Jetstar

Today was a travel day. We went for an early morning walk around the hotel grounds before breakfast, beating the heat, then went back to the room to shower and pack. We had to be out of the room by 10 a.m., but the bus to the airport didn't leave until 11, so we killed time for much of the morning.

The flight to Sydney was on Jetstar, the budget version of Qantas. There was no snack or drink service unless you bought things from the cart. So we had eaten sandwiches before we got on the flight.

But because our flight had been booked as a Qantas flight, we were surprised when the flight attendant told us we each had a credit of $15 AUS. It bought me a beer and some cheese and crackers, and Mary was able to get wine.

We were surrounded by infants and small children in our part of the plane, so there was lots of crying to punctuate our flight.

The time change made it nearly 7 p.m. when we arrived at our Sydney hotel. Mary had scoped out a highly rated Asian restaurant just down the block from our hotel, but when we got there, it was closed for renovation. So much for that.

We joined the rest of the group in a brew pub attached to the hotel. The place was crowded, but there was one long table with just one, lone Australian guy sitting alone with his beer. Our tour leader asked if we could join him. I don't think he realized there would be 10 of us.

The guy's name was Duncan. He has a Ph.D. in microbiology and lives/works in Canberra as a bureaucrat in the Australian equivalent of our FDA. Something to do with food safety. He was in town for a meeting, and had been anticipating a quiet, lonely night in the bar. He seemed quite thrilled to be surrounded by Yanks.