are we there yet?

it's nearly midnight... somewhere, anyway.... Sydney, i think. that means Canberra and Melbourne. Tokyo? Dili? oh, and Hobart. we always forget Hobart. me, i have no fucking clue what the fucking time is wherever it is i'm over. it's dark outside and the exterior cameras on the plane (feed from which is streamed through the inflight entertainment system - very cool at takeoff) are giving me static now. either way, while it's a bit hard to say where i am, what with the inflight GPS seeming to be unplugged, midnight sydney time means we've been in the air for a little less than 7 hours, and so a touch less than half-way through our 14 hour, 40 minute flight. wheeee!

so why the hell am i sitting here bashing drivel into my little Eee and not trying to get some absurdly undervalued sleep? did someone suggest that i might have been having sleeping problems since leaving a pretty little mouse at her doorstep in the cold light of morning? not that i think it's related - i'm sure it's the illness, headaches, coughing, that sort of thing.

brief interlude:

when you fly you can wind up meeting some interesting people. take the guy sobbing across the aisle from me. before he spent 10 minutes irrigating my shoulder he was saying that he's off to Tripoli... so see his mother who's ill. diabetes, maybe some other complications. his breath smells of the booze he's been scrounging up in the first-class cabin (he's been in and out of there all flight). why he told me this i have the feeling i'll never know, but he seemed to really want to tell someone... anyone. now he's sitting across sobbing and the hostie-lads have come by to make sure that he's not causing me any trouble. poor lad. he's going to feel it when he gets to wherever he's going and his hangover shows up on its connecting flight.

:interlude end

either way, what i was talking about before i was interruped was that since i've been sleeping so poorly i can't be bothered spending the next two or three hours trying to sleep in this shitty fucking cattle-class seat and instead get on with completely wearing myself out with the hope that perhaps i'll sleep in the second leg.

since last i had the time to scratch myself, let alone write more than twenty words in a single space, i've been all over the place. back to the flat from the airport on the Shadow & Bosslady Taxi Service, and more or less straight to bed. my visa finally arrived on tuesday, which was a relief, and the event was celebrated by packing. by wednesday about a third of my crap had been packed and deployed. by thursday i was sick as a fucking dog, and remained that way until yesterday. on friday i couldn't put off the duty any further and so the day was spent packing the rest, and the evening moving. by saturday i wasn't feeling any better, but there was still work to do - final cleanup and a repack. Paul & Lou got out the door on time and i went off to see my sweetheart. sunday reared its cold heart way too soon and by 10 i was on the highway with a stomach full of tea and poptarts and a head full of glue, fresh from the only breakup i've ever had that i didn't want to do over.

but who am i trying to fool here? i know i've not gone into any real detail about young Mc.D. i haven't felt it particularly pertinent. i'd prefer to discuss situations personally rather than try to scattergun useful information. it was more important, really, that the general idea of the situation be noted, rather than to go into the details. this means that you'd have missed a lot of my good mood over the last couple of months, and the little brunette who's been behind the larger percentage of it. it was fun, but it had a use-by date and now i'm on an aeroplane somewhere over the indian ocean and it's gone. more or less, anyway. discussions have been had. notices of intent exchanged. an agreement has been made to "see" and so "see" we shall and the rest of it we'll deal with when i make it home... one way or the other.

i spent my time in Sydney wearing a groove into Cymun & Yun's couch. they, wonderful folks that they are, fed me lots of tea and made me get up long enough to take some exercise and get some food into me. i'd have liked to have been more active, but what do you do? i was falling over i was so sick, and there was no way i was going to survive this flight if i was feeling that dead.

as it was, Lou's folks got us to the airport well on time and we didn't even have any problems with being over our luggage allowances. i woke up this morning after sod-all sleep feeling generally ok, even if i did still have a lingering cough.


Some more important stuff than "what"...

i received a message from Matt last monday asking whether i'd left Canberra for good yet. i hadn't - at that point i was waiting for my connecting flight in Sydney. it was good timing on his part though, because i'd wanted to get a chance to sit around, drink some beers and shoot the breeze for a couple of hours.

Sandra cooked dinner to co-incide with my dropping my bed and other assorted odds and ends over at hers. i managed to get through watching half of Wall-E before i had to call the game due to exhaustion.

Shadow had the day off on the wednesday, so dropping my comics, music and movies around meant that i had the chance to hang and crap on for a couple of hours. you see, considerate people organise things in such a way as to give maximum benefit to all parties involved, even when they have to work around someone's particular needs.

everything that needed to get done got done. some of it was a bit more sketchy than would have been ideal, but it got done.

i know there was more to this, but i just got hit by a wave of weary which i think may be a signal from the gods that i may actually be allowed to sleep and as much as i love giving you people something to read, i love sleep way more. in fact, if i were cursed by a witch and told that i could sleep well for the rest of my life, or watch my friends suffer you should know now that you are all destined to burn, and i'd throw my family in the fire as well just to be sure. so with that charming note:

fuck you i'm sleeping.


later, after Abu Dhabi...

i got some sleep, thank the gods. three? maybe 4 hours in the end, interrupted only when the cabin lights turned on and we were advised that we'd soon be beginning our descent into Abu Dhabi International. the airport looks like it was built in the 60's and hasn't changed much since. i've been told that they sell gold bars on the lower floor but i neveer got that far. the first thing we did was to find a toilet that didn't have floors covered in urine, then fought our way around until we found out which departure lounge we needed to be in before slumping into a couple of chairs and reading a newspaper someone had left there. it was 2AM in Abu Dhabi and the place was full of people waiting for connecting flights and neither of us had any interest in shopping for half an hour then being stuck standing when the lounge got too packed so we got through security and chilled out instead.

Ethihad Airline is... an inexpensive way to travel. the staff are reasonably polite and the entertainment system works. ohterwise, i can't say i've been impressed. cattle-class on Singapore Air is more comfortable. even Qantas is quite acceptable. i'm sure i'll have the opportunity to fly with some really shitty 3rd-9th-rate carriers over time, but i can't say that i'll be prioritising these guys unless they're massively cheaper than the competition.

i've another 5 hours to go before Heathrow and i'm not particularly in the mood for anything. it occurs to me that i've been on the move for more than a day now, what with the rush to get to the airport, then the three or so hours we hung around Kingsford Smith before actually getting on the plane. Lou and Paully had a tearful (and private) farewell. it's been an emotional time for her which is probably why the lucky bitch slept for seven or eight hours on the first leg, and is blissfully passed out next to me again now. as a minor consolation she seemed like she hadn't rested a bit when she woke up on approach so i'll not get too jealous. meanwhile, i'm going to read my book and wait for the sun to rise over europe...