Finding Pen City

Unlike Italy, Australia isn’t known for its pens. Two well-known ink manufacturers, though, call Australia home: Robert Oster and Van Dieman’s. I’ve visited pen stores on even smaller pretenses, so I didn’t worry about convincing Sherry that Pen City was a must-see. Plus, Russ and I sneaked to the pen store while Sherry was taking a nap. She had no chance to stop us.

Located in Ravenhall, a suburb of Melbourne, Pen City is a bit tricky to find. Apparently, Google Maps drops you just around the corner with no view of the storefront. At least, that’s what our Uber did. We wandered the wrong way around the block, chasing the misplaced dot on our maps, and wondered if Pen City had closed. Russ called the store and got someone on the phone who complained about Google’s misplacement and walked out the the store to find us, just as we found the store. After a good laugh, we walked in about 3:15PM. The store closed at 4:00PM, so I knew we had to hurry. The guy at the counter — the same guy who answered the phone and the only one in the store — said as long as he closed up by 4:20PM, he’d still make his train. That was awfully nice of him to stay open a little longer, because we needed that extra time! I should have taken a picture with him. I didn’t catch his name, but he and I had a great time nerding out over pens while Russ poked around the store and listened in.

Brekky and Bathrooms

In our marriage, I tend to have mornings to myself. Our first full day in Australia followed that pattern. I found an electric kettle in our kitchen, but no coffee maker. Rummaging through the pantry, I found COFFEE-MATE (not sure why they spell it in ALL-CAPS everywhere but the logo), sugar, and instant coffee. I’ve never had instant coffee, and now I know why people don’t drink it. I found it passable, though, and had two cups. As I was finishing the second cup, Sherry emerged from the bedroom. She said, “Hey, drink some of this to help with jet lag,” and foisted upon me a mix-with-water packet of magic from Amazon called FlyWell. The packaging claims it’s designed to promote circulation and hydration while combatting jet lag, and I dutifully downed it. And then we got ready to go out for breakfast, which Australians pronounce “brekky” and menus spell a few different ways, including “brekkie” and “breakie.”

Geelong Car Talk

Conversation with Jhett while we were driving from the airport to their place in Point Cook:

Me: (Notices highway signs for Geelong) “Is it pronounced GEE-long or JEE-long?”

Jhett: “It’s actually ja-LONG. I drive there every day for school.”

Me: “Oh. Does it take ja-LONG to get there?”

Jhett actually laughed and said he’d never heard that before. He needs more dad jokes in his life.

Taking a Cat to Australia

The official excuse for this Australian adventure is to deliver Nexu, Russ’s cat. Taking a cat from the United States to Australia requires a ton of work (or so I’ve heard — Sherry did all the work) and a lot of money (this part, I know well). Nexu traveled in a small crate, as a carry-on, from Jacksonville to Los Angeles. This crate was for the domestic part of the trip only. Nexu would fly in the cargo hold from LA to Melbourne, in a different crate that matched exacting specifications. That crate folded flat and rode from Jacksonville to LA inside my checked suitcase.

Australia: First Impressions

We lost an entire day last week. Thursday, August 22nd, never happened in our world. Gone. My Wordle streak ended, but oddly not my New York Times Crossword streak. We jumped from Wednesday to Friday like a Mr. Peabody & Sherman episode. Sherry and I left Jacksonville, Florida, without our travel buddies but with a cat in a crate. We bounced through Dallas, sweated through LA, and landed in Melbourne. Our son Russ and his partner Jhett picked us up from the airport, and we’ve spent a little over a week trying to catch up to the Thursday we lost. Here are some initial impressions of Australia.