Cabin Fever

I’m back, the Stationery Cabinet is now officially open for business, I’m tackling the backlog of those all important requests for paper clips and such, which means the company can finally begin functioning properly once again. I’m adjusting surprising well, given that I only returned to Australia yesterday morning. My appetite’s not quite returned to its usual ravening levels and I keep finding myself sitting upside down in my seat, but apart from that, everything’s swell. Although, I suspect that tomorrow and the day after will be worse, as the jet lag really hits.

The journey was ok. Well, no worse than your usual Economy hell. Actually, the London to Tokyo leg was pretty traumatic. As luck would have it, my two seat mates found another place to go, and I was left with my three-seat section all to myself. I couldn’t believe my luck. I ate dinner with a giant smile on my face, (despite how difficult it is to shovel chicken noodles in your mouth whilst maintaining a beam of happiness) and I was sipping my wine with pleasant thoughts of turning in for a civilized, horizontal sleep, when flight attendant came up and asked me if she could move someone to sit in one of MY seats. Obviously, I should have said “No, bitch!”, and possibly bared my teeth and hissed to emphasize my point, or at least said nicely that I have a bad back or something. But of course, pushover middle class nice girl that I am, I grimaced but said yes.

I then spent the remaining nine and a half hours of the flight too furious with the flight attendant, the passenger in question and myself to get any sleep at all. I was livid that my perfect, lucky flight had been ruined! It sounds a bit silly now, but when you’re stuck in Economy, believe me, even the smallest imagined slights can make you want to murder people. That’s as good an argument as any for banning weapons on board. Maybe they should relax the restrictions on things like scissors in Business and First Class, but seriously, disarm us in Economy for our own good. It’s a jungle back there.

Anyway, after that, the journey was good. I had two days in Tokyo. I stayed in a very budgetty hotel, with a heaps inferior toilet compared with the one I had on the way to England (I haven’t forgotten to tell you about that; I just don’t happen to be in the mood for stories about the Wonder Toilet today). One highlight of my stopover was the Museum of Parasitology, where I got to see jars of pickled intestinal worms. The explanations were all in Japanese so I had to use my imagination somewhat, but I still succeeded in getting a bit grossed out - Result! Then, on to Australia. As always, I had such a wonderful feeling of happiness upon landing. It’s always so nice to fly in to Sydney!

And miraculously, I came achieved the final leg of the journey – negotiating my way out of the sheer chaos which greets you outside International Arrivals…with only one abusive phone call from The Man, who was going nuts driving around trying to find me. What remarkable restraint. Once reunited, we went to Maroubra for breakfast (because The Man may love me but he loves the surf even more) and I spent the rest of the day asleep.

So, I’m back, roaming Sydney and looking splendid in my bargain new outfits! Hope to get back into the blogging routine soon.