I should really be working
Mar. 27th, 2007 07:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skyringIt's my day off today. I have about forty hours between Monday's day shift and Wednesday's night shift, and it's lovely to be able to just bum around, taking naps, doing stuff...
I've got a lot of tax stuff that really needs doing, I have a bunch of half-written taxi posts to finish, I should be sorting out and registering books for my trip.
Instead I didn't do much at all. Went into town and bought some groceries for a sit-down dinner. We had roast lamb and a nice little Fronti-Verdelho. And then I got stuck into sleeping in terminals. My first three nights on the road are quick transits in Perth, Tokyo and Singapore respectively. After a bit of research and help from a local frequent flyers board, I solved them:
* two hours in Perth around midnight. No curfew in Perth, so there are any number of flights arriving or leaving then. The Qantas Club will be open, I'll have some coffee and free internet and then climb on the 747 to Sydney and zonk off as best I can.
* that night I'll be in Narita, arriving at eight in the evening and leaving around nine in the morning. Apparently you can sleep in the terminal. Security sweep through, collecting all the transients, making sure that they have onward flights and herding them into a quiet room where they are confined for the night. That didn't sound like a real lot of fun, so I found a cheap hotel not too far away and booked that. There's a free shuttle bus, which I hope will be running at that time of night - it will probably take me about an hour to collect my bags and go through immigration.
* the next night is at Changi, where there is an airside transit hotel with rooms you can rent in six hour blocks. I've booked a single room for two blocks. I'll have to live out of my carryon for that night, but I get into Heathrow the following evening and my usual hostel will be available.
Every other night of the nineteen day trip is covered, one way or another. The only night flight I'll be taking is the big one over the Pacific back home.
Had a bit of a read, and a bit of a nap, and then the cab owner rang me, asking if I was interested in being the night driver for a new cab he's bought. It's a "Silver Service" limousine, and yes, I'm interested. I figure that I provide silver service already, and it will be nice to wear a white shirt and tie, plus a proper driver's cap. I've got a training course tomorrow, which will eat into my shift time, but that's OK. There's a little more money in it, mainly from adding on a booking fee.
Oh yeah. Next door sold a few days ago for three quarters of a million. It's an old "guvvy", a very cheap house which will be bulldozed. The new owners will put up a couple of townhouses, and they are keen to buy our block, because they'd be able to fit more on two blocks together, possibly even add one of the adjoining blocks and make a real killing.
We're not really interested in selling, because the price they want to pay us, we couldn't afford to buy an equivalent house in the same suburb, not to mention the hassle and dislocation of moving. Besides, I like this house.
I figure in maybe ten or twenty years we'll sell up and make a bundle.
I've got a lot of tax stuff that really needs doing, I have a bunch of half-written taxi posts to finish, I should be sorting out and registering books for my trip.
Instead I didn't do much at all. Went into town and bought some groceries for a sit-down dinner. We had roast lamb and a nice little Fronti-Verdelho. And then I got stuck into sleeping in terminals. My first three nights on the road are quick transits in Perth, Tokyo and Singapore respectively. After a bit of research and help from a local frequent flyers board, I solved them:
* two hours in Perth around midnight. No curfew in Perth, so there are any number of flights arriving or leaving then. The Qantas Club will be open, I'll have some coffee and free internet and then climb on the 747 to Sydney and zonk off as best I can.
* that night I'll be in Narita, arriving at eight in the evening and leaving around nine in the morning. Apparently you can sleep in the terminal. Security sweep through, collecting all the transients, making sure that they have onward flights and herding them into a quiet room where they are confined for the night. That didn't sound like a real lot of fun, so I found a cheap hotel not too far away and booked that. There's a free shuttle bus, which I hope will be running at that time of night - it will probably take me about an hour to collect my bags and go through immigration.
* the next night is at Changi, where there is an airside transit hotel with rooms you can rent in six hour blocks. I've booked a single room for two blocks. I'll have to live out of my carryon for that night, but I get into Heathrow the following evening and my usual hostel will be available.
Every other night of the nineteen day trip is covered, one way or another. The only night flight I'll be taking is the big one over the Pacific back home.
Had a bit of a read, and a bit of a nap, and then the cab owner rang me, asking if I was interested in being the night driver for a new cab he's bought. It's a "Silver Service" limousine, and yes, I'm interested. I figure that I provide silver service already, and it will be nice to wear a white shirt and tie, plus a proper driver's cap. I've got a training course tomorrow, which will eat into my shift time, but that's OK. There's a little more money in it, mainly from adding on a booking fee.
Oh yeah. Next door sold a few days ago for three quarters of a million. It's an old "guvvy", a very cheap house which will be bulldozed. The new owners will put up a couple of townhouses, and they are keen to buy our block, because they'd be able to fit more on two blocks together, possibly even add one of the adjoining blocks and make a real killing.
We're not really interested in selling, because the price they want to pay us, we couldn't afford to buy an equivalent house in the same suburb, not to mention the hassle and dislocation of moving. Besides, I like this house.
I figure in maybe ten or twenty years we'll sell up and make a bundle.
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no subject
Date: 2007-03-28 12:07 am (UTC)