Day 1: Canberra to Sydney

While technically the trip did begin today, it involved only a single flight of 50 minutes, and then a stay overnight in a hotel provided by JAL. However, there are at least 3 reasons why we are posting the story of today.

· Completeness

· To please all those of you who are super-keen to get super-regular updates

· Because there is at least one funny story to tell for the day (though perhaps not so funny for those involved in the story)

Our flight, like just about every other flight heading off that night, was delayed by 30 minutes. There was no announcement - the times on the departure board just slowly crept further and further into the future. Eventually the future caught up to the departures board, and we were called up to board the flight.

Despite the delay, we consider ourselves lucky that we weren’t travelling the other way. At one point an announcement came over the PA system, informing everyone that the flight that had just arrived from Sydney had done so without the passengers’ luggage it was supposed to be carrying. No luggage. None! Everyone who was on the flight was to go and give their details so that when it arrived it could be sent out to them.

We’ve been discussing how such a situation could possibly occur, and so far have no answers. Given that we are now in a hotel room in Sydney with our bags supposedly meeting us in Tokyo, I have decided to write this post with one hand, using the other to keep in contact with a wooden article nearby.

In other news, the alarm clock in our room has a peculiar fault. The ‘minute’ button does not function. This means that we are unable to set the alarm to a resolution any finer than one hour, and are forced to wake up at five minutes past the hour of our choosing.

Good times.