En route to SF

I’m writing this from seat 25A on United 870 en route to San Francisco. Unfortunately, it is not the optium typing situation but we’ll see what we can manage to punch out. According to the inflight map, we have just passed over Noumea. So far I have been able to keep my fear of flying (and the thought that we really are … oops, probably best not to go into that while we’re up here!) in check. This is helped by inflight entertainment, that I have had some pre-reading to do for the meetings I am flying to the States for and that I have just finished a three-course meal. And all this while we’re still within a couple of hours of leaving Sydney, I can see the international date line on themap now (should that have capitals?) and find myself wondering if we will be traveling through daylight for the entire flight. Will it still be today when we travel into yesterday? Or will it be tomorrow when we fly into today. It’s almost worth staying awake for – because I don’t think I could work it out without expending some considerable mental calculating. If we’re x hours from the dateline and it’s y o’clock now etc etc.
This is my first time to the States and the first time I have flown with an American airline. It is very strange – since most of my recent overseas trips have been to Asia, to have non-Asian flight crew. It is also different to see older flight crew (something I haven’t seen on recent domestic flights in Australia).
PS 3.5 hours out of Sydney and it’s dark outside. Very dark. I have a feeling that we’re not going to get the same light show that happens over Hong Kong – where the clouds are lit up for miles around.