In the immortal words of Willie Nelson (and me – I’ve stolen this one before) the child bride and I are on the road again, can’t wait to sniff some assholes with my friends… no wait, that was Rodney Rude’s dog impersonating Willie. As the title suggests, we are on our way to Japan for a very short cruise – Tokyo to Tokyo. We’re on a Qantas flight to Sydney then on to Haneda in Tokyo also with Qantas. After the events of a year ago I swore I wouldn’t fly with them again but I guess we’re here because of a forlorn hope for an upgrade after being stroked in London last March. Hasn’t happened. Oh, and I hate connecting through Sydney Airport (about as much as I hate connecting through Heathrow). It’s been put together like a Bombay slum and it feels and smells like one when 5 international flights all arrive within 5 minutes of each other. Not to worry – we have to suffer these privations if we want escape occasionally.
We had a bit of an unexpected rather traumatic day yesterday. We had two cats for many years but now we only have one. For all of those years they boarded together at the pet motel whenever we travelled. Having each other for company meant they could forget about us for a few weeks rather than just during the 23 hours a day they spend sleeping. Edgar, the survivor, had something of a personality transplant when Kaos ran out of lives last year. All of a sudden he realised that treating us with typical cat disdain was not to be recommended without back-up. He is now our best friend and on his first solo stay at the feline spa, he fretted and lost weight which was probably a good thing for his ponderous bulk. Many months of the cat version of sucking up, which is pretty much confined to demands for a pat, have meant that taking him to his holiday destination yesterday felt like taking him to the cat abattoir. We dropped him off and bolted – best not to linger and get all mushy.
Most of our cruises have been in summer or in warmer climes than Japan where the maximum temperature will be around 14C and the minimum will be around 3C while we’re there. So cold-packing was a new experience. This isn’t a thongs (for the feet), jocks, shorts and t-shirts cruise. It’s a “how many long sleeved shirts will I need” and “is 8 pairs of jeans too many” and “where the f… did I put that beanie” type of cruise. We have never come close to the airline weight limit for our bags. This time we did.
Sitting on the flight down to Sydney I’m reminded of one of those imponderables, like why do women stroke their chins when driving or why does “change-up” mean “slow down” in an assortment of ball throwing games. No, the one I’m thinking of is why does the airline industry attract so many gay men but straight women. Opportunity I guess and you can interpret that word however you like. The corollary to this of course is why do so many sports attract gay women but straight men. I’ve got another ten hours or so to ponder these imponderables until they get shoved back into the dark recesses of my mind from whence they came.