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New Year's Eve
Our adventures in Tasmania done, we got up at 3 and got to the airport by 4.
You can see I neatly parked only one space past where I should have.
Hey, I was tired...
And, I moved the car.
Even as we left it, Tasmania was beautiful.
We were lucky enough to get a window seat.
This made it, by far, the most amount of room we've had on any flight this trip, even though it was the smallest plane.
The woman across the aisle kept reading her phone why the attendant read us the exit row special instructions. This got the attendant really angry and I wondered if they were going to kick her out of the row. In the end they didn't. But,it looked to be a near thing.
We still took off on time.
It was less cloudy than on our way in, so we got to see more of Tasmania than before.
Tasmania might well be the biggest game of Packman in the world!
It did get more cloudy as we went north.
There were still breaks where we could see the ocean.
But, it was still pretty cloudy in Melbourne.
We took Jetstar out and Qantas back, so when we landed our car was on the opposite side of the airport.
Even with that, we were back in our vacation apartment by 8.
(I don't tend to nap. I only get a certain amount of sleep every 24 hours. If I use any for naps, it comes off the amount I'll get that night. But, I was tired...)
By noon it was nice and sunny. We had arranged to meet up with some folks, so set off to do so.
We crossed the river on a repurposed railroad bridge. It had lots of statistics on folks who had moved to Australia and from where.
Each panel was a country.
We met up with becofoz, daturabelle, and endlessblush at the train station and headed down a busy street to a place for lunch.
We had a very nice lunch and excellent visit!
This is the first time I've met them in person, but we've known each other electronically for several years. So, I'm very happy they made the time to come and meet us. Especially on New Year's Eve when things are busy!
We did visit for a good bit of time. The waitress actually lay down on the bench at the table next to us and took a nap.
But, the place wasn't busy, so no problem.
After lunch becofoz & daturabelle showed us how to get to the State Library of Victoria.
https://www.slv.vic.gov.au
It has the most impressive reading room I've ever been in.
They also have exhibits set up going around the levels.
I found a sword...
They also had Ned Kelly's armor. I've heard the story before, but didn't expect to run across the actual armor.
We looked through several floors.
But, the dome area closed at 5. I did not know that as the library was open to 6.
So, I went off to find the men's room and got trapped out of it.
We didn't get the international plan for both phones, so I had no way to let me wife know I couldn't get back in.
The guards came to tell her she had to leave and there was some confusion about why I couldn't be found.
I could have stood in the middle of that lower floor of the reading room and shouted, but I thought it would be bad...
We got it sorted out and went to get our stuff in the locker where we left it.
But, the locker wouldn't open.
I had used the same code as for my phone, so I'm pretty sure I didn't forget it. I can still access my phone...
I went to the help desk and asked.
"We can send a guard to unlock it," the woman said. "But, it might take a while."
"How long?" I asked. "I know you close soon and are not open today or the next day. So, I'd like to avoid having to wait until Tuesday to get my things..."
"It might take... 5 minutes!" She said.
And, she gave me some free bookmarks for the delay.
I was worried it was going to be 45 minutes, not 5. But, I took the bookmarks.
Even with the key the guard had trouble getting it open. And, two other folks made use of him after he was done with us.
So, I'd be careful about those lockers...
Then, off again.
We got some take out at an Indonesian place. My wife used to go to Indonesia for work back in the 90's so she was happy to see a place with their food.
Then, back across the river to our apartment.
endlessblush had given my wife a present of some Kinder Eggs that are illegal back home.
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/why-are-kinder-surprise-eggs-illegal-in-the-usa-10055273.html
How dumb do people have to be to put them in your mouth and choke?
Wait, don't answer that...
Well, once you put it together how dumb do you have to be... Wait...
Since I clearly can't be trusted with those kinder eggs, I concentrated on the other gift basket endlessblush had given us. It was amazing!
It was very nice to meet up with folks. I'm very glad them took time out of a holiday weekend to come see us. It made us very happy.
We were quite tired after the last couple of days. There were fireworks at 9:30 and midnight. After the 9:30 ones we just went to bed.
We knew when the new year arrived as the midnight fireworks shook the building and woke me up.
It was like someone was moving a refrigerator over our ceiling.
It must have looked great, but I went back to sleep...
Happy new year to all!
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I would never bring Kinder Surprises into America.
Even from nearby Canada, where they're legal as hell.
Never. Ever. Ever*.
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Oversimplification, fer sure. But giggly none the less.
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I'm SO jealous now!!!!
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Is that really Dee on the photo? Did you drug her or anything? ;-) So great you managed to meet up with all of them.
Happy New Year.
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the library reading room is pretty damn impressive.
you have the lockers pictured twice?
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I've fixed it. Thank you for pointing it out!
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Belated Happy New Year to Y'all