Arriving back where you started

September 23rd:
Left the ground in Auckland at 5.55 this afternoon and arrived in LAX at 11.15 the same morning, at last reclaiming the day we mislaid on the way over in 2004. We are changed people for our four rich years in New Zealand but returning by the way we came has a strange concertina effect. Also air travel is a great leveller, at least in cattle class.

September 25th
The other great leveller is Disneyland. I get into those shops and realise my own fundamental shallowness. That Fantasyland sweatshirt and black plastic ears combo set is just the thing to keep out the cold and raise a smile on Peebles High Street in February, isn't it ?

Even so, we had a great time on the rides and in the park; the kids are a great age for Disney, with Sara managing to ride a few of the more syrupy attractions with balanced irony.

Coming this way again gives us an odd sense of the familiar as we were here just before arriving in New Zealand and now just after leaving. It settles our knotted stomachs, or mine at least. Shallowness has its place.