There and Back Again - Part Two

I'm sitting at home, in the comfort of my own lovely, lovely home while writing the second part to this blog. I wondered at some time during yesterday if I should rename it the Never Ending Story, but as I'm home and the adventure is over, I'm thankful to just add a Part Two.

Tuesday Night cont.
The flight down to Canberra was good, actually, it was great. I ordered a Kosher meal and was hugely impressed by the outstanding quality of this airplane food! Steamed chicken infused with spinach, kosher rolls, a light rye bread slice with smoked salmon and a delicious dessert - wow - I have a big thank you to write to Customer Service. (Note Well: order Kosher meals when flying... much better then the normal fare.)

I was reading a book called "Light Force" by Brother Andrew and the lady next to me struck up a conversation based upon it. She introduced herself as a spiritual person, and asked about the book which has a picture on the front of a Jewish and a Muslim boy walking together.

She said that she held Jesus in great respect, but held him on the same level as Buddha - a great teacher. I said great, I didn't consider myself a religious person and don't like the divisiveness that religion can bring either, but that I do firmly believe in the deity of Jesus Christ. Further more, I disagreed that it was a possibility for Jesus to be just a great teacher - in fact (and I surprised myself by quoting CS Lewis) that either Jesus was a liar - he proclaimed himself as God, so if he wasn't then he was simply a liar, or he was a madman - if he believed his proclamation that he was God but wasn't then he was a deluded madman, or he was God - he was what he said he was. I was really surprised by her reaction which was very receptive and we went on to have a really good conversation.

Andrew met me at the airport with a hug (I have a great brother) and my niece vacated her bed for my sleeping pleasure and instead kept my brother up all night instead as she slept on the floor of her parent's room!

Wednesday
It was great to wake up amidst the sounds of my Canberra family, and got to see my sister-in-law who was having a stay in hospital (Praise God she's home again). I was very blessed that my work offered for me to travel down the night before so I could spend the morning (which would have otherwise been spent in travel) with my family. As a bit of a bonus, my niece and nephew liked their gifts from Aunty Liz :)

I got to the meeting location (ANU - which has to be the most scenic university campus in the world - especially in Autumn (photos on flickr soon)) and had quite a successful meeting which I wont' go into.

The fun (and seemingly never ending story) began at 4pm when we left the meeting to go to the airport... Our flight was delayed, and then canceled due to industrial action - the story seems to be that an engineer needed to sign off on maintenance work and wouldn't so they couldn't fly the plane. We got diverted to Sydney, and then on to Brisbane in another delayed flight... so, I ended up getting home at 2am! For those that know me you'll appreciate that this was amazingly late for me, and in fact, had to stop on the road at the half way point to have a nap before driving the rest of the way!!! (This drive made me really appreciate the efforts of a friend last year who waited for me to arrive on another much more delayed flight and then drove all the way home getting in at 7am)

What's more, the return flight was all with my direct boss, which, while having a few awkward moments (can you sleep on a flight with your boss besides you???) seemed to be an ok experience for the both of us.

After cooking dinner tonight though, and being completely nackered beforehand, I've now gotten my second wind :( something tells me though that I'll hit the pillow and be asleep very shortly.