Keith's a good bloke and obviously a mate and I never met him before today and he's the managing partner of Deloitte Sydney and they have spiffing offices overlooking the harbour and when you've had a bonzer meeting with Keith and his chums a mere 8 hours after landing it's good to chill out with a few beers at Wharf 5 on Circular Quay. So thanks, Keith. You'll be in my dreams perhaps if I ever get to go to sleep.

Quite a lot of good stuff can happen when travelling for 24 hours...So credit where due to: Qantas for waiting at Singapore for our delayed by snow/ice inbound flight from London The Airbus A380 - amazing something so big can fly. Much nicer onboard than the good old 747.. Lincoln (the film not the place or the car) - I can't think of the last time 2 1/2 hours went so quick. A fascintaing, completely convincing juxtaposition of war leadership and low politic...

But how could anyone leave all this at home...? Luckily where I'm going is definitely not a dog free zone. We managed to avoid the snow predicted for Heathrow & SE England this evening by the neat trick of dropping me at the airport 6 (yes, 6 !!) hours early. The fun starts right here, right now (yawn....)

Guess who's been upgraded? OK, not all the way to first, and not quite all the way to "fat-cat" (business) but at least well beyond 'cattle'. "Yes, stewardess, I will have another glass of champagne - so long as it isn't Australian!"

I'm soaking up Australian culture by reading Australia's most popular novel of the modern era. CloudStreet, by Tim Winton. And it's nothing short of brilliant so far. The way the characters express themselves is particularly vivid - it's defeinitely 'english' but not as it's spoken on this side of the world. At this rate I may have finished it before we land in Oz....