Day 35: Home, almost

Day 35 (9 Jan) Given the nature of this project, taking today's photo was always going to be a challenge. Due to land in Sydney around 7.00 Sydney time, should I keep my watch on Japan time (5.00am) or put it back on Brisbane time (6.00am)? In the end, I opted for Brisbane time since that was my final destination. And so it was at 6.12am (Brisbane time) on this morning, the seatbelt sign had just been switched off and we were all jumping up to release the overhead luggage, stretch...all those things we do at the end of a plane trip. 

Landed, at 6.12am
(Brisbane time) 

My connecting flight wasn't going to be for another three hours or so, more waiting at an airport. Remain unconvinced that QANTAS' decision to drop direct flights between Brisbane and Tokyo was the right one, but I guess the shareholders have a different view, perhaps. 

Customs was decidedly quick and efficient as was the domestic transfer...time then to get a coffee and the paper and try and catch up on three weeks of news. Shocked to arrive home to news of the Tasmanian bushfires and extreme temperatures across the country. Always feels odd for the first few days news-wise, given I'm such a news tragic. I'm also aware I've missed and entire test cricket series over summer and there are just the one-dayers to go...they don't capture the imagination the way they once used to do. 

Home, 6.12pm

Home then, to unpacking, checking the mail, inspecting the house, catching up with the neighbours and news. Ah, much easier would travelling be if we could skip much of this? 

By the evening, it was beginning to feel like I hadn't been away, how quickly we adjust. I knew I had a lot to do and so at 6.12pm (no adjustments, definitely Brisbane time) I looked out the kitchen window to see the sun still relatively high in the sky, such a contrast from the early sunsets and colder weather of the past few weeks. Like most travellers, I was keen to be back in my own bed that evening. After all, it was back to work tomorrow, not that I'd really stopped...such is the life of an academic.