It just didn’t start out as the best day - working with computer systems is sometimes difficult, the system in Perth was so dang slow :20 minutes of work took 2 hours!  The delay meant I couldn’t leave this morning and had to reschedule my flight to the afternoon.  The Boeing 717 is small.  Two seats on one side, three on the other.  I was on the 3 seat side, yet so close to the aisle passenger on the other side I could hear his iPod thumping for the entire three hour flight from Perth to Alice Springs.  He looks like a blue collar worker, regular aussie bloke with scrunched down socks, work boots, dirty mid-calf shorts (that really look too short these days), and a workshirt.  The smell of booze wafts around the cabin and on his 6th Jim Beam and Coke I start to wonder… is this guy driving home from the airport?  I suppose not.  It was a bumpy flight the entire way - I attribute that to the small plane. When we landed people screamed “shit, fuck, oh my gawd!”  the overhead bins opened and luggage was flying everywhere.  I would have sworn that we hit so hard that the tires should have popped.  Luckily…  we live.  We had to get off the plane for :25 minutes, not even long enough to check my email, and then get back on for another 2 hour flight from Alice Springs to Darwin.  Stepping off the plane in both Alice and Darwin - man it’s hot.  33 degrees (91 F) and very humid, oh yeah, and it’s 7pm.  Really lookin forward to the next few days… not!

Check back on the weekend for new pictures from my latest business trip.