Back to Sydney

Monday, Feb 20

I took 2 trains to get to the Brisbane Airport.  While making my way back to Sydney, I almost finished my book… I can barely wait to start the next one.  But I’m trying to pace myself so I can enjoy the book fully.  You can only experience something for the first time once, so I like to savor that moment.  Just like eating dessert, I have to eat each mouth-watering bite slowly, allowing every taste bud to awaken at the touch of that cool, decadent slice of sweetness.  Similarly, when I eat up the words of a good book for the first time, I take my time.  You can never get that first time experience again, so you better enjoy it—whether it’s a gripping book, a delectable dessert, a first encounter with a sweet guy, a riveting conversation with a different minded world traveler—you owe it to yourself to absorb the moment and savor the experience. Moments are fleeting.  Firsts only happen once.

I met a nice man on the train who told me about the various mountains and trees we passed by.  He does a lot of landscaping here, so he was quite informative. 

The plane ride went by quickly, compared to the train ride at 5:45am earlier today.  You know how I challenged God to impress me today in the sky?  Well, he managed to paint a masterpiece for me outside my window.  I saw some remarkable clouds as we traveled along our trajectory to Sydney.  I have so much painting I want to do when I get a spare moment.  I’ll have to learn more about how to paint clouds because I definitely want to paint these.  They were unforgettable and powerful.

Here are Cumulus pileus clouds.  These are small cap-like clouds that hover over large parent cumulus clouds.

Above are Single-cell Cumulonimbus incus clouds, or in other words, a Cumulonimbus cloud with a flat top, like an anvil.  This is caused by wind rising air currents that hit the inversion layer at the tropopause.

The sky is so magical to me.  It’s definitely on my top 10 list in the universe.  A sky can be dangerous or romantic.  It can be dark or bright.  The stars illuminate from thousands of miles away, appearing as specks in blackness, even though they are distant balls of burning gas in the galaxy.  And don’t get me started on sunsets.  God is just so creative.  Whenever I fly, I try to take a picture of the clouds in the sky.  I’m glad the Wright brothers figured out the whole flying concept so we could have this perspective of the earth.

I arrived at the Sydney airport and then took a train and bus to the house.  Then I went over the schedule and driving directions with the current Au Pair, Gemma.  I also drove for the first time on the left side of the road.  AND the right side of the car.  Don’t worry, the pedestrian I hit isn’t going to press any charges.  Just kidding.  It actually went really well.  Then we all ate for a sit down dinner.  I really like that every night, the family sits around the table for a home cooked meal.  I will be cooking some of the meals here, but not all of them.  I miss this.  In college, we all just did our own thing, not focusing on the event of eating together.