Back home (for a while now). Time to reflect on a great trip. A few notes on the voyage home - which of course is what it would have been in the old days, 6 weeks or so on an ocean-going vessel. Instead, it took 24 hours on a BA 747. 24 quite long hours, I would say, thanks in part to Eloise (aged 10 months or so) from Leckhampton, Glos. Not that she was deliberately trying to keep he parents and me (enjoying the seat next to them) awake for 24 hours but that ...

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....

G'day, g'day, g'day. 48 hours to go until lift off on the longest journey I have ever been on. So naturally the forecast is for snow to sweep in just as Captain Harris (Rolf) is warming up the engines on Qantas QF002 on Sunday night. Watch this space....