Touchdown

Wednesday July 25
Yes, having survived both the flight and the mysterious International Time Warp I am officially here in Sydney on WEDNESDAY. It was definitely the longest night of my life, as we left LA in the dark and arrived fifteen hours later just as the sun was rising over Sydney. In almost every way, it was not that bad at all – having that much time with nothing to do except read books and watch movies was really quite wonderful. The plane was preloaded with lots of Australia movies to get you in the mood, so I saw The Man from Snowy River, Rabbit Proof Fence, a documentary on the Outback, and, of course, another round of the beautiful Hugh Jackman in Australia. Lots of food, free wine, adequate leg room…if it hadn’t been for that half hour of turbulence about five hundred miles southwest of Hawaii in the absolute middle of Pacific nowhere when the plane not only jiggled up and down but whipped side to side like a shark’s tale and you find yourself swearing that you will never ever take a flight this long again not ever never ever but for that it was fine. Met up with conference folks in the airport, got to this comfortable little hotel, immediately took off for the Opera House and the Contemporary Art Museum staggering a bit after being mostly awake for thirty hours then some nice Indian food, pass out for two hours, then walk around the city and just now there’s a conference party somewhere. Gotta go !