It's now 02.44 and I'm sitting in Manly, Sydney, as the rain pours down. My body says that my afternoon nap is over, but questions why it's dark.
We left Paris at 10:40 am on Tuesday on a direct flight to Perth Australia. That's just over 16 hours in a slightly too small (!) seat with slightly more legroom than others offer. After take-off they get lunch/dinner into you as fast as possible then start to dim the lights. By 13:00 local time it's nighttime and they're bedding you down for 12 hours of near sleep, uninterrupted except by four hourly interruptions to offer ice-cream or cheese and crackers. Or cheese toasties. Or pizza. The toilets are too small (even by aircraft toilet standards) and too few, but the kitchen is available at all hours for self service snackage and knee and back stretching.
Then they wake you, serve breakfast, and throw you and all your hand luggage into an airport with underperforming air-conditioning in 35° Celsius heat to have your stuff security scanned and be returned to the same seat you just left for another 4 hour flight. Last time we flew we commented on the situation at Shanghai but this made no more sense. Ah well...
We were met at the airport by my brother, known as JB the Provider, who drove us to Manly, opened the door to his apartment there, made sure we knew the ropes, slept on the couch, and departed on Thursday morning, but not before accompanying us on a short walk to a couple of the lesser known nearby beaches. Where we saw dolphins and little fish. What an excellent start!
We then spent the whole afternoon wrestling with getting our Australian bank accounts in order after 7 years of neglect.
Anyway... My body tells me I'm tired, the rain has eased (see photographic evidence) and I'm back to bed.
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