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Sat, 1 October 2011

Feeling like such a wreck today.

On Wednesday, John got me to the airport late! … and then the silly check-in lady charged me $200US for being just 4kg or 10 pounds over the weight limit. Apparently if I had two bags under 23 kg or 50 pounds each, it would have been free! I am going to write a complaint to the airline, as I believe their pricing was way over the top, especially seeing Quantas was going to charge me $20 for the excess. Anyway, I was a bit flustered by the time I finally got on the plane.

My first flight from Kansas City to San Francisco was fine. I sat next to a shy American guy who kept looking at me like he wanted to talk but just didn’t know what to say. I wasn’t going to help him out as I just wanted time out to think and pray and read my book. Thank goodness there were no stops on the way. I was just so sure we would stop somewhere because I did on the way over to Kansas City. I was wrong.

Well San Francisco airport was a nice airport. To kill some time, I sat in a Mexican bar/restaurant where I bought a plate of salad. Weirdly enough, it had goats cheese and some unfamiliar pieces of something that looked like the flesh of a pear but tasted bitter and sappy, so it obviously was not a pear?!? Only God knows what it was! The rest of the salad was nice. I don’t like goats cheese. It smells off and was milky and mushy. Yuck! First and last time, that’s for sure!

The flight from San Francisco to Sydney was long, being 14 hours, and cold because something went wrong with the air system and it got stuck on cold air. The captain kept apologising for the freezing cold temperatures. I was glad I wore my IHOP hoodie and raincoat on top! I also wore jeans and cowboy boots. I would have frozen if I had worn thongs (Americans call them flip-flops and incidentally thongs to them are g-strings - hahaha!), like on my trip back from Mexico to Los Angeles to Australia.

I was also spewing because I had my earphones tuned to channel three for the TV/Movie screen because I thought this was the only channel associated with the visual screen. This channel switched between French and Spanish the whole time, so it was really frustrating watching the movies without being able to fully understand the language. About an hour before my flight ended, I found out that channel one was also for the visual screen and was the English! Urrrgggh, what a duffa I am!

Unlike previous flights, I think the freezing cold air prevented b/o and so I didn’t seem to smell at all. That was nice. I sat next to a guy and girl on the flight who got talking to eachother and swapped details. They had a lot in common with drinking and sports and travel. I’m glad I didn’t tap into conversation with either. Their alcohol/clubbing talk put me off.

By the time I got to Sydney, I was feeling really tired, but surprisingly better than I expected. I only managed to sleep maybe five hours at most on the plane. The thing that hurt the most was my gums. I realised I had been chewing gum pretty much continuously for over 24 hours! One thing I really appreciated about Sydney airport was the big sign that said “G’day Welcome Home”. Sydney airport was huge. To get from the international side to the domestic side required us to queue up in a very long line and board buses (at no cost), which took us all the way around. I think we waited there for at least 30 to 40 minutes. One worker tried to get us to pay $5 to take the train there to avoid the waiting time, but I knew I had six hours to kill at the airport, so I wasn’t in any hurry! The wind was cold in Sydney. It was an overcast sky outside. Sydney is two hours ahead of Perth and the queue was outside. I think we arrived about 6.30 am. My flight left after midday!

The plane trip home wasn’t too bad. It didn’t seem to bother me that the plane was delayed over an hour. I just went and sat in McDonalds and ate a wrap value meal. It is so weird when you realise American McDonalds has so much more to offer with regard to foods and drinks available. Just on Tuesday night, Ariane bought Brooke and I a caramel frappe, which is an iced coffee. That doesn’t exist in Australian McDonalds!

The first flight from Sydney to Perth was alright. I sat next to a big stocky blonde guy, who I didn’t feel like engaging in conversation with. He was friendly enough in saying hi and offering me his milk when I asked for coffee. I realised when the flight was over that he had a carton of cigarettes in his bag. Kind of glad we didn’t have any conversations.

During the flight I watched a movie about a blonde surfy girl who had her arm bitten off by a shark. I’m sure it was probably the only Christian movie, which was a real surprise to me. It started with some singers singing “blessed be the name of the Lord” and had the scripture “I can do all things that strengthen me” in it. The Christians referred to in the movie were involved in missions work in Thailand and Mexico, which was cool. The main actor who had her arm bitten off didn’t come across as a devout Christian, but played her role well.

After the movie, I started thinking about the friends I may never seen again and how Brooke had texted me in the San Francisco airport to say that she was crying in the prayer room. It made me feel sad and I wept for a while.

Finally got home to Perth to see Julz in a fancy suit looking rich. I felt deeply grieved after talking to her and listening to her rattle on and on and on about her world of sin. I pretended to sleep in the car, and hid the tears falling from my face. She didn’t even realise how upset she made me feel. How could six months worth of prayer not appear t have had any impact on her? I guess we don’t know the latent effects of prayer. I just couldn’t wait to leave her presence. I haven’t had my phone on all day – don’t even want to turn it back on!

I got up early and made it to the prayer room in Fremantle. It was small with just eight people. The old guy (Graham) that seemed to be leading asked me to pray in tongues softly as he said my volume was distracting (fair enough). I had a go at praying on the microphone. I prayed a long-winded loose prayer based on Ephesians 1. I didn’t care that it sounded jumbled to me or what others thought. Funny that. I did feel the presence of God come over me – it was lovely. Then I said g’day to the five guys and two girls there. I told them I’d come to their church service tomorrow and that I felt it was just time to move on.

Then i went and got my car washed (for $17 on Stirling Hwy), bought cleaning gear (about $20) and a new toilet mat and bath mat ($15) for the upstairs bathroom. I spent over an hour cleaning the bathroom. Will probably continue cleaning it tomorrow. Then I sorted through lots of clothes I no longer need and went to the op shop in Selby street and gave them away, along with my suitcase! I bought some fresh fruit and juice, went home, opened all my mail and played with the dogs and ate some peas from the garden. I was too late to go to the library to check emails and stuff, so just chilled at home.

It’s been really nice not having email, facebook, etc… or a phone to bother me!