I bought a Garmin Nuvi 260W car GPS navigator today. It's a fairly basic unit, with a nice big screen for my dodgy eyesight. The other similar unit is the Tom Tom One XL but it doesn't speak the road names, that was a good enough reason to choose the Garmin.
I decided to take a drive down to Sandringham to learn how to use it, practice driving around the Aussie roads and go visit a windsurfing shop at the beach. 4 birds with 1 stone, cool. There's a new freeway that opens tomorrow called the East Link that would cut the travel time quite considerably, and unfortunately the GPS decided that was the best route for me to take so kept directing me from one closed on-ramp to the next. Only after I got home did I realize that it's a toll road and I can set the Nuvi to avoid tolls, so the drive took a lot longer than expected. Other than that it's a very easy thing to use, only took a few minutes to get the hang of it.
As you can see it's overcast and not warm enough for actual beach-going but it was nice to go there anyway. I had quite a long chat with Ivan from SHQ about the local wind conditions, where to sail, what kit is suitable etc most of which I'll have forgotten by the time I actually get to do some sailing. From the boards available in the shop, it seems that not many people use boards bigger than 100 litres, so something else new to learn. It looks like my gear will arrive in September so that should be just in time for some summer sailing. It's going to be sweet!
Labels: Windsurfing
Trains. Those things that nobody in their right mind uses in South Africa, are not as easy to tame as it would appear. It took a while to find the station from the Docklands apartment where I'm spending my first few days of work because it's just off the edge of the map of Melbourne that I have. When you're in a bit of a hurry (read : mild panic) to catch a train, reading all the available signage is not an option. I managed to buy the right ticket, get on the right platform and get on the wrong train. After blissfully travelling for about 45 minutes I started to realize that all the stations I had passed were the wrong ones. Consult map, get back on train to join up with the other line, get off again and wait 30 minutes for the right train to come along and eventually arrive at the Ringwood East station. What should have taken about 45 minutes took over 2 hours. Thankfully I've managed to catch about 4 trains successfully since then.
Trolleys. Trolleys in Melbourne have 4 wheels that turn instead of 2. That makes for incredible cornering ability and manoeuvring. Going straight is not an option. At least you can take them on the escalators (dunno if that's what they're called here).
On Wednesday I got to the airport to get on a plane for Melbourne. The previous weeks had dragged by slowly with seemingly endless farewells and I was quite ready to get on a plane and go, however the last day was quite emotional as I said the last goodbyes. It had finally sunk into my thick skin that I was really going. After 4 hours of sitting around OR Tambo I was quite ready to go again. I had got there early to get a good choice of seat so that they didn't need to fold me in half to get in, and I'm glad I did. The emergency exit row is your friend as there's about 2 metres of space in front.
Without the usual delay of the stairs or the luggage door breaking etc, we actually took off on time. Soon after that they served dinner and I stretched out to have a kip when my stomach lurched into my elbow and then back down to my knees. Turbulence sucks. The guy sitting next to me looked like he was going to ralph everywhere. 8 or 9 hours of bouncing through the skies later we landed in Sydney and it felt quite strange to not be swaying from side to side. The flight from Sydney to Melbourne wasn't much better and landing with low clouds is no fun either: descend....descend...I still can't see anything...there must be ground coming soon. 16 hours after leaving South Africa, I've had enough flying for this year thank you very much. Slept for 12 hours until someone dragged me out of bed, probably would have slept longer. The joys of jet-lag sleep for 12 hours, next night sleep for 4.
Unfortunately I don't have any photos of anything yet because I have forgotten the cable to copy them from the camera, along with a bunch of other "argh $#!%" moments of things I forgot to pack. I'll save the descriptions of all the new and strange things for when I can post some photos too. So far I've just done a little bit of window shopping for a fridge and a GPS. I'll have to make up my mind soon because this month is sale month because of the financial year end, plenty bargains to be had. Clothes are expensive, even on sale.
I've checked in with work and will be starting tomorrow. I've got a long list of applications ahead of me : drivers license, tax number, medicare, banking. It would seem that Yes, I was born yesterday.
I had to say goodbye to my windsurfing partner of 9 years today. *sniff*
From Moletedi to Hartebeespoort to Grootdraai to Bronkhorstspruit to Sterkfontein Dam, she's been carrying my windsurfing gear. I had to sell because I'm off to Melbourne soon. Hopefully the new owner will drive the open road with the wind in your roofracks. So long ol' buddy...
Labels: Windsurfing
