Running from Sunrise

There’s really not all that much exciting to write about while on an airplane. I originally had some intent to write something profound about it being 11:34 AM on Saturday in Phoenix and it being 4:34 AM on Sunday in Sydney, Australia. I think I’m over it already. Altitude is around 35,000 feet, airspeed is something like 500 miles per hour, and they’ve got an episode of Grey’s Anatomy on which just had the Asian chick basically strip from her scrubs into a purple club dress. I suppose there could be worse things to have in front of you while sitting on a plan for over 10 hours.

Oh goody, they’re coming around with breakfast. Something in Styrofoam…

Okay, it was scrambled eggs, a sausage link, bacon I think, and fresh fruit. No really, the fruit was the best part – it was actually fresh. The grapes were the best.

Incidentally if you are wondering – the Grey’s Anatomy chick was dressed for a date and then she and her date, both doctors, had to save the life of someone at the restaurant.

So I’ve come up with a title for this entry – Running from Sunrise. If I look east I see a sunset, but in all reality that is Australia’s sunrise coming quick after the plane chasing us into the country. Looking west it’s just dark. It’s only 5:15 AM Sydney time after all. The colors themselves are beautiful – a deep dark blood red at the horizon blending into a holiday Thanksgiving orange, almost a gold, then white and finally a number of shades of blue as if you were seeing the ocean bottom drop off from a coastline.

Typing this in Microsoft Word on a 13-inch MacBook OS X (10.5.2), 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and 1GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM. The whole point of that sentence was just to keep me typing. I’m now wide-awake after breakfast, coffee, and some orange juice. Oh, and I’ve got 27% of battery left after leaving Phoenix fully charged – I’m impressed with it’s longevity, although for the first part of the trip I listened to my iPod, listening to “In a Sunburned Country” by Bill Bryson. iPod was not in the Microsoft dictionary. How competitive…

My seat is 41C, which is an aisle seat. There was no one in the middle seat and at the window is Lance, a British native now living and working in Australia. He sounds like some type of consultant and knew about PCI-DSS compliance and understood what I do which is sell products for vulnerability assessment, remediation, compliance reporting, data leakage prevention, and malware or application control. Word also doesn’t know how to spell malware. So back to Lance, pronounced Lawnce, he slept through the whole flight just walking up a bit ago. For a Brit I was impressed when he ordered coffee. Probably MI6 keeping tabs on me.

So you can get Grey Goose vodka for $33.00 per bottle, duty free, and Johnnie Walker Blue for $155.00 with a note that it’s $220.00 domestic. Past that there’s some wallets, perfumes, and jewelry.

Okay, got to listen to the announcement – talking about customs... So no food – got it. Food also includes instant coffee or tea. Now they’re talking about Qantas’ gates. Okay, so anyway, the duty free thing is kinda cool, but not really.

Just off the coast of Australia now per the map… 31,500 feet, 463 miles per hour and -45 degrees Fahrenheit outside the cabin. Microsoft can spell Fahrenheit.

I’m digging the controls for iTunes built into the MacBook. The Function keys all have corresponding keys for play, stop, fast-forward, and so forth which is nice so I don’t have to switch windows to stop playback.

71 miles more and have been in the plan for 13 hours 22 minutes. Estimated arrival is 6:04 AM. Really didn’t seem all that bad, although I’m sure I’ll be hurting later today being completely wiped out. My plan today is to get to the hotel, drop the bags, get the camera, computer, and walk around. Hyde Park was referred by a friend of mine and the hotel is close by there, and then maybe I’ll just get lost until I get tired and have a cab take me back to the hotel.

Definitely descending now. I suppose it’s time to shut down the computer…