WE ARE NOW IN SYDNEY

We were told by Qantas to arrive at the airport three hours early. So we got there 3 hours and 15 minutes early, and expected to at least be able to check-in. Nope, we waited half an hour. Anyway, their lounge was fine, except the plane left an hour late. Those negatives aside, the experience on board was wonderful. Service good and food excellent.

This was a 10.5 hour flight, so we got two full meals. The first one started with an excellent appetizer, as you can see.

The main entré was salmon, then a beef tagliatelle. The wines were Australian, and throughout the flight I had their Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Shiraz. All excellent. I also tried their late harvest white and red. These are served from the traditional skinny bottles. Food to pair with cheeses and other pre- and end-of-meal dishes. Beginning with the the lounge, I think I kept my imbibition to fewer than 13.

Watched three films, two of them linked to my life. The first one, which wasn't, the 2022 Ticket to Paradise, starred George Clooney and Julia Roberts as long separated parents who hate each other and regret their marriage. They have a daughter who just got her law degree, but on a long celebrating splurge with her female classmate, somehow meets something like an ideal Indonesian husband candidate, so decides to get married and live the rest of her life on Bali. The story has them flying to the island to save their child. An uber Hollywood ending.

Rotten Tomatoes gave scores of 56/87. I totally sided with the audience (always the second number), and liked the film. Someone who impressed me was Maxine Bouttier, a French-born Indonesian actor, who reminded me of Henry Golding of Crazy Rich Asians, not in looks nor acting style, but just as hapa (mixed race) actors who have a future.

The second film, the 2023 Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck, featured an individual the exact opposite of me through most of my life. RT did not like it: 67/52. I did. A thought-provoking documentary detailing the life of Mark Manson (no relation to Charles Manson), he was a screw-up from early youth until mid-life, whose journey through life to the present taught him a lesson. Don't bother with the irrelevant, love what does. Note I said through most of my life. From around five years ago, I completely changed, and took on Manson's philosophy.

The third movie was of a Japan not too long into the future, the 2022 Plan 75. I wrote about this subject less than a month ago:

Last year there was a 2022 dystopian movie by Chie Hayakawa called Plan 75 (Rotten Tomatoes 93%/93%), where salespeople would offer senior citizens incentives to commit suicide and no longer be a burden to society. The film was Japan's entry this year for Best International Film, and the Academy Awards ceremony will be held on March 11. And interestingly enough, surveys in Japan have suggested that a majority of the population supports legalizing voluntary euthanasia. Note, there is a whole lot of difference between mandatory and voluntary.

Rotten Tomatoes bestowed scores of 93/93!!! I identified with the film because I have on numerous postings written on euthanasia, with a particularly coincidental final journey of mine being a one-way trip to Switzerland.

The main actress Chieko Baisho was born a year after me. I have watched her in Japanese films for most of my life, and was stunned on how old she looks today. She was also a popular singer, and I vaguely remember her song, Shitamachi no Taiyo in 1962, the year I graduated from college.

Got some amazing photos of our approach to Sydney International Airport:

Monday, 6March2023, was the hottest day in Australia in two years. The airport went up to 106F!!! However, on 14January1939 the temperature went up to 113.6 F. January is like July in the northern hemisphere. But March is like September, so 106F was, indeed, exceptional. The expectation is a high 20 degrees lower than 9 March 2023, the day we leave Sydney.

We are staying at Sydney Harbour Marriott. A night view from our suite.

A NEXT COVID SUBVARIANT?

By now most know that the Omicron BA.5 subvariant has become the dominant infectious agent, now accounting for more than 80% of all COVID-19 cases. Very few are aware that a new one, BA.4.6, is sneaking in and steadily rising, now accounting for 13% of sequenced samples . However, as BA.4.6 has emerged from BA.4, while there is uncertainty, the scientific sense is that the latest bivalent booster targeting BA.4 and BA.5 should also be effective for this next threat. One concern is that Evusheld--the only monoclonal antibody authorized for COVID prevention in immunocompromised individuals--is not effective against BA.4.6. Here is a reference as to what this means. A series of two injections is involved. Evusheld was developed by British-Swedish company AstraZeneca, and is a t ixagevimab co-packaged with cilgavimab . More recently, Los Angeles County reported on subvariant BA.2.75.2 . which Tony Fauci termed suspicious and troublesome. This strain has also been spreading in

Part 3: OUR NEXT AROUND THE WORLD ODYSSEY

Before I get into my third, and final, part of this cruise series, let me start with some more newsworthy topics. Thursday was my pandemic day for years. Thus, every so often I return to bring you up to date on the latest developments. All these subvariants derived from that Omicron variant, and each quickly became dominant, with slightly different symptoms. One of these will shock you. There has been a significant decline in the lost of taste and smell. From two-thirds of early patients to now only 10-20% show these symptoms. JN.1, now the dominant subvariant, results in mostly mild symptoms. However, once JN.1 infects some, there seem to be longer-lasting symptoms. Clearly, the latest booster helps prevent contracting Covid. A competing subvariant, BA.2.86, also known as Pirola , a month ago made a run, but JN.1 prevailed. No variant in particular, but research has shown that some of you will begin to lose hair for several months. This is caused by stress more than anythi

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota. Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north. Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge. If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic. Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing. The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University. Caught a bus. Was called the Century 21 Exposition . Also the Seattle World's Fair. 10 million joined me on a six-month run. My first. These are held every five years, and there have only been

Search This Blog