It’s been a funny day today. Feels like we had nothing to do but took us all day to do it …
We had a bunch of conflicting things that needed doing today that were all essential to getting on board the Grand Princess, but all seemed to be in conflict with each other.
Firstly we needed to take Casper home. We only had him for the two days and it was time to say goodbye. The problem was that Casper needed to go back to the airport (other side of town) and then we needed to get all the way back to Port Melbourne to check out of 139 Beach Street by 10.00, and yet we couldn’t check in our luggage until an unknown (not yet advised) time. And then we needed to get onboard the Grand Princess around 12.30.
I need a project plan and a schedule 🙁
So we took the ”divide and conquer” approach.
I was awake just after 6.00am, so I got up and did all of the required administration to ensure that I could be my best possible self, then fired up Casper and set Google Maps for the airport.
Fuelled up on the way at the grand price of $2.13/litre and dropped him back home before 8.00am.
All up we did about 350km in Casper. Yesterday’s trip to Portsea looked something like this.
Fortunately the shuttle bus to the airport was waiting, so I was at MEL just after 8.00am.
Showed my National Seniors card and tried to look old and frail – a task that seems to be getting easier by the day – and I was granted a senior’s ticket on the Skybus.
For some silly reason I thought that the bus would be empty, but it was as full as a state school hat rack – filled with selfish people who believed that their bag deserved a seat even though it hadn’t bought a ticket.
I finally found a seat upstairs next to a guy who was rather large … er, he had a considerable surface area. He was certainly taking up all of his seat and more than his fair share of mine too.
What was scary though was that he looked a bit like Kim Jong-un.
I was trying to figure out if he really was Mr Jong-un, while every fibre in the logical and rational part of my brain was telling me that it was unlikely that Kim Jong-un was actually in Australia, and if he was he would be unlikely to be on the Skybus travelling to the city.
The other thing that kept me occupied during the trip was that the guy sitting in front of me spent the whole 22 minutes trying to get his phone to connect to his Apple Airpods. He finally gave up …
There is a story in the Bible – Genesis 11: 1-9 where God disrupted the Babylonian’s building of the Tower of Babel by confusing the languages of the people so they could not understand each other.
I have to say that the Skybus felt a bit like I was there – everyone was talking different languages and it was impossible to understand anything that anyone was saying. At least I had the voices in my head to listen to that were speaking English …
We arrived in Melbourne CBD at Southern Cross Station and disembarked and I went in search of the place to buy my tram ticket back to Port Melbourne.
I tried the ”old and frail” trick again, but the tram guy was just to smart to fall for that trick 🙁 So I had to pay the full adult fare of $6.00 for a ticket and $4.60 for the ride.
I braved the traffic and waited to board the tram – something that I can’t recall ever doing before. Standing in the middle of a busy road on a little platform waiting for the tram to come rattling along.
Tram 109 finally arrived and I was back at Port Melbourne before 9.30am – a very tide effort if I do say so myself, because I wasn’t expecting to get back until after 10.00.
We gave the AirBNB a final thorough search to ensure nothing had been left behind; texted Dawn to say thanks and goodbye, and then took our luggage down to the cruise terminal and dropped it off.
So much achieved and it was only 10.15, but we couldn’t board until 12.30pm.
Nothing to do but go for a walk and have coffee at a little Italian place just down the road that was recommended to us, then a nice walk with MBW along the waterfront.
MBW likes jetties, so we found one at Port Melbourne and had a look.
I suspect that I am going to be expected to build a jetty in our backyard sometime soon 🙁
We walked back to the cruise terminal and it was ready for boarding. Because MBW is a Platinum member – I’m just a bottom feeder Ruby member – we both got priority boarding … along with about 600 other “special” members.
Onboard, and I have already broken my promise to myself that I will not over-indulge. Lunch was a three course meal with coffee followed by ice-cream up on level 14.
On the bright side we walk everywhere on the ship and I am up to 15,000 steps and 16 flights of stairs already, and it is not even 4.30pm.
After some pretty ordinary weather in Melbourne over the last couple of days, the city really turned on some warm weather and sunny blue skies this afternoon.
The sail away party starts soon – between 5.00 and 5.30 I think, and it will be nice to get out on the deck and take some photos.
That’s about it. If I don’t get this published in the next 30 minutes then the ship will have sailed – both figuratively and literally – and we will have entered a dark and scary place where there is no internet.
That’s about it. 4.30pm and MBW is dressed and ready for dinner. I’m fairly certain that if I keep eating at this pace, when I get back I will be twice the man I am now. And that’s not a good thing 🙁
TTFN
#G&KDoNZ2022