Sydney trip

My trip to Sydney went well. A quick post before we go out for dinner (at Must Wine Bar). Today has been a little busy, with breakfast at Mum and Dad’s.

Plane rides both ways:
I flew Qantas. Uneventful. I found the meals surprisingly tasty. Chicken breast in a tomato sauce with mashed potato and green beans on the way there, and lamb stew, again with mashed spud and peas coming back. The spud was very creamy. I was the odd one out, drinking orange juice with my meals Рall the other passengers sharing my row made good use of the complimentary alcohol on offer and had wine with theirs. Inflight entertainment: I read Iron Council by China Mi̩ville and watched the movies Thank You for Smoking and Jindabyne.

During the flight over the couple sharing my aisle couldn’t stop groping each others’ knees and calling each other darling (her) and baby (him; he pronounced the word bay-bee – emphasising each syllable). I thought it was cute for the first five minutes but after four and a half hours it did get a bit tiresome. They did redeem themselves somewhat by oohing and ahing at the sight of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House through the window (British tourists). I don’t know how people manage flights longer than about five hours, though. I was so glad to get off the plane. They are so cramped and I don’t care what the ads say, I find the seats really uncomfortable.

Accomodation:
I really liked the Avillion. Although my room was nothing amazing (it was perfectly clean and pleasant, of course), what appealed to me about this hotel was the fact that I didn’t get even the slightest whiff of smoke in my room. Sure, I was on a non-smoking floor, but in other hotels, despite the fact that I requested a non-smoking room, there would either be a smell of smoke impregnating the furnishings, or faint but distinct smoking odours drifting in through the air circulation ducts. There was nothing like this in the Avillion, and on this basis alone, I’d happily stay there again. The fact that it’s very centrally located is also a plus.

Because I didn’t really like the idea of wandering around Sydney by myself at 9pm, I had a bath instead, watched tv and read.

I did consider the idea of using the Internet access available in my room, but decided against it because I thought it was far too expensive: $5.50 for fifteen minutes, and 55 cents for every minute thereafter! I did like the set up though – they provided a wireless keyboard and the tv doubled as your monitor. Connecting was a simple matter of pressing a key.

Around the city:
I ended up walking a fair bit, because I decided to take the train where I could. I wanted to experience a bit of Sydney and I didn’t fancy my chances if I spent too much of the day in taxis… I had a bit of difficulty working out where things were at times (I didn’t think I needed a map because I have some idea of the city’s layout) and had to double back at times like when I realised I was heading for Surry Hills when I meant to go to Chinatown…

Meetings:
I’ll write up the ProQuest thing (which was the whole point of the trip) soon, on lint. It was interesting, as was my visit to UTS and meeting the librarians there. What I really enjoyed, though, was meeting Morgan and Tom and catching up with Fiona. Morgan and Fiona, I think I can now cope with the fact that you’re not coming to Perth for the conference! (That Franziskaner Dunkel was ganz wunderbar, too!) Tom, I’m looking forward to catching up properly when you’re here in September – it’s a pity it’s rude to talk during a presentation, otherwise I would have liked to have chatted more! Snail, it’s a pity we didn’t manage to meet up after all (hope everything’s okay).