I figured I’d put up a relatively short post tonight, since I don’t know when I’ll get a chance to next. I’m now all moved out of Monash. Yesterday while I was packing some stuff up, I burned a CD of some of my Australia photos for Stefan, since I was unable to write to his external hard drive for some reason. And then JR came up in the afternoon and agreed to take a bunch of stuff that Karolina had left for me, like a couple of comforters, a fan and computer speakers, that I simply had no room for. That allowed me to be able to focus pretty much just on my stuff. I started packing a bit last night and finished today. I took a break to go have lunch with Rob for an hour, that was really good to get one last chance to talk about stuff with him before I left. I mailed some books and stuff back home via library rate for under $35 (for nearly 7 kg), not bad at all. James came and picked me up with all my stuff around 5:30. I had a very nice dinner with him & Ali tonight and then we watched CSI and Cold Case on the telly, so it was a nice and relaxing evening.
In the morning James will take me down to Hertz in Dandenong where I’ll pick up the car. $530 for a 12-day rental including all the insurance and everything, it’s a really good deal! I’m planning on swinging by St Kilda & Brighton Beach tomorrow morning before heading east past Bairnsdale (where I’ll stop in for a quick visit with Bruce & Joan, Ali’s parents), and on to Merimbula, a small town on the southern coast of New South Wales, where I’ll stay the night. Then I’ll head over to Mt Kosciuszko (Oz’s highest point) Thursday morning, and get up to Canberra by early afternoon so that I can catch Question & Answer session at Parliament. That’s where they really start insulting each other and calling each other names, so it should be a blast! And the new session of Parliament just started today, with the first legislative issues being discussed tomorrow, so there should be plenty of pent-up name calling just waiting to be released this week. 🙂 After staying the night in Canberra (probably with one of James’ good mates who lives there), I’ll head back to Bateman’s Bay on Friday morning and follow the coast up to Sydney, getting there on Friday sometime, and probably staying a couple nights with James’ brother Ben, before my parents arrive Sunday morning.
Whenever I get a chance to post during my travels (both before and after my parents arrive), I will. But first I’ll leave you with a couple of entertaining bits. The sore-loser wing of the Democratic party is still talking secession. Too bad that in most of the “blue states,” the majority of the counties are actually red (e.g. California, all red except for the coastal areas around San Fran & LA). And I always love stories about beavers. Especially when they make a lodge out of money. Dam!