Melbourne Thursday

Well, what goes up must come down and so our return flight home was the same as the route we took to the US - Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, Sydney Melbourne. Because we had a 5 hour stopover in Chicago George had arranged for us to have lunch with a lawyer from there. On arrival it was a beautiful clear sunny day, temperature of 1 degree! David picked us up and we went to a very nice steak restaurant about 7 miles from the airport.
I was very impressed with United Airlines, they were on time for every flight which is a miracle these days. But when we boarded in LA I noticed that all the crew in our area were fairly old, like really fairly old! After take-off George was allocated a different seat as the power wasn't available for his sleep machine in his original seat. When the Purser got him settled she came back and sat with me for a little while & I thought 'you've been around for a while'. During the flight I had a little chat with another stewardess & she mentioned she had flown with Pan Am so I said I had worked with Ansett and she said 'I'm an old lady, Im 64!' Well, I had to confess that I, too, am 64 and then she told me that another of the stews had been working 47 years so would have to be close to 70! She also told me that they think the Purser might have a bit of dementia as she had repeated herself so many times. Hello. Anyway, we all arrived safely and those 'girls' did a sterling job.
Really nice to be home. Long distance travel, with all the security issues, isn't a cup of tea anymore! But am very grateful for the chance to see new places and meet up with old friends.