From Australia to Thailand

Well the wedding was just about perfect. The weather was amazing. The wedding was on the side of a mountain. Jackie looked perfect and the bridesmaids were pretty awesome too. Jackie and Pat were so happy. I was torn between tears and smiling my face off but I mostly grinned and bounced a little. I may provide a fuller analysis if I'm inspired later.

It was great to meet Jackie's friends and family and hang out with the Donnellys. I also got to see Sarah Thorne (McPherson) and meet her new husband Jon. The three of us danced a good deal even when there were only 2 or 3 other dancers (or 0). But when there is a open bar and a decent DJ I feel it is just good sense to take advantage (responsibly of course!).

It is sad to leave not knowing when i'll see my Aussie (and US-Aussie) friends again but I know I'll see them.

But now for Thailand. I had the best airline meal of my life and that includes when I got my dad's upgrade to 1st class on Continental. I had stir fried Thai noodles with prawns and tofu, fruit salad and Australian cookies (anzu biscuits or something like that). I also watched the Duchess on my personal tv screen and since I fell asleep I was able to start it over and fast forward to where I dozed off! And I drank wine out of an adorable little glass the size of a shot glass. A flight attendant walked around and just kept filling it back up.

Anyway now I'm at the Bangkok airport (no signs of rioting) and it is around 7 pm. I can't check in for my flight to Bali until 3 or 4 am though so I am hanging out until then. The kink in my plan is my backpack. I managed to make it under the 20 kg limit even though I forgot to weigh it (18.8 kg - perfect!) but now I have to lug this 19 kilos around because I couldn't precheck it and I can't find storage (or staff members who understand the question). This makes moving around (not to mention going to the bathroom) difficult since I can't leave it unattended.

I did laps on 3 floors trying to figure out what to do with it and finally decided that I was stuck with it. I was also thirsty. So I ducked into a food stand and discovered that they sold alcohol there. At this point a cold lemon flavored Baccardi drink seemed like a really good plan but they only took cash. Stupid. What kind of airport vendor only takes cash??? So I schlepped back over to the ATM where I only had the vaguest idea of what the exchange rate was (based on the price of my ticket to Bali). In any case the second lowest withdrawal amount is usually safe, so I got out 1000 Thai bahts. I figured out that this in the neighborhood of $25USD but imagine how anxious one feels in taking out 1000 of anything without quite being sure of the exchange rate. I was right next to a Starbucks so I caved in to what is familiar and got a venti iced tea lemonade for 140 bahts.

I think my next step is to decide whether to have noodles or meat pie for dinner and then settle in with The Devil Wears Prada, which Jackie gave me when she was packing up her room.