The Flight Out of Egypt or Sojourn in SF

After a fitful sleep with my head full of Brahms and the airport shuttle wake-up call, I woke rather tired on the day I was about to lose all understanding of sleep and rest. Sydney airport was kind. It’s relatively easy to get around and we both got through security without incident, although, I did lose my little tube of Oral toothpaste. “Not little enough,” said the guard, who insisted the bag must be re-scanned after removal of said offending paste.

The only thing to say about the flight is that apart from being delayed about two hours, it was without incident. The skies were clear and we had a bumpless flight across the Pacific. We had a nice young chappy coming to San Francisco for the fifteenth time sitting next to us. Not for him the comfort of familiarity of such a flight. He was actually a nervous flyer and also a Catholic. On descent into San Fran, which takes about half an hour, he made the sign of the cross several times and once or twice, bowed his head in solemn prayer. I used to pray at the beginning and end of flights, but I don’t nowadays. I typically just think that if it’s my time, then God must know about it and must have something to do with what’s going on. In other words, I’m happy to leave it alone, get on with my flight and leave it to God. I must say though, that a smidge under fourteen hours on a flight is stretching the friendship of the body and peace of mind. Legs ache, thighs call out, buttocks complain. Australia really is a very long way away from the rest of the world.

Chris and I ate well, I drank two littlun bottles of Chardy and did my best to sleep. Really, to no avail. I watched an episode of Maigret, the French detective, played by Rowan Atkinson in a dramatic role, which, bizarrely, is set in France with French protagonists, but the whole thing is done in English, with very plain unaffected English as the chosen dialect. Even Maigret’s name is spoken as May Grey. It’s wel-done, but it’s a bit weird.

I also watched the final instalment of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. This was enjoyable as I have been watching the whole series through again over the last couple of weeks as a preparation for reading Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, my holiday read, set nineteen years after the original books end. Though I had seen this movie before, I was very moved by Snape’s story as I watched it at 11000 meters above the ocean. Snape has been misunderstood for the entire series, hated, vilified, attacked, and yet his actions in secretly protecting Harry from danger because he had been in love with Lily Potter from their childhoods. Never to have the girl he loved, to lose her to murder, and only on his own deathbed, to have the truth come out was and remains incredibly moving. I shed a tear for Snape last night. And you cannot really talk about the character without praising the work of the late Alan Rickman in bringing his tragic story to life.

Moral to the Story: there’s always something deeper going on than what’s apparent at the surface.

Successful flight to San Francisco. Tick. Done.Read more