I seem to be getting to know Narita airport quite well

I am in the middle of a four hour layover after an overnight flight from Sydney. Not too bad - I think I got five or six hours sleep in the middle of it. There seems to still be free internet here, although not in the same place as before. This time it seems to be being offered by Intel, whereas last time it was Yahoo. I think there is also free wireless, but I don't know for sure because I do not have my own laptop with which to test it. It is quite irritating to be in the airport serving one of my favourite cities without being able to visit the city. Even despite that, I always like to take a stopover somewhere when I am travelling from Australia to or from Europe. Not this time, sadly. I haven't the time (nor, to be honest, the money). Anyway, that's life, I guess.

The end of a long, hard, but in the end perfectly pleasant trip

I am about to get on a plane and fly back to London. I should be there in a little over 24 hours. If the free airside internet cafe is still there at Tokyo Narita, I shall probably do a little blogging from there, as I have a four hour layover. It's that or the bar. I wonder if they take Singapore dollars.

Relatively feeble photopost

Australia's Gold Coast is one of those seaside areas with lots of residential towers with water views, beautiful beaches, warm weather and a leisure based economy based on retirees and tourists. The world leader in this kind of development is the southern Atlantic coast of Florida I believe, although I have never been there. In short, it is the sort of place full of shops like this.



Presumably a few Chinese and Japanese tourists do buy things like this, even at these sorts of prices.



I suspect it is a talking piece on the mantlepiece back in Osaka, if nothing else.

Ugh

Last Friday evening, I slept at my parents old home in Wollongong, south of Sydney.
On Saturday, I slept in a backpackers hostel in Sydney.
On Sunday, I slept in Wollongong again.
On Monday and Tuesday, I slept in my parents' new place on the Gold Coast (after an 1100km road journey pulling a trailer on Monday)
On Wednesday, I slept at my brother's home in Cessnock, north of Sydney (after an 800km road journey pulling an empty trailer).
This evening (Thursday), I will sleep at my sister's home in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney.
Tomorrow evening, I will sleep in Wollongong again.
On Saturday evening, I will (hopefully) sleep on an aeroplane.
On Sunday evening, I will sleep at my home in London.

Happy Birthday

Cecile Dubois, queen bee of the teen blogosphere, and Los Angelean proto-libertarian (we hope), is fifteen today. Happy birthday Cecile. Here's a photo I took of Cecile at a Samizdata bash before Christmas. That's her mum Cathy Seipp on the left, and Perry de Havilland can be seen just above Cecile's head. (I think that may be the back of Jackie D's head, too).

Explanations, and redirection

Since Monday I have driven from Wollongong to the Gold Coast (around 1100km) in a car with a trailer, spent a day on the Gold Coast where my parents are moving, and driven back to Cessnock where my brother lives (about another 800km). I only did about a third of the driving, but I am now exhausted.

In the middle of that, I did manage to post a quote of the day on Craig Stevens over at Samizdata.

Redirection

I have a piece on going to Telstra Stadium for oysters a football match over at Samizdata.