Au revoir Sydney

A bit of drama this morning after another good sleep, bed at nine, woke at five, slumbered till seven.

A cuppa with bro made me think I'll just just use my new App to check the flight status with Singapore Airlines. So great, on to their website, and it says tap in flight number, all OK but my flight is VA as it is in tandem with Virgin, and there is naturally no response to VA as they wanted SQ. So I read the small print where they abrogate themselves from all responsibility in warning you to check at least twenty-four hours before the scheduled flight..so I go to Virginflights and see what is happenening there. 

There is no VA 5110 which is my scheduled flight. Panic sets in just a smidgen, I read further and see a phone number, 1300 in Brisbane at BYO Jet. So I call them and they are not open till 8 am and it is 7.55. I breathe deeply and wait five minutes and finally I get a real person. She says  'Oh, you can't check in on the web as it is a co-sponsored flight you must do it at airport and the flight is in order.' 

I relax somewhat and and still decide to ask bro if we can leave a little earlier as it is peak-hour on the way to the airport.

Arriving at the International Termina 1, I go to the Singapore Airlines check-in and the nice Serbian gives me the AOK and says I can have a window seat for stage two but I have to sit right in the middle for stage one, meaning eight hours locked in between two others, not a great thought to start the trip with. However, I am here, I have my flight, and I pass through customs and security quite fast. 

Security asks to check all my contents....ho hum, I have nothing in there I know. But lo and behold, my herbal toothpaste, nearly all squeezed out, has written on it 110 mg, ten about the allotted amount. So out goes my toothpaste and I am finally into the maze of Duty Free at Sydney Airport, one of the worst in  the world. I cursorily look for the Vodka stand to give Anna a nice bottle on my arrival, on her request. They are enormous and heavy and I renege and will wait till Singapore. Carrying another two kilos of alcohol is not what I need at this point in time.  I decide to email her asking which brand she wants, they go from $20 to $60 and I want to be reasonable,but I know she drinks it for the effect not the taste, mixing it with something or other. I hope she replies to me before Singapore where I will buy it during my six hour wait at at the palace of consumption halfway to UK and Manchester, my destination.

In the meantime I unpack the (very heavy) book request from Meg, Don Watson's lates book called The Bush. I may as well have a look at it although I certainly won't get through it, it doesn't just weigh a ton... it's 500 pages long!  Such is friendship...lol! 

Meg's The Bush

Waiting at Sydney Airport..

Lewis Jettadoes a sort of Haka in honour of Adam Goodes, I do miss my Aussie Rules.

Am in my Air Singapore plane and cannot believe it, my nice Serbian check-in man had put down that I be given an aisle seat if one became available, and yes, spot-on, I get an aisle seat very far back, but what's more, I have NO neighbours, at all! Such a blessing and I am so grateful for being looked after already in this flight. It seems like a booked-out flight, yet next to me are two free seats. The first of my miracles on this trip to the Birmingham ECK Seminar.

All is well for the beginning of this adventure which started nervously but is going ahead at full speed. Next test will be to collect my all my Trainline Tickets at Manchester, Richmond and Brighton. Will be ready for some possible kinks there, but am visualising all will be well. Baraka Bashad!