HREinternational’s Weblog

So, i’m finally on my holiday. After 3 flights and 2 layovers (one in LA, another one in Aukland) I have made it to Australia. Honestly, the flying wasn’t that bad. Leg 1 from London to LA was during the day so i didn’t try to sleep or anything. Just worked a little (a giant pain to be on a laptop in Coach but i managed just fine) – the inflight movie stuff wasn’t working very well so there wasn’t anything else to do anyway. I had a 5 hour layover in LA and that’s where i met up with Sasha. We had a seat between us on the flight from LA to Aukland so that made the trip pretty tolerable. And i took and Ambien right when we took off so i was sleeping and drooling all over myself before they even made the first pass-through with the drink cart. Once we arrived in Melbourne we just got our stuff (Sasha got her snacks confiscated when we went through Customs – she tried to smuggle almonds and walnuts into the country. tsk tsk. she was told that if she tried to pull that again she’d be facing a stiff $250 fine. hahah. He DID let her keep her Mike-and-Ikes, so it wasn’t a total loss) and went outside to catch a ride. We got a taxi to Ceci’s place and she was here when we arrived.

My feet and ankles swelled up cartoon-style from all the flying. I think i was in the air for a total of something like 25-27 hours (can’t be sure. i stopped paying attention because it was never-ending). I’m into day 2 already and they still haven’t gone down. and, Mom, if you’re reading this… i drank tons of water and nothing overly salty so no giving me grief! Anyway, Ceci lives in this really cute high-rise apartment in downtown Melbourne. It’s really close to the Yarra River and a random giant casino. So, after a shower and a 5 hour nap, Ceci got home from work and we headed to dinner at a place called “Automatic” along the riverfront. Honestly, i was kind of out of it so i was kind of dragging – jet lag you know.

I only woke up once last night around 3:30 a.m. I have absolutely no concept of time. I’ve had to look it up about 5 times now (but the ignorance is probably better. i have no idea if i should be tired, when it’s daytime or nighttime at home – so maybe i can trick my body into just getting used to it without too much issue). I did wake up at 6 a.m. today though – which i would never do at home. 7 a.m. is pushing it usually.

Today we’re just going to walk around Melbourne and check out the city. Ceci has to work so we’ll meet up with her later this afternoon. We’re going to a Halloween party tonight. Ceci is making us dress up. Ceci sucks. Luckily, the ever-prepared Sasha brought down costumes for us. We’re going to be doctors. Haha. At least that’s an easy one. And tomorrow we are going to Derby Day at the Melbourne Cup. I’m really excited to go to that… i have my hat and my dress all ready. it is going to be so fun! We are going to be in a marquis too, so we’ll sort of have our own space with cocktails and lunch and everything the whole day. I’ll post pics of everything later. I don’t have my camera with me and I’ll have to wait for Sasha and Ceci to send me their pics.

All right – i’m off. i have eaten cookies and pop for breakfast and now don’t feel very good (shocking) – time for some real food.