December 10 - Australia: Cairns

We woke up super-early, anxious to move into our new apartment.  So we packed up our stuff and Jon went over to the management office to see if anyone was there to let us in.  Thankfully, there was.  We were checked out of the Floriana and into the Central Plaza Apartment Complex.

Our little townhouse needs to be re-carpeted, so we're spending the next week in one of the one-bedroom apartments (which is twice as expensive as the 2-bedroom townhouses.  Why?  Not a clue.).  We gleefully unpacked our backpacks, groceries, cooler, and tent, and wandered about the apartment with silly grins on our faces.

Jon's Car-Shopping Trip

Jon went car-shopping while I stayed in the apartment waiting chilling out and waiting for Jon's friend Judd to ring.  Judd is a friend from NYC and is in town for a night before he heads off to other parts of Australia as part of his own round-the-world trip.  So it was convenient for me to stay and Jon to hit the car lots.  This was actually a strategic move on our parts: Jon can't be pressured into buying something because he can say "I can't buy anything without my wife".  This really isn't true, because I could care less what kind of car we end up getting.  Jon is much pickier than I am, so I have complete faith in his selection and negotiation skills.

Regardless, he didn't have much luck.  The 4WD vehicles on the lot were seriously out of our price range.  We were hoping for a Toyota because it retains a nice resale value and replacement parts are easy to find here in Australia (knock on wood that we'll need them).  So that was our goal, but it didn't look too good.

My Trip to The Grocery Store

When Jon returned around 1:00, he was hot, sunburned and exhausted.  I left him stranded in the apartment and went to Woolworth's to do some grocery shopping (yes, Woolworth's is a grocery store here).  I loaded up on everything I thought we would need to survive the next few weeks and then some.  Actually, I felt much like my Mom.  I have distinct memories of going to the Commissary on various military bases for our monthly "grocery shopping".  Sometimes we would fill up 3-4 grocery carts with food!  And then she would come home and drag us away from the television to help her unload the car and put the groceries away.  While I only had about 1/2 a cart-full, I did come back and make Jon help me unload the car and help put everything away.  But now we have food to cook.

Visit from Home

Judd finally got in touch with us, and we decided that he should come over at 4:30 to hang out and have dinner with us.  It was great for Jon to see him and for me to actually meet him.  I'd been enjoying Judd's "Trip Journals" as Jon would forward his emails to me.  So we spent the rest of the evening swapping funny stories about New Zealand and Australia, and giving Judd pointers for his upcoming trip to Asia.  Judd is doing his round-the-world trip in the opposite direction from us, although he's spending much more time in Asia and has included South America on his tour.  He won't be finished until 2003.  A few weeks ago, he was traveling through Australia when his group leader noticed that he had a scorpion on his back.  Judd says that, while he was yelling "Get it off!  Get it off!", his group leader was in no hurry because scorpions are rare in that part of Australia.  Hmmmm.

We had a good time comparing superlatives, and here are the ones I can remember:

Best Meal: Li Qun Duck in Beijing

Most Money Spent: Diving the Red Sea and our Indian carpet

Best Money Spent: Microlite flight over Victoria Falls

Worst Money Spent: Glowworm Tour of Waitomo Caves (what a waste!)

Worst Night's Accommodation: The Green Hostel in Moshi

Favorite Part of Trip: Tibet!  Without a doubt.

Most Frightening Part of the Trip: Camping in the Serengeti, too scared to leave our tents for fear of being eaten by wild animals.

Phad Thai Attempt

Around 6:00, I broke out the "Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School" book (www.thaicookeryschool.com) to see if I remembered how to make Phad Thai.  I'd bought all the ingredients I could today, but told Judd that he was coming to dinner at his own risk.  I made a MONSTROUS MESS of the kitchen, while the guys sat traded stories from E-Steel and about people they knew.  Finally, dinner was ready to go.  It wasn't quite as good as I remembered, but it wasn't a disaster either.  At least it tasted like Phad Thai!  Judd had brought a delicious bottle of wine, so we had all we needed.

Judd, Heidi and Jon - well fed!

Around 9:30, Jon drove Judd back to his hotel (he declined the offer to sleep on our couch) because Judd had to catch at 5:30AM bus.  Ridiculous!

We spent another hour or so in front of the television, until I realized that "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" was on.  I am a closet Buffy Fan.  I love this show!  Unfortunately, I didn't really catch onto the Buffy Craze until this past year.  So when previous season shows are on I love to watch them but am generally confused at to what's going on.  I didn't care though.  I stayed up until midnight to see the entire show!