Day 29 – Perth Singapore Tokyo

May 2, 2005. Sad, but this is my last day in Perth and Western Australia. It’s been hectic and tiring but sure worthwhile. Neville was tolerant and let me sleep in until 8 this morning. After breakfast I finished my outstanding daily reports and packed for the long trip home.

We then went for coffee on the waterfront just north of Perth. Neville had arranged a meeting with three other members of the Western Australia JCI Senate group. These are life members of Jaycees. We had an interesting time comparing notes about how things were in our younger days, when we were active in Jaycees. After the meeting broke up Neville and I had lunch, and again it was fish and chips for me and a BLT for Neville.

After a healthy lunch, it was off to the airport and time to say goodbye. I really enjoyed my long weekend in Perth. Neville and Jackie were wonderful hosts. Check in at the airport was a problem for the first time. I had forgotten how strict they are in Australia about the weight of checked and carry on baggage. Since I was flying up front, they are usually a bit lenient with me. Not in Australia. I was 6 kilos over, so I moved some stuff from my checked bag to one of my carry ons. That worked until I went to go through security and my two carry on bags were over weight. The solution was easy. Walked over the luggage store and bought a suitcase; put my small carry on into it and checked it. Problem solved.

From Perth, the five hour flight to Singapore went quickly. I arrived just after 9 pm and spent a couple of hours in the lounge before boarding the overnight flight to Tokyo. It’s interesting to track the changes that are happening for frequent flyers such as myself. E-mail is hugely important to me as we run our business via the net. In previous years I could usually get connected but it was a pain. I either had to figure out the telephone system or find an Internet Café.

This year it was much easier. All of the airline lounges had broad band wireless connections. With the exception of Lufthansa, they were all free. In every city we visited, except for the quaint village of Murren, in Switzerland, I could connect in my hotel, usually broadband and usually free. Communications for a road warrior is getting much easier.

An interesting bit of trivia about my Australian visit was the fact that I arrived in Australia with no Aussie money and left Australia with no Aussie money. Either Neville picked up the check or I used plastic. Maybe cash truly is redundant.

The pictures today show Jackie and Neville standing outside their home. The second one is a picture of our reunion group having coffee in the morning.

Tomorrow will be my last column and it will be a short one as I’ll spend the whole day flying from Singapore to Tokyo to New York to Toronto.

Stay tuned for Day 30 in my “Around the World in 30 Days” saga.