The Last 3 Days In The USA 2012
Nov. 6th, 2021 10:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Readership & interest seems to have died off, so let's do what TV executives do with a failing series - bundle the remainder together as a 'special movie length episode'...
Oct. 17 Wednesday – New York
The Nespresso machine jolted us into the day & after collecting the laundry, we were off to Strawberry Fields, a section of Central Park just near the Dakota Building on the west side

You don’t have to be a Beatles fan to know the significance of the Dakota Building, but I’m sure any of them could tell you what happened there & to whom, nearly thirty- two years ago. If you can’t find a Beatles fan, just ask any one of the street vendors selling Beatles & hippy trinkets at the Park entrance closest to Strawberry Fields... They know their clientele
The ‘Fields’ itself is a teardrop-shaped garden that features a memorial mosaic with the word ‘Imagine’ at its centre, English oak trees, magnolia trees & red berry shrubs, but no strawberry patch that we could find




Here, as in the rest of the Park, Autumn/Fall is changing the colours from green to reds, yellows & oranges & the day’s muted sunlight lit some areas perfectly for photos. Then we headed across to the eastern side of the Park, skirting the top end of The Lake & dodging all the runners who seem to be taking the approaching New York Marathon rather seriously.... This was part of the track that Jacqueline Kennedy-Onassis used to run along when she lived on 5th Ave. I’ll bet she didn’t have to contend with as many runners as we did...
A hot dog from a vendor outside the Park & our accent was overheard by... another Australian. Fortunately, this guy was a bit like us - low key & not broadcasting his nationality to the world, nor conforming to any of the embarrassing stereotypes, unlike that Ocker idiot we avoided at Mt Rushmore back on September 26... which feels like months ago now. Our destination was the Guggenheim Art Museum – that incredibly distinctive stack of pancakes designed by Flank Wroyd Llight as a place for Solomon Guggenheim to hang his art collection. Currently there was a Picasso ‘Black & White’ exhibition hanging around the walls, so we happily paid our money & spent the next ninety minutes walking up the internal spiral, occasionally branching off into smaller rooms with original works by Kandinsky, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Pissarro, Manet & some other Picasso works not related to the exhibition... they were in colour. We’d taken the free audio tour headsets & were mostly amused, but occasionally enlightened, by the borderline pretentious commentary from various critics, historians & friends & relatives of the incredibly prolific Spaniard. And then there’s the building itself – an ingenious idea & design, which is a work of art in itself & certainly had plenty of photographers (including us) all trying to get that perfect shot of the white-painted, winding path to the top, above which is a patterned window of complementary black & white. Indeed, some of the more popular postcards or posters in the gift shop are pictures of the Museum, never mind the art... We bought some postcards of a few of the Picassos, but I must confess to buying a t-shirt with a stylised representation of the spiral gallery on it


A quick chicken kebab from a vendor outside the Museum & we hopped on a bus back downtown, getting off near both the Rockefeller Centre, which was our next destination & Saks on 5th Ave, which quickly became our next destination instead. Rockefeller could wait a bit, we had gift shopping to do. Having done that, we left a few shopping bags with the snooty cloak room attendants & headed over to the Rockefeller Centre for our second skyscraper viewing experience. Not as tall as the Empire State Building, but how else are you going to get a photo of the ESB unless you go up a different one? That’s how I justified it to Julia anyway...
If we’d known how bloody-mindedly difficult it was to get to the Top of the Rock, we’d have just bought postcards from a souvenir stand. Timed tickets meant we had to come back in an hour, then, because we came back five minutes early, a surly security guard told us to go to Starbucks & come back at the exact time – no hanging around. Then the queue for the elevator, which took us up a total of two floors before a security check, then a winding line that took twenty minutes to get through a photographic history of the building, its owner & builder & the (mostly) Christmas traditions that have attached themselves to it. Then three short films about the same things, followed by another wait for the elevator that finally takes you to the 67th floor, the first of three observation levels. Julia & I elected to skip the first two, as they had glass walls around them & head for the top floor which didn’t. Everybody else seemed to have had the same idea, including a film crew making what looked to be an advertisement for the Centre itself. Apart from them, it was much the same experience as the ESB – outstanding views of the city at sunset (& a better sunset to boot!), but incredible crowds all jostling for position with everything from expensive DSLRs to iPhones & iPads. I know I had a couple of photos ruined by people either pushing me, or reaching over/around me & shoving their camera into my shot as I was taking it. But I know I got some great ones as well... the crowds can’t detract from how incredible the scenery was... is


The same shot, a little later...




The 'Rock' itself

Making a splash outside the Rockefeller Centre
Returning to street level, we found a cab & headed for Harlem & Sylvia’s restaurant... another from our Masterchef Australia–inspired list of places to go. This one specialises in ‘Soul Food’ & when we got there, we were expecting something like Gus’s in Memphis, or Prince’s in Nashville, but we forgot this is New York, where everything is bigger & better. So Sylvia’s is quite up-market & quite large, with friendly staff who greet you the moment you walk in (including thecooks chefs!). The place was busy, but we got a table towards the back & ordered the wings in ‘sassy’ sauce, ribs for Julia & a steak for myself, with collard greens, black-eye peas, garlic mash & mac’n’cheese for sides. An hour later, we were both in the latest in a long line of food comas, but more than content to be there. Sylvia herself died a couple of months ago, but as we were leaving, one of her daughters had a brief chat with us & seemed pleased that even Australians know about the place. More of them should too... but not so many that we can’t get a table next time we’re in town
Then a walk to the ‘C’ subway, past the Apollo Theatre, where Wednesday night is Amateur Night (‘Be Great or Be Gone!), no we didn’t dare... a long ride back to Brooklyn & that walk from the station that seems longer every time... especially when we’re full of some fantastic dinner, which has been often, or when we’re tired, which has been most of the time... Tonight’s walk though, was made much more interesting when a car pulled over to the side of the road in front of us, immediately followed by another – with blue flashing lights, out of which leapt 3 police officers with guns drawn, who then surrounded the first car. At this point, I grabbed Julia & we crossed to the other side of the street & kept walking... letting NYPD Blue get on with whatever the job was – we didn’t linger or look back. Crime is not a spectator sport & if bullets started flying, we didn’t want to be in the line, or range, of fire. I didn’t hear any guns going off though, so obviously, unlike on NYPD Blue, not all criminals think they’re Bonnie & Clyde
Oct. 18 Thursday – New York
Holy Crap!! Shopping Day!! Nothing planned in the way of sightseeing or photo opportunities, but we took our point’n’shoots with us just in case. There were a few items left on our list, as well as the list other people had given us, so we started near Times Square, looking for a duffel bag to pack clothes in, as our main luggage will be full of souvenirs & other shopping. Visits to the Hershey Chocolate store, the Sanrio Hello Kitty Store & a couple of cosmetic shops. Thusly laden with these requests & bequests, it was then time to grab a taxi & head down to the U.N. Building to meet Hans, our new friend in international diplomacy, who demonstrated his worldly knowledge by suggesting an Irish pub for lunch. I knew I liked him for some reason... Foolishly, I ordered a pulled pork sandwich for lunch, forgetting two things – that it would be bigger than I expected & that we were having a three-course dinner on a boat cruising the Hudson tonight. Two pints of Guinness helped wash lunch down rather nicely though... & Hans was good fun & company... as well as now being the only person we know in New York


We didn’t get the tour of the U.N. Hans had offered, but that was okay because, as usual, we had other places to be. These included a luggage shop, where we found our duffel bag, H&M where Julia found clothes & Victoria’s Secret, where she found nothing she liked. Frilly underwear is great for glossy magazine photoshoots, but not exactly practical the rest of the time
Somehow, time had slipped away from us again & after a few other shopping stops, we had to get down to Pier 40 on the west side of town for our dinner cruise. The taxi driver had difficulty understanding where we wanted to go... apparently not having heard of West St, which only runs along the entire western bank of the Hudson & has all the ferry wharves as well as the tourist boat jetties on it, so why would he know that one??!! His inability to listen, coupled with some wrong turns as a result, meant no tip for him. However we’d arrived in plenty of time, so sat watching the sunset before boarding the Hornblower Hybrid, a middle-size cruiser that, by its name, assumedly ran on some sort of hybrid diesel/electric engines. We were greeted by a friendly waitress & a large buffet table which Julia, having sensibly had a small lunch, attacked more enthusiastically than me. Our waitress may have been friendly, but over the course of the evening, proved to be a bit hit & miss with drink orders. I ordered a scotch & coke & received scotch on ice... good scotch, but not what I’d ordered. Later I ordered a cabernet sauvignon & received a white wine... which went better with my salmon anyway, but still not what I’d ordered. The lobster bisque entree was brilliant, my salmon & Julia’s steak were cooked beautifully & the mini dessert servings were interesting & not over-filling which, in my case, was a good thing




(2021 note: I cannot for the life of me remember what this building is... Answer in the comments section please!?!?)



An arty shot of the night skyline reflected on the boat...
The night views of Manhattan, New Jersey, Brooklyn & the Statue of Liberty were amazing & gave us both pangs of separation anxiety, especially when the DJ played Julia’s requested ‘Empire State of Mind’ just as we approached the Statue – We don’t really want to leave tomorrow, but at the same time, we’re ready... except we’re not...
All in all, it was a great night. Not exactly cheap, but given it was our last night in town, we deserved a splurge. Continuing along that line, we got a taxi back to Brooklyn, again having a few issues with the driver being unfamiliar with the area & relying on us knowing it & us relying on Googlemaps until Julia’s phone ran out of battery on the Brooklyn Bridge. But we got home & started the mammoth task of sorting & packing everything we brought & everything we’ve bought. This could be a late night...
Oct. 19, 20, 21 Friday to Sunday – New York to Los Angeles to Sydney
Well yes, a late night followed by an early morning as we joined the workers of Brooklyn on a peak-hour train into Manhattan. If we’d wanted one last New York Experience, this was it... packed like the proverbial sardines on the ‘C’ train. At Grand Central there was a mass exodus from our carriage & we could both breathe & move freely again for a few more stops. Up the stairs, out onto 51st St & also out with the umbrella... ella... ella, as it was raining pretty heavily. Julia said this was a good thing, because if it was a sunny day, it would be harder to leave this crazy wonderful place, but rain is Nature’s way of saying “Go Home”. That said, the last photo I took in New York, shows a clear, blue sky...

Some last minute shopping, mostly at the non-profit NY Fire Department store, where we picked up some t-shirts & trinkets for the folks back home, then down to Times Square for emergency Hershey rations, before heading back down into the humid subway for the ‘C’ back to our lodging, where we wondered how we could repack everything to accommodate the new possessions. We also packed up the faithful Nespresso machine for its journey back to Colorado, called a cab to take us to the local Post Office, as the rain was still determined to wash the city clean, then waited... waited... etc... eventually realising that the taxi wasn’t coming. So, a call to our hire car which was to take us to the airport & amending our schedule to take in a detour to the Post Office. It would cost us an extra $8, but that’s probably what the taxi fare would have been anyway... & then there would have been the fare back too, so I think we came out ahead
Unlike the taxi, our hire car turned up on time - which caught us by surprise, so we banged & thumped our bags & selves down those noisy brownstone stairs for the last time & our friendly driver helped us test the load capacity of his car's suspension by putting the bags in the trunk. As arranged, we detoured to the Post Office & I took the boxed-up Nespresso machine in, to have it sent to its new home in Boulder. The line for the counter didn't look too bad, but turned out to be full of those kinds of customers who think they have a simple question, but don't... or know damn well they have some difficult questions & have no shame in spending 20 minutes+ being dealt with. Meanwhile, back in the queue, new relationships have blossomed, children have been born, raised & shipped off to either College, or the military & some of us have almost forgotten what the outside world looks like, or even started to doubt its existence - there is only the queue!!
Eventually, after the decline, fall, desecration by barbarian hordes & ultimate resurrection of Western Civilisation, I plonked the box on the counter, paid its postage & headed back out to the hire car, blinking in the sunlight & surprised that Julia hadn't grown old in my absence, or at the very least, given up waiting & gone back to Australia without me
Airports are, I'm told, much the same the world over... but JFK is a pretty big one, by my limited experience. Once inside, we found our bearings, found our check-in, said goodbye to our bags, with a quick prayer to any god with some free time, that we'd see them again in Sydney. Then Customs - nowhere near as stringent as when we were arriving in L.A... they obviously don't mind too much what you take out of the country... & the wait for our flight to board. We'd be flying direct to L.A, then a couple of hours 'layover' before continuing to Sydney. What this meant in reality, was poor Julia wound up with a rather 'large' woman encroaching on her personal space for the around 8 hours cross-country, then we exchanged the plane's snug, but padded seats for some uncomfortable ones in the LAXholding pen departure 'lounge', then repeat for the 14 hour long haul across the Pacific & home, once again with neither of us being able to get anything remotely resembling a decent sleep, so more movies, TV shows & music via the little screens
We landed in Sydney early on Sunday morning, having retrieved the missing day we'd lost on the way over, by crossing the Date Line somewhere over the Pacific. With Duty Free rewards reclaimed, it was almost a re-run in reverse (??) of the morning we'd left - with our friend Ray waiting for us in the car park, having himself got up ridiculously early to be there on time... in fact waaaaay ahead of time, but that's Ray for you - you can call him a lot of things, but tardy isn't one of them. Back home on the Northern Beaches & some fuzzy greetings with family, then we opened our bags just long enough to find some clothes to sleep in, leaving anything else strewn on the floor & sleeeeeeeepppp!!
I awoke after about 6-7 hours & arranged to meet my Father at the local RSL Club for drinks & storytelling. It took a lot of time, Guinness & bar snacks...
Oct. 17 Wednesday – New York
The Nespresso machine jolted us into the day & after collecting the laundry, we were off to Strawberry Fields, a section of Central Park just near the Dakota Building on the west side

You don’t have to be a Beatles fan to know the significance of the Dakota Building, but I’m sure any of them could tell you what happened there & to whom, nearly thirty- two years ago. If you can’t find a Beatles fan, just ask any one of the street vendors selling Beatles & hippy trinkets at the Park entrance closest to Strawberry Fields... They know their clientele
The ‘Fields’ itself is a teardrop-shaped garden that features a memorial mosaic with the word ‘Imagine’ at its centre, English oak trees, magnolia trees & red berry shrubs, but no strawberry patch that we could find




Here, as in the rest of the Park, Autumn/Fall is changing the colours from green to reds, yellows & oranges & the day’s muted sunlight lit some areas perfectly for photos. Then we headed across to the eastern side of the Park, skirting the top end of The Lake & dodging all the runners who seem to be taking the approaching New York Marathon rather seriously.... This was part of the track that Jacqueline Kennedy-Onassis used to run along when she lived on 5th Ave. I’ll bet she didn’t have to contend with as many runners as we did...
A hot dog from a vendor outside the Park & our accent was overheard by... another Australian. Fortunately, this guy was a bit like us - low key & not broadcasting his nationality to the world, nor conforming to any of the embarrassing stereotypes, unlike that Ocker idiot we avoided at Mt Rushmore back on September 26... which feels like months ago now. Our destination was the Guggenheim Art Museum – that incredibly distinctive stack of pancakes designed by Flank Wroyd Llight as a place for Solomon Guggenheim to hang his art collection. Currently there was a Picasso ‘Black & White’ exhibition hanging around the walls, so we happily paid our money & spent the next ninety minutes walking up the internal spiral, occasionally branching off into smaller rooms with original works by Kandinsky, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Pissarro, Manet & some other Picasso works not related to the exhibition... they were in colour. We’d taken the free audio tour headsets & were mostly amused, but occasionally enlightened, by the borderline pretentious commentary from various critics, historians & friends & relatives of the incredibly prolific Spaniard. And then there’s the building itself – an ingenious idea & design, which is a work of art in itself & certainly had plenty of photographers (including us) all trying to get that perfect shot of the white-painted, winding path to the top, above which is a patterned window of complementary black & white. Indeed, some of the more popular postcards or posters in the gift shop are pictures of the Museum, never mind the art... We bought some postcards of a few of the Picassos, but I must confess to buying a t-shirt with a stylised representation of the spiral gallery on it


A quick chicken kebab from a vendor outside the Museum & we hopped on a bus back downtown, getting off near both the Rockefeller Centre, which was our next destination & Saks on 5th Ave, which quickly became our next destination instead. Rockefeller could wait a bit, we had gift shopping to do. Having done that, we left a few shopping bags with the snooty cloak room attendants & headed over to the Rockefeller Centre for our second skyscraper viewing experience. Not as tall as the Empire State Building, but how else are you going to get a photo of the ESB unless you go up a different one? That’s how I justified it to Julia anyway...
If we’d known how bloody-mindedly difficult it was to get to the Top of the Rock, we’d have just bought postcards from a souvenir stand. Timed tickets meant we had to come back in an hour, then, because we came back five minutes early, a surly security guard told us to go to Starbucks & come back at the exact time – no hanging around. Then the queue for the elevator, which took us up a total of two floors before a security check, then a winding line that took twenty minutes to get through a photographic history of the building, its owner & builder & the (mostly) Christmas traditions that have attached themselves to it. Then three short films about the same things, followed by another wait for the elevator that finally takes you to the 67th floor, the first of three observation levels. Julia & I elected to skip the first two, as they had glass walls around them & head for the top floor which didn’t. Everybody else seemed to have had the same idea, including a film crew making what looked to be an advertisement for the Centre itself. Apart from them, it was much the same experience as the ESB – outstanding views of the city at sunset (& a better sunset to boot!), but incredible crowds all jostling for position with everything from expensive DSLRs to iPhones & iPads. I know I had a couple of photos ruined by people either pushing me, or reaching over/around me & shoving their camera into my shot as I was taking it. But I know I got some great ones as well... the crowds can’t detract from how incredible the scenery was... is


The same shot, a little later...




The 'Rock' itself

Making a splash outside the Rockefeller Centre
Returning to street level, we found a cab & headed for Harlem & Sylvia’s restaurant... another from our Masterchef Australia–inspired list of places to go. This one specialises in ‘Soul Food’ & when we got there, we were expecting something like Gus’s in Memphis, or Prince’s in Nashville, but we forgot this is New York, where everything is bigger & better. So Sylvia’s is quite up-market & quite large, with friendly staff who greet you the moment you walk in (including the
Then a walk to the ‘C’ subway, past the Apollo Theatre, where Wednesday night is Amateur Night (‘Be Great or Be Gone!), no we didn’t dare... a long ride back to Brooklyn & that walk from the station that seems longer every time... especially when we’re full of some fantastic dinner, which has been often, or when we’re tired, which has been most of the time... Tonight’s walk though, was made much more interesting when a car pulled over to the side of the road in front of us, immediately followed by another – with blue flashing lights, out of which leapt 3 police officers with guns drawn, who then surrounded the first car. At this point, I grabbed Julia & we crossed to the other side of the street & kept walking... letting NYPD Blue get on with whatever the job was – we didn’t linger or look back. Crime is not a spectator sport & if bullets started flying, we didn’t want to be in the line, or range, of fire. I didn’t hear any guns going off though, so obviously, unlike on NYPD Blue, not all criminals think they’re Bonnie & Clyde
Oct. 18 Thursday – New York
Holy Crap!! Shopping Day!! Nothing planned in the way of sightseeing or photo opportunities, but we took our point’n’shoots with us just in case. There were a few items left on our list, as well as the list other people had given us, so we started near Times Square, looking for a duffel bag to pack clothes in, as our main luggage will be full of souvenirs & other shopping. Visits to the Hershey Chocolate store, the Sanrio Hello Kitty Store & a couple of cosmetic shops. Thusly laden with these requests & bequests, it was then time to grab a taxi & head down to the U.N. Building to meet Hans, our new friend in international diplomacy, who demonstrated his worldly knowledge by suggesting an Irish pub for lunch. I knew I liked him for some reason... Foolishly, I ordered a pulled pork sandwich for lunch, forgetting two things – that it would be bigger than I expected & that we were having a three-course dinner on a boat cruising the Hudson tonight. Two pints of Guinness helped wash lunch down rather nicely though... & Hans was good fun & company... as well as now being the only person we know in New York


We didn’t get the tour of the U.N. Hans had offered, but that was okay because, as usual, we had other places to be. These included a luggage shop, where we found our duffel bag, H&M where Julia found clothes & Victoria’s Secret, where she found nothing she liked. Frilly underwear is great for glossy magazine photoshoots, but not exactly practical the rest of the time
Somehow, time had slipped away from us again & after a few other shopping stops, we had to get down to Pier 40 on the west side of town for our dinner cruise. The taxi driver had difficulty understanding where we wanted to go... apparently not having heard of West St, which only runs along the entire western bank of the Hudson & has all the ferry wharves as well as the tourist boat jetties on it, so why would he know that one??!! His inability to listen, coupled with some wrong turns as a result, meant no tip for him. However we’d arrived in plenty of time, so sat watching the sunset before boarding the Hornblower Hybrid, a middle-size cruiser that, by its name, assumedly ran on some sort of hybrid diesel/electric engines. We were greeted by a friendly waitress & a large buffet table which Julia, having sensibly had a small lunch, attacked more enthusiastically than me. Our waitress may have been friendly, but over the course of the evening, proved to be a bit hit & miss with drink orders. I ordered a scotch & coke & received scotch on ice... good scotch, but not what I’d ordered. Later I ordered a cabernet sauvignon & received a white wine... which went better with my salmon anyway, but still not what I’d ordered. The lobster bisque entree was brilliant, my salmon & Julia’s steak were cooked beautifully & the mini dessert servings were interesting & not over-filling which, in my case, was a good thing




(2021 note: I cannot for the life of me remember what this building is... Answer in the comments section please!?!?)



An arty shot of the night skyline reflected on the boat...
The night views of Manhattan, New Jersey, Brooklyn & the Statue of Liberty were amazing & gave us both pangs of separation anxiety, especially when the DJ played Julia’s requested ‘Empire State of Mind’ just as we approached the Statue – We don’t really want to leave tomorrow, but at the same time, we’re ready... except we’re not...
All in all, it was a great night. Not exactly cheap, but given it was our last night in town, we deserved a splurge. Continuing along that line, we got a taxi back to Brooklyn, again having a few issues with the driver being unfamiliar with the area & relying on us knowing it & us relying on Googlemaps until Julia’s phone ran out of battery on the Brooklyn Bridge. But we got home & started the mammoth task of sorting & packing everything we brought & everything we’ve bought. This could be a late night...
Oct. 19, 20, 21 Friday to Sunday – New York to Los Angeles to Sydney
Well yes, a late night followed by an early morning as we joined the workers of Brooklyn on a peak-hour train into Manhattan. If we’d wanted one last New York Experience, this was it... packed like the proverbial sardines on the ‘C’ train. At Grand Central there was a mass exodus from our carriage & we could both breathe & move freely again for a few more stops. Up the stairs, out onto 51st St & also out with the umbrella... ella... ella, as it was raining pretty heavily. Julia said this was a good thing, because if it was a sunny day, it would be harder to leave this crazy wonderful place, but rain is Nature’s way of saying “Go Home”. That said, the last photo I took in New York, shows a clear, blue sky...

Some last minute shopping, mostly at the non-profit NY Fire Department store, where we picked up some t-shirts & trinkets for the folks back home, then down to Times Square for emergency Hershey rations, before heading back down into the humid subway for the ‘C’ back to our lodging, where we wondered how we could repack everything to accommodate the new possessions. We also packed up the faithful Nespresso machine for its journey back to Colorado, called a cab to take us to the local Post Office, as the rain was still determined to wash the city clean, then waited... waited... etc... eventually realising that the taxi wasn’t coming. So, a call to our hire car which was to take us to the airport & amending our schedule to take in a detour to the Post Office. It would cost us an extra $8, but that’s probably what the taxi fare would have been anyway... & then there would have been the fare back too, so I think we came out ahead
Unlike the taxi, our hire car turned up on time - which caught us by surprise, so we banged & thumped our bags & selves down those noisy brownstone stairs for the last time & our friendly driver helped us test the load capacity of his car's suspension by putting the bags in the trunk. As arranged, we detoured to the Post Office & I took the boxed-up Nespresso machine in, to have it sent to its new home in Boulder. The line for the counter didn't look too bad, but turned out to be full of those kinds of customers who think they have a simple question, but don't... or know damn well they have some difficult questions & have no shame in spending 20 minutes+ being dealt with. Meanwhile, back in the queue, new relationships have blossomed, children have been born, raised & shipped off to either College, or the military & some of us have almost forgotten what the outside world looks like, or even started to doubt its existence - there is only the queue!!
Eventually, after the decline, fall, desecration by barbarian hordes & ultimate resurrection of Western Civilisation, I plonked the box on the counter, paid its postage & headed back out to the hire car, blinking in the sunlight & surprised that Julia hadn't grown old in my absence, or at the very least, given up waiting & gone back to Australia without me
Airports are, I'm told, much the same the world over... but JFK is a pretty big one, by my limited experience. Once inside, we found our bearings, found our check-in, said goodbye to our bags, with a quick prayer to any god with some free time, that we'd see them again in Sydney. Then Customs - nowhere near as stringent as when we were arriving in L.A... they obviously don't mind too much what you take out of the country... & the wait for our flight to board. We'd be flying direct to L.A, then a couple of hours 'layover' before continuing to Sydney. What this meant in reality, was poor Julia wound up with a rather 'large' woman encroaching on her personal space for the around 8 hours cross-country, then we exchanged the plane's snug, but padded seats for some uncomfortable ones in the LAX
We landed in Sydney early on Sunday morning, having retrieved the missing day we'd lost on the way over, by crossing the Date Line somewhere over the Pacific. With Duty Free rewards reclaimed, it was almost a re-run in reverse (??) of the morning we'd left - with our friend Ray waiting for us in the car park, having himself got up ridiculously early to be there on time... in fact waaaaay ahead of time, but that's Ray for you - you can call him a lot of things, but tardy isn't one of them. Back home on the Northern Beaches & some fuzzy greetings with family, then we opened our bags just long enough to find some clothes to sleep in, leaving anything else strewn on the floor & sleeeeeeeepppp!!
I awoke after about 6-7 hours & arranged to meet my Father at the local RSL Club for drinks & storytelling. It took a lot of time, Guinness & bar snacks...