The flight was about as comfortable as that long of a flight can be in coach. The aircraft was a new A330 Airbus, the flight attendants extremely personal and attentive, complementary hot meals, adult beverages, and personal seat back entertainment systems. I watched Marigold Hotel with Judt Dench, Hawaii 5-0, and assorted short TV shows, which in combination help kill time.
At approximately 5:30 PM local time, 9:30 PM Pacific time, we crossed the equator. In the tradition of ancient mariners, ships still celebrate the crossing of the equator by owner in Neptune.
A short time after crossing the equator we crossed the international dateline, and in the blink of an eye Wednesday evening and Thursday morning vanished, never to return again. Mark Twain wrote that if your birthday was on a Wednesday and your berth was at the stern of the ship as it crossed the dateline at midnight, you would immediately go from Tuesday to Thursday and therefore, having never actually had your birthday, you could stay a year younger for 12 more months!
The flight was smooth and customs easy and we arrived at hotel at 10 PM. This is the view from our room on the 22nd floor of the Marriott: the Story Bridge crossing the Brisbane River.
Brisbane is a relatively new city having grown up over most of the last 30 years. 50 years ago most of the streets were still dirt. It's new, modern and clearly has money given the nature of the shops in the city center. This morning we will walk around, grab a flat white and a pastry (I want the lamb, rosemary and onion roll!) and early this afternoon we will take a taxi to our motorhome and drive off to Toowoomba for the night, after provisioning the "caravan" at the major grocery store, Woolworths!
In case you were wondering, we are 15 hours ahead of New York, 16 ahead of Chicago, and 18 ahead of San Francisco. So for you in the bay area, just subtract six hours and add a day!
From Tomorrow,
Steve and Linda
