Thursday, April 3, 2008

And the Winner Is...

Yes...I won our Amazing Race and beat Phil in to Sydney by almost 5 hours. First let me say though, my victory was made sweeter by my good flight over. Yes, I said good flight over. While en route to San Francisco, Phil was behind the scenes online with United and managed to upgrade my flight from San Francisco to Sydney to business class using his miles. Isn't that the best thing you've ever heard of?! What a guy!! So I was able to stretch out and actually slept 8 and 1/2 hours of the flight! Who knew that a couple of Dramamine tablets would knock me out like that?! I will make note of that for all future flights.
Unfortunately for Phil his demise in our race was sealed in his stop-over in Toronto when he was severely delayed. Something about trying to re-fuel the plane but they couldn't get the hatch open to put the fuel in. After a lovely 3 hour delay he was finally on his way to Vancouver. But alas, he could not catch up.
Once in Sydney I was able to realize another first. My first time getting a taxi all by myself. I know...what's the big deal...but when you grew up in a neighborhood surrounded by the corn fields of Ohio and then moved to the suburbs of Philly where you drive yourself everywhere, it was a big deal to me. As I sat in the back seat I took a good look at the profile of my driver I secretly named Igor (just in case I needed to identify him in a police line up), memorized his id number posted on the badge on the windshield (in case I needed to phone in the numbers to the authorities), and generally kept a pretty good idea in my head of where we were going. I mean really, what if he just started to drive off somewhere and take me away to the dregs of Sydney's underworld never to be heard from again? How would I stop it? I don't know any kung-fu moves. Could I really open the car door of a speeding car and roll out on to the side of the road to escape?
Okay...nothing like that happened. He drove me safe and sound right to the apartment. Made polite conversation. No problems. Everything was just fine. But where do you think they get the ideas for most of the movies on the Lifetime channel? By the way, I named him Igor because I thought he looked a little Russian mobbish to me. (And of course I know oh so many members of the Russian mob.) Yes folks, the above is yet another reason why I don't watch suspenseful/scary movies. My own imagination is quite enough, thank you very much.

7 comments:

wendy said...

Hi Sandra ~ Just a few things. . .
1) I'm glad you made it back safely.
2) I was thinking of you last night while watching The Biggest Loser - all the contestants got to go to Sydney. I swear I saw your apartment building :)
3) I have never hailed my own taxi either. (I'm glad we have that "cornfields of Ohio bond!)
4) I'm with you on not watching scary movies. I have quite the imagination too. Wait til I post my tsunami blog. It'll be on there shortly.
5) I'm so glad we're catching up on each other's lives.

Sandra said...

Thanks Schwen! Oooh...now I've got to see if I can see that episode of The Biggest Loser on the internet. Looking forward to reading about the tsunami...I'm intrigued! Catching up on each other's lives...Absolutely!!!

Sandra said...

Thanks Schwen! Ooh...now I've got to see if I can see that episode of The Biggest Loser on the internet. Looking forward to reading about the tsunami...I'm intrigued! Catching up on each other's lives...Absolutely!!!

Beavis said...

So glad you made it back safe and quite sound, I read!! You lucky dog! So glad to see and visit with you-we miss you already! Glad you had an uneventful flight and were able to get some zzzz's...hopefully you didn't pick up another cold? Miss you and can't wait to see you in a few months!!
Beav

c&v said...

Yea! I am glad you had a better flight to Austrailia than you had coming to the States a few weeks ago! Have a wonderful ...relaxing... weekend!

Valerie

Taylor and Jessica Hagan said...

You crack me up! Congrats on winning the race:)

Dave Majeski said...

Sandra,

Glad you had a nice flight back. That Phil, he is a pretty decent guy. Dont let that get to his head though. Hey, Amy and I watched the Biggest Loser. Her parents called to let us know it was happening. If they replay it, I will tape it for you. When they were on the bridge, you can totally see your place. It brought back plenty of great memories. Glad you were able to enjoy your time in the states. Did you bring Ice back with you???

Dave