Sydney, Armidale, Temora and Sydney 27 November to 1 December

The early morning flight to Armidale out of Sydney is very early so I opted for the 0900 flight and arrived in Armidale an hour later. Michael was there to meet me and we had breakfast in the Mall before I checked into the motel and he went off to work for a while. After lunch we did a tour around all the sites Michael had looked at for his proposed new house before we ended up at THE block..............

This is where M will have his house built.

The evening was spent in a very enjoyable dinner with Michael, his girlfriend Billy and  his boss Brad along with his wife and son. But it had to be an early night as Saturday was  due for an early start  and a return to Temora.

The weather was clear as we met up at Armidale airport for an early departure in a borrowed Cessna 310. The owner had lent M the plane before but asked on this occasion that we dropped off his parents in law  at Mudgee on our way south to Temora. So off we went with a fairly full load for the one hour flight to Mudgee where they were met by their daughter. We saw little smoke on the route but there was quite a bit of dust up to 3000 feet at times. Anyway from Mudgee it was an hour more to Temora and we arrived just on time, 10 minutes before the show began. So we parked up the plane, collected our chairs, paid the entry fee and found a shady spot to sit and watch the display. It was rather hot day but with enough cloud in the sky to give a good backgrounds for pictures of the displays.  The flying was great and  we saw a Tiger Moth, a Ryan, both the Spitfires, a Kittyhawk, a Mustang,  and a pair of Avengers flown in specially from Queensland.  Then the jets flew, a Meteor, a Vampire and the Dragonfly was flown very enthusiastically by the museum's founder David Lowy. Sadly the Canberra bomber was not scheduled to fly until Sunday. But the star for us was the Avon Sabre jet which only got back into the air a few months ago. M and I had sen it fly before years ago in Darwin so to see it again was great.  It is such a splendid plane and flies so much faster than the other jets at the display. The closing display was  a very dashing one in a Spitfire  and  was a fine end to the day's flying. We headed off to Sydney Bankstown and again headed into a lot of dust and  in Sydeny the air temperature when we landed was 38 degrees. Really hot and muggy.

After a day of shopping Michael and Billie flew back to Armidale  on Sunday afternoon with the sky starting to get very orange and dusty. I had dinner with some old friends in a fun greek tapas  place and talked about the old days in UK and modern problems in energy and environment. A greta evening out.

Monday was for final shopping and  packing and then back to the airport on Tuesday for the flight back to Vienna.

Again it was the QANTAS flight from Sydney over Singapore to Frankfurt. The journey starts  with the luxury of the First Class lounge at Sydney International Airport - my access is due to Frequent Flyer status NOT a First Class ticket I hasten to say. It is a haven of peace and tranquility, like  aprivate club with a super restautrant and a superb view of the airport. I could see two QANTAS A380s and a third one from Singapore Airlines at one point - my flightwas on a B747-400  - but as I had lunch I was upgraded to a first class seat (with business class service)   following a change to a three class plane from the usual 2 class one for the Frankfurt run. Best of all it meant a fully flat bed   which is the most important part of the long flight!

Frankfurt was the usual fun place for a transfer from a One World alliance flight to a Star Alliace flight negotiating the driverless train system right across the vast airport and the indifferent signposting but the Miles-and-More lounge was OK and the Austrian flight to Vienna was fine as usual.

Sydney Airport 1 December 2009:  Two QANTAS A380 aircraft; one loading and one taxying (and a third A380 form SIngapore Airlines was out of shot to the right!

So back to work but only one more journey in the 2009 calendar = the Christmas trip to London.

23 November South Alligator and Darwin

After a day resting in Darwin and a good sunset supper at the Trailer Boat Club with Shrley my hostess

I was up bright and early on the Monday morning to meet up with my old friend Mike and head off to the South Alligator Valley at the southern end of Kakadu National Park. Ther had been 13 uranium mine sin the valley back in the 60s before the park was ceated and in 1996 I was part of ateam that began the task of planning and organising the remdiation of the mine sites and the various otehr contaminated areas  associted with the workings. We have been working on the task for a long time and Mike came into the team when we got to the serious and practical part. There was a lot of talking with the Aboriginal Traditional Owners and many surveys etc to get the data  togtehr so we could ahve agood plan. Also we ahd to wait for the Government to allocate the money to pay for the work. But it all came together just as I was leaving for Vienna in 2004. Mike ran the implementation over the next few years and at the end of September this year he was able to declare the job finished. So this trip was a bit of a memory lane job for us to see the sites done earlier and the most recent final works. It was great to be back in the area with Mike and whilst it was along day we saw heaps and had a good time. He has done a superb job and the revegetation at sites finished last year is going well as you can see in the pictures...

This year's work has been to finish the containment for all the contaminated waste and landscape the sites after clearing.....................

All looking pretty good and seeded ready for the wet season to bring on the new growth.

While we were driving around we  small herd of wild horses "brumbies" and, for the first time in many years, an emu - but sadly no picture of the emu.

The end of the day saw us high up on the valley side looking downstream to the north over the  valley wher the containment is located. You can just make out the old airstrip which is the construction site in the mid-background of the picture.

So a grand day out and then some.

The next few days were spent in Darwin checking up on my house and seeing my income tax accountant and meeting up with friends and colleagues from work. There may be heap of new uranium projects coming up in Australia over the short term  and I might have a chance to be  involved. Anyway in the end the time was over all too soon and I was on the QANTAS flight down to Sydney for an overnight stop on my way to see son Michael up in Armidale.

20-21 November - Brisbane to Darwin

After a good sleep and a great breakfast it was time to do a bit more shopping before heading off to the Indoroopilly Golf course. For the first time in over a year I was on a golf course and hitting the ball  acceptably, not well but acceptable. We did 9 holes using a buggy and I survived without losing a ball or my temper so that was good.
The evening was spent at the posh CBD restaurant "URBANE" where we celebrated the end of university for my godson with his parents, his girlfriend, his elder brother and me. Super meal and very good wines.
Saturday morning was back to the airport as my host was off to London and I was off to Darwin. The flight was with the awful Jetstar with no legroom, no free service and  a long delay due to an engineer leaving "something" on the plane. I assumed a tool  or a part (or another engineer!) but it was probably a piece of paper but it took 3 of them to find it  and then as a delayed flight we had the lowest priority to get back into the take-off queue. Still we eventually got away and survived the trip to Darwin where the weather was warm and humid and I was met by my hostess. Sadly her husband had been called away on business to help out at a conservation reserve and so I will not be seeing him this trip. especially sad as we always played golf together in the past and I thought I might be back in the swing after all this time and Chris would be my partner of choice for the "come-back" at Gardens Links, Darwin. Sad also that another pair of friends called to say they were not in town as they were staying on in Chile to extend their holiday so we would not cross after all.
Still  ..........next time.
So back in Darwin and the wet season is almost here too - still really the "build-up" with the humidity and the storms but not yet the cooling rain. However one morning it did rain and that was great; light rain that was very steday for hours.