HandelBlog | Chronicling the adventures of Sara and Jon

I made it! After two wonderfully smooth, painfully long flights, I walked out of customs to the sight of my lovely husband. Before that in what was a first for me and hopefully a last for anyone, my row of three on my flight to LA ended up just having me in the aisle and a big, but not giant man in the center seat. I assumed that the man would move into the window seat, giving us both more room. I even gently suggested that he move over, but he just chuckled and stayed put. Perhaps it was all worth it if the good karma I built up by not freaking out over such a weirdo move resulted in my wonderfully small middle seat companion on the much longer flight to Melbourne.

Jon has had me walking all over Melbourne and St. Kilda since I got here. I am not sure I could find my way around much by myself yet, but I’ll get there eventually. More observations to come once I feel less upside down! I’ll leave you with…

Giant red suitcases before — suitcases (before)

An ode to two giant suitcases

two suitcases, both red, both giant
carrying all my stuff
making me totally reliant
so they better be up to snuff

weighing in at 50 and 50.5 pounds, right at the limit
I sighed with relief
and did not wait another minute
for the scale to change its mind and give me grief

up up and away I flew on to LA
giving little thought to my worldly possessions
I flew on to Melbourne Australia to stay
my stuff safe and snug in two giant suitcases

one last moment to worry at baggage claim
as bag after bag went by
I started to think of who I should blame
if my two giant suitcases never arrived

I glanced down at my phone
trying to figure out wifi access
and when I glanced up again, my bags now shone
like the biggest reddest beacons of gladness

I’m trying to pick up the lingo here and hearing certain things on the news continues to crack me up. Truck drivers are just called “truckies” and electricians are called “sparkies” – the list goes on and on, and it makes me want to make up my own names for various jobs. I think plumbers should be “flushies”.

A startling trend I’ve noticed here is the proliferation of the “El Camino” or “Suburu Brat” style cars here. You don’t really see pickups, but man these things are everywhere. Also, one of them is named the Thunder, which I find fitting.

They have their own “Flo” for Progressive Insurance here, but her name is Kitty. They pronounce known brands differently here – Hyundai – which is typically “Hun-Die” in the US is “Hee-Yun-Die” here.

I watched almost the entire Australia / India World Cup Cricket semi-final (almost 8 hours!), and I’m fairly certain I fully understand the “One Day International” format of cricket. The World Cup final is here in Melbourne on Sunday against New Zealand. The Aussie rules football season starts on Thursday, so I’m going to have to figure out which team to support and learn all those rules.

I’ll leave you with more pictures!

Palm trees and office buildings, a nice mix.

Public toilets, very convenient when you are utilizing the liberal open container laws!