Travel to Australia.
So I've been here in Queensland now since Thursday 14 Jan.
I have sporadic access to the net, as the Ethernet cable/modem is in Shannon and Matt's bedroom - obviously I want to limit the time I spend sitting on my sister & her fiance's love nest. So I type this to you from my room, to send later.
What a serious comedy of events it was to get here!
Dublin >> Heathrow (Sunday 10 January)
Because of the heavy snow in Ireland and England, rather than risking being delayed getting to Heathrow from Dublin, I took good advice and decided it wouldn't be wise to catch the flight I'd booked initially from Dublin to London, as it departed Dublin at 1730pm to land at Heathrow only a few hours before I was due to take off for Singapore. Normally, I would've been comfortable with this. Booking it that time-tidy seemed like a good way to reduce amount of hours spent wasting time at airports, but I didn't foresee 2 feet of snow falling in the mean time, completely shutting Dublin down for a few days, and causing major travel disruptions for airports. As for time wasted at airports - HA! Read on.
So, instead I left the day before my international flight was due to leave, and I spent Sunday evening in an airport hotel at Heathrow. At least if I was delayed leaving Dublin, I had a full 24hrs to play with/the airlines had 24hrs to get me to Heathrow on time for my international flight. How much would it have sucked to be grounded in Dublin knowing my international flight was leaving from London? I didn't take the chance.
Of course, despite the two flights before mine and the four flights after mine from Dublin on that day being cancelled due to the weather, my flight from Dublin to London departed on time and I arrived at Heathrow and the airport hotel without a hitch.
I caught the shuttle bus to the hotel, checked in, walked the 200m down the road in the snow to get my last ever McDonalds (The Diet starts when I land in Queensland, remember? 30kgs to lose by Shannon's wedding in August, I want to be a size 12 again), and I polish off the McDonalds with almost an entire bottle of Duty-Free Baileys. Gluttony. Needless to say, I slept like a baby. And I'm not due to leave the hotel for the airport til late afternoon, so I sleep more, against my better judgement cos I want to sleep on the plane - but I have the secret benzo weapon for that, so I sleep most of Monday waiting to go to the airport. Nothing else to do...
Heathrow >> Singapore (This is where it gets interesting) Monday 11 January.
I get the shuttle bus to the airport around 530pm on Monday, and arrive at the airport not long after. Anyone who tells you big airports like LAX or Heathrow are scary and hard to navigate are morons who can't read English, recognise Airline Logos or ask for directions - Personally, I find these places a no-brainer, designed for holiday-makers (i.e people who have switched their brain to minimum function already). I check in, glad they say nothing about my overweight case (24kgs), and even more grateful they don't ask to weigh my carry-on luggage, as within one small-medium carry on suitcase, I've stashed everything you wouldn't want going in to the hold - my camera in it's hard case, my external hard drive, my laptop, some basic toiletries and pjs etc. My carry on was something like 18kgs alone. And wow, did security take a keen interest in swabbing and scanning and re-scanning every fucking piece of equipment in my camera case - fuck's sake. They did the same going through Dublin airport. They say they can't see through the aluminum casing - well, open the case morons. It's a camera, a hard drive and sundries like spare batteries. Scan and swab away - I know better than to make a scene, I watch too much "Border Patrol" to know any scene is what they're looking for. 30 mins later, after my stuff had been rescanned several times, I'm through checkpoint charlie one. I hope all that scanning doesn't fuck up my hard drive....
I go to the ServisAir Lounge, which cost something like £20 for 3 hours and I start on the G&Ts. Nothing sets off the benzos I'd been saving for this 23hr mammoth journey like a few stiff drinks. I was armed with 10 valium and 10 xanax. Call me irresponsible, but I will argue the point here that irresponsible is taking them every day and I've got the T-shirt, thanks. I hadn't had anything of this kind for months and months, and the funny side to this will come later, if you're still reading by then.
Time comes to board, all goes fine, I introduce myself to the chap sitting next to me, we had exit row seats upstairs on the A380 huge double decker plane, nice. We're waiting. And waiting. Then we push back. Then we're waiting, just sitting 50m at most from the gate. The stewards give us peanuts and water, I know this is probably placating of the worst kind... Yes. Two hours later, the captain apologises (how can they deliver such bad news with such a lovely ever-plesant tone?) but the oil leak in Engine 4 which they discovered as they pushed back and did routine checks was enough to shut it down and it wasn't serviceable. By now it's after midnight, and curfew means they legally can't fly us anyway. They didn't say that, of course. They're going to put us in a hotel for the night. I've never experienced a delay like this, I'm interested in how the logistics are going to work. It's a fucking big plane, the Airbus A380, at near capacity of 550 passengers.
To me, this means very little except "Damn, not going to make that connecting flight to the Gold Coast when I land in Sydney", and not much else crossed my mind - oh yes, other than how glad I was that I hadn't taken my sleeping pills before the plane took off. Ha.
We are all off the plane by 0100hrs and on buses. They don't bus us to nearby hotels, oh no - they bus us to KENSINGTON, central London. We got off the bus at 0145! Obviously, they have a partnership with said hotel/s - and I have to say, Singapore Air did a pretty swift job once the decision was made to call off the flight - but gee the hotel was woeful and really let down the whole operation. I heard reports from some folk who went to the other hotel, and they said it was amazingly efficient, I guess I picked the wrong colour hotel coupon. Next time, take the white Hotel 6 coupon instead of the Green hotel 3 coupon. Hmm.
I was sitting right behind the bus driver, who seemed to like talking to himself, with a vague suspicion or hope that someone may be listening - and of course when a bus driver talks to himself, you tend to listen with a blend of amusement and mild alarm. He was muttering that this is the third time since New Year this one flight had "gone technical", some code speak repeated by the Liaison Officer from the Airlines at the hotel the next day - three times in less than two weeks the London to Singapore due to leave at 2205 had been grounded due to technical reasons, apparently all different aircraft too, not just the A380. I'd bet it was the A380 each time though.
Six buses of people arrive at two separate hotels - I can't speak for the other hotel, but ours had no system to cater for the influx of so many people arriving all at once. Only by "mateship" word of mouth (those who had signed the sheet when they arrived on the first bus were telling others what to do, in order to be allocated a room), did I get my name on a list and get given a room rather quickly - I felt very very sorry for the mothers with young children - we weren't allowed to get our baggage from the hold, so these people only had what they came onboard with ... plus now some very tired, cranky children.
I go to my room, relax, sleep. Wake up to a note under the door saying the next announcement will be at 0900hrs, a proposed new departure time was 1315, to go and have breakfast. Fine, I go with the flow. I meet up with the chap from Aisle 81 again, Steve, and we have breakfast. Then the announcement is made to wait in our rooms til 1300, then meet in the conference room.
At 1300, we're fed a full hot lunch (Best chili con carne I've had, except for Del's, I think) and then we're told the bad news - the flight isn't going at all, the plane is "unserviceable". We would each be rebooked on to different flights, according to our destination. The lists of who would be leaving in the first round were posted on a notice board, I was in the first round, which meant I got to leave the hotel at 1500 back to the airport, rather than 1900, which the second lot of people had to wait for - but by then the hotel had opened the bar, the magic word was "Singapore", and you could drink as much as you liked. I was just happy to be getting on my way.
In the scheme of things, I'm all very unaffected by this, being a single person without special needs or children - but wow there were some severely pissed off people, and with good right to be from the few stories I did hear of oversight and inconvenience magnified due to lack of special care for elderly and children. On the whole, the group I was in of 200+ were very good, very patient, the vibe became one of sitting around and making the most of it at big tables, discussing our life stories and reasons for travel etc. In what could've been a very tense situation, people were nicely calm, no one was impatient with screaming babies when I know they normally would be. I was very impressed - I guess when it's a technical fault rather than an admin error, for example, people are going to be much more understanding - hell, I'd rather they find the oil leak whilst we're sitting on the ground compared to the possible consequences of finding it in the air. I wonder what happens if you take off from London and find the need to emergency land a flying bus like the A380 after curfew? Glad I didn't find out actually.
Heathrow >> Singapore (Take Two - now 1815hrs, Tuesday 12 January, I'm meant to be in Singapore boarding a flight to Sydney by now...)
So, it's announced - I'll be flying on a different flight to Singapore, and when I get there, instead of having 5 hours to kill at Changi, I'll have nearly 11hrs before my connecting flight to Sydney - so the airline booked me a meal and a taxi and a hotel in Singapore - again, another 45mins each way from the airport. "Fuck it", I decided when I got there I'd check with the transit hotel to see if they still had my booking from 36hrs ago, and check in there. I didn't have to clear customs this way. Nor did I have to endure the stifling heat and humidity of Singapore.
So, feeling fed and fresh - I get on the new flight to Singapore, having quickly downed two double G&Ts at a conveniently placed and pricey bar in T3, I wait til we've been in the air long enough for the seat belt sign to go off - and I go to the bathroom, the moment of long awaited benzo & PJs time. I get back to my seat, and talk briefly with the woman next to me, I told her I had taken some sleeping tablets, but (against my normal policy), I didn't get to tell a crew member. I remember getting out the headset to watch a movie, the next thing I remember is waking up with an hour to go - I'd slept for 11hours of a 12 hour flight - sweeeeeeet. I didn't even get my little blow up pillow out - somehow, it wasn't needed.
The woman next to me says she's glad I'm okay. I asked her what she meant. She said the staff were so alarmed by my unresponsiveness that they had checked my pulse and my breathing several times during the flight because I could not be roused for a meal. GODDAMN IT, this is why I always tell SOMEONE I am taking sleeping tablets - at least the woman next to me knew, but I did mean to tell staff, it seems my reward for being clean and sober off everything means they hit me so hard, I didn't see it coming. Excellent! Several stewards stopped by to say they were glad I was okay - I was a bit sheepish and apologised for not having told one of them at least, but I wasn't sorry I slept most of the flight!
So, I did some resourceful duty free shopping, (why can I only get my particular make up shade in bloody Singapore?), I had my favourite Changi Airport meal (Laksa and a Lychee drink, which I later discovered when I took the remaining beverage back to the hotel room, that Lychee goes really well with Absolut Pear Vodka, bless those little individual sample bottles of 50ml) - and I make my way to the next flight.
Singapore >> Sydney (Depart Changi 0030hr Thurs 14 January, I was meant to have been in QLD by now!)
By this point, I'm feeling pretty relaxed - I mean, I'd just slept more than I'd slept in most nights in the past few years - and on a plane! This doesn't deter me from my plan, and I stick to it. Back to the bathroom, back in to the PJs and down goes the rest of what I'd saved for this journey. (Double bonus is I don't have anything left to take once I land, as they say - the tendency is to keep taking the lovely warm-fuzzy-feeling-in-a-pill, I know too well).
Again, I've told the woman next to me (she wasn't as nice though as the first seat buddy, but the seat was more comfortable) AND this time the staff, that I'll likely be out like a light, don't wake me except if there's an emergency - I must admit, I thought I could be roused at any point, but it seems not to be the case, after staying off sleeping tablets for so long now. I was surprised to hear they physically shook me and could not rouse me on the first flight. Never going to see those people again, and knowing they've seen it all before, I wasn't overly concerned. I'd rather be asleep than awake on a long flight, even if it means not being roused in the extremely unlikely event of an emergency *shrug*
I wake up with less than an hour to go, again - wow. This is how you travel long distance, folks - this is how you do it. To my alarm, though, the woman next to me was making a complaint when I came to - she'd been robbed on the plane! Her credit cards and cash were missing - I immediately checked my bag, but as I had the window seat and my bag was wedged down beside me, it hadn't been touched. I felt really sorry for this woman - who the fuck expects to be missing your credit cards and cash by the end of a long haul flight? She hadn't even been to sleep! I'm secretly glad I was asleep the entire flight though, I probably would've been number one suspect, being the person sitting next to her - she said she knew it wasn't me though as I was out like a light, which was relieving. Why did I assume the guilty-til-proven-innocent feeling? The thought of being accused in a situation like that really mortifies me. (Okay, so I made off with a little Singapore Airline Givenchy pillow - really are they going to miss it? It's not someone's personal effects!)
Sydney >> Brisbane (Thursday 14 January, time is all blurry now)
Even though I'd managed to contact Mum back when I found out my flight was delayed, and she contacted Virgin Blue with 3 days notice before my domestic flight, Virgin Blue slugged me with a AUD$55 penalty and I have something like AUD$65 credit with them remaining - which I thought I'd need to use towards rebooking another domestic flight, since I'd long missed it.
So, I get to Sydney and I'm shocked by the broad Australian accents around me - do I really sound like that? Oh god, I'm glad to be home though! I wait for my baggage.
And wait.
And wait.
Then I realise it's not here, the carousel is empty, and a lot of other people are in the same position - I go to the desk and ask. It turns out the person who booked all of us on to new flights back in Heathrow didn't change the luggage stubs, in fact they said "hang on to the original stub, your luggage will meet you in Sydney as per normal" - wrong, buddy. So, I've got just my carry on luggage and a reference number - I leave, pausing only momentarily to look at Customs/AQIS, the site for the show I love so much, "Border Patrol" ... I have nothing to declare though, as the only food I did have was in the luggage that hadn't shown up - and I highly doubted they'd confiscate the Guinness Mustard I'd bought in Dublin for my Grandfather anyway. It doesn't get much more processed than that.
Finally I meet Dad. Dad escorts me to where I need to go to talk to Singapore Airlines about a possible deal on a domestic flight to QLD. I can't say I was tired nor perky by this point, but I was scattered. Short term memory was shot. I am glad Dad was there to remember details - Singapore Airlines put me on a flight free of charge to Brisbane, and gave me a $20 meal voucher, so Dad and I had McDonalds before he saw me off, stuffing some money in to my hand and hugging me. I love you Dad.
Embarrassingly, and probably predictably ... I fell asleep at the boarding gate awaiting my flight to Brisbane. Luckily for me, I'd picked a seat which was obviously at the gate for that flight, and so when I was the only one left drooling on my suitcase, fast asleep - I got the fucking fright of my life when shaken awake by some staff member, calling my name. Ahh residual sleepy... oops.
Brisbane>>Gold Coast (Thurs 14 January)
Shannon meets me at the airport, she later admits she struggled to realise that I had actually gotten fat - despite me telling her over the last few weeks that I was looking forward to "dropping 30kgs", none the less - family is family and we start the drive to the Gold Coast. NOW, late Thursday afternoon - I'm feeling tired. What was meant to be a 23hr journey ended up taking four days!
I slept all day Friday, bad move. 3am is my wake up time now, and on Saturday, I hit the pool - oh my god did I hit the pool! Nerang pool, the little, dinky, stained 4 lane, 22m pool I used to swim at every morning religiously before high school is now some virtual super centre, the original pool has been restored (no more broken tiles and annoying circular grills that look like lights along the wall, or scabby drains on the bottom - just smooth lines, and white plate grills, which I can totally handle), and there is another 8 lane, 25m pool built under a big UV sail, also brilliantly without lights or any feature which resembles the rotten things - bliss! There's two new kiddie pools and fountains and all sorts of stuff you only play in if you don't mind being soaked in diluted child urine. I got there at 0620 on Saturday, they don't open til 0700, but let me in to look around anyway. I started swimming at 0700, stayed on for the Deep Water Running class and left after two hours, feeling throughly awesome. I walked home and crashed - my god yes, this is what I came back for. Sunshine, swimming, health. I have a way to go yet before I can call myself "healthy" - my god living in cold climates is definitely not for me.
Oh yeah, my case finally arrived yesterday too. Nothing I didn't miss. I got online before I moved back and bought new swimmers, fins, goggles, board etc - it was all waiting for me when I got here.
It's 0620am now (and 27 degrees) on Sunday, as I sit in bed and type this, to send later when Shannon and Matt aren't in their bedroom, where the 'Net connection is. The pool doesn't open til 0900am today, but I'll be there. This time I'll be wearing sunscreen, I got fried yesterday and that was between the hours of 0600 and 0930!
I'm glad to be 'home'. Queensland, with my sister and her soon to be husband, doesn't yet feel like 'home', it very much feels like I'm living in my sister's house, and I have to respect that's what it is. I can't have a space of my own to decorate as I please, or have my cats back. I know this, but I am grateful to have a room, a bed, family, sunshine, warmth, health. It's going to be difficult to get a job without a car, very difficult. Trying to find something in Nerang is the hard bit. I can't rely on Shannon for transport every day. I'll do anything but telesales or cleaning. I don't want to do office work, but I have to start somewhere. I might even look in to assistant teaching. I've only received one reply from a locksmith company, and it was a "we're not hiring".
I've managed to lock myself out of my own phone - I bought a cheapie Nokia at the airport in Sydney, only to find that my old Australian Sim Card doesn't work in it, as I'd hoped it would - maybe they've deactivated the number cos I haven't used it for 2yrs+? So I tried my Australian Sim in my English phone, to see if it's the phone or the card that was the problem...it didn't work either, but when I put my English Sim back in my English Phone, it now won't let me unlock the keypad - I have to take the battery out to turn it off, and I can't access anything without being able to unlock the keypad. Brilliant.
I'll let you know when I get the mobile phone sorted.
I have the numbers still, at least.
Can't post the pictures of the journey, sorry - it pretty much consisted of a nighttime photo taken at 1am looking out of the bus from behind the driver (the caption would've been "Q: What's wrong with this airplane? A: It's a BUS") and large groups of people sitting around, laying on the floor etc in a conference room - kind of stuff you have to experience to understand. Singapore Airlines get praise from me, but whomever secures their relations with hotels should be sacked.
I have sporadic access to the net, as the Ethernet cable/modem is in Shannon and Matt's bedroom - obviously I want to limit the time I spend sitting on my sister & her fiance's love nest. So I type this to you from my room, to send later.
What a serious comedy of events it was to get here!
Dublin >> Heathrow (Sunday 10 January)
Because of the heavy snow in Ireland and England, rather than risking being delayed getting to Heathrow from Dublin, I took good advice and decided it wouldn't be wise to catch the flight I'd booked initially from Dublin to London, as it departed Dublin at 1730pm to land at Heathrow only a few hours before I was due to take off for Singapore. Normally, I would've been comfortable with this. Booking it that time-tidy seemed like a good way to reduce amount of hours spent wasting time at airports, but I didn't foresee 2 feet of snow falling in the mean time, completely shutting Dublin down for a few days, and causing major travel disruptions for airports. As for time wasted at airports - HA! Read on.
So, instead I left the day before my international flight was due to leave, and I spent Sunday evening in an airport hotel at Heathrow. At least if I was delayed leaving Dublin, I had a full 24hrs to play with/the airlines had 24hrs to get me to Heathrow on time for my international flight. How much would it have sucked to be grounded in Dublin knowing my international flight was leaving from London? I didn't take the chance.
Of course, despite the two flights before mine and the four flights after mine from Dublin on that day being cancelled due to the weather, my flight from Dublin to London departed on time and I arrived at Heathrow and the airport hotel without a hitch.
I caught the shuttle bus to the hotel, checked in, walked the 200m down the road in the snow to get my last ever McDonalds (The Diet starts when I land in Queensland, remember? 30kgs to lose by Shannon's wedding in August, I want to be a size 12 again), and I polish off the McDonalds with almost an entire bottle of Duty-Free Baileys. Gluttony. Needless to say, I slept like a baby. And I'm not due to leave the hotel for the airport til late afternoon, so I sleep more, against my better judgement cos I want to sleep on the plane - but I have the secret benzo weapon for that, so I sleep most of Monday waiting to go to the airport. Nothing else to do...
Heathrow >> Singapore (This is where it gets interesting) Monday 11 January.
I get the shuttle bus to the airport around 530pm on Monday, and arrive at the airport not long after. Anyone who tells you big airports like LAX or Heathrow are scary and hard to navigate are morons who can't read English, recognise Airline Logos or ask for directions - Personally, I find these places a no-brainer, designed for holiday-makers (i.e people who have switched their brain to minimum function already). I check in, glad they say nothing about my overweight case (24kgs), and even more grateful they don't ask to weigh my carry-on luggage, as within one small-medium carry on suitcase, I've stashed everything you wouldn't want going in to the hold - my camera in it's hard case, my external hard drive, my laptop, some basic toiletries and pjs etc. My carry on was something like 18kgs alone. And wow, did security take a keen interest in swabbing and scanning and re-scanning every fucking piece of equipment in my camera case - fuck's sake. They did the same going through Dublin airport. They say they can't see through the aluminum casing - well, open the case morons. It's a camera, a hard drive and sundries like spare batteries. Scan and swab away - I know better than to make a scene, I watch too much "Border Patrol" to know any scene is what they're looking for. 30 mins later, after my stuff had been rescanned several times, I'm through checkpoint charlie one. I hope all that scanning doesn't fuck up my hard drive....
I go to the ServisAir Lounge, which cost something like £20 for 3 hours and I start on the G&Ts. Nothing sets off the benzos I'd been saving for this 23hr mammoth journey like a few stiff drinks. I was armed with 10 valium and 10 xanax. Call me irresponsible, but I will argue the point here that irresponsible is taking them every day and I've got the T-shirt, thanks. I hadn't had anything of this kind for months and months, and the funny side to this will come later, if you're still reading by then.
Time comes to board, all goes fine, I introduce myself to the chap sitting next to me, we had exit row seats upstairs on the A380 huge double decker plane, nice. We're waiting. And waiting. Then we push back. Then we're waiting, just sitting 50m at most from the gate. The stewards give us peanuts and water, I know this is probably placating of the worst kind... Yes. Two hours later, the captain apologises (how can they deliver such bad news with such a lovely ever-plesant tone?) but the oil leak in Engine 4 which they discovered as they pushed back and did routine checks was enough to shut it down and it wasn't serviceable. By now it's after midnight, and curfew means they legally can't fly us anyway. They didn't say that, of course. They're going to put us in a hotel for the night. I've never experienced a delay like this, I'm interested in how the logistics are going to work. It's a fucking big plane, the Airbus A380, at near capacity of 550 passengers.
To me, this means very little except "Damn, not going to make that connecting flight to the Gold Coast when I land in Sydney", and not much else crossed my mind - oh yes, other than how glad I was that I hadn't taken my sleeping pills before the plane took off. Ha.
We are all off the plane by 0100hrs and on buses. They don't bus us to nearby hotels, oh no - they bus us to KENSINGTON, central London. We got off the bus at 0145! Obviously, they have a partnership with said hotel/s - and I have to say, Singapore Air did a pretty swift job once the decision was made to call off the flight - but gee the hotel was woeful and really let down the whole operation. I heard reports from some folk who went to the other hotel, and they said it was amazingly efficient, I guess I picked the wrong colour hotel coupon. Next time, take the white Hotel 6 coupon instead of the Green hotel 3 coupon. Hmm.
I was sitting right behind the bus driver, who seemed to like talking to himself, with a vague suspicion or hope that someone may be listening - and of course when a bus driver talks to himself, you tend to listen with a blend of amusement and mild alarm. He was muttering that this is the third time since New Year this one flight had "gone technical", some code speak repeated by the Liaison Officer from the Airlines at the hotel the next day - three times in less than two weeks the London to Singapore due to leave at 2205 had been grounded due to technical reasons, apparently all different aircraft too, not just the A380. I'd bet it was the A380 each time though.
Six buses of people arrive at two separate hotels - I can't speak for the other hotel, but ours had no system to cater for the influx of so many people arriving all at once. Only by "mateship" word of mouth (those who had signed the sheet when they arrived on the first bus were telling others what to do, in order to be allocated a room), did I get my name on a list and get given a room rather quickly - I felt very very sorry for the mothers with young children - we weren't allowed to get our baggage from the hold, so these people only had what they came onboard with ... plus now some very tired, cranky children.
I go to my room, relax, sleep. Wake up to a note under the door saying the next announcement will be at 0900hrs, a proposed new departure time was 1315, to go and have breakfast. Fine, I go with the flow. I meet up with the chap from Aisle 81 again, Steve, and we have breakfast. Then the announcement is made to wait in our rooms til 1300, then meet in the conference room.
At 1300, we're fed a full hot lunch (Best chili con carne I've had, except for Del's, I think) and then we're told the bad news - the flight isn't going at all, the plane is "unserviceable". We would each be rebooked on to different flights, according to our destination. The lists of who would be leaving in the first round were posted on a notice board, I was in the first round, which meant I got to leave the hotel at 1500 back to the airport, rather than 1900, which the second lot of people had to wait for - but by then the hotel had opened the bar, the magic word was "Singapore", and you could drink as much as you liked. I was just happy to be getting on my way.
In the scheme of things, I'm all very unaffected by this, being a single person without special needs or children - but wow there were some severely pissed off people, and with good right to be from the few stories I did hear of oversight and inconvenience magnified due to lack of special care for elderly and children. On the whole, the group I was in of 200+ were very good, very patient, the vibe became one of sitting around and making the most of it at big tables, discussing our life stories and reasons for travel etc. In what could've been a very tense situation, people were nicely calm, no one was impatient with screaming babies when I know they normally would be. I was very impressed - I guess when it's a technical fault rather than an admin error, for example, people are going to be much more understanding - hell, I'd rather they find the oil leak whilst we're sitting on the ground compared to the possible consequences of finding it in the air. I wonder what happens if you take off from London and find the need to emergency land a flying bus like the A380 after curfew? Glad I didn't find out actually.
Heathrow >> Singapore (Take Two - now 1815hrs, Tuesday 12 January, I'm meant to be in Singapore boarding a flight to Sydney by now...)
So, it's announced - I'll be flying on a different flight to Singapore, and when I get there, instead of having 5 hours to kill at Changi, I'll have nearly 11hrs before my connecting flight to Sydney - so the airline booked me a meal and a taxi and a hotel in Singapore - again, another 45mins each way from the airport. "Fuck it", I decided when I got there I'd check with the transit hotel to see if they still had my booking from 36hrs ago, and check in there. I didn't have to clear customs this way. Nor did I have to endure the stifling heat and humidity of Singapore.
So, feeling fed and fresh - I get on the new flight to Singapore, having quickly downed two double G&Ts at a conveniently placed and pricey bar in T3, I wait til we've been in the air long enough for the seat belt sign to go off - and I go to the bathroom, the moment of long awaited benzo & PJs time. I get back to my seat, and talk briefly with the woman next to me, I told her I had taken some sleeping tablets, but (against my normal policy), I didn't get to tell a crew member. I remember getting out the headset to watch a movie, the next thing I remember is waking up with an hour to go - I'd slept for 11hours of a 12 hour flight - sweeeeeeet. I didn't even get my little blow up pillow out - somehow, it wasn't needed.
The woman next to me says she's glad I'm okay. I asked her what she meant. She said the staff were so alarmed by my unresponsiveness that they had checked my pulse and my breathing several times during the flight because I could not be roused for a meal. GODDAMN IT, this is why I always tell SOMEONE I am taking sleeping tablets - at least the woman next to me knew, but I did mean to tell staff, it seems my reward for being clean and sober off everything means they hit me so hard, I didn't see it coming. Excellent! Several stewards stopped by to say they were glad I was okay - I was a bit sheepish and apologised for not having told one of them at least, but I wasn't sorry I slept most of the flight!
So, I did some resourceful duty free shopping, (why can I only get my particular make up shade in bloody Singapore?), I had my favourite Changi Airport meal (Laksa and a Lychee drink, which I later discovered when I took the remaining beverage back to the hotel room, that Lychee goes really well with Absolut Pear Vodka, bless those little individual sample bottles of 50ml) - and I make my way to the next flight.
Singapore >> Sydney (Depart Changi 0030hr Thurs 14 January, I was meant to have been in QLD by now!)
By this point, I'm feeling pretty relaxed - I mean, I'd just slept more than I'd slept in most nights in the past few years - and on a plane! This doesn't deter me from my plan, and I stick to it. Back to the bathroom, back in to the PJs and down goes the rest of what I'd saved for this journey. (Double bonus is I don't have anything left to take once I land, as they say - the tendency is to keep taking the lovely warm-fuzzy-feeling-in-a-pill, I know too well).
Again, I've told the woman next to me (she wasn't as nice though as the first seat buddy, but the seat was more comfortable) AND this time the staff, that I'll likely be out like a light, don't wake me except if there's an emergency - I must admit, I thought I could be roused at any point, but it seems not to be the case, after staying off sleeping tablets for so long now. I was surprised to hear they physically shook me and could not rouse me on the first flight. Never going to see those people again, and knowing they've seen it all before, I wasn't overly concerned. I'd rather be asleep than awake on a long flight, even if it means not being roused in the extremely unlikely event of an emergency *shrug*
I wake up with less than an hour to go, again - wow. This is how you travel long distance, folks - this is how you do it. To my alarm, though, the woman next to me was making a complaint when I came to - she'd been robbed on the plane! Her credit cards and cash were missing - I immediately checked my bag, but as I had the window seat and my bag was wedged down beside me, it hadn't been touched. I felt really sorry for this woman - who the fuck expects to be missing your credit cards and cash by the end of a long haul flight? She hadn't even been to sleep! I'm secretly glad I was asleep the entire flight though, I probably would've been number one suspect, being the person sitting next to her - she said she knew it wasn't me though as I was out like a light, which was relieving. Why did I assume the guilty-til-proven-innocent feeling? The thought of being accused in a situation like that really mortifies me. (Okay, so I made off with a little Singapore Airline Givenchy pillow - really are they going to miss it? It's not someone's personal effects!)
Sydney >> Brisbane (Thursday 14 January, time is all blurry now)
Even though I'd managed to contact Mum back when I found out my flight was delayed, and she contacted Virgin Blue with 3 days notice before my domestic flight, Virgin Blue slugged me with a AUD$55 penalty and I have something like AUD$65 credit with them remaining - which I thought I'd need to use towards rebooking another domestic flight, since I'd long missed it.
So, I get to Sydney and I'm shocked by the broad Australian accents around me - do I really sound like that? Oh god, I'm glad to be home though! I wait for my baggage.
And wait.
And wait.
Then I realise it's not here, the carousel is empty, and a lot of other people are in the same position - I go to the desk and ask. It turns out the person who booked all of us on to new flights back in Heathrow didn't change the luggage stubs, in fact they said "hang on to the original stub, your luggage will meet you in Sydney as per normal" - wrong, buddy. So, I've got just my carry on luggage and a reference number - I leave, pausing only momentarily to look at Customs/AQIS, the site for the show I love so much, "Border Patrol" ... I have nothing to declare though, as the only food I did have was in the luggage that hadn't shown up - and I highly doubted they'd confiscate the Guinness Mustard I'd bought in Dublin for my Grandfather anyway. It doesn't get much more processed than that.
Finally I meet Dad. Dad escorts me to where I need to go to talk to Singapore Airlines about a possible deal on a domestic flight to QLD. I can't say I was tired nor perky by this point, but I was scattered. Short term memory was shot. I am glad Dad was there to remember details - Singapore Airlines put me on a flight free of charge to Brisbane, and gave me a $20 meal voucher, so Dad and I had McDonalds before he saw me off, stuffing some money in to my hand and hugging me. I love you Dad.
Embarrassingly, and probably predictably ... I fell asleep at the boarding gate awaiting my flight to Brisbane. Luckily for me, I'd picked a seat which was obviously at the gate for that flight, and so when I was the only one left drooling on my suitcase, fast asleep - I got the fucking fright of my life when shaken awake by some staff member, calling my name. Ahh residual sleepy... oops.
Brisbane>>Gold Coast (Thurs 14 January)
Shannon meets me at the airport, she later admits she struggled to realise that I had actually gotten fat - despite me telling her over the last few weeks that I was looking forward to "dropping 30kgs", none the less - family is family and we start the drive to the Gold Coast. NOW, late Thursday afternoon - I'm feeling tired. What was meant to be a 23hr journey ended up taking four days!
I slept all day Friday, bad move. 3am is my wake up time now, and on Saturday, I hit the pool - oh my god did I hit the pool! Nerang pool, the little, dinky, stained 4 lane, 22m pool I used to swim at every morning religiously before high school is now some virtual super centre, the original pool has been restored (no more broken tiles and annoying circular grills that look like lights along the wall, or scabby drains on the bottom - just smooth lines, and white plate grills, which I can totally handle), and there is another 8 lane, 25m pool built under a big UV sail, also brilliantly without lights or any feature which resembles the rotten things - bliss! There's two new kiddie pools and fountains and all sorts of stuff you only play in if you don't mind being soaked in diluted child urine. I got there at 0620 on Saturday, they don't open til 0700, but let me in to look around anyway. I started swimming at 0700, stayed on for the Deep Water Running class and left after two hours, feeling throughly awesome. I walked home and crashed - my god yes, this is what I came back for. Sunshine, swimming, health. I have a way to go yet before I can call myself "healthy" - my god living in cold climates is definitely not for me.
Oh yeah, my case finally arrived yesterday too. Nothing I didn't miss. I got online before I moved back and bought new swimmers, fins, goggles, board etc - it was all waiting for me when I got here.
It's 0620am now (and 27 degrees) on Sunday, as I sit in bed and type this, to send later when Shannon and Matt aren't in their bedroom, where the 'Net connection is. The pool doesn't open til 0900am today, but I'll be there. This time I'll be wearing sunscreen, I got fried yesterday and that was between the hours of 0600 and 0930!
I'm glad to be 'home'. Queensland, with my sister and her soon to be husband, doesn't yet feel like 'home', it very much feels like I'm living in my sister's house, and I have to respect that's what it is. I can't have a space of my own to decorate as I please, or have my cats back. I know this, but I am grateful to have a room, a bed, family, sunshine, warmth, health. It's going to be difficult to get a job without a car, very difficult. Trying to find something in Nerang is the hard bit. I can't rely on Shannon for transport every day. I'll do anything but telesales or cleaning. I don't want to do office work, but I have to start somewhere. I might even look in to assistant teaching. I've only received one reply from a locksmith company, and it was a "we're not hiring".
I've managed to lock myself out of my own phone - I bought a cheapie Nokia at the airport in Sydney, only to find that my old Australian Sim Card doesn't work in it, as I'd hoped it would - maybe they've deactivated the number cos I haven't used it for 2yrs+? So I tried my Australian Sim in my English phone, to see if it's the phone or the card that was the problem...it didn't work either, but when I put my English Sim back in my English Phone, it now won't let me unlock the keypad - I have to take the battery out to turn it off, and I can't access anything without being able to unlock the keypad. Brilliant.
I'll let you know when I get the mobile phone sorted.
I have the numbers still, at least.
Can't post the pictures of the journey, sorry - it pretty much consisted of a nighttime photo taken at 1am looking out of the bus from behind the driver (the caption would've been "Q: What's wrong with this airplane? A: It's a BUS") and large groups of people sitting around, laying on the floor etc in a conference room - kind of stuff you have to experience to understand. Singapore Airlines get praise from me, but whomever secures their relations with hotels should be sacked.