O' Canada

After a pretty lacklustre start to the week, it is now starting to pick up some momentum (tomorrow being Friday now, of course). My sniffle has reduced to a snuffle and I'm feeling somewhat more back in the ballgame.

I did, however, manage to keep myself up for an extra hour last night, with an infuriating tickle down the back of my throat. If I'd tried harder to ignore it at the outset, I probably would have been alright, but it was annoying me - so I decided to annoy it back!

Lying in bed, late at night, trying to get to sleep with a tickle down the back of your throat, is pretty infuriating and a damn hard thing to itch, to boot. After a few unsuccessful rounds of clearing my chest, exhaling sharply and generally coughing, I had cleverly managed to make it a lot worse.

After sooking on a Strepsil for a while and wondering how badly I would choke myself if I fell asleep and got the lozenge got stuck in my windpipe, I drifted off to sleep. Today, I'm feeling heaps better and have been getting back up on the pitching mound.

A couple of weeks ago I had made up a list of jobs that I had to do before I could get on 'the' jetplane, in early December, to head south for the winter. A lot of furious scribbling later and I had filled in 4 sheets of A4 with jobs ranging from the critical to the obtuse. Then, while still in my administrative frenzy, I made up a calendar with target completion dates, for certain key tasks in the coming couple of months.

Inching towards the end of October, I now need to decide how I'm going to route the flight and, very importantly - I also need to actually buy the bloody ticket!

I have a number of options available, with 'my' standard return journey being to fly JAL (Japan Airlines) to the Antipodes, with a stopover each way in Tokyo or, more specifically, Narita airport (a long & expensive train ride from Tokyo).

There is nothing special about the flight or the routing itself, except that on the way back they stop for the night in Tokyo (or, more specifically, Narita Airport - a long & expensive train ride from Tokyo). You get in at about 6pm and don't leave until 10am the next morning, but the good bit is that they put you up for the night in JAL's airport hotel - all as part of their standard airfare!

I don't know if you've ever done the trip from Aus/NZ to London but it is a long haul, especially in one flap. The journey can take up to 26 hours and you arrive back into Heathrow at about 6.30am, proceed to clear customs etc, and gleefully arrive back in London at about 8am - just in time for the manic early morning tube crush! Not what you need when you're beside yourself with tiredness and are carrying a whole pile of significant life possessions on your back.

So, with the stop in Tokyo (or, more specifically,...) you have a nights kip (in the worlds smallest hotel room), eat some unusual food and pay about £10 per beer - but it is heaven after 1/2 a day cooped up in cattle-class (on one of these journeys, due to various connecting flights, I had to endure Lilo & Stitch 3 times - painful Trev, painful)! The haul back to London is only about 14 hours and you arrive back in London feeling moderately compus mentus.

This time, though, I'm thinking of doing a round the world trip. Mainly because it would be nice to do something different (I've done the JAL thing about 3 times) and I would really like to go to Canada. I've never been there before and I find most Canadian folk nice, easy-going people.

I did actually stop for a night in St Johns in Newfoundland once, but I was quite sick with the flu at the time (seems to be the theme of the week eh!) and couldn't bring myself to go and view anything of the city - it was already pretty dark when we landed at about 5pm. Somewhat wimpy you might say, but when we had landed the air temperature was -22 deg C and there was another 20 deg of wind chill factor, to add to that (or subtract, as the case may be).

I tried to get myself inspired since I had been wanting to go to Canada for a long time (still am), but with a screaming head cold, the 5 mile journey into town in, -45 deg C weather, was just a bit too much.

So, now, I need to decide if I make the extra effort (and cost) and go and visit a bit of Canada this time round (finally). I'd really like to go to Vancouver, but from my research so far, it looks like I'd have to route via America to get there (LA or San Fran).

But, to put it bluntly, I have no interest in going to America while it is ruled by that infernal idiot George W Bush. No offence to our American friends out there, I've been to America a number of times (staying in Denver once for a couple of months) and really enjoyed the country & the people I met, but I have no interest in going there while that idiot is still in charge!

So, I've got some serious pondering to do over the next week before making a solid decision and coughing up some money (shit, did somebody say 'cough')...

p.s. I've never been to Tokyo either...

p.s. I might be back blogging next week with a grand plan for a road trip from San Francisco to Vancouver, via Seattle - 3 well-overdue places that are high on my list to visit!