Journey home Part#2, travelling with erbs, the colour green and smoking in Abu Dhabi

G´day,
After the intermission "bitching about Germany" yesterday I continue the tale of my journey home. A special welcome to Emily, Josara, Jula, Cord (probably) and Andrew.
On Monday morning I woke up with a slight headache (Cherry Rock only had VB in cans if you know what I mean and I´m pretty sure you do...) and the feeling like a prisoner on death row who´s time has finally come.
It was gloomy and misty outside which resembled how I felt inside so I decided to make some coffee and crawl back into bed which was a really good idea. The second attempt to get up was more successful and I embarked on doing the last chores in Australia. I had to say Good-bye to Spunkie and collect my sunnies from my old place, deliver y DVDs to Mel and had to give back some (extremely) over-due boos from Monee Ponds public library.
First part of the task was good, thanks to Ben who placed the house key under the door-mat for me and I got my stuff, said good-by to my beloved ex-cat and left the house key on the kitchen table.
Well, that was not the best of ideas as Ben was not home, as I thought but on some chores of his own and when he came back the key was gone. When he rang me to ask where I´ve put the key and I told him "kitchen table" he wondered how he should get into his own house. The issue has been solved but I want to use this opportunity to apologise again in public. Ben, sorry, sometimes I´m just a little stupid...won´t happen again any time soon...I promise
When I went to the library to give back the over-due books I learned that if books are over-due for a long time the librarian is pissed off and you have to pay quite a decent fee but if books are over-due for a REALLY long time, the librarian is just happy that they found their way back and you don´t have to pay at all...
So I went into the library with 3 book I´ve borrowed there in March 2007 *blush* and which have moved with my from Ascot Vale to Kensington, Brunswick West, Windsor to finally Regent, o of them has spend also a year in Ricks car and I was a little afraid that I would have to pay $100 for each of them. So I approached the librarian and said: "G´day...this might be a new record for late returns...mumble...over two years late...mumble" and I explained that I will leave the country today and just want to return them before I go and that I was sorry that I forgot...well I didn´t tell the exact truth but a kind of half-trueish story. The librarian checked the books and they were already removed from their system. So she confirmed that this was a new record for late returns and told me that she appreciates that I bring them back even after two years. Most people wouldn´t have done that...I had the impression that I made her day...
In the afternoon I had the chance to take some more cute dog-cat action pics:

Willem using the laptop as cat heating Buddy and Pixel sharing a seat (Buddy is a hell hound)And dog licks cat action...
Then the packing of the butt-ugly suitcase had to be done and I have put quite a lot of thoughts into the problem how to get around 50kg on a plane if you are only allowed 20kg suitcase and 7kg hand luggage. I solved the issue by wearing quite a lot of the heavy cloths and stuff the pockets of my jacket with the heavy stuff (including 2 glasses of native Australian spice mixes and two hard drives). In the end I had a butt-ugly suitcase weighing 26.5kg and around 9kg of hand luggage and additional 20kg on my person...

Around 7.30pm Josara and me left for Melbourne International airport and the airline didn´t give me too much trouble in checking my stuff in. I only had to move a little more stuff from my hand luggage on my person and then they gave me the thumbs up. 15 minute prior to take off I kissed Josara good-bye for now and went through customs. "You are pushing it a bit, sir?" was the comment from the customs guys. Well 15 min is enough, isn´t it? You don´t have to wait in the queue and when yo finally enter the plane everybody is already seated and just waiting for you. Actually I wasn´t the last one on te plane, so that was all good. When they X-rayed my stuff the two glasses of herbs got customs excited. "Sir, could you please show us what´s in there?" and I took the glasses out and yes, the contents looked a little like weed but then I asked the officers "Well, do you really think I would smggle drugs OUT of Australia? Australia is a country to smuggle drugs IN not out." That got a laugh and the customs officers decided that it´s awesome that Natives Australian herbs get introduced into the wide world. "Good on´yer!"
This is the last picture taken on Astralian soil:
The flight itself was a long one (14 hours) and let me tell you, I fucking hate babys on flights. Two of this little buggers were place in my vicinity, one in the row in front of me the other one two rows behind and they turned what could have been a pleasant night flight into a scream contest. As some parents told me there might be actually baby noises or sounds that are pleasant to the ear but this two carpet-rats screamed in a range that could rival any death metal singer. And they just fuckin didn´t stop. The only way to escape this noise was to overpower it with Slayer on the iPod but even though it prevented me from hearing fucking baby screams all night, it also prevented me from getting any sleep.
Anther experience was the thunderstorm when we reached the Indian subcontinent. For half an hour the plane felt like a roller coaster and I was unleasantly reminded of the first Episode of LOST but fortunately the oly time the plane got actually down was at Abu Dhabi International airport.

Abu Dhabi airport is quite ugly and more or less just an artificial oasis in the middle of nowhere. I had a little over 6 hours there and -my luck- the transit terminal was quite new. So new in fact that only the "important" bits like this
decadent, nobel shops and this

were finished. Please note that toilet and prayer rooms seem to have about the same importance. So the message is maybe praying is important as pissing or is it religion = shit? For you to decide...
The unimportant bits were unfinished, about 100 of this nice free internet machines were placed all over the teminal:

Fuckin hell. At least they had a smoker "room"

With some strange signs, I havn´t figured out what this should have said to me...
As I have to go now to visit of friends of mine, I´ll continue with the rest tomorrow. Have fun and take care