The splendour of the world we live in today never ceases to amaze me. Being flexible and using what is available to your advantage is key to our lifestyle. For instance take what we did Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.
Sunday morning Graham and I wake up in a hotel room in Sydney. It is an in-between-addresses-place, which basically just serves as a place to repack our suitcases and sleep. We get dressed and wander across the road to get some breakfast.
We are travelling on by train to Melbourne early tomorrow morning, and have this in-between-day to spend as we like. After some chatting, we talk about what we feel like doing today as the current weather cancels out the planned trip to the beach. It turns out, we both are not in the mood for sightseeing. Graham is longing to get started on a newly commissioned design job, and I need to sort out some private banking stuff before Monday morning hits Europe.
In order to do this comfortably, we need a working space for Graham to spread his drawings and a good internet connection for me. The hotel room – apart from being rather dark and gloomy – doesn’t provide either. When booking the place this wasn’t our goal of course, otherwise we would have made sure it did. So, where to then? A library….that’s it! Light, space and free internet. A glance in the good old Yellow Pages tells us there is one at walking distance; a quick phone call tells us they are open till 4pm. Perfect! We hop back to the room to get our stuff and off we go.
Afterwards, in the next door café, we sit down to evaluate the afternoon. The idea was great, the time span too short. Graham barely got started and actually needs a day in a stretch to really get into the design before he can email it off. I could do with that as well. Due to overnight servicing of the internet banking facilities in Europe, I didn’t have access to any of my accounts, and as a result didn’t manage to get my things sorted out. As this is limited by time, we need to take appropriate action.
We calculate. Monday morning in Australia will still give us time to take care of things before it is Monday morning in Europe. Don’t you just LOVE the time-zone-thing! A new plan forms. Moving to the overnight train will give us the day we need, the library is open from 10am till 7pm, we’ll sleep on the train instead of in a hotel and will still get to Melbourne on time for our conference call at 11am on Tuesday morning. That’s it. I get on the phone to book the train tickets and get the summer promotion price of A$69 each, that had been sold out for the day train (A$114 each). Wow, is that a bonus or what!
Monday morning, after checking out and putting our luggage in the hotel storage, we go for a hearty breakfast, then on to the library. All day we focus on getting as much done a possible. We knock off at 5:30 pm, and dine on sushi whilst evaluating our day. Graham is very frustrated with AutoCad, I am happy with my banking, the accommodation in Melbourne, and what I have done within my creative project.
We pick up our luggage from the hotel and wander down to Central Station, where we drop them off at check-in. We while the time away with a drink at the little café deli, and buy a couple of sandwiches and water to take on the train.
I shoot some footage as the train arrives. We install ourselves in our seats. I totally LOVE that about train travel, by the way. You just install yourself in your seat and that’s it. No hassle as in flying like: can’t have this on your lap, have to switch of that. We laugh and joke around as the train glides off into the night.
The Countrylink trains in Australia are very comfortable and above all quiet. Graham starts off in some new book and I watch a movie. The sleeping-in-a-chair turns out to be a bit rough; I’m not used to sitting up so straight. I wake up at 4am from people boarding and I notice that Graham has turned down the back of the seat. Hmmm… I suddenly feel very silly; of course…duh! Sleepy and all, I manage to find the knob on the frame somewhere. I smile to myself and glide off to sleep in a much more comfortable position.
At 7:00am the main lights come on, and the voice over the speaker announces our arrival in thirty minutes. I snuggle up to Graham’s arm, trying to wake up. We arrive at Southern Cross, gather our stuff and disembark the train. Good Morning Melbourne! With two hours to spare, we sit down at a café with a nice terrace overlooking Spencer Street and have a coffee and tea to start off our day. The time passes by pleasantly, with Graham writing in his journal, and me writing down the dream I had on the train.
The taxi drops us off; we check in to our apartment for the week and familiarize ourselves with the room. We reorganize the furniture to our liking – the kitchen table set up so that we can work at opposite ends, the small table next to it, to pile our stuff on. Much better! The sofa goes to the space by the window preciously occupied by the kitchen table; the view being a brick wall nothing is lost there.
While Graham unpacks, I stroll down to the IGA to get some groceries. When I get back, Graham has installed himself with his laptop and headset, and is checking the connection for the upcoming call. The kettle has just boiled; I put tea in the strainer and fill our travel teapot with water. Then I unpack as well. The bags fit on top of the wardrobes, very nice. Feeling a bit unnerved, I sit down on the bed to meditate for 20 minutes, to ground myself again. At 11am, we are online and on the call. Life as usual, only 1000 kilometres from where we were yesterday. Don’t you just love it! I certainly do.
Follow your heart, Cheta Urmila
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