until Perth...

No more proper entries until Perth then, damn it. With this Sydneybound flight delayed -- scheduled time: 1325; current time: 1319; estimated time of departure: 1530 -- I thought I'd have the perfect opportunity to flickrize more than 300 photos (turns out most of them are pretty good after all) and write yesterday/this morning up. But there's no wireless access in the Qantas lounge here and the business centre is the only place I can get online, using a heavily crippled (ie, kiosk mode) Windows XP box. Oh well. I guess I'll just have to drink some more free beer instead.

Although, really, I need to go shopping. Not because there are things I want to buy, but because there's cash I want to jettison. Because of going up the SkyTower this morning I had to draw out a bit more, to pay for a cab and the departure fee -- it costs NZD25 to leave this country. But when I got to the airport I was surprised and pleased to learn that Qantas have a fantastic business+first class only check-in area, complete with customs desk. A far far faster "fast track" departure than Heathrow, it also meant I could pay the departure tax by credit card. Combine that and the hotel getting me a cab for NZD20 cheaper than I expected and I've a bunch of Kiwi cash burning a hole in my pocket. I could give it to charity, that whole Change For Good thing, but where's the selfishness in that? I need a book to replace the Disney one which got slightly moistened in my bag yesterday.

Jesus. I really hate keyboards whose return keys aren't mirror-L shaped. I keep hitting \. I'm also depressed that the blog entry editor is much better in IE than in Firefox.

Anyway, so that's the lot until Perth.. unless I can con my way into the Qantas lounge on Wednesday morning. It might work: by then I should, in theory, have achieved a level of status (silver/sapphire) with BA/oneworld that allows me in even though the flight on its own doesn't. But with only a pikey blue card in my beaten up SouthWestTrains wallet (complete with Fleshrot sticker on the back) I fear my luck will be out. I shall see.