The Stories of UA 859 to Sydney via Hell . . . And Kylie is Christened

It has been a while since the last blog. Apologies.

We have finally made it to Tassie and now with limited web capacity - therefore this blog is for stuff that happened a while back . . . sorry. We have found a place to live an hour north of Hobart and an hour south of our block of land. . . . we shall soon have broadband capacity again.

Sorry for no pics this time - think I may have exceeded my quota!

The Story Continues. . . .

After a week more in NYC and Sheldon spending the majority of time sorting out his storage unit in New Jersey, we (and 1 Cubic Meter of Sheldon's stuff) departed NYC for LAX then onto Sydney on UA 859. For people that not done this journey before - it is not pretty. For one - LAX does not even begin to compare to Singapore or Hong Kong. Also - travelling on an airline that is still in chapter 11 should be carefully thought through. Essential items such as; complimentary eye masks, an alcoholic beverage, something that looks like edible food or even a pleasant smile from a flight attendant are items that are no longer available in a UA flight across the Pacific. Thankfully Shel and I had enough airmiles to purchase an upgrade to Business Class from NY to LAX so we managed to get the eye mask and a sparkling wine without too much trouble! We now have no loyalty points with UA so we can now move onto another preferred supplier! Apologies to JHJ who woks with UA, but he would understand . . . I think!
We are in Sydney now that we are over than journey. It is the end of Winter and the sun is shining and the temperature is around 21 during the day. We head straight with my parents to The Gong - or the city of Wollongong - which is where my sister lives. Actually they live on the Northern Beaches of the Gong in a place called Coledale. It is a small village that sits between the pacific coast beach and an escarpment. It I stunning. My sister and her partner and nephew have a lovely cottage which overlooks the sea. We were very lucky to be able to spend a week with them adjusting to the new time zone and discussing future plans and the past that we have missed over the years.

One of the first tasks whilst in Sydney was to purchase a vehicle. I spent a long time at Sal and Mikes surfing the used car ads all over Sydney. We new what we wanted - and that was a 4WD, dual cab (for all you friends that will come and visit), something with a ute or tray section at the back, and something economical! We achieved all that after the first week. For those greenies out there you must be thinking how is it possible that you could get a 4WD that was "economical". Shel and I were so dead set against Chelsea tractors in big cities. . . . But we have found here a 4WD ute that runs on LPG. It is a cleaner fuel and is much more economical to run than petrol. So we are very pleased with the purchase. It is also very butch! A little different to baby Elkie that we used to run in London. We have christened the ute - Kylie Raylene or Kiki for short!!

We spent a week in Sydney proper the last week of August. Most of the week we spent minding my friend Robert's unit in Bellevue Hill. . . . an apartment with beautiful views over the Eastern Shores of Sydney Harbour. We pretty much spent the week at Roberts enjoying the luxury of not having to share a house with other people - this was the first time since we moved out of 77 at the end of July. Aaah Bliss. We also used this time to visit family and friends around sydney who all seemed very pleased to have us back on the same continent!

LOVE TO YOU ALL FROM BOTH OF US.