Eeeeee!

About 25 hours from now, my flight to New Zealand should be taking off.

There are two things that people are asking me around now, neither of which I want to know the answer to: 1) How long is your flight? and 2) What's the time-change?

All I need to know is this: Wednesday at 10:30 p.m. local time I leave LAX. Saturday at 11:00 a.m. -- four flights and an overnight at an Auckland airport hotel later -- I arrive in Queenstown.

This isn't exactly the sanest way to travel (and I've sort of arranged an extra day in Queenstown to acclimate) but it does have the significant advantage of being free. (Yay for frequent flier miles.) So I'm not complaining that I'm travelling for ... however long I'll be travelling. I just don't want to KNOW that in actual numbers.

It's part of my strategy to defeat jet lag. The strategy, in this particular case, encompasses several points:
1. Ignore time on plane. Eat when hungry, sleep when possible.
2. At destination, force self to stay awake to a decent hour. (On theatre trips, this is generally accomplished by watching "The loudest and most obnoxious musical I can find." On non-theatre trips, different methods must be used. I'll tell you this, though -- I've got to do better than that one time I found myself in a hotel room watching cricket on television.)
3. Next morning, wake up at something approaching morning.

Some experts say it takes one day to make up for each hour of time change. I don't have TIME for that -- I give myself one day -- two tops -- to get adjusted.

So, you might see an update or two while I'm trying to keep myself awake. Just don't ask me what time that might be. I have no idea.