triandgiveadam: Down Under Baby

A few days ago I found myself on another long flight over the deep blue sea on my was to Melbourne Australia. The United flight wasn't nearly as nice as the Air New Zealand flight from a few weeks ago. Maybe it has to do with the grumpy American staff on board! I have never been to Australia (as will be the case with most places I travel this year) and the excitement continues to grow. After a disappointing race cancellation in New Zealand I am jacked to toe the line of my 3rd Ironman race of the year. This is the first year the race is being held in the city of Melbourne. The city is known for their attention to detail when it comes to sporting events and I expect this one to be no different.

When I went to check in for my flight in Salt Lake City the agent at the desk asked for my Visa..... I said "Here is my passport" and she she "No.... your Visa sir." I am sure I looked like a deer in headlights as I just stood there with no response hoping the visa request would just go away. Luckily for me they can request a visa right there at the counter. This would NOT have been the case had this been my trip to Brazil. The Brazil Visa is one that needs to be requested ahead of time and is done through the mail. I will need to get right on that as soon as I get home... or maybe my new assistant will have that all handled by the time I arrive home... or wait... I don't have one of those. The flight wasn't booked and there was no one in my row so I had it all to myself. Despite a row of seats all to myself the 'sleeping' wasn't ideal. I landed in Melbourne and went out to meet my host for the week, Patricia.... only I didn't know what she looked like.... I will have to improve my system as the year progresses and hopefully make things easier on myself when I get somewhere. After walking around the terminal and not being found by Patricia I panicked and paid the 6 dollars for 30 minutes of WiFi so I could access Facebook and to catch a glimpse of what she looked like. With no clear pictures of her on FaceBook I texted home using a free WiFi texting app to see if they could make a call to see if Patricia had the pick up time right. Soon after my panic attack Patricia found me and all was well. This was a perfect example of why I need to be more organised with a plan and a back up plan.... especially when down the road I will be in countries where they don't speak english - I am not certain I know what I have signed up for here or if I can pull this off. With the time change from home to here I was very tired despite it being lunch time in Australia. I built my bike first thing then went down for a nice 3 hour nap! MOre to come after the race....