Flight home to Oz

Well, I made it ... our plane landed only 20 minutes before curfew at Sydney airport Sunday night, following mechanical delays.

I did enjoy flying the new doubledecker (A380) with more leg room, a really quiet and smooth ride, and the umpteen movies and TV shows on quite a big screen at each seat, but there is obviously still a few teething problems: we were delayed 3.5hrs from London with an engine part problem (we could see the engine open from the boarding lounge); and little things like some seats' TV didn't work and toilets rarely shut properly - had to make a real effort to ensure it was done and you didn't get barged in on!

And as always it's just a long flight - this time with airport stays 28 hours, plus the drive etc each side making a total of 31hours 40 min.

So as well as catching up with family I've been catching up with sleep lately!!

50 minutes of sunset from balcony

 

360 of picnic at Lac Leman

 

Calendar of meetings/commitments

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

For almost the same price I chose to route my flight home through Geneva instead of Paris and catch up with close friends Myriam and Stéphane Gigandet who returned home to Switzerland last August after 2 years in Ouagadougou. Myriam’s mum kitted me out with warm clothes from the second-hand shop she works at, including boots that could handle all but the deepest snow (for that I borrowed gumboot-style knee-high boots from Stéphane while he was at work).

In addition to their warm welcome in their apartment on the mountainside above Lake Leman and a guest bedroom with a balcony view of the Alps opposite (and wireless internet) they’ve taken me around the area:

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after wandering around the market and a flat walk along the lake below their place it was an up and down hike through snow on the mountaintop behind;

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a thick cream and ‘chestnut vermicelli’ regional dessert in a mountainside café another day followed by a hike through fallen leaves and over small streams around a frozen lake;

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watching dogsleds racing against the clock in a high valley surrounded by pristine white mountains and ski-fields;

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ploughing knee-deep through the ‘layer of marzipan icing’ in the local ‘open sports field’ to get that perfect picture of snow clumps on trees or the outline of the chateau against the sky, ...

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As well, there have been visits to SIM for a prayer meeting, participation in a mission’s day at a church in a different region, emails about upcoming meetings in Australia and about ongoing work for committees in Burkina, ... just to keep my feet in the 'real world'!