And can’t sleep. I discovered that traveling to Australia takes a long long time. Traveling there was longer than traveling back due to layovers and flight delays. Our first flight was 2 hours, Florida to Atlanta. Then we had a 4 hour layover. Then from Atlanta to Los Angeles was a four hour flight with a 6 hour layover. The flight from LA to Sydney, Australia was 15 hours. However, we were excited. This was our first trip to Australia and we were packing in a lot during the 12 days we would be there.

We flew Delta for most of our trip and the flight was reasonable for most of the legs, except the dinner one evening was chicken and green stuff and I have to say the green stuff was just awful and on another flight I could not cut the broccoli with the flimsy wooden knife. I gave up.

Richard was smart and he booked his seat as the window seat. That meant he got to see all the taking off and landing. However, he had to use my phone on occasions and I managed to grab the window seat on a couple of flights.

So what do you do when you can’t sleep, I watched movies. 16 of them in total over 6 flights. Here is a run down of my movie choices.

Flying to Sydney I watched the following:

A Man called Otto

I loved this movie. There is so much going on. It deals with the reality of losses in life, family, when an older person (Tom Hanks) gets laid off from their job, loneliness happens, age related issues such as grumpiness, negative thoughts and attempts of wanting to end his life. But there is the flip side of relating to an energetic, lively family that takes over his life. Warning though if suicide is a trigger this may not be for you. If you don’t want to cry on a plane, don’t watch it. That aside I highly recommend this movie.

Maybe I do

The kids finally decide to get married and invite the parents (Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Diane Keaton, William Macy) to meet each other. It turns out the parents probably know each other better than the children ever thought they did. Good light hearted movie to watch after the previous movie.

City of Enlightenment

Set in the 60’s or 70’s somewhere in the UK, it deals with an older woman’s relationship with a young man, all set in the surroundings of a movie theater and it’s happenings.

The Big Chill

I have seen The Big Chill before. However, this is an ageless movie and reminds me of the angst of the 80’s. Superb cast, interesting plot. A once close group of friends (JoBeth Williams, Glenn Close, Kevin Kline, William Hurt, Tom Berenger) come together for the funeral of their friend Alex. Definitely a movie worth watching again.

Primal Fear

I love Richard Gere, (who doesn’t), but Edward Norton is excellent in his role. This movie is about a defense attorney who takes a job to defend an alter boy accused of murdering the archbishop of Chicago. Dark secrets emerge and what seems like a straightforward case becomes a story with a very interesting twist.

I would definitely recommend watching the movie.

Press Play

After the seriousness of Primal Fear I really wanted to watch something light hearted. Press Play was that and more. It is the story of a love lost and the only way she can reconnect with the lost love is by pressing play on a cassette that he had made for her before he died. They find that in doing so they are able to change history a bit but not enough. The cassette is running out of songs. This movie did bring about a few tears.

Cabaret

I have watched this before but once again, Cabaret is a movie that speaks to the soul. It is about a cabaret singer who meets a British academic during the rise of the Nazi party and the collapse of the Weimar Republic. This also explores the decadence of the times, the debauchery of the small time cabaret theaters and the dehumanization of the man during this dark period. This is probably one of the best musicals I have watched. Lisa Minelli plays the role of the cabaret dancer. Added to all of that the British academic is a very young Michael York, who was probably my first movie crush back in the 70’s. Definitely worth watching this timeless movie.

Entrance into Australia was very smooth once we figured out what we were supposed to do. Stand in line, scan your passport, answer some questions and get a ticket. From there you take the ticket to the gate and it gives you access through to your luggage. Except mine did not work. So I had to go via the counter and they kept my card which gave me a panic attack when I had to declare what I was bringing in. Australia is pretty strict with what you can take in and it is good to have a doctors prescription for medications, which I did but they ask for it. No woods, no fruits, now plants, not meats and a long list of other things. If you are flying into Australia do yourself a favor and go to the Australian gov website and know what you can and cannot take in.

2,5 days later and we were heading to Melbourne. We flew Qantas internally from Sydney to Melbourne and back and they are impressive. Not only do they board front and back by within 27 minutes they had landed, disembarked, cleaned the plane, loaded the luggage, got everyone seated and were back in the air. In addition they gave us sandwiches and a can of coke zero for the internal flight. I have to say I was impressed.

Acquaman

I have to confess I am not a Jason Momoa fan, in the sense that everyone raves about him. I just don’t get it. I watched Aquaman, because I was running out of choices and wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I like movies with some kind of sci-fi, but this was not my movie. It had all the right moves, but it really did not move me. That is not to say you will not love the movie.

Movies watched on the flight home:

M3gan

M3gan is a very interesting movie on a very hot topic right now: AI. I think we all know how rapidly AI is developing and the scary side of what AI can potentially do. M3gan shows the scary side of a doll created to meet the needs of lonely children. The AI is constantly absorbing, recognizing and containing information on situations until she becomes the controller instead of being controlled. Well worth watching.

Dark Waters

Dark Waters was a court room drama, slow when it started but quickly drew me in to the horrors of POFA and the dangers of Teflon in our society. The movie deals with a dark secret that connects to one of the worlds largest corporations, Du Pont. What I did not know was that this court case ran from around 2006 to 2015 and in the end Du Pont and Chemours agreed to pay $671 million to settle a lawsuit brought about by around 3550 people who accused them of contaminating the local water supply with PFOA or C-8 as it is also know. PFAS are used in a wide range of consumer products including non stick pans which we would innocently use to cook with each day. According to the movie PFAS have now been found in the blood or people and wildlife world wide and that 99% of humans are affected by PFAS. This definitely gives one something to think about and I for one am relooking the concept of non stick products. When you think about it most things we use to cook with are non stick. According to an article I read PFAS can be found in cosmetics, furniture and food packaging as well. An older looking movie, definitely one that it thought provoking and if you have not watched it, I would highly recommend it. (Mark Ruffalo, Anne Hathaway, Tim Robbins, Bill Pullman are just some of the cast).

Don’t worry Darling

An interesting move, that made me think of the movie The Truman Show. Set in the 50’s you are exposed to the perfect community, living in perfect houses, where the woman stay home and clean, and the men all drive to work in their perfect cars. But cracks set in and what seems perfect is not so perfect after all. There is a very interesting and manipulative twist in this movie, and I would recommend you watching it. Cast is made up of Harry Styles, Florence Pugh, Olivia Wilde, Chris Pine, Gemma Chan and various others)

Her

Another operating system movie, with Joaquin Phoenix in the lead role. Lost after his divorce he starts to communicate with a operating system. This is a sensitive movie dealing with loneliness, isolation and the need to mean something to someone. If I recall correctly there was some nudity, which probably wasn’t the best of a plane situation but hey, I am not looking behind me to see who is watching me. I did catch a guy watching me get annoyed with my piece of broccoli that I could not cut with a flimsy wooden knife, so he may have watched my movie choices as well. Definitely worth watching.

Infinite Storm

I was looking for a change of pace and thought this movie may do it for me. Set on Mt Washington, an experienced hiker (Noami Watts) comes across a stranded man (Billy Howle) who is not dressed for hiking. The movie is about getting him back to ground level and the meeting up afterwards. This is based on a true story. If you enjoy battling the elements and a bit of a tear jerker ending you will enjoy this movie.

Victoria and Abdul

I really wanted to see this movie when it came out but never got to the theaters to see it. What a delightful heartwarming story of the relationship between Queen Victoria (Judi Dench) and an unknown man from India named Abdul (Ali Fazal). You have the lonely, overweight, ready to die queen and this young inexperienced, naïve young man. In addition you have the young man’s cohort (Adeel Akhtar) that travels to England with him that just adds the light hearted comedy and quips to the scene that have you chuckling. It also deals with the class difference found in the days of Queen Victoria and how it plays out when she dies. Definitely a movie to watch.

What’s eating Gilbert Grape

I chose this movie because who doesn’t like Johnny Depp. A small town movie with a lot of angst, worry and responsibility. His mother is obesely overweight. He also has a mentally impaired younger brother Annie. Kuddos to Leonardo Di Caprio for playing the role of Arnie. His role was tough and he played that part so incredibly well. Glibert (Johnny Depp) is also dealing with 2 sisters, an older cougar type woman who is bored with her older husband, and a young woman who accidently lands up in the town and forms a friendship with Gilbert. This is a very heart warming movie, dealing with real issues. Definitely recommend it if you have not seen it.

Alone together

Alone together was another lighthearted movie, with a good end. Set during Covid, this man (Jim Sturgess) and woman (Katie Holmes) find themselves renting the same house. During that stay they get emotionally involved, and then her (somewhat) ex (Derek Luke) arrives at the house to discover her staying with someone else. It was enjoyable to watch and if you are looking for some lighthearted romance, this would make a good choice. (I have to confess that I did fall asleep during this movie, not the movies fault though, and missed the snack cart that went passed. After 25 hours of flying I was hungry. Fortunately we had a delay in Atlanta so we were able to grab a meal).

Erin Brockovich

Another classic movie based on a true story of a paralegal consumer advocate, and environmental activist who was instrumental in building a case against Pacific Gas $ Electric Company. This involved the contamination of groundwater in Hinkley, California. I have to say that Julia Roberts pulled her role off in this movie. She was convincing and I thoroughly enjoyed the role she portrayed. Playing Erin Brockovich, she comes across some medical records in a real estate file. From there the movie progresses to the point of discovering a cover-up involving contaminated water. This water is causing residents to show signs of devastating illnesses. I love it when the small person is willing to take on the giant and then to win is just the sugar on the top. Much like Dark Waters it concerns me how much these big corporations are willing to hide from the public and how much they get away with. Flint (2017) is another example of toxic water crisis in Michigan If you haven’t watched it, then do so, these stories do not go away, they just keep happening in different forms.

So those were my movie choices for our 32 hour flight going to and from Sydney. If you are booking tickets, remember that you loose time traveling from the US to Australia. We left on a Monday and arrived Wednesday morning. Flying back to the US was about 30 hours due to shorter layovers, but the weird thing is that you do it all in one day. We left the hotel at 6am in the morning and arrived home at 10pm that evening.

Jet lag is the pits. Going there we were ready for bed at 5pm and after 2 weeks I was just getting to the point of sleeping at 10pm (still 2 hours earlier than my normal midnight). Coming home, I found I could not sleep. I was wide awake at 3am on Tuesday evening. Saturday (today) I crashed and slept from midnight until 2pm. Hopefully I can sleep tonight. I guess I really needed it.

When I got home the first thing I did was go to switch my computer on so that I could download my 2500 images. The computer would not boot up. Ugh ugh Ugh…. So as soon as my computer gets back to working again, I will be able to start editing my Australia images and share some of the most beautiful scenes I have seen in ages. Definitely different to living in Florida.

Stay well… more on Australia to come.

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