:mattLandia:

I spent my last day in Melbourne getting all my loose ends tied up.

First I spent a half day or so at the client site, finishing up some lab work with my class, answering final questions, and taking my leave of my hosts, etc. Needless to say, I'm always immensely relieved when I finish an assignment, and technical glitches notwithstanding, I felt like this was a success.

Once I left the office, I spent the rest of my day organizing and packing two weeks worth of dirty clothes, gifts, photo equipment, and laptop back into two small travel bags.

In the evening, I made one last stop at a local lounge, The Ding Dong Lounge to be exact, to catch the Immortal Lee County Killer show. I'd seen them before in Atlanta, and I thought it would be a good way to end my trip in Oz. Their new material was great. I bumped into the singer Chet at the bar for a few minutes and chatted with him about seeing them back home, how the Meredith Festival went for them, and an upcoming Atlanta show. Nice enough guy. Anyway, after the show, called it a night, and went to the hotel to catch some zzz's.

The next 26 hours are pretty much a blur. The flight to LA was long. I sat next to a quirkly-Ally-McBeal-strange sort of lawyer from Australia. As she was reading magazines, she would rip out every other page... The layover in LAX was quiet and not too long. I just sort of sat there in a half daze (see photo), and watched the sun rise. Caught my Delta flight home, and four hours later, arrived in Atlanta to watch the sun set. My body clock is all sorts of messed up by this point. But -- I'm HOME.

Last entry on the trip. In spite of my jet-settin', world travlin' ways, there is nothing quite so nice as coming home to a candle-lite loft, a happy girlfriend, and slobbery dog.