I can’t even keep track of how long it is since I took that photo at the airport. 10am Friday. Well, it’s 6am Sunday, but there’s all kinds of dateline nonsense between here and there. Suffice it to say, it took waaaaaay longer to get here than you’d think. How was it?

Well, the flight from Perth was fine. Packed, but fine. I arrived at about 4pm, had time to do the online check-in thing at the airport before being picked up by Nick. Went back to his place and he showed off his awesome new toy art that he’s doing for his exhibition, and we nattered away until Terry, Kerry, Deb, Chris and Adrian all showed up. We then headed off to this terrific gourmet pizza place where we ate, drank, laughed and talked. Then back to Nick and Adrian’s for dessert and wine. It was a wonderful, wonderful evening.

Next morning I was up fairly early. Terry came over and we strolled through Paddington and found somewhere for brunch. It’s a stunning area – the only place in Sydney that I’ve seen where I’d love to live – and again we had the relaxed kind of easy conversation you only get with long time friends.

After that it was all good-byes and off to the airport again. The twelve and a half hour flight was fairly horrible. Cramped, unpleasant. I fell off the plane in San Francisco tired and just awfully depressed. This was jetlag, of course, but still… I was met by Amelia who was incredible and kind. We headed back to Oakland for a long lunch where, in a haze of jetlag driven funk I spoke much nonsense. Then shopping before coming up to Charles’ house, where I’m staying. Amelia headed off and I then pottered around, had something to eat and spoke to Gary (which was welcome). I’ve slept some and will sleep some more before brunch today. Need to find the post-jetlag fun so I can enjoy Montreal. Not there yet.