This will be a rather short entry with no accompanying photographs as seldom did opportunity present it self to take any. Friday was a very long day - literally! I left Noumea in the dark as it is over a half hours drive to the airport. I was picked up by a shuttle service at 5 am and and arrived at the airport at 6. After checking in I had to wait a while before going through security where I could then relax in the business class lounge until leaving on the 8 am flight to Sydney.
The flight to Sydney was uneventful with the plane arriving about 11:30 am. After getting my boarding pass for the flight to Los Angeles (LA), I went to the Qantas lounge for the next several hours. There I was able to connect to the Internet and chatted with Janice and my mom for a while (at one point I had 3 separate conversations going on as I chatted with Jordan for a few minutes too!).
The flight left Sydney at 3:20 pm and got into LA at 9:50 am the same day (after almost 14 hours in the air)! As usual I slept very little being able to only nap every so often - wide eyed until fatigue set in and I would have to close my eyes and drift off for 10 to 15 minutes until I awoke once again and then repeated the cycle. The hold over in LA wasn't too long but not very enjoyable. I got confused as to where to go to next and ended up on this shuttle bus which took me, not to the terminal I needed to go to but to a transfer station for local LA public transit! I had to wait about 15 minutes for the next shuttle as the one that dropped me off was going out of service. As it turns out all I had needed to do was walk about 100 metres to the next terminal, but I couldn't find any signs pointing me in the right direction, thus my taking the bus!
While I let myself get a little stressed out I made it to my next flight on time. The flight to Vancouver was uneventful except for short bouts of drowsiness. I am staying at the Listel Hotel, in downtown Vancouver where I will be until this coming Wednesday. I have some meetings arranged for Monday and Tuesday.
This weekend I plan to spend with my good friend Don and his wife Jan. Don and I both did our masters at the University of Alberta and shared an office while there. Because of my sleep habits (or inability to do so on a plane) the best thing I have done to keep jet lag at bay is spending the night in Vancouver on the return. This is the second time I have done it and both times I have been able to get a good nights sleep which helps over come jet lag dramatically!
Well, this trip is almost over. And as before it has been very fascinating seeing the many contrasts between Canada and other parts of the world. And missing out on the -40 degree weather in Thompson hasn't been that bad either!
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