Woke up at 0830, met Song’s friends in the lobby then let them go for yum cha while I went off to wander on my own – I’ll be in the car with them speaking mandarin for 3 hours so wanted a bit of peace for a while.
Had a coffee, then went to the shopping mall to sit and use the internet. Australia is well behind with this; in Europe and most of Canada and the US (not the remote places but the cities at least) most cafes and restaurants have free wifi. Every starbucks has it, as well as the shopping malls which also have seats with power points. I don’t know why somewhere like Chadstone doesn’t have this by now.
Found a burger place called Five Guys which is a chain they also have in the UK but not Australia. I think I’ve put on weight this trip but can’t work out why.
Watched some downloads again, wandered around and just took it easy and relaxed.
Walked around some more, mainly window shopping, it was a bit overcast but not cold, no need for a ($20) jacket.
Met the rest back at the hotel and set off for Seattle but didn’t get very far because they wanted to stop for some more Chinese food. I wasn’t hungry for a change so let them all eat while I watched.
Stopped off for a coffee then back in the car, I put my Mandarin cancelling earphones on and listened to some music. Just as well, they talked non stop for 3 hours.
We passed through the US border in about a minute, a car full of Chinese people and one English man failing to arouse any suspicion.
After a while we arrived in Seattle, drove past a couple of Microsoft buildings where the lights were going on and off, I think they were rebooting.
Song’s friends have just finished renovating their house and insisted we stay instead of getting a hotel. They added a second floor and it was huge and very well done.
Tomorrow it’s going to be raining (it rains a lot in Seattle) and we’re going to a glass museum, and I want to go to the museum of flight. In case you didn’t know, Seattle is home to Boeing, Microsoft and Starbucks.
