Tempting fate

[craven morehead]

Just had a very nice lunch with @TheRealTMA @boomy and @Buzzard at La Cache au Vin in Spring Hill. Magnifique! Thanks TRTMA for suggestion. All French wine, so I just went with the flow, but I even liked the Chardonnay

View attachment 265720

Shared escargots and foie gras to start

View attachment 265722

Then we all had duck which was superb

View attachment 265721

Then two cheese selections. I was a bit disappointed in these. I had a Pedro Ximenez which was fantastic. Bestive had.

View attachment 265723

View attachment 265724

A lovely few hours and great to meet TRTMA.

The looks spectacular

 

[RooFlyer]

Dinner last night with nephew, niece and their families. A long way out of the city! Currently in the Hilton gym working off some of the recent sinning. . Flight back to HBA this afternoon.

Good rate and exec privileges at the Hilton, courtesy @boomy .

 

[RooFlyer]

On way to airport and a pic just for @mrs.dr.ron . it's been raining the whole time I've been here!

 

[mrs.dr.ron]

On way to airport and a pic just for @mrs.dr.ron . it's been raining the whole time I've been here!

Hey, you are in the tropics now - but it is WARM rain as opposed to that white stuff you get in tassie !!

 

[Major]

We live 40km South of BNE. Checked the rain guage this morning and emptied 74mm from the last 24 hours. Checked a minute ago and we have had 60mm between 8am and 11am

 

[mrs.dr.ron]

We live 40km South of BNE. Checked the rain guage this morning and emptied 74mm from the last 24 hours. Checked a minute ago and we have had 60mm between 8am and 11am

We got 80mm on Monday night !! on the SUNSHINE coast !

 

[RooFlyer]

This was my lunch in J yesterday BNE-HBA.



Not on the menu, but my choice of snacks as by row 2 they had run out of choice. For a full (12) J cabin, Qantas loaded 3 salads and 10 croque ?monsur. The salads went to 1A, B and C. Now, people that know me know that I have a fairly robust appetite and choice of stuff I eat, but the dish served to those across the aisle was a bridge too far. I didn't see any ham - just melted cheese on and within toast, or bread. Looked pretty gross. No pics, as would have been intrusive to my neighbour across the aisle. My seat mate also declined.

 

[jrfsp]

Fate was tempted but did not take up the offer.

A pretty good 4.5 hr flight to Perth. 737 in J, row 1.

View attachment 265036

Lunch on board, chicken in sauce. Not bad. Poor choices of wines though - Chardonnay or Shiraz.

View attachment 265035

Wi-fi except over the Bight. Then we got some turbulence!!

We learned of a positive case that flew in from Brisbane to Hobart airport when the Wi-Fi reconnected over WA. Although my Tas check-in app. showed that I was outside the exposure period at Hobart airport by one single minute, I had a nervous 15 minutes until we deplaned and we were met by only the usual W.A. police arrival people. The G2G app still green, a few screen questions and we were off.

JohnM met me outside. " Drive like hell!"

View attachment 265037

Tonight's digs were the Ocean Beach Hotel - somewhat basic and really noisy until the beer garden shut down at 10 pm. Then only the sound of the hoons on the road

View attachment 265038

I went for a walk and got some fish and chips.

View attachment 265039

View attachment 265040

I went back to my room and over the next hour or so I got two phone calls from non-ID numbers which I ignored. No messages. At about 10 pm I got a text from W.A. police asking me to call them at allI went back to my room and over the next hour or so I’ve got two phone calls from non-ID numbers which I ignored. No messages. At about 10 pm I got a text from W.A. police asking me to call them. Oh-oh!

A friendly sounding officer asked the time period I was at Hobart airport. I explained that the Taz check-in app showed I arrived at 2:46 pm. No worries, he said, you were one minute outside exposure period. Lucky you.

Yep, Lucky me!!

The OBH thats a real schoolies type venue haha! Glad to see you survived it!

 

[RooFlyer]

The OBH thats a real schoolies type venue haha! Glad to see you survived it!

Yes, I remembered it from my youth (a looooooong time ago ) and was a bit worried, but it turned out OK in the end.

 

[RooFlyer]

Not on the menu, but my choice of snacks as by row 2 they had run out of choice. For a full (12) J cabin, Qantas loaded 3 salads and 10 croque ?monsur. The salads went to 1A, B and C. Now, people that know me know that I have a fairly robust appetite and choice of stuff I eat, but the dish served to those across the aisle was a bridge too far. I didn't see any ham - just melted cheese on and within toast, or bread. Looked pretty gross. No pics, as would have been intrusive to my neighbour across the aisle. My seat mate also declined.

I did partake of a Shaw+Smith savvie, which was nice; the FA was delightful and very embarrassed about the lack of choice; there were long conversations about lunch being offered with every pair after row 1!

The B717 had Qantas streaming entertainment on both legs, which worked well, but full wifi would have been better.

Fortunately when we arrived at HBA there was no queue at the health screening station, so it was straight through. The officer commented that I had been to SA, WA and QLD in the preceeding 2 weeks - "all the places you are allowed to go" .

So, I tempted fate and survived and clocked up a nice lot of SCs to carry over to next year. That's all my interstate travel done for the next few months, while things settle down (I hope) after Tasmania 'opens up'.

Best arrival experience: Brisbane - nothing; just walk off the plane and out.
Worst arrival experience: Hobart, by a long way. The airport sucks, the terminal sucks and the 'health check' first queues you on the tarmac apron area then crowds people together in the terminal, complete antithesis of social distancing.

Worst post arrival experince: WA. A joke. WA Police (border pass) and WA Health (everything else?) not talking to each other; too much time on WA Health's hands (see above).
Best post arrival experience: QLD and SA - nothing. Tas sent me a single follow-up text on one of my arrivals, on day 3. I can handle that.

Best travel paperwork: Tas, SA and Qld about the same.
Worst travel paperwork: WA, by a long way.

 

[Guvner]

This was my lunch in J yesterday BNE-HBA.

View attachment 265795

Not on the menu, but my choice of snacks as by row 2 they had run out of choice. For a full (12) J cabin, Qantas loaded 3 salads and 10 croque ?monsur. The salads went to 1A, B and C. Now, people that know me know that I have a fairly robust appetite and choice of stuff I eat, but the dish served to those across the aisle was a bridge too far. I didn't see any ham - just melted cheese on and within toast, or bread. Looked pretty gross. No pics, as would have been intrusive to my neighbour across the aisle. My seat mate also declined.

Compare that QF business class "offering" on a 2hr40m flight to this meal served on a recent 90 min domestic J flight in Japan.. (pic from a FT member's trip report).