Y10 D16

When we last saw our heroes, they were somewhere over the ocean! What has become of them? Did they make it safely? Stay tuned to find out!!

Fair warning - I have just had the most contiguous sleep like ever. I slept at least 7.5 hours without waking up once! For me that usually involves drugs, but in this case it's just serious travel. First off, welcome to the FUTURE! That's right dear reader, this message comes to you from tomorrow! Spooooky! It's 4:19am AET. I don't know if that's the right designator, but it works for me. Australian Eastern Time. It make sense to me and it's what we shall use to mark local time for the purpose of these posts.

We landed at Melbourne around 9am AET. Unfortunately since we were 2.5 hours late, the gate was full. Of course it was. We ended up sitting on the tarmac for almost 40 minutes. Finally reached the gate and got off. Felt good to be off a plane for sure. That was the longest non-stop flight I have ever been on. B did great. She got lots of sleep and she has been compartmentalizing her anxiety by just focusing on one task at time. Get on the plane. Get across the ocean. Get through customs. Like that. It's working for her and she is doing great with a massive amount of sensory data. I am so proud to be her husband right now. She is doing better than most of the old white men from business class who were being pissy about being late. Twats.

Once we got off we did some suitcase rearranging. The couple next to us on the plane were wonderful and we had a conversation about what's allowed and what isn't. As a result we tossed a lot of our unsealed stuff (dried fruit, snack mix) and put all of our sealed stuff in a separate bag to make it easier. I also fully declared it on the arrival form to avoid issues. I will admit it did help. We got to the first line, passport control, and sailed through. No issues or questions. Then off to customs. The lines moved smoothly and again, since I declared everything and had it in plain sight, we had no issues. We made it through all of customs in less than 30 minutes. Compared to other places I have been that was a breeze. I was happy that for B's first international experience it went well.

Found our driver and headed off to the hotel. He was wonderful. It was about a 30 minute drive and he pointed out different sites of interest on the way. B even saw a kangaroo on the side of the road grazing! Pretty cool stuff. Got to the hotel, got checked in, and took a much needed shower. B laid down to rest, not sleep, just recharge. I went and found us some food. It's a mix of Amsterdam shop fronts with London streets here. Since I didn't want her first meal to be too crazy, I found a KFC. When I brought that plus some snacks from 7-11 back, she was so excited. The food tasted a thousand times fresher than anything we have at home. We ate, napped, and then waited for B's friend to arrive with her fiancee.

Right before we napped, there was a knock on the door. The GM here at the hotel sent up a bottle of wine, a box of chocolates, and a birthday card. Rock on Doubletree.

When B finally met her in person, she lost it for the first time. But in a good way. They got to the hotel around 4:30 and we hung out with them until about 9. We had dinner in the hotel restaurant, my treat, and then walked the streets. They pointed out places we should check out, things we need to see in the daylight, oriented us to where good stuff is, how to deal with the train, etc. It was very useful information for me especially. This morning while B is sleeping, I plan to go get our train pass cards and now I know exactly where to go.

After they left, the day caught up to us and we both crashed. We were both out before 9:30. Today we are off to the Melbourne zoo. That should take up a good chunk of the day. From there, B may go over to her friend's house. I haven't decided if I want to go our not. I may just to see it and keep her company. I am going to leave that up to her. But first, BREAKFAST!