Posts

Day 3

Image
Breakfast: Same as yesterday's. Mid-morning snack: Two granny Smith apples and two water bottles Lunch: Stir-fry vegetables on a bed of boiled, sticky noodles Dinner: Lamb ragout with mashed potatoes Keeping busy  "Loop Energy" is an often challenging, addictive puzzle game. I zoomed through 30+ levels until tiredness overcame my mental faculties. The Elevate app is another good distraction. It has enticing brain exercises to bolster maths, grammar and other cognitive abilities. Although, it requires a subscription to take full advantage of it. I've also upped my Zinio magazine subscription. So much reading to catch up on. 
Post a Comment
Read more

Day 2

Image
Breakfast gets delivered at 7AM. The staff knocks twice on your door to let you know.  They leave the meal on a chair outside your room door. Each room has chair outside the door blocking the way out. It's a not-so-subtle way of letting you know that you shouldn't "cross this line." For breakfast, it was cereals (granola), milk, a juice box, muffin and a power bar.  We made ourselves some tea to go with it. Day 2: Breakfast At around 11AM, another two knocks on the door. They delivered two water bottles and two apples. Mid-morning snack I suppose. 12PM. Lunch time. Salad with grilled chicken. 8PM. Dinner is delivered. For us, it was vegetarian pasta.
Post a Comment
Read more

Day 1 - Arriving in Sydney, Australia

Image
We landed at Kingsford Smith International Airport at around 6:30PM.  Rain greeted us. It was a welcome sight given all we'd known was drought for most of our stay in California. Once alighted, we made our way to the health check counters. Our temperature was checked, instructions were given on quarantine procedures and our orange cards checked. Once cleared, we started the hike to customs and baggage claim. It was pretty easy. I missed how polite and professional everyone is in Australia.  Exiting baggage claim, our passports were checked once more. This time by NSW Police to tally our names against their records. After which, we exited the airport and were greeted once more by the police who asked us a few questions, are we (wife and I) traveling together, do we need rooms together in the hotel (yes!). Based on the answers, they assigned us to a bus.  The ADF personel manned the loading our luggages in the bus for us. From what we could determine, each bus leaves at a specific ti
Post a Comment
Read more

Day 0 - Leaving San Francisco

Image
So, it is. 6+ years in the USA coming to an end. Although, we had planned to leave around 2021-2022 once our work visa expired, Covid-19 expedited our decision to leave. Being away from family and friends during this hard time was daunting to say the least. We were lucky enough to have booked our flight in late June on United Airways flight 863 which departed right on time given how empty the airport was.  I would say there was barely 30 people waiting in the embarkment lounge. Nothing much to report other than that. It was a pretty uneventful flight. The aircrew and service was pretty pleasant. 13h40 minutes later, we'd be landing in Sydney. Au Revoir San Francisco. Thanks for being a great host.
Post a Comment
Read more