Chuck Another Brim on the Barbie

Fortress of Brolitude

Got off the plane in Sydney and was then shepherded into a huge passport control queue. I was a bit weary that I only had 2 hours until I had to board my flight and the queue was barely moving. The queue was huge with 10 zig-zag with each one holding about 50 people. So that’s 500 people all being served by a grand total of 3 people.

There was a shortcut queue for people with e-passports. The symbol they showed was the same one as the one on my passport. I tried my luck and was instantly turned away. The guy said that I had the wrong type of e-passport. How many different kinds can there be?

I eventually made it through and into baggage reclaim. I’d been in the queue so long that my suitcase was already on the carousel. That is the first time that this has happened to anyone. To check in my bag I had to go through another long line for security. I spoke to the guy and told him how soon my flight was. He sent me down an empty queue and I threw my case into the scanner. With that over, I wheeled like a demon until I got to the bag drop. Nice and quick, dropped the bag off. My bag seems to change weight every time it is weighed, even with the same stuff in it.

I had to get a bus to the other terminal for my flight and I narrowly missed one (it was still taking people when I got there but the person in front of me was the last one). I was told that it was only 10 minutes until the next bus and I think someone told the driver too. There was a huge queue of people but the bus driver just sat there reading his paper until 10 minutes and 59 seconds had passed. The bus ride was only 5 minutes and I was in the terminal, waiting to board. All that rushing and I end up waiting to board.

The flight was really strange. The plane was not as plush or kitted out as the international ones I was now used to and the flight was just over an hour. I had the window seat and sat next to me was a really nice woman who worked in Sydney and was travelling to Melbourne for business. It seemed really strange to hear that she just pops back and fourth Sydney and Melbourne as easily as I’ve jumped on the tube in London. I continued reading A Dance With Dragons and the flight obviously passed very quickly.

It was really cool to just look out of the window as we were only just above the cloud line. The cloud “landscape” looks just like all the photos of the artic that you see. It really looks like that you could step out of the door and just land on soft snow. On the main screen of the plane was the live map of our travels; kind of pointless when it spent most of it’s time zoomed out to a whole world view. The little plane that showed our progress didn’t even move…

Off the plane and once again at baggage reclaim (domestic flight don’t have passport control, obviously). This time my stuff took ages to arrive but at least I wasn’t in a rush to get anywhere. After grabbing my bag, I got a cab from outside the station, feeling both excited and nervous as this was really the beginning of a completely new chapter of my life. China was a holiday and the rest was just travelling; this was it, on the way to the new apartment, work the next day. Nervous and excited.

I had $150 in cash that I’d planned to use for the first few days until I could get my travellers cheques changed. I was enjoying taking in all of the the new sights, but my attention was constantly drawn back to the meter as it seemed to be climbing faster than I thought it would be. 10, 20, 30 and 40 all passed without my feeling like I was any closer to my destination. It was really strange that we somehow just appeared in the centre of the city, amongst sky scrapers and traffic only seconds after being on the motorway.

The taxi glided into the driveway of Freshwater Place and I forked over the $53 begrudgingly. I ended up walking into the wrong building and was promptly turned around and pointed to the other revolving door. I walked through into what felt like an expensive hotel. I walked up to the concierge desk and asked about the person from Corporate Keys that was meant to be meeting me here. I was a bit anxious as I was told someone would be there as soon as I get there.

I turned on my phone and checked the time, I was 45 minutes earlier than expected so my anxiety subsided. The time passed quickly with a little more A Dance With Dragons on the iPad. The nice lady from Corporate Keys was bang on time and lead me into the lift and up to the 16th floor.

The lift and the corridor again gave me that expensive hotel impression and I wasn’t disappointed when I walked through the door. I’d already seen pictures on the website of what I was getting but it didn’t really do it justice. As I walked through the door and into the main area of the studio flat, I was amazed at how light the whole room was. I must admit, the general design and décor is what I would like to eventually have in a place of my own.

The kitchen is all white with silver Smeg appliances, the living area has a comfy sofa and a big TV, the bedroom has a very comfy bed and is light and airy and the bathroom has the expensive hotel bathroom fell. Everything I wanted. My Corporate Keys friend gave me a little intro, gave me the key and left me to my new home. The Fortress of Brolitude (FOB) was mine! It was still all sinking in so I did something that is entirely against my personality; I unpacked and tidied everything up. I felt a little weird after that so took a shower in the nicest shower that I have ever been in. It’s like being blasted with a warm fire hose.

After the shower, I was feeling a bit peckish so I wandered down to the shopping area below my building and grabbed myself a Subway. Having Subway in the building will probably now work out well for my health!

Once I’d eaten, I cam back and looked how far I was from work. I wanted to do a quick walk there to ensure I knew where I was going for my first day back at work. There is nothing worse than rushing or being late on the first day. Normally I hate been early for stuff but this is one of the few times that I will actually try to be early for something.

The walk itself took less than 10 minutes. When I got to the building I wasn’t sure if it was the right one. I could see the occupant directory just a bit further inside but I couldn’t make out the names so was still unsure. I got lucky when someone left the building and I could go through the open door. I was in luck and in the right place. Awesome. A quick walk back, a lift ride and I was back in the Fortress.

I had to give corporate keys a quick call about sorting the internet out but other than that everything with this whole move has gone so smoothly! I couldn’t believe I was finally there! I suddenly realised how exhausted I was so fell onto my new feather bed, wrapped myself up in my feather blanket and drifted off to sleep.

Notes:
1) Pictures that I took of my apartment can be found here
2) The title. Will from my old team at work gave me the idea for the title when he kept referring to the apartment as the Fortress of Brolitude. He’s currently enjoying the whole “bro” culture, albeit mostly ironically. A Fortress of Brolitude is basically where a bro lives and is his own space for chillin’ with his bros and whatever else bros do.