The plane from Abu Dhabi to Sydney set off a bit late but, 13 hours later, arrived slightly ahead of schedule in Sydney at about 7pm local time. I hadn’t quite realized how much of the flight is actually across Australia itself. It’s quite a big place. Who knew? The route took us over Sri Lanka, incidentally.
Australian immigration and customs were a bit of a rigmarole but didn’t really take all that long and once through I took a taxi to the hotel where I’ll be stating for the next month or so. I have a self-catering suite, which is very nice so I’m looking forward to my stay here.
It’s warm in Sydney – about 26° when I landed – but a bit overcast and very muggy. Rain is forecast.
Today is a public holiday in Ireland, the first Monday on or after 1st February. Astronomically speaking this cross-quarter day is about half-way between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere. Here of course it’s between the Summer Solstice and the Autumn Equinox, which takes place at the beginning of August in the Northern Hemisphere and is in Ireland sometimes referred to as the start of Autumn. The climate here in Sydney is very different from Ireland, however, and I don’t think anyone thinks of 1st August as Autumn.
Anyway, the flight went really well. I even slept for a few hours so I’m not particularly tired, but I’m still 11 hours out of kilter so I’ll try to stay up as long as possible and get a good night’s sleep to try to reset my internal clock. I plan to go for a walk tomorrow morning to explore my immediate surroundings then head up to the University campus to say hello to Physics Department.
