In my last post I mentioned that my job with LexisNexis had included a bit of an adventure. This adventure took the form of an off-site meeting.

The company’s main office is in Sydney, and something like half of the team I work in are based up in the Harbour City. The rest of us are scattered around the country and nearly all of our interactions take place through email and video-conferencing. The powers that be decided that there would be value in us all meeting in person and invited us to come up for the said meeting and to work a day or two from the main office in Chatswood. I hadn’t flown anywhere since 2013 save for an SES deployment to Lismore a few years ago and so this seemed like a terrific idea.

I flew up on the Monday of the week of the meeting. I’d spent the day at my legal practice job and hadn’t had time to change. As a result I was flying in a suit, looking like a throwback to another corporate era. I didn’t mind at all.

I’ve always loved approaching a city from the air at night. Los Angeles from the air is breathtaking – a carpet of lights as far as the eye can see. Regardless, I was smiling as I saw the lights of Sydney coming up beneath us and humming that song by Paul Kelly. Clive James once criticised people who sneer at air travel. I agree with him. I love the sense of possibility that airports have.  I like the food.  I like airline coffee.

We got into Sydney about 2300. The cab ride from the airport to the accommodation took a while because the cabby (like his passenger) had no sense of direction. I spent a couple of hours attending to emails and the like for both jobs. and turned in at about 0300 after a quick shower.