Goodbye essay!

Feeling pretty good. Just finished my first major essay off and sent it to my lecturer. It is by no means a fantastic effort, but it will be plenty to pass me. Now I have 2 weeks to write the next one :) By the way, just got back from Sydney town last night! Spent three days hanging there with MM's bro in Newtown. I've never been to that area of Sydney before, it's pretty funky. I fit right in there with my toe sock and Birkenstocks. It's a good combo, I think I started a trend. I just really didn't want to have to take more than one pair of shoes on holiday with me. Too bad I'm not still in Vietnam :( No photos yet, gotta grab them off my travel companions. There are plenty though, way too many really. When you have a 2GB memory card you tend to go a bit mental. I brought home way too many souvenirs; a hat, a T-shirt (actually 2 Tshirts, one that I didn't want but got harassed into buying), a traditional Vietnamese pants/dress thingo and a dress I had made in Hoi An. It's hard getting things made, not only do you have to pick a pattern you think will suit you, but the fabric that you think will suit that pattern too. Very involved. Not sure if I am wild about the result, but I will wear it nonetheless.

Bit annoyed that I got trumped in the packing light department. I left with my little grey suitcase on wheels which is small enough to take aboard the plane. I hate checking in luggage. MM turns up with 2 huge bags that weigh an absolute ton each. The Negotiator rocked up with the Mother Ship as it became known, a vast thing about the size of the suitcase I took to Japan when I moved there. Unfortunately for me I was outdone at the last by Carrotman with his single backpack contaning nought more than 2 Bonds singlets, a pair of thongs, undies (I assume), a pair of pants, pair of shorts, a toothbrush, a camel coloured waffle pattern robe and a touch football. Now that is light travel.

Modest as I am, even I feel the need for more than 2 changes of shirt for a week long trip. Most hilarious was that throughout the trip he felt it necessary to shed the pants because they were weighing him down and left them in a hotel room! Clearly the footy and robe were just an attempt to fill up the backpack which would have looked suspiciously empty if not for those 2 voluminous items. Our light-travelling companion amused us further by purchasing and consuming during the flight to Ho Chi Minh a flask of whisky from duty-free. I wonder if he didn't have the right idea after all since he did spend the majority of his flight being pleasantly floppy headed while I was most uncomfortable despite the many distractions my Inflight Entertainment Unit attempted to give me. Why do they still insist on showing films where people mostly loiter in dark places and communicate in whispers? We're on an AEROPLANE, we can hardly hear ourselves think, let alone some bloke whispering in a dark alley on a tiny fingerprint smuged screen!

Anyway, aside from that, Jetstar was great. I love aeroplane food. Even if I'm asleep,which is tough to do on a plane, I will wake up to eat whatever they send me. All the little compartments with food in em are just way too tempting. It's like a little bento box.