Godzone

Which is of course the word Australians use when we refer to Australia. God's own country. Whether and when I become a US Citizen I will still be an Australian and you can't blame me for thinking of my country of birth as the best in the world. I'm sure we all think our own country is God's own country.

At this time 24 hours from now I shall be somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. I've flown over the Pacific more than a dozen times this past year but this time I'm on leave, and I'll be on my way to Australia for an all too short 16 days in Melbourne. I'm flying out via San Francisco and the layover there is so short that I doubt I'll get to do more than eat a sanga (sandwich) in the United Airlines Frequent Flyer lounge. Indeed, the longest layover is on the way back; at San Francisco again. At least it'll give enough time to be sure my greencard is valid without missing the flight to Phoenix. Alas, by then, I won't have an international ticket so I won't get to spend time in the frequent flyer lounge. I will get to smoke!

I'm due in to Sydney Airport at 6 AM (the earliest they'll allow due to noise) and due in to Melbourne at 9:40 AM. This will be Friday morning Melbourne time, late afternoon Thursday Phoenix.

To say I've been looking forward to this trip is rather like saying that the sky is blue; I need a break from the step-daughter from hell and I really need to be in a place where there are 20 million people who speak my accent, rather than in a place where there are 300 million people who don't.

Today at the office was somewhat interesting. Given that management have a habit of comitting me to travel at a moments notice I had made sure that they knew that I was on leave from September 14 onwards. I may have overdone it a trifle; when I was in the Philipinnes last month it seems the joke doing the rounds was that the boss had persuaded me to stay there until September 30th and the jaws of everyone who heard that fell.

Thus it was that I was often asked, today, how many hours? Not that I was keeping a countdown you understand; but I did know that now it was 52 hours until I emerged into Godzone; now it was 50 hours. You get the gist.

Now it's somewhat less than 40 hours.