lurgi strikes back!
Tuesday, 28 June 2011 11:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
freckles_and_doubtSo, here I am in Brisbane, all about to beset you round with dismal stories. Brisbane is very pretty and has a rather nice vibe, and the considerable contingent of Durbanites in our group keep exclaiming "But it's so like Durban!" at random intervals. I might have to strangle them quite soon, although otherwise they're rather nice people.
Arriving here was not without quiet incident. The Cape Town/Joburg leg went fine, but the volcano gods are still doing their thing, necessitating the Australia/Joburg flights taking a giant detour which sticks a few hours and a refuelling trip onto the journey. Our plane arrived late from its previous flight, and lifted off the tarmac at 10.15 instead of 6.15, which means we missed the connecting flight from Sydney to Brisbane and had to take the 9pm one instead of the 4pm one. We trekked into the hotel at about 11.30 in the evening, weaving a little from that curious way in which the better part of a day folds up neatly into hyperspace when you're not looking. So this is jet-lag, is it? Huh. Actually not as bad as I expected, possibly because I seem to be a deeply photo-sensitive creature, and my battered bod goes 'Oh, ok, dark, then? let's sleep" in a relatively obliging sort of fashion. It remains to be seen what the return trip will do.
Of course, the ability to die promptly last night probably had not a little to do with (a) the fitful doze on the plane, (b) the oodles of drugs, and (c) making absolutely the appearance you rather hoped he wouldn't, Sid the Sinus Headache. For "headache" here please read "giant sinus infection sneaking south into the chest": the mild sinusoid lurgi I thought was over earlier this week has taken on a new lease of life under the rigours of inter-continental travel. Not only does my head pound and my body feel as though it's been pounded, but it hurts to breathe, and I have one of those amazing La-Bohème-style hacking coughs which has been intruding at intervals into the full day of meetings we had today. I sit in the corner trying desperately to suppress it while looking miserable and ineffectually attempting to interject occasional sensible comments. I have now, however, procured (in default of any ability to play a brass band instrument) the requisite Giant Evil Pink Bottle of Cough Mixture, and propose to go to bed early in a drugged-out haze.
On the slightly less pessimistic and plague-addled side, the Australian university people we met today have been uniformly lovely, and this city has some sort of weird vibe thing going which causes me to feel strangely at home almost instantly. Also, it has a giant river of the great-grey-green-greasy variety (one of the people we met today lost her house and car to the floods), and truly beautiful bridges.
Arriving here was not without quiet incident. The Cape Town/Joburg leg went fine, but the volcano gods are still doing their thing, necessitating the Australia/Joburg flights taking a giant detour which sticks a few hours and a refuelling trip onto the journey. Our plane arrived late from its previous flight, and lifted off the tarmac at 10.15 instead of 6.15, which means we missed the connecting flight from Sydney to Brisbane and had to take the 9pm one instead of the 4pm one. We trekked into the hotel at about 11.30 in the evening, weaving a little from that curious way in which the better part of a day folds up neatly into hyperspace when you're not looking. So this is jet-lag, is it? Huh. Actually not as bad as I expected, possibly because I seem to be a deeply photo-sensitive creature, and my battered bod goes 'Oh, ok, dark, then? let's sleep" in a relatively obliging sort of fashion. It remains to be seen what the return trip will do.
Of course, the ability to die promptly last night probably had not a little to do with (a) the fitful doze on the plane, (b) the oodles of drugs, and (c) making absolutely the appearance you rather hoped he wouldn't, Sid the Sinus Headache. For "headache" here please read "giant sinus infection sneaking south into the chest": the mild sinusoid lurgi I thought was over earlier this week has taken on a new lease of life under the rigours of inter-continental travel. Not only does my head pound and my body feel as though it's been pounded, but it hurts to breathe, and I have one of those amazing La-Bohème-style hacking coughs which has been intruding at intervals into the full day of meetings we had today. I sit in the corner trying desperately to suppress it while looking miserable and ineffectually attempting to interject occasional sensible comments. I have now, however, procured (in default of any ability to play a brass band instrument) the requisite Giant Evil Pink Bottle of Cough Mixture, and propose to go to bed early in a drugged-out haze.
On the slightly less pessimistic and plague-addled side, the Australian university people we met today have been uniformly lovely, and this city has some sort of weird vibe thing going which causes me to feel strangely at home almost instantly. Also, it has a giant river of the great-grey-green-greasy variety (one of the people we met today lost her house and car to the floods), and truly beautiful bridges.
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Brisbane
Date: Tuesday, 28 June 2011 10:54 am (UTC)Re: Brisbane
Date: Wednesday, 29 June 2011 11:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Tuesday, 28 June 2011 12:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Tuesday, 28 June 2011 12:50 pm (UTC)Don't catch mould.
no subject
Date: Wednesday, 29 June 2011 11:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Wednesday, 29 June 2011 11:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Tuesday, 28 June 2011 04:39 pm (UTC)