Out of the way

I'm sitting in a lounge in the airport at Copenhagen, and the sun is setting. In the twilight a black aircraft tail is sticking up, and the lights of and beyond the airport are turning on.

I'm going to Japan, to Australia for a couple of days and the OzeWAI conference, to Hong Kong, and then things are unclear.

I am hoping to go to a workshop and some meetings in India, but I haven't yet got a visa. I haven't had time to be in one place and get all the paperwork together. I sat up almost all of Friday night to ring the Indian embassy in Japan, who said they probably could organise the visa in time (I have a couple of full days there), so I hope they can, and I will go from Hong Kong to Bangalore, and then take a couple of train trips. Otherwise I will have to work out how to get from Hong Kong back to work without going through India...

Another trip around the world in under a month. It's cool the first time, but a bit quick. I have done it a lot of times, and now it mostly means sitting in airports and aeroplanes a lot, wanting to be home and to sleep properly, interspersed with hard work when I am feeling rotten after the travel for a couple of days at a time and an occasional few hours of seeing a totally new part of the world, meeting new people or catching up with old friends and colleagues.

And looking for a washing machine, wanting to eat a proper dinner, and wondering if this is better at the front of the plane. (Opera doesn't spend its money on fancy hotels and business class).

Still, it has its good points. After all, a job is a job, and if it pays the bills that's a good start. And this is better than when I spent the small hours of each day cleaning up a nightclub, or when I used to drive 300km a day to deliver televisions, or show people who would never bother doing it how to program their new VCR. Good colleagues, friends all over the planet, and interesting days are a good thing in a job. Plus I learn stuff, whether it is about technology or a few words of Russian, or how to operate a strange shower...

Bons voyages à tous - life really is a journey, even if you're in the same place tomorrow.