2001 Day 12-14 - Canberra

The section of the holiday in Canberra has been substantially more mundane and boring than the previous sections.. In two days, I will be back in Perth, and I won't deny that I view that as something of a positive.

Basic summary of holiday in Canberra to date.

Monday 10th
3:00pm - Arrived in Canberra as previously detailed on Kendell Airlines flight 8528.
4:30pm - Set off for city centre, ended up with National Library, dinner and walk.
9:30pm - Returned to Canberra Central Apartments to spend my night there. Talked with Steven.

Tuesday 11th
8:30am - Breakfast at Canberra Central, and checkout.
10:30am - Went to Belconnen shopping centre. Kmart's passport photography centre dead. Got my Kodak disposables from Melbourne developed at highly overpriced cost. ($16 a piece, and no free folder)
2:30pm - Emerged tired, hungry and annoyed from Belconnen, went to Civic.
4:00pm - Not much joy there, although I had time to post the previous entry. Returned to Belconnen to pick up photos. Thankfully, they worked out.
7:00pm - Left there, arrived at Stuart's place 20km S of the city to nice home-cooked meal. He had to go out so I had a long lost reunion with 2 of my CDs (Stabbing Westward and Manic Street Preachers) which cheered me up no end and then chatted to Jon.

Wednesday 12th
10:30am - Woke up.
12:00pm - Somehow ended up back at Belconnen. Just don't ask.
4:00pm - after concluding service standards at this shopping centre are at an Australia-wide low, not limited to extremely poor service while collecting a refund for passport photos I was very unhappy with, experience great catharsis by filling in a Westfield "How did we serve you?" form. It contained no swearing or abuse, but was in very strong terms. I felt better afterwards.
6:00pm - Back in Civic. I noticed I had a bit of a sore throat and cough, but as I regularly have sinus issues, wrote it off as nothing. Came home to more home cooking - this time a form of spaghetti bolognese. Was nic :)
11:00pm - After chatting with Steven, begun to realise this was no ordinary cough and started drinking large amounts of fluids, taking Vitamin C.

Thursday 13th
8:40pm - After various rather revolting episodes in the dunny overnight, woke up for the last time with a full blown headache and sinus cold (what people call the flu, but it isn't influenza).
12:30pm - Finally made up my mind to leave the house. Went to Civic.
2:00pm - Got ripped off by foreign taxi driver en route to Telstra Tower. The views of the city were beautiful - Canberra is a very spaced out city with lots of green and forested areas throughout its suburbs. I enjoyed a small snack on top of the Tower.
4:30pm - Left tower. Some weird notion possessed me to take a shortcut by walking through the forest instead of catching a cab down the winding road.
6:00pm - Got to bottom, quite exhausted and dehydrated (it was, after all, 27oC) but I was happy I'd done it. Caught cab to Civic, bought drink, went home.
11:30pm - After nice long chat with Stuart, went to bed.

Friday 14th
8:30am - Woke up. Internet down, so decided to go out despite cold/flu and the prevailing humidity that's kicked in today.
12:00pm - After getting my photos done *properly*, I went to New Parliament House intending to stay there maybe half an hour.
2:30pm - Emerged from New Parliament House. OK, the rest of Capital Hill can wait till tomorrow, I guess. Went back to Civic and this time went into the shops there and had a pie and a litre of Solo Lemon Squash. (OK, I was thirsty).
4:00pm - Returned but caught wrong bus! Ended up at Woden shops (6-7km SSW).
5:00pm - After intense levels of boredom and amusement, left for Tuggeranong shops (15km S).
7:00pm - Returned home. Tuggeranong's a nice place, just strange.
9:30pm - The present time. Stuart will return later, he's out role-playing. I'm amusing myself by playing with my LJ style and drinking lots of water to combat the humidity and my headache.