I’ve been home for a bit over 24 hours now, its Monday night and we arrived home in Dubbo on Sunday afternoon. so we’re still in the that parallel universe or zombie land that jet lag brings on. Although this morning I sort of felt ok, in Europe it is late in the evening, the problem time is from about midday here when we would normally be sound asleep over there. It’s a 1st world problem I know, but I did go back to work this morning, sat at my desk, tried to remember my access code etc to get to work emails I haven’t looked at for 4 weeks (800 emails are line up), I turned the work mobile on that’s been off for 4 weeks ( I try to catch up on work changes, politics and the general mood of everything, a few disasters, a few resignations, the usual stuff)

So, where did I last finish in the last post, I think it was as we were leaving Doha terminal to get on the plane. The plane is pretty full, not many seats empty up the back of the plane so no real opportunity to spread out as we have been able to on other trips. The food timing seems a bit weird, and not at all matching with the timing in Australia where we are heading and we aren’t really that hungry, I don’t even feel like a beer or a g&t, nurse check my pulse and blood pressure please! I doze occassionally but mostly we are watching movies or listening to music. Another Plus for long haul flights is Noise Cancelling Headphones, Mark and I have expensive Bose ones and Genelle some Aldi headphones, this changes to feel of the aircraft, hardly any jet engine roar coming through and blocks out a lot of other noises, but not crying babies, maybe thats the next technological challenge for electronic engineers to development baby crying cancelling headphones.

Finally the sun comes up and we see the blue mountains and Sydney ahead, a feeling of relief comes in a rush that the torture of the 14 hours being held captive in a metal cylinder hurtling along at just under the speed of sound is nearly over.

At about 6.45 we land and stumble out into Sydney airport, there is a huge crowd of people trying to get through the Borderforce checks and then through the customs, the lineup is long and slow. I slow the process down by stopping to buy a bottle of Jameson’s in Duty Free, but it takes over an hour to get out and get to the train to get over to the domestic terminal, the $4.50 charge on the Opal Card to get a quick train is cheap. We then sit in the Rex waiting room until 11.45 when our flight home leaves. Mark and I have a McDonalds, the first one in a month and I have a coffee, heaven, as its still hard to find coffee as good anywhere as what we get in Australia. The country doesn’t look as good as I thogu it might as we fly into Dubbo, just a green tinge, no bulk and its obvious that I haven’t read the rainfall reports on the internet correctly, I thought the season would look a lot better.

The Murphy’s pick us up and drop us at home, we drearily unpack, sort gear for washing, then have a shower, do a bit of basic shopping, eat dinner and Genelle hits the sack at about 9pm and I hit it at about 10.30pm.

A final sum up will follow in the next week or so when the jet lag wears off I can write with a clear head.

It was a great trip, busy, non stop for my travelling partners and busy enough for me, we covered old ground, new ground, and some that we saw just fleetingly in trips before, but more about that later.

What is the next trip we’re planning????

Cheers

Paul