Back to top

Trip to Melbourne

After 4 plane trips, 2 capital cities, $150 worth of taxi rides, 24 hours away and very little sleep, I am home from my business trip to Melbourne. The trip went quite well. Some highlights were the flights - we flew with Virgin and it was really quite good. The crew were young and enthusiastic, with a great sense of humour, and interacting with the passengers during the flight. The Boeing 737-700 and 737-800 aircraft were very smooth (if a tad cramped) and overall good planes to travel in. My business associate (and mate!) Brad also quite enjoyed the light hearted and relaxed feel to the flights, especially since once on the ground there was very little time to relax.

Here's what we packed into only 24 hours!
- 8:30 flight from coffs to Sydney
- Quick breakfast and a great terrorist impersonation as I wandered around suspiciously taking photos in a highly secure airport, before boarding for Melbourne with a very suspicious looking case equipt with a GPS tracking system with a very explosive-looking lead-acid battery and a very timer-looking PDA and a very nervous bunch of X-ray security guys wondering if our story was really true.
- Flew straight over the Mt Kosi... Kozi... um Kosciuszko? Er... the highest mountain in Australia. It was strange to look down and see a big white area of mountains surrounded by green 'normal' country!
- Touch down in Melbourne, the worlds ugliest city - and I should know - I've been to four large cities. Oh yeah, I've been around.
- Taxi ride with a useless driver in a car which was falling apart
- Meeting with Linfox (One of the largest transport companies in Australia)
- Taxi ride with another useless driver in another car that was falling apart
- Meeting with Mack Trucks Australia, got a photo of the Mack Dog, who tried to pee on my camera.
- Taxi drive with a more professional but just as imported driver in a better kept and newer (but still a ford...) taxi to the airport, for flight to Sydney.
- Slept in a shoebox-sized room (Formule1 - should have known there was a problem when they couldn't even spell formula) with a shower curtain that was precisely the same length as the curtain rail only when it was at full stretch, hence it was useless.
- Back on the plane to fly to Coffs at 7:30
-Touchdown in coffs at 8:30 only 24 hours after taking off there....
- Meetings with various coffs harbour businesses
- Got terrorised by a unmarked semi-trailer carrying a wide load (over size) and being driven by a homicidal maniac, also passing another homicidal maniac terrorising the traffic coming the other way, while driving home exhausted.


Heres some useless stuff I learnt:
- The Boeing 737-700 and 737-800 aircraft had these strange wingtips. The wingtip increase the craft's ability to carry a full load in hot weather, increase cruise speed and altitude and reduces fuel consumption. It also comes in handy for hanging extra bags on and for passengers to grip, should the planes ever be used by any african airline when they approach 100 years old.
- Virgin have better looking stewardesses than Qantas.
- The temperature outside the plane was -59deg C at cruise altitude of 12km (40,000ft)
- Terrorism may be cheaper if you fly Virgin, but the drinks are dearer.
- It takes longer to get a taxi from MIA (an appropriate name for Melbourne International Airport) to anywhere useful in Melbourne than it does to fly from Sydney to MIA.
- The hallway to the Regional Express terminal seems even longer when you get to the end and realise the Virgin terminal is the other way (after having de-shoed to pass the x-ray gangsters)
- John Deer have very little lawn or farmland yet have more tractors than the eskimos have icecubes. Someone should tell them about 'Sir Walter'
- Qantas mightn't have as good-looking stewardesses as Virgin, but by the looks of their stewardesses they probably have more virgins...

Entries

Love that camry
Read this post
This post was a long time coming
Grafton Web Design
Youtube Bwahahah
New website
CeBit done and dusted!
Transferring files with FAST
Hmmmfff
Politics. Climate Change. Who can we trust?
Kids at Jaca
Jaca Float
Exciting times
The honeymoon is over!
Dual screen OK!
New reality show - action and tears aplenty!
Ubuntu 6.10 Compiz with cheap Nvidia card
Malware Burn removal
ITRiver has moved, and why we all speak Hsilgne (pronounced sil-gon-ee)
The Return of the Paparazzi
Finally footage of the mud volcano in Indonesia
Aren't we little rays of sunshine?
New ideas
The Ring
The Saga of the Ring...
The Ring
Great day at the beach, Manta Ray agrees.
Ahhh! No login screen!
Policies & Disclaimer
The world is amazing sometimes. Parents beware.
What's ITRiver?
Aching and lonely. I should write a country song...
Ecko's the Gecko's echo!
Migrating simplePHPblog to WordPress
About Me
About Me
Wedding plans starting to come together... still no ring though :(
Im getting married!
Im going on a time machine!
Big ideas
Back again!
Soccer Gallery
Happy Birthday to me!
Microsoft free zone!
Slack attack, Sorry!
Happy Birthday baby!
Gunners on fire with carnival clean sweep
Dylan's Soccer Draw
Can't talk now, seeing double!
Read slowly please
Nuts, anybody?
She's mine all mine!
Awww, they are SOOOO CUUUTE!
Off to Brissy
Photos
I've been on the wrong planet!
Baby - It's 3am I must be lonely
Quick call-in.
Distracted...
Long time no blog, again
I am SO slack
Sick, tired and internet crawling. Id rather be fishing.
Sooooozies new blog, with cuuute photos!
No more baby sisters! What a relief!
Pic of the day
Picture of the day
Mt Warning. - Take the name literally. I didn't...
Christmas lights cause traffic mayhem, homeowners honked at
Blog is back!
Indy!
Website wants to stay
Thirsty Merc rocked
Long weekend
Parents Poem
So um, can anyone see which way is east?
Happy Birthday, Chrystal!
Pic of the day
What a weekend
Home again
Sideways glances get you lost!
Thought for the day:
Lonely
Trip to Melbourne
He doesnt live near me, he lives in Melbourne
Business trip to Melbourne
Photo of the day
Photo of the day
Quarter Century
Photo of the day
Uncle Bill's Farm
Finally!
Lily Oh Lily Oh Lily!
Im an Auntie!
Bored.
Tis the colour of the sun, my son!
Fine print is fine, if it's there at all...
New car is en route
Ooooh one day when I'm spoiling myself
Another bloody Camry driver?
The question on everyone's lips - answered!
No beemer this time...
My first BMW, maybe
Nice one, QLDers!
Ah, humour comes in all types, bro. Word ta' ya' motha.
Off to Hard and Soft School...
Yes it's a strange idea...
Headed for the unthinkable - Divorce
Music for the emotions...
Dr_Snapid's Blog is on the wire.
ITRiver closed from 1st Sept to 9th Sept