Just back from my first long vacation and I’m trying to get
re-acclimated to work life. With the shutdown, I think everyone’s adjusting. Though
mine has been so much better than many other federal employees. My particular
office is as unaffected as a federal office can be. There have been some
adjustments buy by and large everyone is working and most of us are getting
paid. I thought everyone was because I’ve been getting a paycheck but today,
sitting around the knitting/cigar circle, I found out not everyone has been.
Anyway, I got back on Thursday, which is our Friday, so I’ve
had my weekend to get back into the swing of it and over jet lag. Not much success
in some of those areas, but I’m trying. Today I’ve done very little. I woke up
and ran at 6, then did laundry and tried to stream a movie before church at 10,
but it’s now 6 p.m. and my $45-a-month internet, the slow one, is still only
halfway through the movie. In between, I ate a fabulous brunch in the cafeteria
(oh, how I missed spinach omelets!) and
did the knitting/cigar circle thing. The weather outside has been gorgeous
these two days I’ve been back.
The weather in Australia was gorgeous, too. I spent a little
over two lovely weeks playing from Cairns down to Sydney. Cairns had the Great
Barrier Reef and Daintree Rainforest, then I took the train to Airlie Beach and
spent four or five days sailing to the Whitsundays and flying over the GB Reef.
We did a float plane and landed about 100 kilometers out, seeing the cute
heart-shaped reef before snorkeling the reef there – what an amazing view.
There is so much life under the sea, even if people freak out about the reef
bleaching.
One of the little islands – nothing but a sandbar, really –
was a total bird and turtle sanctuary. We could only walk on a little part of
the beach there to pull on our fins, and the noise from the birds was
incredible. It wasn’t turtle-hatching season so we saw none of that but there
were three on that particular snorkel.
The next two nights I had a little midway stop in
Rockhampton, or maybe it was Rockhaven. Rocky, the locals called it. I’d bought
a rail pass and decided to break up the trip and just picked that one at random.
I got in at midnight, and my AirBnB host picked me up at the train station,
which was really nice. I didn’t do much the next day except walk all day, go to
a movie and get a haircut. That probably sounds boring, but I can’t do any of
that at home, so it was a lovely way to spend a day. Oh, I also ate at Nando’s,
which was a treat.
For the first three stops, I had AirBnBs reserved and did
pretty good. I walked everywhere, averaging probably five miles a day. I
enjoyed eating in the AirBnBs for the most part; I miss cooking. When I went
out, I mostly ate fish and chips because … why not? I love them, and I was on
the beach.
I had a lot of trouble pronouncing things the Australian
way. Too many times, I garnered scorning stares when I said “Cahns” for Cairns.
Apparently it’s “Caans.” Airlie Beach was another touch one. And don’t say “Rockhampton”
(or maybe “Rockhaven”) because you will really be distained. It’s “Rocky.”
Period.
But for all the guff I took for my Ozzie attempts, I could
have given it right back for some stuff that came at me. In Rock, as I was
buying a little something for Riley, the clerk asked me if I was from Texas. I
sounded JUST LIKE a friend of hers from there, she said. I had to giggle. No
one from the Lone Star State would never mistake me for a Texan.
In Brisbane, though, I really did a double take. Someone
asked me if I was Scottish. It wasn’t a joke, either, and the person was a
native English speaker. HOW can someone possibly mistake anything for a
Scottish accent? To me, that’s about the most prominent (not to mention sexiest)
accent there is. I can’t even imitate it. I guess all non-Australian accented
people sound the same to people who have Australian accents. I mean, there is a
world of difference – no, makes that WORLDS of differences – between Texas and
Scotland and me. I’m mean, I’m flattered and amused, but let’s get real. I in
no way sound neither Texan nor Scottish. But thanks for trying.
My trip was great; we’ll see what the financial damage comes
to later. Something came over me and I bought a really cool ground opal ring. I
think that’s what it’s called. It’s dark brown with flecks of green. I also
bought a hat, which I will probably never wear but it was my third trip to Australia
and I looked at them each time and finally caved. The hat was really hard to
get back without squashing it.
Movies were on my agenda, and I saw three in addition to the
flights. “Holmes and Watson” kind of meh. Part of it was I was totally jet
lagged and I fell asleep twice. I might have missed some parts.
In Rocky, both “Instant Family” and “Ralph Breaks the
Internet” were showing and I asked the sales person for advice. She said she’d
heard “Instant Family” was good, but “Ralph is Ralph.” And that was good enough
for me. I love John C. Reilly and the visuals were fantastic. Later, in Sydney,
I saw “Mary Poppins” and it was very much worthy. (So tempted to say ”supercalafragilisticexpialidocius.”)
There were no catch songs this time around and I saw each plot twist coming
down the pike, but that wasn’t bad in this case. And even though the particular
song wasn’t in there, I’ve still had “Let’s Go Fly a Kite” going through my
head ever since.
My friend Linda, whom I stayed with in Sydney, treated me to
an amazing show at the Sydney Opera House. We went to see “The Heights,” which
was playing for only a week or so. Holy cow, it was outstanding. I’m not even sure
I could pick the best actor; they were all spectacular. I didn’t see the
orchestra at first and later realized they were behind the stage. I’ve no idea
how they did it, really. The entire performance was incredible, even if I did
see those plot twists coming, too.
Other Sydney highlights included a walk around Bondi Beach, Cockatoo
Island (site of old prison and ship-building factory) and the Blue Mountains.
On the way back home, I stopped in Amman for two days. One
was dedicated to doctor visits, which was pretty successful. I didn’t know I
had to pay cash so I kept running to ATMs, but the whole thing was a bargain. The
dental visit included X-rays and a massive overhaul of my bite guard, and then
I saw the specialists on my foot and shoulder. He ordered an MRI and get this –
I made an appointment at 4 p.m. for it, but when I realized I had to pay cash,
I walked over there to ask how much it would be so I could get the cash out. I
said I was coming at 4 p.m. but, if they could do it so I could be done by my
2:45 dentist appointment, I could do it then. This was around 1 p.m., and to my
utter shock, they said sure. So I ran and got the cash, which was harder than
it should have been because the bank upstairs from the MRI place didn’t take my
cards, and the next bank two blocks away didn’t have an ATM (something I did
not think possible) and I had to go two more blocks downhill to find one,
meaning I had to run back uphill four blocks to get back to the place!
At 4 p.m., I finished with the dentist and went back to the
doctor’s office (five blocks downhill) to see if I could make a follow-up
appointment for the next day to get my MRI results. I realized going there that
I hadn’t asked the MRI people when the results would be done, although they did
tell me they would get them to the doctor. When I went into the doctor’s, related
that and the lady said, “Oh, they already brought them by. If you want to just
wait you can see the doctor in a minute.” That would never, ever happen in the
U.S. And for all that – the dentist and fixins, what amounted to two appointments
with the orthopedic surgeon and an MRI, I paid less than $500 AND got the
results right away. Why our health care is so bad I just do not understand.
The result of the MRI is the surgery was fine except he did
not repair my bicep, which is still torn. The new guy said he would have fixed
it but recommended right now an anti-inflammatory and more range-of-movement
exercises. That’s fine with me; I mostly just wanted to know I hadn’t
re-screwed it up again.
I was supposed to go to a physio the next day but figured I
already know the exercises so I talked to the concierge at the hotel and hired
a driver to take me to the site of Jesus’ baptism. That was really cool. The
Jordan River has shifted through the years due to dams being built, so the
actual site is a dry spot off the river now. It completed my trifecta of the
sites of Jesus’ birth, baptism and crucifixion.
And now I’m back. Really no idea what’s going on at work. Since
I was in Erbil before, it’s been six weeks since I’ve been here. I’ve pretty
much stayed on top of emails but haven’t really done a deep dive into anything.
I learned I am supposed to be “bidding” on my next assignment but I should get
that fixed quickly. People are coming back from the shutdown now, though, and
it’s (rightfully) a low priority. There are people with way bigger issues than
me.
