Saturday, May 26, 2001.

Unsure whether we slept better on the plane because of the better seats, or because we'd hardly slept at all the previous night, we woke up less than an hour before landing in Sydney. Actually, we had done everything to make sure we slept well, including putting on the pajamas that Singapore Airlines offers. It was still dark out as the aircraft landed, but the city lights were bright - Sydney is a large city. 

It took awhile to get through customs - Australia has set up serious quarantines because of the outbreak of hoof-and-mouth disease in Europe. And, unfortunately, we had been in Europe. We were red-flagged because we had been out in the countryside of the Netherlands. The quarantine officers checked all our shoes, including the ones that were packed. Two pairs of Stacy's shoes were taken away and sterilized - they came back with sparkling clean soles.

Finally we were through, and wandered out into the arrivals area of the Sydney airport. It was at this point that Stacy asked that obvious question, "Do you know what Adam looks like?" Adam and Richard had met at the Advisor conference in Phoenix a couple of years previously, and had been in contact via email since then. Adam had offered to pick us up, and now we couldn't remember what he looked like.

All of a sudden, a sturdy looking fellow came running across the concourse... carrying his shoes and socks. Adam! When asked why he was carrying his shoes, Adam answered "Its a bit early for that, isn't it?" Adam was also picking up Tom Howe, who was supposed to arrive a half hour later. We drank some tea while waiting, and then Tom showed up and we headed out into the city.

Adam drove us to the hotel, but since it was 7:30 in the morning, the rooms weren't ready. They did promise to have rooms in an hour, so Adam offered to take us to breakfast. But first, he had an appointment with an architect at 8am. He had recently bought a house and was planning some renovations. So we headed around to Adam's new house on the south coast.

Adam introduced us to his mother, who offered to take us on a stroll down to the beach and back, while Adam had his meeting with the architect.

We walked back from the beach to the house, Adam and his wife Anastasia were just wrapping up their meeting. Then we all headed out for breakfast near the beach. The little cafe had typical breakfast fare, although Adam had to special order his preferred meal: pancakes with scoops of ice cream.

After breakfast, we were off to the hotel, the rooms were ready. The Sheraton on the Park is one of the best hotels in Australia, and the hotel room was fantastic - especially the bathroom!

All checked in, Adam offered to take Tom and Richard to his office - Stacy opted for a nap. Adam has a successful contract development company called SSW.

Adam also made reservations for dinner for all of us, including Ken Getz, Peter Mason and Brian Randall. We finally finished up at the office went back to the hotel and picked everyone up to go to dinner. At dinner, Adam and Richard split the seafood platter, a huge mound of seafood that they both tore into.

All of us were pretty jet lagged, so by 8pm, we were ready for sleep. After dinner we headed back to the hotel and caught twelve hours of sleep. After two overnight flights in a row, it was down right novel to sleep on a bed again. The next day we would explore Sydney.