On the road, part I

On Saturday 10 July I left for two weeks travelling. Here is some of the story of the first part.

Saturday 10th, Cambridge to San Francisco
After dropping my last bag of belongings in my office for Patrick to collect later, I took the train and the bus-that-pretends-it's-a-train to Logan Airport. My 45th plane flight (and 8th to San Francisco, the most of any airport: Sydney soon caught up; other rivals are Canberra on 5 and Melbourne and Los Angeles on 3) went very smoothly. Once I arrived in San Francisco, I took my well-travelled route on the BART to Berkeley. Kim picked me up from the station, and we collected Sidney and headed to a barbecue at Kim's old place. It was lovely to catch up with Berkeley friends, at this barbecue, while wandering with Sidney, and then at a party at Joe's place. Eventually I headed back to SFO for a late night flight (11pm, which was 2am according to my body clock). The plane was full and it took the man at the check-in desk a long time to find me a seat, so he offered a pass to the JAL lounge by way of apology. I went there, although I didn't take up his offer of a free drink. An Australian (by accent) woman commented on the physics olympiad shirt I was wearing (I have brought home the clothes I don't really wear in Cambridge). This got comments all day: another fellow at the gate had quite a chat about the current state of physics research and rechargeable batteries. On boarding the plane, I discovered that I had a premium economy seat. It was far more comfortable than a standard economy seat: it actually felt comfortable rather than uncomfortable! When not sleeping (and I slept almost half the way), I was able to lie back luxuriating instead of enduring the position. The fare difference is around $900, which is more than I like to pay for the fare itself, so I won't be treating myself to premium economy, but it's a lovely free bonus.

Monday 12th, Sydney to Berry
I went through the airport in amazing time: 26 minutes from wheels down to outside the gate! Unfortunately, I had allowed 2 hours when I suggested a time for Mum to arrive to pick me up (as this is how long it took last time I was picked up from the airport), so I was waiting for a while. She came right on time and we headed to Berry to see Jacqui and Vik. They have recently moved into an apartment there, as Jacqui is working in Nowra now. It was lovely to spend some time together: it brought back memories of a happy year and a half not so long ago. In the evening, a very tired traveller rugged up to venture out into what was actually a very mild winter's evening (the others rugged up similarly, then realised how unnecessary it was for those accustomed to winter weather). We went in search of Berry's famous doughnuts. Unfortunately the shop is only open on weekends, so we went hungry.

Tuesday 13th, Berry to Yass
We decided to take the slightly easier route home, going south almost to Nowra before heading through Kangaroo Valley. It was indeed a very easy trip home, and nice to return to Yass after so long. The newly renovated kitchen, bathroom and deck look great: the kitchen is now sunny, and that's where I am sitting to write this (although the clouds prevent it from actually being sunny at this moment). I briefly saw Irene and family, as we were dropping of Buster to be minded for the fortnight.

Wednesday 14th, Yass to Old Bar
We had a relatively long day driving, but it didn't feel too long because Tom and I made a little computer game together, to give him an introduction to programming. My dominance of the Africa-America gold and coffee trade route proved to be enough for me to win most of the time. We arrived to enjoy a roast dinner cooked by Carl, as well as an amusing game of Hink Pink and a near-complete cryptic crossword.

I was planning to write more, but my posts have a habit of being too long, so I'll split the trip up even more than I had planned.