Home is where the snow is.

In the end, my round-the-world tour turned out to be reasonably zig-ah-zig-ah:

Moscow – Dublin – Abu Dhabi – Canberra & Sydney – Singapore – Austin (via NYC and Dulles) – Riyadh – Tokyo/Osaka/Tokyo – and now: home!

The trip turned out to be a high-pressure one, with a tight schedule to fit all the work in and little time for chilled sightseeing. To be honest, it took a lot out of me. I’m real tired. Dog tired. Totally beat, burned out, wasted, done for, dead on the feet, whacked, fried, frazzled, KO’d, ruined… Walking to the gate at Narita airport in Tokyo, I nearly fell asleep while standing on the horizontal escalator thingie :).

Notes:

Out of the array of programs and films on offer on the screen in the back of the seat in front of me, I often opt for the flight route map. It’s a bit like cricket. Not much happens, what does happen occurs at a snail’s pace, but if you’re one for taking it real easy all day it’s the one to go for!

Aerial cricket

I noticed that my travel companion A.Sh. (after revealing his camp side in Nippon:) had on his screen much more ‘traditional’ blokey stuff – a program called ‘Russian Beauties’ (surprisingly – unrated!). I guess that was his version of decompression. He’s new to this intense jet-setting, and it’s not the easiest thing to get used to. Please feel sorry for him and wish him success, strength, perseverance and simply luck, as I have. Thanks in advance!

‘Russian Beauties’!

Narita airport. Curiously, there’s a farm right bang in the middle of the airport, surrounded by a sturdy fence. Apparently some stubborn locals refused to sell their land to the authorities, so the latter had to just build round it! A family still lives there and carries on its arable existence! Tracks have been tunneled out under the runways so they can get in and out. And angry banners hang on the fences saying ‘Damn you, Narita’, or some such suchness. It reminds me of the farm between the two carriageways of the M62 in West Yorkshire. Some people! Why on earth would they want to breathe all that pollution all day and night? Hello? If you ever need a definition of ‘cutting off the nose to spite the face’ just remember the Narita farm!

Out the window – Russia! Just another eight hours and I’ll be at snowy Sheremetyevo, and two hours later – home proper.

Brrr

So finally, your humble world-sightseeing tour guide is signing off. Good night all, and God bless.