here at last...

Let's get the highlights of my famous travel karma out of the way. First, the shuttle driver played his CD of the greatest hits of 1964 while driving me to the airport, and he sang along with every song (he seemed surprised that I knew who Tony Bennett was). Then I somehow managed to forget about the visa needed to get into Australia, so I had to purchase that at the airport (though they're not all that expensive), and finally, there were two incredibly bumpy rides over 19 hours. If you want to see Cate unnerved, put her on a turbulent flight and see how she white-knuckles the armrests. Thankfully, I had loaded my i-pod with Neil Gaiman reading his books (a nice British accent reading to you is surprisingly soothing), and I also got to catch up on some movie watching (The Da Vinci Code, the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie, Love Actually, and a documentary about Vincent Van Gogh - though the British narrator kept pronouncing it "van Gof").

Qantas food is always interesting, and I've figured out a little secret - if you ask for a special meal type when you order your tickets, you get your meals served first, and since I don't generally trust airline food, I always ask for the vegetarian meal. Dinner was mixed vegetables and rice, and breakfast was steamed vegetables, and it was all yummy.

I helped Mom start tree-decorating procedures this evening. She has a particular order that she likes to follow for which ornaments go up when. We spent the rest of the evening alternately watching the Australia vs England cricket match, and the birds out in Mom and Steve's backyard (I'll take pictures, Jane, I promise). The Australians refer to the British as "pommies," for the hats the British Navy wear. The British fans are known as the "barmy army," because they'll sing "God Save the Queen" when the Brits are up at bat. I pestered Steve with a ton of questions about cricket, all of which he cheerfully answered, so I think I understand how this game is played, sort of. We may have a family cricket match on Christmas Day out in the park behind Mom and Steve's house, weather permitting.

And speaking of weather, it was about 20 degrees Celsius today (to convert to Fahrenheit, multiply by 2 and add 30) and a bit cloudy.

I'm going to pour myself into bed now. My body thinks it's 4:30 in the morning.