This is an unplanned trip to Sydney. On Wednesday Ruth called to tell me that
mother's condition has been declining rapidly, and suggested that I come visit
as soon as possible.
Anne and I had driven up to Boston that day to help out
while Joe was away. What ended up being
the plan was I would drive back to NJ by myself Thursday evening, and catch the
flight out to Sydney on Friday.
I had just done the Boston-South Amboy drive a few days
ago. We often start this trip after
dinner, after the rush hour traffic clears out.
On Thursday it rained quite heavily in the area, so I didn't get started
until about 8:15 pm. It was pouring at
around 11 pm when I got to the Bridgeport area, and I had to sit out the worst
part at the US95 rest area. It was about
1 am when I got home.
Not wanting to lug the 15" Dell around, I tried to
revive the old Lenovo. Having sit idle for
a while, it took a long time to get the programs updated, and the files
transferred. All said and done, it was
close to 5 am that I went to sleep.
[I am typing this inside UA839 enroute to Sydney, using
"Notepad." Microsoft Office
says it can't verify the proper license is in place and disables the
product. Not wanting to pay $22.99 for
internet, I am stuck. Lesson learned: make sure I run MS Office before getting
on a plane, in the future; or switch to free programs.]
Friday May 26. Ellie, Kuau and the grandkids came by. I had not seen them for a while, so was glad
for the visit. The downside was I ended
up scrambling more than usual to get ready.
Eric T came by at 3:30 pm to bring me to the airport,
arriving at about 4 pm. Even without TSA
Precheck, this should work well. At
Newark there is a Premier Access line, and it was very short. My first flight was EWR-LAX, a domestic
flight. For some reason I decided to use
my passport as my ID, and discovered to my horror that I had brought along
Anne's. I did that the night before, and
my passport is thicker; in other words, no excuses.
After quickly considering possible options, including
trying to call Eric or ask Ellie for help, I decided the best hope is to use
Uber for a roundtrip. "Luck"
would have it that an Uber car just had a ride cancelled and was
available. This is Memorial Day weekend,
and a nice day, which meant heavy south-bound traffic. It was about 5 pm that I got home and got my
passport. North-bound traffic was light,
so I got back to Newark before 5:30 pm - and I tipped the driver generously for
his aggressive driving. Premier Access
still had a short line, and I got through security (which involved taking out
computer and liquids, body scanning, and - for today - a swab of my hands) in
about five minutes. Another lesson
learned: no point in getting to the airport early (just kidding.)
Next challenge was to get my luggage in the cabin. The gate-agent tagged it all the way to
Sydney, saying there was no overhead space in the plane. Not unexpected as the plane was packed and
boarding had completed when I got there.
She did say I can talk to the flight attendants. I did that, nicely, and without flashing my
MP Platinum Card. The attendant had me
bring the bag back to the gate agent so she could remove the tag (the luggage
had to be properly removed from the system,) and then found some space in the
first-class section. Yet another lesson
learned: indeed politeness goes a long way.
I had a middle seat in an exit row. It actually was okay even for a 5 1/2 hour
flight. One factor was that the extra
legroom made getting out quite easy, another one probably was the relief I felt
that I got on the plane, having put the odds at less than even as I was going
back to South Amboy. Watched a couple of
films: Arrival and Assassin’s Creed. Both
were forgettable, Creed at least had a lot of action in it. And I bought a cheeseburger, I was quite hungry
as I had not eaten since I had toast this morning.
UA275 was on time, so I got to check out the new United
Club at LAX. It is huge, one of the
largest lounges I have seen. The long
food service area gave me a lot of hope, which was dashed when it was the usual
stuff: salad, cheese cubes, crackers, fruit, and cookies. The only "extra" was a selection of
soups. I put together a sorry looking
plate of soup, cheese cubes, and a cookie.
The new LAX UA Lounge is one of the largest I have seen. Given the time of day, it was quite empty.
Looks can be deceiving. Despite the long food line, the pickings were quite slim: crackers, cheese cubes, veggies, fruits, ... only unusual stuff was a choice of two soups.
UA839 was delayed by about an hour to wait for late
in-bound passengers from Chicago. I
redeemed my UA and Chase Sapphire Reserved miles for a saver business class
seat for this leg and managed to get in a few hours of sleep (it is now about
2:30 hours to landing in Sydney.) Boeing
787s are supposed to be pressurized to a lower altitude (right now my iPhone
app indicates 6000 feet) but I am still getting a headache. Dinner entree was a first: Char-Siu Duck,
basically a duck breast roasted in Char Siu sauce. A bit tough, but quite tasty. Also watched a few episodes of the British detective
series Luther.
Dinner menu, UA839 business class.
Char Siu duck. Tasty, a little tough.
I finished most of this hearty breakfast served before landing.
Sunday May 28. Plane landed at 7:30 am. The immigration area was quite congested, and
the e-Passport lanes long. I decided to
make use of the Arrivals card given to business class passengers, and was out
by 7:55 am, quite acceptable. Ruth
picked me up at the airport. Traffic in
the other direction was very bad, I wonder how many people would miss their
flights because they didn’t budget enough time for the delay.
After resting a bit at Jennings Street, we went to Praise
Church for worship. Afterwards I talked
to Dr. Cheung briefly to discuss mother’s condition. He had gone to see her a couple of times this
past week.
Ruth, Stephen and I had lunch at the Matraville RSL. For about A$20 one gets a nice fish over
vegetables. When we got to Fairlea at
around 2 pm, Ling, Wally and Alfred had already been there for a while. We sat around and reminisced about the past a
bit. Ling, Wally and Alfred left soon
afterwards because Alfred’s son had a recital back in the Hornsby area.
After the visit, we went to East Gardens to buy
groceries, have coffee, and for me to buy a pair of sneakers since I didn’t
pack a pair with me, and the old pair I kept in Sydney was thrown out after the
last trip.
Dinner was a simple lamb stew Ruth had prepared.
Accommodations during trip: Jennings Street.
Monday 5/29. We left at around 8:45 am in the morning to
go to Central Train Station to pick up Rev. Kenneth Chan to bring him to
Fairlea to visit mother. He prayed and
sang for her; evidently he knew her well from the days they served in the same
ministries (I had left Hong Kong by then.) Several other people also came to visit. Stephen, Ruth, and I had dim sum lunch at a Chinese
restaurant located in a new building in Hurtsville. I told Rev. Chan I found his visit very
comforting.
We parted ways after lunch. I walked to the Hurtsville train station and
bought an Opal Card to get first to Circular Quay via train and then Manly via
ferry. Being a cold day, there were only
a few surfers in the water. I walked
around the waterfront, including going to Shelley Bay before I took the ferry
and then Bus 392 to get back to Jennings Street.
Manly is as nice as ever, although not crowded on a winter afternoon. I never noticed this sign warning about pollution before.
Despite all the bad publicity about its policy towards illegal immigrants, there are still many in Australia who try to help new immigrants to settle in their new country.
This view of the city on a Sydney is always pleasant.
Dinner was at Jennings.
Tuesday 5/30. We got to Fairlea a bit before 10:30 am this
morning. As we got out of the car Ruth
got a call from the nursing home that we should try to get there soon. Mother passed away a few minutes after
Stephen, Ruth, and I gathered around her to say goodbye. We met up with the funeral home director
Selina at 1 pm at the North Ryde RSL to make arrangements for the services.
We stuck around Chatswood, and I took a long walk in the
surrounding area. The three of us had
dinner at New Shanghai in Chatswood Chase.
We spent the evening going over the details of the
service, including scanning the pictures that will be used in a photo tribute.
I revised my return flights to departure this coming
Saturday.
Wednesday 5/31. Visited Rev. Samuel Lui this morning to go
over the program for the memorial service.
He was also the one who conducted the funeral service for father, in
2001. Stephen, Ruth, and I went to East
Gardens for lunch where I bought an Oporto whole chicken. The chicken costs A$16, much more than what I
paid at SYD domestic terminal. The major
different was at SYD a game hen was used, but here it was a “regular”
chicken. I still managed a good ¾ of the
entire. Bird.
After lunch I did another walkabout, this time at
Watson’s Bay. On my return ferry ride a
rainbow appeared, I snapped a picture of it, and posted finally mother’s death
on Facebook.
Rainbow at Watson's Bay. I posted this photo on Facebook to announce the death of mother.
Eventually a double rainbow showed up. I could not do it justice with my iPhone.
Dinner was leftover from last night’s, supplemented by a
piece of teriyaki salmon Ruth cooked up.
Mother had a collection of photo albums with her children
and grandchildren in them. I wanted to
scan them before they get discarded.
Went through a bit over one album this evening.
Wally and Ling flew back down from Brisbane, they would spend the night at Jennings Street.
Thursday 6/1. We went over to RSL for lunch before heading
to the cemetery for mother’s memorial service and burial. The ministers that conducted the service were
Rev. Samuel Lui, Rev. Joshua Mak, and Rev. Kenneth Chan. Afterwards we invited the guests for a dinner
at East Phoenix. I sat next to Moon whom
I had not talked to for decades; we knew each other from our teenager days at
church.
Rev. Kenneth Chan spoke at mother's funeral.
Mother is interred in the same grave we buried father in 2001.
Wally then dropped me off at the Green Square train
station. There is this Vivid show in the
Circular Quay area, and I strolled in the area to take a look. For some reason Bus 392 back to Matraville
was free, I of course didn’t mind.
Sydney has this long (one month) light show called VIVID. The Harbour Bridge slowly takes on full lighting.
Opera House with moving images projected onto its roofs.
Words made of symmetric letters completed via reflection.
Customs House.
Did more scanning of photos in mother’s albums after I
got back to Jennings.
Friday 6/2. We visited the cemetery late morning. It was a windy day, so Stephen stayed in the
car. Most of the grave was filled in,
but there was about six inches left unfilled.
When he noticed us standing nearby, a cemetery worker came by to explain
to us that they would finish the task with fertilized soil so grass could grow
easier. Ruth and I also visited a
recently opened “garden” designed liked one of the earliest settler ships that
sailed to Australia. It would be a place
where ashes are interred.
The grave wasn't completed filled in when we visited today. This was taken by Ling a couple of days later. The worker explained that they would use fertilized topsoil for the last few inches so grass would grow more readily.
After lunch at the Maroubra Beach Pavilion, I left for a
walk along the coastline to Coogee. This
was followed by a bus and train ride to Circular Quay where I caught the ferry
to Darling Harbor. I had half an hour
before the next ferry, so I walked to the new development Barangaroo and had a
coffee and tart in the “Canteen.” I took
the ferry back to Circular Quay, and hopped on Bus 392 back to Matraville. Ruth prepared dinner. Sun sets at around 5 pm, and they didn’t want
to go out in the dark.
The Barangaroo is a recently completed project.
I am about finished packing up for the return trip. Since the plan is to sell the Jennings Street
house, I am not sure I will be staying here the next time I visit.
Saturday 6/3.
Driving in from the airport a week ago, we saw a huge traffic jam in the
other direction. This morning Google
Maps told us it would take only 11 minutes to get to the airport. What I didn’t realize was Google had domestic
airport as the destination. So we were
in heavy traffic. Ruth had the idea of
dropping me off at Parking, and was brave enough to cut into traffic a couple
of times – she usually doesn’t do that.
Together with an “Express” card that I saved up from prior trips, I was
able to grab a quick breakfast at the Air New Zealand lounge before I boarded
the flight.
The
Economy Plus section of UA840 showed quite a few empty seats when I checked
yesterday, but today it was completely packed – the plane ended up flying with
one empty seat. The reason probably is
due to cancellation of the SYD-SFO due to maintenance issues. Flight ended up being quite bearable, but I
didn’t get any sleep, instead I watched all remaining episodes of Luther –
speaking of sticking with a bad book till the end.
Boeing claims the 787s can be pressurized to a lower altitude, making the flight more comfortable, and the jetlag less severe.
The Barometer App on my iPhone indeed shows a 6500 ft altitude. The phone was still on Sydney time.
This is what an Economy bathroom looks like on a crowded flight towards the end of the trip. On United, that is.
The same
thing happened to my LAX-EWR seat assignment.
I had an exit row seat when I first made the change, and noticed that I
didn’t have a seat assignment a couple of days ago. When I tried to make the change on the App it
wanted to charge me over $100. Last time
I resolved it by calling their help line, it was more difficult to do so in
Australia. I am now in 10D, with an
empty seat next to me.
Anne
picked me up.
