Day 3 - Wine in the Park.

I woke very early this morning. The jet leg hit full force. I took myself for a little walk in the area and stumbled across some beautiful cafes. 

A black Americano, Croque Madame and my book started off my perfect day of rest. 

Such luscious weather - again 27'C. 

Park. Wine. Friends and music. 

A pretty much perfect day. 

Day 2 - Pulp Fiction

Wow what a hangover and wow the jet lag. 

Chrissie woke up at 06:00, 07:00, 08:00 and then passed out again until 13:00. 

Such a beautiful Melbourne day - 25'c and chatting away with george and her flat mate jimmy in the garden. 

Wine! Wine! And more wine! 

We heard of a Pulp Fiction night for $13 in Melbourne city centre at the Cherry Bar and all being avid Tarantino fans - we had to check it out. 

When we arrived at the door, we were met by a man whom I can only describe as a cross between Phil Mitchell's number one fan and someone who'd recently returned from a jack sparrow convention. A man with long black dreads, tattooed from head to toe and sporting a leather vest.  I couldn't work out whether my London accent grated on him or whether he was just the world grumpiest man. We had purchased two tickets and needed an extra. After a gentle conversation with a slightly friendlier looking bouncer we got in. 

Black wigs and penguin suits surrounded us. 

There was a prize for the best costume and clearly this man had gone to huge amounts of effort wiring up his suitcase to look like Hollywood gold:

The music was fab!!! A live rock band playing all the greatest from the Tarantino soundtracks: Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown... A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. 

My British accent caused a hiccup or two when ordering beer at the bar. Apparently Aussies drink 'pots' of beer (which is essentially a half pint'. My pronounciation of 'bottle' apparently sounds like 'pot'. 

An extra $2.50 and a disgruntled bar maid later we got a bottle of beer handed over. 

A rather scary woman behind the bar who definitely doesn't have customer services only to be modelled on in Selfridges. 

We didn't care though... We had a fab night! 

Day 1 - Wine Time.

The girl I lived with in London for 7 years, my best friend. Reunited on the other side of the world. 

Needless to say... A lot of wine was drunk tonight.

Needless to also say... I am clearly very jet lagged here (of course I'm not drunk). 

21 hours and a very sore bottom...

Wow... What a journey. 

Fed, watered, wined and with my own personal cinema screen. They said the flight was a slog. To me - this was delightful.

Take off from Heathrow was grand - a sudden sense of escapism and literal removal from the research, the emails, the patients and the worry about which shoes to pick out according to londonds volatile weather. "I'm off". 

A meal - with your classic cheese and crackers washed down by a few glasses of red and the in flight cinema was in full force. 

1. Jurassic world - took the fear out of aero- devastation and put my slight flight anxieties to bay (I decided it would be much more rubbish to be eaten by a dinosaur). 

Another wine and some cheese snacks. Only 4 more hours to go. 

2. Amy - wow, talk about pulling on the heart strings - tears filled my swollen eyes. "I should be asleep, but it's light outside". Here comes the flying head f**k.

A stop at Abu Dhabi - 35'C and full of men in their full traditional wear. 

A three hour wait until the next one. 

I walked around trying to tunnel out all of the bargain duty free goods. Trying to stop myself thinking "oooh you've always needed some Chanel and oooh to toblerone and Ferraro rocher - perhaps they don't have that in Australia. Come on Chrissie, focus!".

It was so hot and my eyes were tired and stinging. A coffee, that's what I need to pick me up. I walked over to an Arab man stood tally behind a coffee stand. "Errrrmmmm a tea please - do you have Earl Grey?" He looked at me as if to say "what planet are you from?" Instead I just asked for tea, ready to accept what I got. I got a Lipton tea, with chai milk. Not what I was particularly craving but better than the bottled water I kept grasped to my chest. 

The price was in American dollars and all I had was Australian dollars and British pounds. He took a few looks to the right up and scratched his head. "Errrrmmmmm just give me $5..."

$5 for what was then an entrance back into the gate lounge where they had poured out the hundreds of flyers who had been waiting for hours to board. In marched the airport guards and asked everyone to get out and come in again for a bag research. "Excellent - I though, I'm front of the queue after returning with my tea". 

"No liquid allowed"

***

The next 13 hours was hell. Two more movies to get me through - I must've been so tired, I still to this day can't remember what they were! 

My bum went so numb and when I moved I thought I'd lost all feelings in my lower body. I slept for a few hours to get through. 

***

Landing was incredible. The aeroplane had an in built camera so I could watch the plane flying over the coast and landing on the runway. "Eeekkkk"

"There she is"