Last getaway

Took two days off last week to get old in Perth. Oh, man. They had this giant yellow orb in the sky. I think it was the sun, but it’s been so long that I’ve seen it that I couldn’t be sure.

And the sky was BLUE. Who knew?

Oh, it was a welcome getaway, and my last one from Guangzhou. I’ve only got one weekend left, and there is a spring party at work so I’ll go to that and not anywhere out of town.

The flight was nonstop. I watched three movies – “Creed,” “Mockingjay 2” and “Star Wars” – and napped a little. Really, since before moving here I never thought to visit Perth before, the nonstop-ness of the flight was the attraction. It was around $625 and seven and a half hours – not bad at all.

Perth itself is a small, walkable city and I walked and walked. It was fantastic. The following day, I went over to the beach and wandered around there and just hung out. Read For Whom the Bell Tolls and just enjoyed being in not Guangzhou.

Saturday, I went snorkeling. I’d hoped to dive but my flight was set to leave at 8:30 on Sunday morning and that’s not enough time between so I had to settle for a snorkel. And it was amazing. I saw a stingray that was about three meters across. It scared me to death, honestly, but it was just meandering its own way.

On the second snorkel of the day, I was a little bit away from my snorkel buddy and saw this big thing move. I looked over and I swear I thought it was a manatee. I realized it was moving too fast and was too white to be one and realized it was a sea lion! I surfaced to find my buddy to point it out, and it was right beside him. He could have pet the thing!

When we got back to the boat, though, and I asked him how close he got to the sea lion, he said, “What sea lion?” He’d been facing the other direction and completely missed it. It was so very amazing.

And now I’m back at work. The flight back was uneventful, but I hit my China fatigue at the airport, when I was back in the line and every person in front of me was checking multiple bags. Even though I’d arrived early, it took forever to get to the counter and by the time I was checked in, I had 30 minutes to get through customs and security. I ran, but there were no shortcuts for people who were late. I finally  got to security and an airport worker came through asking for people on the flight. I identified myself and she said, I kid you not, “Why are you so late?” and I wanted to throttle her. I wasn’t late. Everyone else was super slow, especially the group of three women that completely unpacked their suitcases at the counter, blocking anyone else from checking in. AARGH.

But it’s two weeks left and this week is going to be super, super busy. I pack out on Thursday but I also have a presentation tomorrow night, and another on Thursday night. They were my last shots at OT, so I took them.  As soon as I hit U.S. soil, I take a pay cut and I wanted to alleviate any downturn in the salary. April and May are going to be awfully expensive.

Speaking of expensive, one tour I did Down Under was the Perth Mint, where they refine gold and silver coins. We watched the guy pour a gold bar, which was fascinating. Apparently the gold they use for the bar is poured and hardened every hour, and it’s been the same gold for some long length of time that I’ve forgotten.

I couldn’t afford anything in the mint store, but I did weigh myself and learned that should I ever come across Midas and shake his hand, I would be worth $3.1 billion dollars.