Oct 4 Sydney... let's wait

Cronulla Beach at low tide

Oct 4 land in Sydney

Having left Toronto at 10AM Saturday, we touched down in Sydney at approx 7:30 AM on Monday. Yes, two days later. In addition to 20 hrs in the air we had also flown over the international dateline (into tomorrow). In contrast, the return flight will only be seven hours (on paper), landing in the evening of the same day we leave, including a stop in San Fran.

We rent a white Subaru outback, which will become the given rental car for each of our stops on this tour (for some reason white also is very much the colour of choice in Australia). We have five internal flights, each of which we are saddened to learn also tag on approx. $500 in overage fees, and they like to stick to their rules. Note to Australia fliers: book your entire itinerary at one time with one airline because the condensed paperwork will allow your international overages free onto your internal flights (instead of paying each time). For us the penalty will equal approx $2000 in extra fees. Qantas is very happy to keep these details buried in the fine print of their own wallet, unless you the customer are very diligent.

As a nod to saving money, we are fortunate to stay at our agent Geoff's place in a tiny hamlet called Yowie Bay in the South Shire of Sydney. Geoff is an agent, indie label maven and club owner. All around good guy to know.Yowie Bay is a beautiful lazy little town on the shore, near Cronulla, where we have a gig (at Geoff's club) later in the tour. As it turns out, his house is rather giant and includes a recording studio, swimming pool, and a number of bedrooms. This night other guests at the house include Canada's Matthew Barber and The Trews. We will all do a Canada showcase together in Perth in a few days.

We need a day or two to recover from flying, and in addition to the general 'waiting' game, do some pre tour interviews, pick up our Australian-made Mountain Meadows cd's, and do some localised dining with Geoff, who went out of his way one night to smoke some fresh red snapper for us.Mmmm yummy red snapper.