Hi Gram,
We landed in Australia yesterday and have been enjoying the country so far. The overnight flight took 9 hours, so I tried to get some sleep. Of course sitting in an economy seat with noise and rumbling all around make that a difficult task, but I was able to get a little shut eye. Going through customs was a breeze! We stopped at a machine that scanned the passport, then walked to an agent that looked at a printout from the machine and next thing I knew we were grabbing our luggage and meeting up with our friend Rob in the car park.
I love traveling and meeting up with friends. We loaded the luggage in Rob’s car and headed to a beach near where we’d be staying for the next few days for some lunch and people watching. After a few weeks of eating healthy and exercising, I didn’t make great choices from the fast food options, but it was tasty! After walking along the beach a little, we headed to the hotel to nap away a little of the exhaustion. Rob’s friend Carl got there a few hours later and entertained us with stories of living in Australia. Rob headed to the airport to pick up some other friends, so Carl, David and I took a walk to find some dinner.
We laughed and talked the whole way, trading stories of what it’s like in America for how to survive the Australian wildlife. We ended up at a restaurant named “two hungry bears” that served burgers, chicken, and similar heavy fare. I got the chicken strips and a KitKat milkshake, my second less than ideal meal choice of the day. It was delicious, but I paid for it with wild dreams and restless sleep that night. After dinner, we all walked back to the hotel enjoying the cool evening breeze – something I haven’t had in a few months! It’s springtime here in Sydney, with evening temps dropping into the 50’s and daytime temps on the 70’s. I’ve been used to high 70’s in the evenings and low 90’s in the daytime, so these cooler temps have been very nice. Back at the hotel, we were all pretty tuckered out, so the lights were out and so were we very quickly.
In the morning after my morning routine, Carl and I walked down to an Aldi to pick up some breakfast groceries. The Aldi here was very similar to the ones back in the USA, although their produce section was larger and all the employees had funny accents. We had a hard time finding it at first thanks to Google maps directing us to the wrong side of the mall building, but we cleverly found our way around and inside. After our Aldi experience, we walked back the hotel talking about short term rentals, grand pianos, over engineering a house, and jet skis – the typical wandering conversation of FI-minded folks. David was finishing some homework when we got back to the room, but we all dug in and had some breakfast then packed up to head down to the lobby. We met up with Rob, Tom and Chris down there then most of us headed to the beach.
The weather here is so beautiful! After the hot and humid days in Thailand, I’m really enjoying the crisp, cool mornings here followed by warming up to the mid-70’s in the afternoon, then cooling off again near bedtime. Anyway, the five of us headed down to the beach and watched some brave swimmers (it was still a bit chilly and windy) while we chatted and did a couple of pre-event interviews with Chris and his camera. Rob ran and grabbed our luggage and Tom from the hotel (there wasn’t enough room for 6 men and all of our bags), then met us at the Collaroy pub a couple hours later. Other event attendees trickled in and soon it was a good crowd, meeting or reuniting as we shared stories.
A group of us took a walk down along the beach, one of my favorite activities. The tide was out a little, exposing some cool rocks, while the wind blew in and provided great conditions for some paragliders coasting along or practicing their take offs and landings. It was fun to watch them from so close and hear all of my new friends excited by the thrill of watching. Eventually, we made it back to the pub and piled into cars to find our way to the event site up the road. After meeting even more people, we got our shirts and room assignments, then settled in. Carl and I ran back to the hotel to pick up one more bag that got left behind, then joined everyone else for dinner and more conversation.
After dinner, we all headed up to the meeting room for some ice breakers and snacks. Rob did a great job of bringing together a group of people; together they all made the evening (and whole event, as I learned through the next few days) go smoothly. We arranged by distance we traveled without speaking to each other, (which made it easy for David and I to find our spots) then went around the room and introduced ourselves to see how close we got to accuracy. This was followed by splitting up into tables of five where we answered a few questions, then circulated to other tables a few times to answer different questions. By the time we all came together as a group again, everyone was feeling more comfortable with each other. The team went over some more details about the weekend, then released us all to mingle and connect for the rest of the evening. As always, I was torn between the hunger to stay and connect with people all night vs getting back to my room and getting enough sleep to function the next day. I proudly got to bed before midnight, exhausted and smiling.