WEATHER: Freak storm 45 minutes after
landing otherwise its summer and 30C
HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Touchdown in Brisbane
BUMMER OF THE DAY: Touching down in
Brisbane 3 hours late
WORD OF THE DAY: HOME
DISTANCE TRAVELLED: 6158km
So I went to bed at 2.30am this morning
and as I had paid for my breakfast when I checked in at midnight, I HAD to get
up this morning to go, otherwise it would be a total waste. The breakfast service closed at 10.30am, so I
set my alarm for 9am, dragged myself out of bed, showered and made it down to
the restaurant with 45 minutes to eat all I could. I did well and I gave the Asian section a
good crack with the mini dim sums and steam rolls-I love those things. It was a great looking buffet I have to say,
but I am not one to gorge, so I ate what I wanted with a cup of tea and then on
my way back to the room I stopped to have a look at the pool area and it was
amazing. There was a wooden boardwalk
around the pool, with fountains and trees in the middle of the pool. There were sun lounges and a great view of
the tower, which was pretty cool to see in itself, to think we were that close
to the airport.
I switched the ‘do not disturb’ light
when I got back to my room and then I spent the rest of the morning blogging
and uploading photos and watching movies on TV.
I had paid for a late checkout, so I didn’t have to be out of my room
till 6pm, which was perfect as my flight was at 9.25pm and it is still hard to
believe that I WILL BE HOME TOMORROW. It
still hasn’t sunk in yet-but I am super excited to see Shelly and the girls and
from the text messages that are flying around they are just as excited to see
me. The god-daughters have a dance
concert on this weekend, so I will hit the ground running tomorrow with a drop
off for the first concert and then a ticket for the second concert on
Sunday. I have earnt some brownie points
with the girls telling them that I had come home early especially to see them
dance in their concert. They had been
told that Zeme and I had broken up so I am expecting a barrage of questions as
only children can ask and I need to work on a way to tell them that things just
didn’t work out. I’ll think about that
later, I can’t be bothered at the moment rehashing ‘that’ saga and
overshadowing my happy impending return home.
With room service for lunch and another movie I showered and was ready
at 6.15pm. I figured I would push the
check-out boundary by 15 minutes, what will they do; charge me for the 15
minutes? I had made sure yesterday when
I packed the monster that I had kept out a change of clothes and underwear into
my day backpack so I wouldn’t have to open the monster till I got home. See I am a smart cookie, but that also meant
that the sucker still weighed 26.4kg and I had one more check-in to go. Qantas can be hit and miss at the best of
times whether you get charged excess or not, so I just hoped that I would get
some-one nice and they wouldn’t charge me.
As the bell boy had bought my bag up on
a hotel trolley, I had to heft that thing onto my back to get it downstairs to
reception to checkout. I kept the thing
on my back as I paid the bill and the reception guy asked if I wanted an
airport trolley, oh yes please that would be fantastic. It was great that I could walk out of the
hotel and find myself smack bang in the middle of T3-LOVE it as I had to make
my way from terminal 3 to terminal 1 which is done via the airtrain and takes 5
minutes. The system is so easy here, I
love Singapore Changi and it is just as well as I have passed through here 9
times in the last 9 weeks! I entered T1
and as I walked past the first set of departure boards I found my flight and
the counter that I had to get to for check-in, when I saw the second set of
departure boards I saw that the word ‘retimed’ was next to my flight number and
when I looked at the new departure time to was for 3 hours later! Oh no….. Are you kidding? I probably could have extended my room for
another few hours, now I have an additional 3 hours plus the 3 hours I had
given myself for check-in. Ugh. It was
going to be a long day. The Qantas
check-in area was a shambles. There were
people in groups sitting on the floor, there was no roped section for a
check-in line, you just picked a hind leg line and side step people and
trolleys as they came and went. I jumped
queue twice as people were just all over the place and when it was finally my
turn with a smile on my dial I dropped my bag on the scales and asked why the
flight had been retimed. Firstly I was
hoping to keep her busy as to not notice the weight of my bag and secondly, if
the flight was delayed 3 hours I was hoping that they would let my bag slide as
a small compensation. As it worked out
there was an issue with our aircraft and they were getting a new one from
Sydney and when I asked when they found out-did they try and notify passengers,
she said it was all very last minute. I
think it certainly worked in my favor and my 26.4kg bag was checked through
without a second glance. My chick was
tough, but I liked her once my bag was sent down the conveyor belt, with a
small kick from her as it got stuck. My
next issue was a window seat and they were all gone! But she said let me go and check something
and she left the counter, so with fingers crossed and a held breath I waited
for her to come back and she said she could give me one, tapped a few times on
the computer and said that’s strange, disappeared again and then came back and
with a small smile said she had found me another one. I wasn’t going to ask what happened with the
first one, as long as I had a window, my monster was checked at no cost I
wasn’t going to argue. Then for the good
news, I was also given a food voucher of 20SGD for me to have dinner on Qantas
due to the delay. Why thank-you
Qantas. This was probably the biggest
delay I have had all trip and yesterday was the most I had paid for excess
baggage. Talk about a patch of bad luck
finishing with a small silver lining. I
was just happy to get rid of the monster-all done and dusted now till
Brisbane.
Once I had passed through security (no
scan) and customs, the first thing I needed to do was to let Shelly know I was
now arriving at 10am and not at 6.40am.
I shot off a text message and wouldn’t feel comfortable until she
replied with am ok. I would hate for her
to get up at 6am, get to the airport to find out I wasn’t now coming till 3.5
hours later. So with the message sent, I
decided to make a stop at the Pandora shop one last time JUST FOR A LOOK and
yes I ended up leaving with One charm, which for me is a feat in itself,
ONE. I was happy with that and then it
was time to buy a drink and find somewhere to sit as I had 4.5 hours to wile away before heading
to my gate. Singapore Changi is great
for finding areas that are set up for people to rest and wait and I went to one
of the food courts and found a massive lounge area that was spread around some
food outlets and because they offer these type of areas all over the airport,
they never seem super crowded. Before setting
up all my crap, I checked my internet on one of the free computers, I went and
bought a soft drink and then set myself up in 2 lounge chairs. My laptop came out, my IPod was plugged in,
my Blackberry was at hand so I could keep an eye on a return message from
Shelly Belly and there I sat for 3 hours, happy as Larry, typing and people
watching. There was an oriental
restaurant, Asian House, that I could see people coming and going out of there and
the smell that was emanating from the restaurant was too much to pass up and
decided to abandon the thought of using my voucher for some drumettes at Burger
King and to have something different for a change, I mean I wasn’t paying for
it anyway right!
This restaurant was set up for the traveler. The staff were switched on, there seemed to
be an urgency with the way they served you which was good in a way, but also a
little disconcerting. I showed my Qantas
voucher straight up as I wanted to make sure they knew I had one so there wouldn’t
be any problems when I went to pay, a lot of people don’t like vouchers, but my
waitress seemed to be okay with it and left me with a rather large menu. It is amazing how far 20SGD goes and after
looking at the menu looking at what I could have to the cost of the voucher, as
I just had to spend every cent, I ended up ordering an entrée and a main and I
got a coke and all I had to pay was 1.53SGD as I hadn't calculated in the
tip. I think I could handle that. After placing my order my entrée was at the
table within 10 minutes, maybe even less and then my main meal came out
probably 10 minutes after that, even though I had not yet finished my entrée. I told you they were in a snazz. It was one of those places you could see the
chefs in the kitchen and they looked as busy in there as the wait staff out the
front. I guess they just think that
everyone has a plane to catch-literally and they just pump people through. I wasn’t on such a rush and I even got asked
if I wanted to pay the 1.53 as I was about to put a mouthful of food in my
mouth. I did ask if it was okay to
finish my meal first and she nodded her head and I was allowed to finish my
meal in peace. I heard back from Shelly,
so she knew of my new arrival time-so I felt much better that I had got through
to her. My small backpack had to be
moved as some people arrived at the table next to me and the waiter guy picked
up my bag to move it onto the chair opposite me and asked what I had in my
bag? Gold? I know it weighs a ton and I still say that
it has to be over 10kg in there. So on
that note after paying my massive bill, I walked out of the restaurant and
found one of the small hand luggage trolleys and dumped my 22kg of bags onto it
to give myself a break from carrying them as I went for a final walk around the
shops before heading to my gate. I found some funky looking elephant statues
in one of the gift shops, but firstly I had no room to carry them, secondly
they weren’t cheap and thirdly I think I need to re-asses what travel ornaments
I have at home before I go and purchase more.
The beauty is I am back through here in 5 weeks, so if I still do like
them, maybe I will get them on my way back through. They are handmade, hand painted and some of
the proceeds go towards a woman’s co-op in Singapore. Maybe next time. I did buy some stickers for my diary and also
a beautiful blue china necklace though and then it was time to make my way to
my gate.
I checked my internet again at the
hundreds of computers they have around the airport, nothing had changed, but
just because I could, I did. When I got
to my gate it wasn’t open yet and most of the seats outside the gate were
taken, so I found a spot at the end of the gate area, leaned up against the
wall and pulled out my IPad and played solitaire. There are a few ways to gain free
internet/Wi-Fi at Changi International Airport.
There are the free internet stations located around the airport that are
on a 15 minute timer. If there is no one
waiting behind you and you needed more than 15 minutes you just re-log on again-easy. You can get Wi-Fi codes from the information
counters located throughout the airport-you just need to show your passport to
get them and the last way is they are starting to introduce free Wi-Fi at the
gates where you don’t need to get the code from the info desks. As I was leaning against the glass wall of
our departure gate, I was within reach of the gates free Wi-Fi and was able to
surf the internet for another hour when the gate finally opened. As the aircraft was late coming in-there were
a lot of transfer passengers for other flights and there would have been 10
airport staff, all ladies waiting for people with flight numbers and destinations
on A4 pieces of paper. There would have
been 4 golf carts also waiting and it was cool to see them all bantering with
each other while they were off the clock until the first passengers came off. It’s funny to see what people look like after
an 8 hour flight and to see what people actually wear on a flight. It was pretty cool to see them all walk past
me, like I was in some travel fashion show.
Some people looked great, others tired and majority of people were
unsure where to go once they came out of the aerobridge. I love people watching. So knowing that our plane was finally here was
a great sign and I will be glad once we are in the air to be sure that I was finally
on my way. Not that it means anything,
even after you take off. I have 2 friends
that work for United Airlines and they took off from Chicago for London and
after 2 hours they had to turn around due to a mechanical fault-now that would
be pretty sucky.
So my gate opened at 11.25pm. We boarded at 12.30am and we were in the air
at 1.15pm. My check-in chick had me
sitting in the 3rd last row of the aircraft which I am okay with, I
am one of those people that is superstitious or thinks there is a better part
of the plane than another, but in saying that I was sitting in a row that had
only 2 seats of a 3x4x3 configured aircraft.
The 2 seats option is great but in those particular seats you are not
directly against the side of the plane.
There is a gap of around 30cm. So
I wasn’t able to rest my head against the window to get some sleep. This was a bummer, but I still had a window,
so I wasn’t going to complain. It also didn’t
take long to wait to find out if I was going to have the seat next to me free,
my seat buddy turned up early, so at least that put me out of my misery. We were on a 747-400 and it looked like a new
plane. I checked out the entertainment
options and they had Magic Mike on the movie channel and they also had 18 hours
of Modern Family. I was SO tired, but I
would have to watch a few episodes of that before I went to sleep.
After takeoff my seat buddy was all over
the seating and there was a spare seat across the aisle and he jumped ship to
then give me the 2 seats to myself for the next 7 hours. You beauty and thank-you travel gods for
finally coming through for me one last time, on my last flight on my World
Odyssey. The one annoying thing about
the touch screens they have on the newer aircrafts is if some-one has a heavy
hand while pushing the screen you can feel it in your seat and it can become
really annoying. You just hope that they
quickly find a movie so that they leave the screen alone and in turn don’t piss
you off any further. Dinner was served
at 2.45am, so I watched 4 episodes of Modern family and as soon as the trays
were taken away, the lights switched off and the plane was put to bed for the
rest of the trip. I was tired, so this
suite me to a tea and I slept like a baby for 3 hours till the plane was woken
up for a crappy breakfast of yoghurt, croissant and an orange juice. I don’t eat the first 2, so the Hostee was
happy to give me the juice and I really wasn’t hungry after all the food I had
consumed in the last 24 hours anyway.
From here it was just a waiting game, and I could stop checking the flight
plan and seeing how many minutes we had left till we landed. I couldn’t believe I was only 15 minutes from
being home. HOME…….ahhh HOME. I was
lucky, 90% of my flights I have ever done arriving back into Brisbane come in over
Moreton Island but this morning we came in over the city. It was a shame the weather was on the crappy
side, it was cloudy and looked like it was raining, so not the greatest for
photo opportunities but what a great way to arrive back into Brisbane over the
city, seeing the Brisbane River and The Gabba.
I was home.
We arrived at 9.40am and as I was in the
3rd last row of the plane, there was no rush for me to get off. Shelly was picking me up between the girls
ice-skating class and dancing lessons and we were aiming for a 10.30am pickup
and I think we were going to be pretty close to that. We seemed to be the only flight in so that
was the good news about coming in at the time we had rather than the 6.40am
when up to 5 other planes all arrive in at the same time and customs and immigration
is a nightmare. Well not this
morning. Even though all hands were
full, I managed to stop via the duty free shop and purchase a bottle of bourbon
for the Elks and a bottle of vodka for me, not knowing still 100% I was doing
with my shipping container that has 60 vodka bottles in it, but I thought it
was better to be safe than sorry. I have
the chip in my passport, so I was able to go through the self-immigration
kiosks, got my free trolley, snuck in a sneaky text message to Shelly (you’re not
allowed to use your mobile phones in the baggage area-it is a 1000AUD fine) and
then waited, and waited and waited for our bags to come out. It took 35 minutes for my bag to finally pop
out and after getting the wave into the bag check line, I had circled that I
had wood items, I showed my Buddha head that was easily accessible in my
backpack and I was waved through to the exit.
WELCOME TO BRISBANE.
I was HOME and it felt great. I am back for nearly 5 weeks and I was
looking forward to each and every minute I have here.
The eagle has landed-I WAS HOME.
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