpacked. Wandered about the hotel getting our bearings. Walked along the Esplanade boardwalk to the public swimming area, then had an ice-cream on the way back (I had Ginger with Fig and Honey – delicious! and loads of dried/crystallised ginger and figs in the mix too).

In the evening some of the conference speakers and veterans had dinner at the Rattle and Hum Bar and Grill along the Esplanade. I had the barramundi but it was nowhere near as nice as the barra I had in Palm Cove the night before. After dinner we all wandered back to the Rydges and had a drink before retiring.