Day 1

 Sydney Beaches are closed because there have been four shark attacks in 48 hours; the chyron on the news is telling West Australians which way to flee from the wildfires; there was a record high temperature in the NW: 120.5 F

And I'm really glad to be here!

I got up enough courage to ask for preboarding privileges on both flights, and the answer was "of course." I guess I actually qualify under two criteria: "old person" and "need extra time." Violin in overhead locker--no problems at all.

I slept so heavily on the plane that I missed the midnight snack and missed breakfast. That's really weird--I have to attribute it to Zyrtec. 

I paid extra for bulkhead seats for more legroom. That turned out to be a very mixed blessing. On the plus side: There's more legroom. On the minus side: (1)There's no place to store your carryon so it has to go in the overhead locker. I can't really reach the overhead lockers, so I had to ask the airline staff for help. More than once, because I kept discovering something else I needed. (2) There's no window. Flying is surreal enough as is, but it's even more so if you see the takeoff and landing or look down at the tiny houses. (3) The armrests don't move. The bulkhead seats weren't all filled, so they moved some people around, and I wound up with three seats to myself. But I couldn't take advantage of them!