While Not Working

We spent the night at the Airport Motel, ready to fly to Sydney early the following morning and on to Japan on Monday. Just before bedtime Roger realised, to his horror, that his paperwork to enter Japan had entered the black hole of cyber space and had therefore never been processed. Grovelling emails to the correct address elicited a brusque response: "Tough bickies. Apply again. Must submit application 14 days before travel." Weeping ensued. The hard ut inevitable conclusion was that one of us couldn't leave on Monday but the flight to Sydney was still on because we had birthdays and wedding anniversaries to celebrate. Sorting it all out had to wait as the clocked ticked relentlessly toward our early morning departure. Adelaide Airport before dawn. We were at the airport well before sunrise, intent on beating the excessive crowds queueing to pass through security.  As it turned out I could have slept in a little longer. Overwhelmed. Still no sign of sunrise. About time...

Five weeks in Mount Barker zipped past with my grand plans of hiking and biking largely unrealised. What with working an extra day every week, hot weather, and two needy little dogs I didn't get out much. On the other hand Roger spent inordinate amounts of time driving up and down the highway to Adelaide for such mundane reasons as car servicing, physio appointments, and dropping people off to airports. We both complained bitterly about our respective ends of the stick. Sunrise was pretty thought.  A week or two ago we decided on the spur of the moment to take ourselves off to Japan and South Korea for a holiday, and with very little time before we left the country we had to convince Japan that Roger could bring with him his drugs to deal with a possible back attack. I'll spare you the details. Sufficient to say that one does not waltz willy-nilly into Japan bearing anything remotely resembling narcotic.  Paperwork is required. Sunrise still happens, paperwork or no. In the me...