arrival (not the abba instrumental)

i'm in an internet cafe on oxford street - it's five o'clock in the afternoon and i've now been awake for over thirty-six fucking hours

left kansas 7.00pm on thursday night central standard time - got into los angeles three and a half hours later - left for sydney two hours later on a fourteen hour flight

i hate qantas in a way that's difficult to put into words - narrow seats, limited legroom, terrible in-flight movies and progs, lousy food, etc.

arrived at 9.00am sydney time and cleared customs with no hassle, which was a pleasant surprise for sydney airport

arrived at the milson apartments where we are staying just the other side of the harbour bridge from circular quay - the north side - nobody was there to let us in, no key, no arrangements appeared to have been made for our arrival and we had no phone - we sat in the lobby for about an hour and a half while k. borrowed a phone to make some calls

when we finally got to the apartment it was very nice - the view is glorious - we're on the 12th floor and the living room and bedroom look out onto the harbour bridge the bay, circular quay and darling harbour - i'll put some photos on when we've got all the stuff up and running

we headed out for lunch and in an effort to stay awake until at least ten o'clock tonight, got a train over the bridge into town where we've spent the afternoon walking around, getting a mobile phone account and trying to get broadband, which has proved to be impossible, so we'll have to make do with internet cafes from now on unless we can leech from an unsuspecting wireless user in our apartment block

we were proud of the fact that it was a full seven and a half hours after our arrival in sydney before we ended up on oxford street - that must be a record for us