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Day 10:  Friday, 13 September 2002 (ooh, Friday the 13th!)
New Thing:  DAFT documents the Hungry Jack vs. Burger King "thing"
Weather:  A bit overcast, low 60s (16°C in the evening)
Money Spent:  $14.35 AUS $7.91 USD

4:15am

Yes, that's right.  4:15am in the morning.  Which is 11:15am Pacific Time Thursday, or 1:15pm Thursday in Michigan.  Or 8:15pm Thursday in France.  Okay, that's going a bit far.  Like I'll ever go to France...

4:28am We leave the room.  Baldie has scientifically determined that Circular Quay will delay our journey needlessly.  Hence, we walk to Wynyard, some eight blocks or so.  But at this hour, you could walk across the busiest street without risk of being hit by a car... or anyone, for that matter -- because it's too damn early for any normal person to be up, awake, dressed, and roaming the streets.
4:38am

The irony in this amused me for several minutes, as noted:

  • Everyone who rides the train must have a ticket... but won't necessarily need it, right?
  • The red lighted, scrolling sign in back decries the perils of fare evasion - "Fare evasion costs us... [all]," it says.
  • All this, and they're worried that if you bring a train on board, did you remember to also buy a ticket for your bike?
4:42am It's going to be a while, mates, until there's a train to board up into.
4:46am At least there are a few marginally humourous billboards to delight you as you wait.
4:47am

Public Service Tidbit:  To determine the final destination of your train, using the TV monitor, look in the Yellow at the top.  For all white text entries, they will scroll, in order.  An "All Stops" train will do just that - stop at every darn stop on the line.  A "Limited" train will only stop at the larger stops (what I've experienced is any of those in bold are still a stopping point, those printed in a regular font are skipped.  Note that not all stations have these, other stations have a moving message board, and some of the smaller stations have an old, steel sign that is hung up or taken down after each train departs by the station attendant.  (It's the third pic on the different types of sign boards page.)

4:54am If I ever forget that there's a 4 foot deep hole between train and platform, they'll remind ya.  
4:56am The train arrived, and we loaded up in the middle car.
4:57am I settled into my own seat, independent of Baldie.  A near-empty train is a beautiful thing.
5:04am I told him, but he didn't believe me.  Pictures, at night, from a moving train, just don't turn out well.
5:17am We arrive into the office and join a meeting already in progress... apparently THAT's what this was all about.  And it turns out there was nothing to view, just the call, which was all recoded anyway.  All for naught.  I went back to sleep, under the desk, as is my custom.
12:02pm

I got all excited that after yesterday's romp into the Shoppingtown, we'd be going to lunch.  No such luck; the boy is apparently chatting with someone online, and as a result, we seem to be sitting here for the duration.  He seems okay with the chat thing, but it does nothing for my tiny tummy.

12:04pm Rather than acknowledge the hunger pains, I figure I'll ignore them with a nap.
4:48pm Hurrah, and outing.  (The fact that I was kicked to wake up, not hurrah.)
4:54pm This outing has all the makings of a whirlwind walk.  We're already at the market buying for 1.25 liter Diet Pepsi's, $3 Australian paid.
4:56pm We stop at Donut King, and get a box of donuts.  They are incredibly small and so very adorable to behold.
4:58pm We swing by Pizza Hut, but since the shopping centre is closing in 30 minutes, no new pizza... and trying Hawaiian didn't look too likely.
5:01pm As I began to fear dinner was nothing but donuts and Diet Pepsi, we popped into Burger King.  Yet, I'm not sure which is the greater evil - donuts and soda, or Burger King.  We return to the office, as that's where our cold Diet Pepsi is located.
5:09pm The boy occupies himself with whatever it is he does all day.  I begin working to sort out the whole Hungry Jack's versus Burger King thing, my homework from a few days ago.
6:54pm

I've done as much investigation as I care to do, but I feel I've come up with a passable explanation of the fiasco on the two burger franchises.

6:59pm I spend far too much time looking at the donuts.  It's sort of a snack cake matrix --- all the like flavored icing in the horizontal rows, and the like type of sprinkles in vertical columns.  Yessir, I'm too clever for my shirt.  
7:11pm We're off to the train platform, where we find a petite blonde girl arguing with a particularly dim guy who walked through the barriers without paying.  She's apparently had a rather bad day, and wasn't overly interested in hearing about his woes.  And being he's a guy, he apparently thought that meant to continue telling her of his troubles.  She didn't seem keen on hearing them.
7:14pm She got onto a train bound for Hornsby, and at the last minute (had to finish his cigarette, after all), he followed her on board.
7:16pm Our train arrived, and we were off.
7:17pm As I looked around the train, I was struck with a thought.  Well, honestly, two.  The second one, in passing, is that there's very little graffiti on the train.  The original thought was on the people, sort of an odd dynamic going on here.  There are numerous women here and there that you'd consider attractive, and even being 15 and fowl, I'm aware of that detail.  Yet, I've yet to see any that you'd consider as memorable, you know, one of those faces (or figures, let's be honest) that sticks in the memory for more than a minute or two after departing.  It's odd; I can usually recall details of even the most minor characteristics of complete strangers for quite some time.  Does that mean I'm distracted with a duckling elsewhere?  That I've grown apathetic to those around me?  Or that I spent too much time starting at pretty donuts?
7:52pm

We exit at the final location and head to the street, stopping to read the flyer once more for the trip to the Blue Mountains.  It appears you can only take the train for the first portion of the trip, then transfer to a bus.  Of course, there is no information about what happens then, per se, but for only $38.60 for the day (maybe $20 US), it's worth a go.  Perhaps tomorrow, otherwise Sunday, keeping the day I don't wander about reserved to go wander about Chatswood for the day, as I'd hoped to do last week... but there's no maintenance on that line this weekend, which I verified as Tubby started at his poster about some blue hills or whatever.

7:57pm We're back in the room.  See?  Only a mere 15½ hours after the day started.  And y'all wonder why I sometimes like being left behind?  (In the room, not the movie Left Behind, which in my humble, non-denominational view, sucked big time -- more so when you consider I'd already given them liberty in allowing Kirk Cameron onscreen with his appalling inability to act his way out of a duck blind.)
8:09pm I'm going to bed.  It's been a day longer than I'd thought possible.
 

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