Darwin And Dear Friends

After spending the day in Singapore in transit just doing emails and relaxing, I boarded my red-eye flight to Darwin – I had not been aware that I needed a visa for Australia, luckily in today's world you can get it right there over the Internet!
As I stepped out from Immigration and Customs there was Jann and Ian waiting for me!! You know you have friends when the get up to greet you at the airport at 5 AM no matter how much you protest!
We drove back to their apartment in the center of Darwin and had a cup of coffee and caught up with each other until it was time to go for breakfast in town. Afterwards Jann and I decided it was time for a shower and a nap, while Ian attended to some business.
When we got up feeling a lot more energetic, Jann and I went to lunch at a café and sat and watched the passersby and chatted until mid-afternoon. Then I went with Jann to shop for dinner at the local supermarket, and we had a lovely evening, catching up on everything that had happened since we last saw each other years ago! Actually I had not seen Ian since my last visit to Australia 10 years ago!! Time does fly, but it really didn't seem that long ago!
The next day we got our gear ready for out road-trip down to Uluru Rock which we planned on starting the next morning. It would involve some camping, so I really had to think about what to bring, as Ian and Jann already had a fully loaded car, since they had been driving up from Melbourne, and they were going to continue back down again after dropping me off in Uluru.
I was going back up to Darwin for another 2 weeks afterwards, so I could leave my stuff in the apartment, all I had to figure out what I would need for our trip.
Jann was in charge of the food supply, and I went shopping with her for the fresh supplies needed – they had this really neat solar powered camping fridge, so we could bring some fresh meat – Australians do love their meat and chops, and every camping place is sure to have excellent barbie facilities!
In the evening we went out to dinner with one of Ian's business associates, Ann, a lovely young woman, whom I had met briefly the night before. She lives in Darwin, and is my contact person when I return, in case I need something, so good to get to know her!
We ate a one of Darwin's premier restaurants – the food is a fusion between Australian, Indian and Thai – it's called Hanuman (the Monkey God in Indian mythology). The setting was lovely, and the food superb – not to mention the company – we had a great evening!