Holiday Blog 1

Darwin. For the fifth time. Weather - warm. Always.
So what is new? I was surprised how much looked familiar as a I roamed the CBD while HE set up for the workshop. All those techie bits in the luggage nearly brought us undone as evidently lengths of cable in the carry on luggage are a no-no. Guess I'll have to find more room in my case for it amongst the clothes and things. HE had a huge bag but it was already full of cable covers and microphones and video cameras and stuff. Along with the undies and toothbrush which is all a man needs.
So we've seen the sights before (except for the crocodiles which don't appeal to me), but I really enjoyed the day. Why? People.
First of all there was Raphael. In the concourse at the airport. I thought he was a small coffee stall and then when he asked if I knew about Manuka honey I thought he was going to give me some to taste. But no, he ended up defoliating my wrist and smoothing it with some sweet concoction all the time charming me with his South American accent. Price? 1.60 sounded good. Oh, one hundred and sixty. No thanks but have e nice day. It was a bit early in the morning for communication of any human sort (before 8 o'clock) but we joked over his phrase 'woomans and guys' and I coached him to say 'wimmin' and we wished  each other a nice day as we parted.
Then there was Umberto. He was the crew manager on the plane. He greeted me as Mrs Badger and I assured him I was Glenys. I looked at his name badge and attempted a less than Aussie pronunciation of his name and it worked! We were friends. He came to check on us during the flight and used our first names. Did he remember every person on the flight or just us because we had risked connection?
Next came Anton. Two taxis of Flinders staff (plus me as hanger onner) piled out of the cars in front of the Hilton Hotel. There was Anton with a trolley to help us.  A couple of folk looked dubious and shrugged him off. We showed him all our stuff and he went and got another trolley and hung around while we checked in and then delivered our cases to our room. Along the way we chatted about whether we could play Chopsticks together on the grand piano in the foyer and other bits and pieces.
Finally. Food. What to eat? Well Mitchell street seemed full of eateries so we headed off. We were standing outside one place trying to work out the Tuesday $10 pizza deal and the burger and ale (Something Yak) deal when along came Leah, bright and chirpy and explained it all, even taking us to the bar to try the said Yak (Ewww) and brokering a soft drink exchange. We ordered, she told us she was from South Aus and assured us it was too hot to be bitchy. She wafted past like a breath of fresh air as we ate and made sure all was well. And it was.
Readers of this blog (I think there are about 8 of you now!) know I'm a hopeless tourist. So what does it for me? People. Oh and maybe food, but that's another story.