The trip is officially underway. Japan here we come.

Eventually.

Firstly, to anyone actually reading this, let me apologise for all of the inevitable typo's. I'll be typing these blog posts up on my trusty Eeepc 901, which is fine except for the fact that the entire keyboard isn't much bigger than a drink coaster, and my fingers aren't what you'd call dainty. I've already used delete key more than all of the other keys combined and I'm only on the 3rd paragraph. I'll hopefully improve.

It doesn't help that I'm typing this up in the pitch black darkness, as the rest of the clan has gone to bed.

A mostly uneventful day today, which is unsurprising for a day of travel.

Set off at about 1pm, with Veronica's parents driving us to Broadmeadow train station. Then followed the mind numbingly boring trip to Central station, then a quick disembark, a powerwalk through the shady looking crowd that usually inhabit train stations, and onto a local service to the Domestic Terminal Station.

A fantastic lack of signposts, maps and wifi led me to the information booth, so I could find out how the hell to get out of there, and how the hell to get to our hotel. A lovely attendant described the journey as, and I quote “Oh that's easy hun! Just go out these doors, walk for 2 minutes till the first traffic lights, take a right at the lights and walk a little further, and your hotel is right there. 3 minutes walk, tops!”.

Lets just say she's no longer in my good books.



After walking for at least 5 minutes, out into the rain, we came to the first traffic lights. Turned right. Walked a little further and instead of finding the hotel, we found the end of the damn domestic runway. Had we followed her instructions we'd be on the tarmac.

After walking around the block and away from the planes, Veronica eventually found someone to ask who pointed us in the right direction. After another 10 minutes of walking in the rain we found the hotel.


Spoke to the chap behind the desk who was so cheerful that it appeared he either hated his job, his life or both. We got the key to our shoebox and went upstairs to dump the bags

The F1 hotels are very cheap, but there is an excellent reason for it. Our room has a majestic view of the carpark and adjoining wing of the hotel. The tv and clock radio are glued down (seriously, who is going to steal a 34cm CRT TV these days?) and the bathroom is so small you could shower while sitting on the toilet (which isn't such a bad idea now that I think about it!).


After dumping the bags we went next door to the McDonalds for dinner. The McDonalds at Mascott has cool automated terminals replacing the humans at the registers (unless you choose to use them). Unfortunately the humans are still responsible for making the food. Our burgers appeared to have been assembled from quite some considerable distance.

After reassembling and eating our dinner, it was onto Krispy Kreme for desert (yes it is still open here :-D). We went back to the hotel and I grabbed the laptop, and we went back to Maccas to make use of their free wifi, and skyped with Veronica's parents to say goodnight to Isabelle. After that, home to the hotel to bed.

Alarm is set for 3:45am tomorrow morning. Seriously. I should probably get some sleep.