Flying...again

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a pilot. In fact, I still remember going to the Australian High Commission in Singapore (a pre-six year old memory) and being interviewed by an Australian woman who asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I told her I wanted to be a pilot. And she suggested maybe I could fly for Qantas one day. I didn't say anything (I didn't know what Qantas was).

I obviously didn't end up as a pilot. But, as a biologist, I nevertheless get to do a fair bit of travelling: travelling to conferences; travelling to field sites; travelling for work shops. I've been doing so much travelling of late that, quite frankly, I think I'm over it.

So...just when I thought I would be done with travelling for a while, it turns out I'll be flying out of Melbourne over the weekend.... to Canberra. My aquarium at my folk's place has sprung a leak. Dad has managed to construct a device to channel the drips back into the filter system but I'm worried the drips might turn into a torrent if I don't do anything about it.

Fortunately, with all the travelling I've been doing of late, I've earned enough frequent flyer points to go home (minus the $100 credit card payment for 'charges and taxes').

The flights are not great though (they never are when you book on frequent flyer points three days before the day of departure). I'll be flying to Canberra via Sydney! Yep. I'll be flying over Canberra on my plane towards Sydney and then, after an hour at Sydney airport, I'll be zipping back south on another plane to Canberra. I'll get in at 9.15am. And less than 24 hours later, I'll be on my way back to Melbourne – a direct flight this time (I don't think I can do the CBR-SYD-MEL thing on a Sunday).

On the plus side, all the recent travelling has finally earned me enough status points to elevate me to Silver membership on my frequent flyers so I'll get to enjoy the Qantas lounge.