Through the fortunate placement of a conference in Sydney, I was able to use the air once more to travel north for a couple of days of learning about the research being conducted in the field, and the issues involved in the upcoming deregulation of the dairy industry. If anyone is interested, it was the 14th annual Dairy Research Symposium, and I was invited to present a poster and talk at it, hence my need to leave the fields for a few days. At the end of the conference, instead of flying straight back down to Melbourne, Di flew up to Sydney as well, and we spent the weekend at a friend’s place, exploring the city.

The following couple of days turned out to be a weird comedy of errors for one reason or another, despite the best-laid plans set out by our host, and us having read all the brochures on what we wanted to see. Life is odd sometimes, and needs to confuse you. This was a confusing weekend, which attempted to waylay us at every opportunity, through nobody’s fault.

Although my flight was rather uneventful, Di’s flight was more interesting, with all passengers boarding, only to be told that there was a small engineering problem they wanted to fix, and it should delay the plane only ten minutes. These “ten minutes more” announcements kept coming for the next hour, and the passengers were less than impressed. Finally, the plane was ready to head off, and taxied down the runway. As the plane left the ground though, there was suddenly a loud screaming noise, and everyone got somewhat worried as to whether or not they were going to make it.

Di was sitting beside a woman who looked out the window and saw the wispy clouds as the plane began to fly up through them, but mistaking them for something more sinister, cried out “SMOKE!” Needless to say, this did not reassure many people, but the woman was eventually calmed down, and the flight was relatively dull until the descent when the horrific metal-screaming sound returned. Nobody was entirely sure what the problem was, but the sounds coming from the engines were not pleasant. Nonetheless, over an hour after she was due to arrive, Di touched down alive and well.

We were picked up by Serren (our wonderful kind friend who was providing accomodation for us) at the airport, then cruised for dinner at a pub where you get to grill the meat yourself. After dinner, we went back to her place where we lamented the fact that alcohol does not assist much when attempting to solve crosswords.

Categories: Travel, Sydney 1999