Here We Go Again

Yup. It’s around the world again.

Same route, same distance, slightly longer stay this time.

I checked it out this time, the straight-line distances between the airports are (I put the imperial numbers in for the Yanks, in the parentheses):

Outbound

• Halifax – London (Heathrow) : 4589km (2852)
• London (Heathrow) – Hong Kong : 9653km (5998)
• Hong Kong – Melbourne: 7410km (4604)

Return

• Melbourne – Singapore 6041km (3753)
• Singapore – London (Heathrow): 10892km (6768)
• London (Heathrow) – Halifax: 4589km (2852)

Total distance: 43174km
Approximate circumference of the Earth at the equator: 40075km

It’s funny, if you had told 23-year-old me that someday someone else would pay for me to fly business class around the world, to spend a couple of weeks in Australia, and that they would put me up in some ridiculously priced suites while I was there, he would have been so excited that he probably would have been vibrating. He got excited over getting flown to Boston and put up in the Doubletree. Actually going to another country, much less another continent, on someone else’s dime, would blow his mind.

Now, I don’t want to go.

Partly it’s just that don’t want to be away from my family–spending two working weeks in Melbourne means missing out on three weekends, and two weeks at home.

Partly it’s that I know what a pain the travel will be, even with the swanky tickets. No swank can change that fact that it’s 100 hours of travel time in two big chunks, or that there are connection and layovers at multiple points each way. And that my bosses won’t think twice about my spending that 100 hours (theoretically 2.5 weeks of work, right?) unless I bring it up first.

Partly it’s because I know what business travel is like–there won’t be any chance to look around or take in the city or country, except on the one weekend I’m there. And I’ll be pretty exhausted on that weekend.

Partly it’s because the last time I checked Melbourne was more than 60 degrees (real Celsius degrees) hotter than it is here right now, and that’s too damn hot.

Partly it’s because I’ve done this before, and so there’s no novelty value. I know exactly how long it’s going to take to get there. I know that when I get there, instead of some exotic locale, I’m going to find “Toronto with L.A. weather”. Maybe if we had an office in Cairo, or Nairobi, or something.

Partly it’s because solo travel is just a lot less fun now. There’s not nearly the potential for disaster or reward that there used to be when I traveled around. On the “less dangerous” side, well, I’m a husband and a dad now–I can’t do a whole bunch of the recklessly irresponsible things I used to do on the road, because the consequences wouldn’t be to just me if something went wrong. And even discounting my responsibilities to others, the consequences of some of that stuff could be more serious to me than to that 23-year-old.Although it would still be kind of funny to call my boss and tell him I couldn’t come to work because I was in jail in another country. I wouldn’t want to make that call to Trish, though. She didn’t think it was funny last time. On the “less fun” side, well, a lot of the good stuff from the solo travel days involved meeting women, and again, I’m a happily married man. Don’t get me wrong, I can still have fun, lots of fun, if I meet the right people, or get into the right circumstances, but it won’t have the dizzying highs and devastating lows that used to either be around, or lurk in the background.

All in all, I’d much rather stay home, or else take my family with me.