Surprise trip to Australia

In possibly the most expensive prank I pulled in 2011, I snuck back to Australia last week. Without telling my mother, sister, or grandparents I flew into Sydney the day of my sister's speech day (high school graduation). I found everyone drinking coffee nearby about 45 minutes before proceedings got underway, and relished the look of surprise on their faces.

The ceremony itself was, as usual, 99.9% other peoples' relatives walking across the stage, but in the end A nabbed four major prizes, so we were all very proud of her! Lunch under the Sydney harbour bridge followed.

That minor subterfuge aside, the rest of the week in the antipodes was spent catching up with friends, mainly at Sydney university, and mainly in pouring rain. Naming names in the usual initial fashion would be boring even by the standards of my blog, so I'll leave it to the photo album! Suffice to say it was terrific to catch up with gazillions of people - only a small handful had the excessive forethought to be out of the country or city at the time. Next time, peoples! You are warned.

I also took a moment to get my father shod in cutting edge vibram toe shoes, which I hope will help him walk under load more efficiently, in preparation for an impending Everest attempt about which he does not yet know... I also visited my ancestral stamping grounds on the coast, and more recently in Newtown - in both cases the situation was soggy with nostalgia, as well as the afore mentioned inclement weather.

All too soon it was time to throw my nerdy teeshirts back into my bag and head for (new) home, back in Pasadena. I was fortunate (my work less so) to have a functioning entertainment system on both legs of the flight - a first!

Photos can be found here: https://picasaweb.google.com/105494084231616659850/Australia2011