Image above: Driving back to Perth, the dramatic sky backlit by the setting sun. [Saturday 19 September] / [View all photos]
Leaving Melbourne on an early morning flight, I arrived in Perth where, after ten years of an online friendship, I finally got to meet Justine in person for the first time on Day 15.
For some reason, flying the four hours across Australia to get to Perth took more out of me than the longer flights I had done earlier in the trip. But that didn’t stop me from the excitement of giving Justine a hug for the first time ever.
It’s pretty amazing that our online friendship has lasted this long. We met ten years ago through Avi who introduced us just after I had completed my exchange programme in Singapore back in 1999. I knew her by her MUD gamer tag, Tynia, and I still call her that to this day!
Over the ten years we’ve ebbed and flowed with some years where we were chatting like crazy and other years which passed by without any contact. And during that time, I got to meet her sister and her parents in Singapore in 2007 as well as accompanying her sister to Seoul in 2008. But we never got to meet until I got to Perth.
So why then? Well, she was finally getting married and together with Annie’s wedding in LA this was the initial inspiration for my crazy round-the-world-in-a-month idea.
As for the day itself, we had a good dim sum lunch together and although it was a little funny chatting actually to her rather than into a screen we got over that pretty quickly and soon were laughing all over the place. With part of the wedding party in Fremantle, we drove over a with a gentle collision, caused by her love for Jay Chou, providing another funny story for us to recount years from now.
It was great meeting Donald (though I have to confess I didn’t recognise him when we met in the lift!) and his groomsmen (Jerry, CJ, and Kenneth) as well as the bridesmaids (Justina, Cheryl, and Ally). And I really appreciated Justine and Donald involving me in their wedding as well … though, as you’ll see in the next post, I didn’t expect to be doing a Mini Cooper advert shoot as well! :D
And before signing off on this post, my thanks to Lynn and Peter for hosting me in Melbourne. Qian Yi for being utterly adorable and Oscar (the cat) for letting me share his space without clawing me!
Travel Stats:
- 15 days travelled of 29
- 6 places visited in 4 countries in 2 continents
- 34.5 hours spent in 9 planes
- 26,160 km travelled
- 16 time zones crossed
- RTW – Los Angeles – Part 1
- RTW – Los Angeles – Part 2
- RTW – Cook Islands – Part 1
- RTW – Cook Islands – Part 2
- RTW – Cook Islands – Part 3
- RTW – Wellington – Part 1
- RTW – Wellington – Part 2
- RTW – Wellington – Part 3
- RTW – Wellington – Part 4
- RTW – Wellington to Melbourne
- RTW – Melbourne – Part 1
- RTW – Melbourne – Part 2
- RTW – Melbourne – Part 3
- RTW – Melbourne to Perth
- RTW – Perth – Part 1
- RTW – Perth – Part 2
- RTW – Singapore
- RTW – Hong Kong
- RTW – Macau
- RTW – Siem Reap – Part 1
- RTW – Siem Reap – Part 2
- RTW – Siem Reap – Part 3
- RTW – Siem Reap – Part 4
- RTW – Siem Reap – Part 5
- RTW – Phnom Penh – Part 1
- RTW – Phnom Penh – Part 2
- RTW – Hong Kong
