Said my final goodbyes to Megan and AJ on Thursday night. I’m already missing them as I’m typing this at 2.40am in Sao Paulo. I would be missing AJ’s birthday again; bloody second time in a row. I left for Melbourne at 6am on Friday morning and took a plane to Sydney. I stayed in what would be more considered a nunnery’s dorm room than a hotel, but it was cheap and close to the airport. Called the kids before taking off - AJ was mentioning all the cake he was eager to consume. Then he told me he loved me and missed me. That killed.

But not as much as the flight to Santiago. I sat next to an enormous old man who’s toenails were longer than my fingers and constantly ate chips and talked to me so loudly that all the flight attendants thought we were together. That was bad because their rudeness to the man fell out on to me. Couldn’t even get a glass of water if I wanted one. All the staff were avoiding us.

I had three long hours in the lounge at Santiago, that would have been murder if it weren’t for the breathtaking views outside the window. These views got even better after take off. I had never thought I would ever see mountains like this, even through a small window. I filled out a form on the plane to Sao Paulo that gave permission for survivors to eat me should there be a crash in the Andes. For an hour or so it felt like that may actually occur. Pelting rain and high turbulence meant that it was touch-and-go for a long time, and our arrival was delayed somewhat. The pilots got huge cheers and a standing ovation from all of us once we touched down, which only aggravated the crew even more (yeah yeah we know don’t leave your seats until the light has switched off, yeah, yeah … can’t we celebrate for a second that we’re still alive?).

Now, Sao Paulo is only as large as the entire population of Australia, so I knew that the car trip was going to take a little while. The driver who met me (the very first time ever I was greeted at an airport by a man with a sign!) couldn’t speak any English, and my Portuguese was worse. Whenever he talked to me, I said I didn’t know, so he repeated it louder. Love it when we do that, so much fun. But I was more interested in the road, especially knowing that the truck heading towards us thinks it’s on the right side of the road, and we think we’re on the right side of the road, and this guy doesn’t seem to remember if we’re meant to drive along the white lines or over them.

We drove for about forty minutes, and along about fifteen different motorways. Would be amazing if it was during the day so I could get a look, or wasn’t still getting over my last brush of death. So when I arrived at the hotel at 11pm I didn’t want to stay down. I met Kofi in the room we’re sharing, and then called reception and asked for the room numbers for everyone I knew. I ended up having caipirihnas and catching up on the years with Patricia and Milja. These will be excellent times, now I’m here.

A small milestone, I’ve uploaded the first draft of the thesis’ first chapter, that you can read here.

I haven’t done enough reading to even make a start on chapter two, so I’m going straight to chapter 3, some of which is already done.

One of the things I hate about my job is this the amount of time I spend in the car. A couple of weeks ago, for instance, I had a 9am meeting in Wodonga, a 1030am meeting in Yackandandah, a 1230pm in Benalla and a 4 o’clock in Melbourne. However, one of the things that I love about my job is that I get to drive from Wodonga to Melbourne through the high country. My phone camera sucks arse, but these might give you an idea of the type of country I get to drive through. It’s actually quite breathtaking.

I really shouldn’t complain about being a rural worker among a whole lot of city workers. On the one hand, my managers sometimes forget that I can’t just arrange a meeting with my volunteers, since they may live as far as 500km away from each other (and will be 1100km from each other come February 2009), and so it may take me four days to do what my metropolitan colleagues can do in one. On the other, I have mates who work in WA’s Pilbara who have told me how they can’t get to meetings in the rain as they find it difficult to land the plane.

I do miss having nights at home though. I miss not being around all the time if AJ or Megan need me, and expense-paid meals and accommodation lost its appeal a little while ago. I wish my car didn’t use up so much fuel and I could get some work or study done while travelling for hours at a time. But getting around the place is a great experience, and my volunteers and police are the best. And a relative few people can say that they’ve driven as many kilometres as National Highway One is long in only seven months of work.

Click on the link above marked “paul at work” if you’d like to know what I do, and get involved yourself (sorry, Victorians only).

This post is a reminder of the big to-do’s coming up for me…

1. Graduate Research Conference presentation on Friday 13 June. I haven’t done the report yet but will get it done today (I hope - I’m writing this post at Tullamarine airport for a flight to Adelaide for my sister’s birthday and a visit to hear a PhD presentation on abuse in the Uniting Church - interesting stuff - for a nerd like me).
2. Finish first chapter by 13 June (almost all done, but every time I get into it I realise I have so much more reading to do, and end up putting it on hold to read more - have decided to stop reading and start writing and see what gaps come up)
3. Presentation on online religious advertising for CMRC
4. Presentation on emerging church bloggers in Australia for CMRC
5. Presentation on meanings, methods and ethics in blog research for CMRC (found out I’m on this panel this morning)
6. Presentation for AoIR doctoral colloquium (found out I got in yesterday)
7. Presentation on rhetorics and realities in web 2.0 - men, women, literacy and religious authority for AoIR
8. Presentation on religious podcasting for AoIR (had a response from a religious podcaster the other week, and I’m looking forward to talkign with him about his experiences and achievements)
9. Complete organising the data I’ve collected
10. Complete collecting all the data (even though I don’t think I need all of it)
11. Complete all the interviews (has been a while since I’ve contacted bloggers to arrange interviews)

Is anyone willing to do me a favour and eat and sleep for me? Will save me having to do it.