As soon as the changeover occurred though, it became apparent that the decision was a disastrous one.
The seats opposite and behind ours had gone through the same changeover -- so even though the six passengers in our part of the sleeper were only a few feet apart, the curtains gave each berth a sense of cozy seclusion.
The changeover was fairly dramatic, though.
The women's 4x100m relay team also made their final, but the male team missed out as Craig Pickering ran outside the changeover box on the final leg, though he did run on to cross the line regardless.
He remained in Japan until June though, because Prime Minister Ben Chifley wanted the changeover to coincide with his own visit to Japan in May, and because he needed to obtain consent of the other governments concerned for the appointment of Lieutenant General Horace Robertson as Northcott's successor.
The concern is that counterfeiters might exploit the confusion during the changeover period to pass fake euros, even though the notes have multiple security features including watermarks, security threads and foil holograms.
The director explained, "Suddenly it's as though the projectionist missed the changeover, the viewers have to start looking at the movie in a whole new way".
A changeover to plastic is not necessarily smooth, even though plastic notes appear to be nearly counterfeit-proof, more durable than paper and even recyclable.
Even though they have long been preparing for the changeover, banks admit that they will not be able to reload all their automated tellers on the first day, and that they may also have trouble replenishing machines if customers rush to withdraw euros during the first few days.
It couldn't be a grimmer vista, even though in the decades to come achieving a relatively speedy changeover to non-greenhouse-gas-releasing fuels seems ever more possible.
