V for Victoria
Map showing the Australian State of Victoria (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Australian state of Victoria is the state where we live. Where I have lived for most of my life. When I first came to Australia I got a flight into Melbourne, not Sydney (where Mum came from and my planned ultimate destination) and I seem to have just stayed! Melbourne is a lovely city, so I’ve not really been tempted to go anywhere else. I did consider Perth once or twice, and I did move to Tasmania for a brief period. I just like Victoria.
Victoria is the pink area on the map to the left.
The following slide show has a random collection of images I’ve collected in my travels. Other Australian shots can be found on Australia in Pictures, including shots of Victoria. I’m just not big on city pictures: in my warped perspective on life, if you’ve seen one city, you’ve seen ‘em all!
T for Tasmania
English: Location of Tasmania on Australia. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Tasmania, affectionately known as Tassie, is the island state of Australia. OK, I know Australia’s mainland is a very large island, but we also have a little island. The shape of Tasmania is such that “map of Tassie” has become an Australian-ism for a certain area of the female body, however we won’t dwell on that.
See the little dark shape down the bottom of the map to the left? That is Tasmania. A lovely, rustic place where my sister and her family live.
Unlike the spiders of S for Spiders fame, I do have many lovely photos of Tasmania. This shot of the Huon River is one of my favourites.
Huon River – Tasmania
O for Overseas
For those who may be geography challenged, it takes a LONG time to get anywhere from Australia, other than to New Zealand! Yet most Australians travel, unlike some other countries. Look at the map – we are a long way from most other countries!
World Map from geology.com
In the 12 months to June 2010, 6.8 million overseas trips were made by Australians, up from 2.1 million two decades earlier. In per capita terms, this was the equivalent to 31 trips overseas for every 100 Australian residents in 2009-10, up from 12 trips per 100 residents in 1989-90.
http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/4102.0Main+Features20Sep+2010
Jet lag is crappy
English: British Airways Concorde, Heathrow, London, England – by P.B.Toman (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Jet lag has to be the bane of all travellers. Sometimes it isn’t too bad, other times it is horrible. This is one of those times. I was awake at 5 am this morning. A colleague popped into my office yesterday to ask if I was sick as one of my travelling companions had gone home sick. No, I replied, I’m fine! So what happens? I’ve been up several times during the night with a sore throat and a blocked nose, plus I still feel SO tired.
Someone said to me yesterday that it takes a day for every hour of time difference to recover from jet lag. Then there was a debate about whether it was 15 hours or 9 hours, on the basis the body doesn’t know about days, only hours, therefore the jet lag difference is 9 hours even thought the actual date/time difference between Florida and Melbourne is 15 hours. 9 am here is 6 pm the previous day in Florida. Personally, I don’t care! 
I just want to sleeeeeeep! Preferably not at 3 pm in the afternoon!
Yes, I tried the Melatonin. Can’t say it worked very well for me.
Yesterday was better than Monday, so hopefully by the end of today (Wednesday) I won’t feel like death warmed up, although I’m not sure about the cough, sore throat and blocked nose!
I wore flying socks/stockings both over and back, but it didn’t help the feet much, so Monday I was off to the doctor to get fluid tablets to shift the fluid in the hope I can get some shoes back on my feet some time soon!
Why is it I have a sneaking suspicion in the back of my mind this is somehow “age related”? Why can’t I be 30 again?
I’m grumpy. I feel bad about that. My poor husband was thrilled to see me home and now I am grumpy! 
Visit to the Kennedy Space Centre – Failure is not an option
If ever you are in Florida, the Kennedy Space Centre is well worth the visit! I published the shots of the Space Suits earlier in the week, so they are excluded from this selection of shots.
I have decided not to write about each individual photo, but as you can see I was intrigued with the rocket booster/engine thingies! 
We also listened to a lecture by a real astronaut, Ken Cameron, which was both informative and entertaining.
The desks are not a mock-up, they are the real desks and computers from the first mission. There were recordings playing and film of the event: it was really exciting.
Learning how the space station was built by all the countries involved working together was very interesting.
I had forgotten how many failed attempts there were when the USA tried to catch the USSR in the space race. Watching those explosions and crashes one after the other on screen as part of the tour was a reminder that man didn’t land on the moon without a lot of effort.
The sheer size of the full craft on display has to be seen to be believed. When one considers most of that housed fuel and nothing else, it is amazing. What could we achieve with a more efficient fuel?
Space suits
One of the things we did trying to stay awake to throw our body clocks into the local time zone was a visit to the Kennedy Space Centre. If you ever get the chance, it is WELL WORTH the visit!
I will write more about the visit at a later date, but in the interim here are some space suits! These are REAL space suits! Click on the images to see them in a larger size as they are really interesting – I can’t imagine going to the gym in them!
Lunch with a distant (from me) blogger
Followers with a sharp eye will have noticed Nancy from Spirit Lights The Way and I had scheduled a lunch date! It isn’t often that members of the blogosphere from opposite sides of the world get a chance to meet, so when the opportunity presented itself, we grabbed it!
Nancy and Robyn
The interesting thing about meeting someone whose writing one has been reading for a while is this: you really feel as if you are meeting an old friend you know well. It was not at all like meeting a stranger!
We went to a lovely restaurant and I won’t spoil Nancy’s article by publishing food photos!
With the Florida weather and the flying my feet have swollen to the point wearing my shoes was rather painful. Embarrassingly I had to remove my shoes before I was dropped back at my hotel. Luckily I am old enough not to worry TOO much about such social transgressions!
If Nancy and her BFF ever manage to visit “down under” they certainly have gained a tour guide. Nancy is just as I envisaged from her writing except for one small thing – not once did she say “Arrhhh, that’s better”!
Thank you Nancy and BFF for a great lunch date!
