Day 126: Wednesday 10 April, the first...

Day 126 (10 Apr) Wednesday, time for Chicago. It will also be the first of two 10 Aprils I get to experience this year. That is good. The date holds significance for me as the date in 1946 that Japanese women were first able to vote and get elected to parliament. Well, that's the way I prefer to remember it. 

Breakfast, at 6.12am

I don't have to be out at the airport until about 8.30am so that gives me time for the usual things to do, except I have now packed (up a bit earlier to to do that) and just going through those last minute checks one makes before heading off. 

I've also just received the paper of one of the panellists so that will be something to read on the plane as well. 

Breakfast done and it is off to the airport. The departure (a direct flight from Brisbane to LA) is delayed, apparently for 'catering requirements'...wonder what that means? I have visions of someone in business class suddenly deciding they want to be vegetarian on this flight and have demanded a meal change. What else could hold up a plane load of people for 'catering requirements'? It looks like a full flight...bummer. 

Reading, in-flight, at 6.12pm
Brisbane time.

And it is indeed a very full flight, including one very well-built American gent sitting in the middle seat for the entire flight. He needs the armrests up for most of the flight...there are some space invasion issues to deal with during the next 14 hours. 

I do feel bad that just as airlines have reached that point of technical sophistication whereupon we can all enjoy our own individual screens...all I want to do is read and catch up on books I've wanted to read for a while. I generally take fiction and non-fiction, (work and play) and a couple of magazines. This time, the main book I read is the recently released Three Crooked Kings by Matthew Condon. Yes, for people who grew up in Queensland in a certain era, anything that explains the Bjelke-Petersen years is worth a read. It's what I was reading at 6.12pm, still on Brisbane time...even though we'd been in the air for some seven hours or so. 

Condon's book holds an additional interest for me too. I'm thinking that a better ay to perhaps tackle the book-length version of my Watanabe story might be to try a cross between the fact and fiction divide...not quite 'true' history, not quite 'novel'; I'm busy reading several examples of the genre to get an idea of how I might approach this book. 

It's been a reasonable flight, but still a few hours before we land...on day 126/7.