Dear all,

Hello from Canberra, the capital of Australia (yeah, I know, I always forget too). The weather is fine, a much more sensible 25 degrees compared to the 30 plus degrees in Cairns.

Back to Cairns - it seems like a lovely place to retire to. There are a ton of tourists but they don’t get up until 10 am, spend the day off doing touristy stuff and then party the night away. Since old people wake up early you’d hardly even notice the tourists if you lived here at retirement age. Then you can spend your days pottering around on your sailboat in the harbor, walking along the waterfront trails, or taking free pilates courses on the deck of the giant outdoor public swimming pool (complete with sand).

Anyway I went diving on the reef (the great barrier that is). Even though the visibility wasn’t great the diving was amazing! Add that to some amazing people I met at the meeting and I would definitely come back - if it ever cools down.

I don’t have much to say about Canberra, it is very quiet but oddly comforting.

Tokyo

Local time 4:26 pm - Monday

Montreal time 2:28 am - Monday

Hours of sleep so far 0.5

Ok, so how weird is it that the lounge in Tokyo doesn’t have a single computer. I mean maybe it’s stereotyping but when I think Japan I think hi-tech super-computers that write blogs for you while making pancakes. So it seems strange that I am stuck eeking the last vestiges from my laptop battery to write this.

There are also no showers so I will arrive in Australia very stinky - and with a 7 - 9 hour wait to get into my hotel room (due to a full hotel the night before they won’t give me early check-in and I arrive at 5 am).

Anyhow, two flights down, only one more to go until I get to a bed…YAY!

Chicago

10 am local time

11 am Montreal time

Lounge sucks - full of styrofoam cups and plates (boo) and only four computers for the entire friggin airport.

Better than no lounge though - even if this is my fourth attempt at posting this before explorer crashes.