I am writing this blog after only 2 hours sleep so apologies in advance for any errors. Today was all about travel. We would be departing Sydney for Thailand with a connecting flight to Saigon, Vietnam. We were due to leave Sydney at 5.45pm arriving in Thailand at 3am (Oz time). Our connecting flight which if on time will be at 12 noon (Oz time) arriving in Vietnam at 1.45pm... 9.15am local time... confused yet?! Simply put, our total transit time door to door will be the standard 24 hours.

Before our epic journey we had time to kill in the morning. Ju had booked us on a tour around the Opera House. Initially I thought this was going to be boring. However I was to quickly change my mind - the tour was actually very interesting. I hadn't realised the controversy surrounding the Opera House and it's Danish creator Jorn Utzon. In the mid 50's it was decided Australia needed an Opera House. After careful consideration as to where the Opera House should be situated a competition was launched internationally to find the best design. Entries were submitted from all over the globe and a few designs were short-listed. The design we see today was almost discarded. Fortunately a key judge arrived late and insisted on trawling through the discarded entries. He pulled Jorn's designs from the pile and announced "gentleman, we have a winner".

The initial budget for the Opera House was set at £7 million with a 3 year completion date. The reality was £100 million and 16 years of construction. The problem was construction issues due to the complexity of the design. The ramifications caused a political storm and by the late 1960's Jorn was forced to resign from the project. He later returned in the late 1990's to consult on refurbishments at the Opera House and the Australian government finally acknowledged his achievements by naming a section of the building after him. The design of the building is recognised as one of the Worlds most iconic marvels. It's construction pioneered engineering techniques which are widely used today. I felt sorry for Utzon, it's difficult when a client expects so much for so little (although I am not sure who was responsible for the original estimates?). Regardless of the over-run in costs the Opera House is a fine example of what can be achieved when you listen to creatives. I am sure the Opera House has paid for itself ten times over. Like Ju pointed out it makes the Sydney skyline and it's an iconic Ozzy landmark. One expression which tickled me which came from the tour was... creativity pushing science.

After the tour we had a spot of lunch followed by a quick march back to the hotel. It wasn't long before we were on the plane. We had a stroke of luck as we were upgraded to World Traveller Plus. Bigger seats, a better meal and more leg room. We could have been in first class, but Ju talked us out of that one. The flight flew by as we watched movie after movie. Unfortunately Ju had a mild panic attack half way through the flight. She had felt nauseous and faint - we're not sure why. It was probably due to an active imagination and too many medical facts spinning around in her head. Luckily I had had quite a bit of wine and in my relaxed state I managed to calm her down. Before we knew it we had touched down in Bangkok airport Thailand. We grabbed a little sleep in the airport like tramps. I managed to polish the airport floor with my arse as I tossed and turned on the cold marble floor. Ju slithered around in her sleeping bag, what a sight.