A wet drive to Canberra

We sadly say farewell to our room at the Pan Pacific and its wonderful view and drag our luggage to the car. I miss the entrance to the freeway on my first attempt, but after chucking a "u-ey" the escape from Melbourne proceeds relatively smoothly.

It's raining fairly heavily once we are on the highway and the conditions require a lot of focus. At one point we see a Volkswagen SUV with police and other services in attendance. It has smashed into something on the median. Earlier, a car towing a caravan could be seen billowing smoke with the fire brigade helping a long delays for commuters heading south.

I am not game to pull over into a service centre to grab breakfast, not in that rain, then need to deal with the same traffic again.

Fortunately the rain abates as we approach Albury and the New South Wales border.

We park near Myer in Albury and discover that Miss Amelie's deserves the awards for their pies when we take lunch there. Plus one last jelly slice from the Beechworth Bakery store.

Searching out cheaper petrol we then drive to Holbrook, joining the crowds. I'm tired, so B takes over driving duties. I have a short nap, then admire the steel sky of high and low cloud, bathing the yellowed grasslands in a beautiful light.

Pretty deciduous autumn trees line the Barton Highway after Yass. Before we reach our hotel in Canberra, we stop to buy some takeaway Chinese food in Dixon and change drivers.

We are back at Alex's favourite accommodation in Canberra, the Deco Hotel. One last night before we return home.

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A lazy day at the beach

It's 2am and somebody is still setting fireworks off on the beach in front of the hotel. I can't see the explosions as I have the window shuttered, but I can still hear them. I've wanted to have a lazy day and today was the closest I got. I woke up in the night from a very sad dream. Dreams follow crazy paths, but this one resolved itself as so. An entity had been causing disruption of computer systems around the world. It turned out that this entity had emerged from the computer networks and had been struggling to gain access to more computing power so that it could live. The entity had taken on the persona of a woman. The protagonist who had "defeated" the entity discovered that it was alive, spoke to it. Ultimately fell in love with her. But his prior actions would lead to its death. As a gift to her he downloaded his memories so that she could experience life even as she died. I know it sounds like a pulpy sf or technopunk plot, but dreams are about feelings,

Ho Chi Minh to Hoi An

The easy way to get to Hoi An from Ho Chi Minh City is to fly to Danang then go via car for the final leg. Then there's my way. We had to wake at 5.30 am to get ready for a 6.15 departure from the hotel. A hotel car took us the few kilometres to the domestic terminal at the airport, where we checked into our Vietnam Airlines flight to the central Vietnam city of Hue. The airport was nothing flash, but it seemed functional. Alex had sandwiches (refused banh mi) for breakfast, then we went to the gate. Our blue Airbus A321 was parked at a remote stand, which necessitated a packed shuttle bus ride. It was nice to be aboard a full service airline again, even if the service was just a cup of water. We took off over the hazy skies of Ho Chi Minh City and for most of the smooth flight were cruising over a carpet of cloud. We descended over mountains poking their heads through the cloud, across lakes and paddy fields and over the beach. It was lovely scenery.

The sound of running water

We made it home from Osaka. There is a special feeling that comes when your arrive at your house after a holiday. It is utter relaxation. No longer do you need to worry about other language or customs. There is no need to look up directions, to plan out your day, to journey between sights. Then again, you now need to clean up your own mess, to make your own bed. Rather than eat out you need to cook your own dinner. The shower is weak and the toilet doesn't wash your bum. And you need to wake up early tomorrow morning in order to spend a day at work. You are back to your old routine. Looking back upon this holiday in Japan I've decided that the theme of running water has applied to each of the days. Sunday - Arrival in Osaka - washing ourselves Japanese style Monday - Matsuyama - water from the hot springs at Dogo Onsen Tuesday - Takamatsu - waterfall at Ritsuen-koen Wednesday - Tsumago - streams of water throughout the town Thursday - Takayama - the sounds of rushing water eve

travelling allrite

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