Melbourne Adventure | Part 1, Getting to Melbourne

Hey Everyone,
Well, so begins the telling of my adventure to Melbourne and back.

Before I started upon my adventure, I made my last post, Orchids In Flower, whilst sitting in the Brisbane Domestic airport, and I was most impressed by the speed of their free internet.  Little did I know, this was the beginning to an experience.

My plane was leaving from gate 30, and I was seated in seat 16 F... however, during my flustered and excited trip from my seat in the waiting area, across the tarmac and into the plane I managed to convince myself that no, I wasn't in seat 16 F, I was in seat 30 F (I got the gate number mixed in).  So here was I, sitting in the window seat, having made myself comfortable and gotten my book at the ready when a couple walked onto the plane, looked at me, looked at each other, looked back at me, then started whispering furtively to one another... when they said that I was sitting in their seat I apologised but said with full conviction that I was certain my ticket stated I was in that seat... yeah, I very quickly got out my ticket to double check and noticed my mistake.  I apologised profusely and shuffled up the aisle to my PROPER seat... hehe oops.  Now in my defence I must remind you all that I'd had MINIMAL sleep for the past two weeks and had undertaken a gruelling 3 hour long chemistry exam, then 3 hours worth of Geography orals, one of which was mine, that went for 10 minutes.

Having found my seat, the person in front of me very promptly decided to lean their chair back ALL THE WAY, then lean on it really heavily so it went back even further, so lets just say, I spent the next 2 and a half hours plotting this individuals slow and painful death.

However luckily I had the wonderful "The Scent of Scandal", a book about the smuggling of Phragmipedium kovachii to keep me fairly well occupied.  And I plan on finishing it off in the next couple of weeks and telling you all about my favourite bits and what I liked about it... I guess you'd call that a review :).

Thankfully, the plane finally started its decent and soon I would be with Mum and Dad.  Having landed myself and the other occupants of the plane walked across the tarmac, into a dingy tin shed-cum-walkway and up we went towards what I was expecting to be a nice, clean arrivals area of the building.  YEAH, NO!  Up the walkway we went towards the building then just before we reached it the path took a sharp right turn and spat us out into what could not be more lavishly described than as a big cage.  It was an area with a tin roof high above, with bars for walls and a one way spinny-door-thing that was also made of bars, with an old beaten up conveyor belt in one corner... yes folks, this was the Tiger Airways arrivals area... for those Aussies that read this, you will understand, yes, sadly, I experience Tiger... and I vow, never again.  The place was freezing cold (i'd have to say, the 2 and a half hours travel resulted in a drop of 20 degrees and roughly a drop of 50%-80% humidity).

Once I made my way out of the "spinny-door-thing" I was then greeted by a very sleepy dad (I arrived at 11:45pm) and we then drove to the caravan park, while I slept in anticipation of my up-coming adventure the following day.

Happy Gardening,
Michael

And a Photo just for fun: Unknown Encyclia, I'm trying to find out the proper name for this, it is a species.