Goddamn it hurts to fly when you’ve a cold! The going up is okay, but the coming down hurts a bunch. And, then, after the plan lands, you spend the next three hours struggling with a head that feels like it’s been drilled through from ear to ear with a one-inch bit then plugged with snot.
I’m back in Melbourne now, and back at work. I suppose travel has focussed me a little, made me a little more determined to live a life of greater vigour. Here’s another gratuitous difference between America and Australia: in America you can buy gum in big flat sheets; you used to be able to get such stuff here, but for some reason you now can’t. You can get different flavours (like cinnamon) in America too, but I suppose this is not so surprising. (I do find it odd that the colour associated with a particular flavour varies from country to country. Why is salt and vinegar purple here and blue in America?)
Here’s some footage of the very strange automatic-door situation in the U.S./Canada.
Large (1.4Mb), small (0.43Mb).
Note the barriers on either side of the doors and the general inelegance of the solution.