Arrived Alive!

I have arrived in Fresno! It's not too cold here … kind of like Sydney in winter, which is still plenty cold enough for me.

I’m only slightly jetlagged, despite having been awake for 56 continuous hours "yesterday" shattering my old personal best by a whopping four hours. I'm not sure exactly how many days I actually passed through but I'm pretty sure that at least one of them happened twice. I felt surprisingly alert and animated right up until about 11.30 “last night” when I finally went to bed. I can't vouch for how lucid I actually was, but I felt okay.

In fact, I became quite worried that I might not be able to sleep. So I had a long hot shower, tucked myself in and thought "Gee, I sure hope I'm not so overtired that I can't get to sleep". Eleven hours later the phone woke me and as far as I'm concerned nothing happened in between. Now I'm not feeling too tired and am more or less on Fresno time. That's probably the best possible outcome, although I am rather worried about what kind of impression I might have made on Dad and Patricia's friend Marcus who picked me up at the airport and entertained me until bedtime. I don’t recall a lot of our conversation, but I remember something about American and Australian politics, federalism, cultural imperialism, copyright law, international relations, religion, secular ethics, evil, psychology, information technology, industrial relations, education, bestiality and a particularly long discourse on the subject of cat vomit. I really hope he's still willing to talk to me when Dad and Patricia get back. Next time I go more than 40 hours without any sleep I think I’ll take a vow of silence.

Dad and Patricia will be back tonight, so today I've just been lounging around feeling like I'm on holidays. I stayed in my PJs until noon, eating toast and sending emails. I reminded myself that here the cars drive on the wrong side of the road, the seasons are back to front, the water swirls the wrong way down the drain and the people all talk funny.

I set out on foot to do some shopping and returned triumphant with some fruit, a tub of yoghurt and Christmas wrapping paper. I then had to turn the house upside down looking for a pair of scissors with which to cut the wrapping paper. I finally found a pair in a plastic bag beside the sofa, along with more wrapping paper and ribbons and stuff. In a fit of pique, I confiscated some of the ribbons to enhance my wrapping experience.

More soon ...