I learnt yesterday on my first intercity business trip since 2000 (or was it 1999?) that a taxi ride home from the airport costs $92.

For that pleasure I get to sit in a car with someone who cannot drive.

I also learnt you can get from North Ryde to the airport in Sydney in half an hour, even during peak hour. This all with tube (tunnel) technology! The tubes only had two lanes and no breakdown lane. How does it work? They have a train to the airport too.

Even though we spent most of the time in tubes I still managed to see both the bridge and the house of opera, if only briefly.