Flying, Friends and Fire alarms

Sunset over Darwin

The journey to Darwin was relatively uneventful as all good flights ought to be. 

The Uber was outside and waiting before the appointed time, the flights left relatively on time. I had booked and paid for the comfort of extra legroom and I had the bonus of no one reclining their seat in my face, no oversized person in the seat next to me trying to share my seat as well, and no obnoxious children behind me.

I emailed sushi X from Melbourne with my order for dinner and pick up time and then rang them to make sure the email hadn't disappeared into junk. 

The Jetstar seats were not exactly luxurious. I'm not sure who designed them, but they must have a very strangely shaped back. 

As we passed over outback New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland and into the Territory I noted just how brown everything is, but also how sculpted it was with water courses. 

Landing in Darwin, I saw the extensive array of military aircraft; I hadn't realised the huge presence of the military in Darwin. 

More sunset colours

After I'd collected my bag, Jodi swung by and picked me up, as arranged, and started by letting me know that the best laid plans of mice and men are wont to go awry and there was a parade of the supercars planned which might impact on our access to our destination.

Road closures dictated that she drop me off a block away from Sushi X, and I arrived to collect the takeaway order right on time, and then went back to meet her, letting her know that I had spotted that the road ahead was clear and she was able to drive to the front door of my apartment and then find a car park just around the corner. By the time I'd found the key from the key lock box, she was there and we were ready to head to the 15th floor to my rather comfortable little apartment and magnificent view of Darwin City and the sunset. We celebrated the latter with some lovely bubbles and the sushi. 

There was a steady background noise of party time as crowds gathered to watch the parade and we were able to see a little of it from the balcony, by peering along to the end of the street, as the big mover vehicles went past one by one. All polished and shining and sounding their horns. Not really my thing but it was clearly exciting to quite a lot of people.

It was so good to catch up with Jody. We worked out that it had been 7 years.

It was so good to catch up with Jody. We worked out that it had been 7 years. 

It took me awhile to fall asleep, and then I was rudely awoken at 2:30 by a building announcement that the fire alarm was triggered and I should stand by for further instructions. A few minutes later the instructions were 'evacuate now' and, grateful for the fact that I had created myself a pair of summer silk PJs  that would not look too bad in public, I headed for the fire escape stairs. 

Not far down the stairs, a rather muffled announcement was heard to the effect that no further action was needed, I confirmed, with some people further down the stairwell, that I had heard it correctly  and we returned together to the 15th floor to find that you don't access the 15th floor from the fire escape stairwell.

We prepared to walk all the way down, when some voices in the corridor heard our voices in the stairwell and opened the door for us, saving us that middle of the night exercise that we really didn't need. 

A little more excitement than I could do with.