- Arrived in Australia

Brisbane, QLD - Australia

The eagle has landed. I just arrived in Brisbane. In 24 hours I'll be in Koroit.

I'll admit, I'm a bit jet-lagged, tired, dizzy and my eyes hurt. Due to my jet-lagged state my prose might not be as eloquent as usual . . .

I did want to mention a little bit of travel critic info . . .
Many of you may not realize Delta has just started flying to Australia. Due to the fact I had a pile of Delta frequent flyer miles, I decided to spend a mere 140,000 miles for a round trip on Delta. The 2 main cities one would arrive at from the USA are Sydney and Brisbane. I like to fly into Brisbane because from there I can catch a puddle-jumper flight to Cunnamulla, then drive to Koroit. At this time there is no flight from Sydney to Cunnamulla. Delta only flies into Sydney, so I needed to purchase a Sydney - Brisbane round trip on another carrier.

Yesterday my Delta connections became severly screwed-up within the USA, resulting in a bit of tension and over an hour on the phone and getting rerouted through Cincinnati . . . and barely making it to my flight in LA. The flight from LA to Sydney was on a Boeing 777, which is a wonderful airplane. However, Delta's service was rather poor. Food is not really a big deal to me, particularly on a plane . . . and to say that airplane food was bad is like, well, like saying airplane food is bad, like saying the sky is blue . . . however, this food was not just bad, it was terrible, ghastly, inedible.

A 777 is one of those nice new planes that has personal video screens for everyone - even those of us who sit in the cheap seats. Yet the selection of entertainment choices provided by Delta was nothing short of pathetic. I did watch "Little Miss Sunshine", which was a wonderful movie - so not absolutely everything was terrible, but their selection falls far short of the selection offered by their competition.

I noticed they offered a few things from HBO like reruns of "Curb Your Enthusiasm". However, they had the nerve to charge $2 to view each selection from HBO. Larry David does make me laugh, but not that much.

I'm not a drinker, but they charged for mixed drinks and as far as I know, their competition does not.

If you plan to be flying across the south pacific, I would recommend either Air New Zealand or Qantas and that you skip Delta.

Even though some details of the trip here were not ideal, I am happy to be here and am looking forward to getting out to the mine and seeing what beautiful rocks that excavator will unearth.

A note on the excavator, unearthing and mining in general -
Without going off on too much of a preachy metaphysical ramble I wanted to share a few thoughts. (Keep in mind I am jet-lagged & dizzy, but not quite delirious - so these words may not flow as smoothly as they should) I believe we are all connected - to each other, to the earth, to the universe - the whole thing. . . everything is connected . . . (that's one of the reasons you should be good and do the right thing, because when you do something bad or hurt someone or something else you are also hurting yourself - I digress). In some cases it may seem like mining is raping and pillaging the earth. In some cases it is. I have a great deal of respect and gratitude for what mother nature has made available to me. To me it seems nature has placed some incredibly beautiful objects in my path - I am simply picking them up and sharing them with the world, not taking or robbing, but celebrating. Those are just a few thoughts. . . if you have any questions about more of the details, feel free to ask.

My eyes are killing me . . .

. . . more later when I get out to Cunnamulla
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