Up, up and away...eventually
Hi All…welcome back.
Time has done it to me again…disappeared. Sorry for my tardiness…I have an excuse…but you really don’t want to hear excuses. You just want me to get on with it.
Ok. Has anyone had the need to avail themselves of the services of an airline recently? I’m guessing, if you have, that it was probably not the best experience in the world ;)
We had flight credits (due to covid cancellations) that needed to be used. We really couldn’t afford to be away for an extended period, so we decided on a ‘long’ weekend visiting family in Brisbane. Dates were sorted and flights booked (or so we thought). A couple of days after booking (btw these were for dates months in the future) an email arrived announcing flight changes. The changes meant we would have had a 5-hour stopover in Melbourne…not something we were prepared to suffer. Our only option was to pick a different day. It meant an extra day away from the fur babies and a reshuffle for our super, house sitter (Jess).
All was well…until the day of the flight. We were supposed to fly out of Launceston at 4pm, giving us an arrival time civilised enough to head straight to my daughter’s house without causing too much disruption. But no. The flight was cancelled (we were lucky enough to receive notification before starting the trip to Lonnie) and we had been allocated seats on a later flight. This meant an arrival time in Brisbane that necessitated finding accommodation close to the airport (not easy at short notice and an expense we didn’t need). We would be checking in at about 11pm, (or so we thought) so the owners left a key for us.
As you have probably guessed, things went a bit further astray. On arrival at the airport we were advised of further delays to departure…these kept getting pushed back later and later. We eventually arrived in Brisbane at 12.30am…falling into bed at around 1.15am (so glad that we had chosen not to go to my daughter’s and that a key was left for us!)
At least our bags arrived with us!
I’m sure there are horror stories WAY worse than this…but I thought I’d let you in on the fun start to our mini-break.
Obviously things got better from here on in. We had a very quick visit with Michelle’s brother Mark and his wife Miyuki (Mark very kindly loaned us his car for the duration of our visit) before heading to my daughter’s. This was the main reason for the trip…to re-acquaint ourselves with our 17-month-old grandson Otis (who we had only met once, 12 months ago) to see their house for the first time and spend some quality time with Imogen, Sean, Jamyson and Oti.
We weren’t disappointed…it was sensational. Of course I took a pic or two…
I also took a few images of our visit to Mt Coot-tha Botanical Gardens and the garden around the house.
Well there you have it folks. It was only a quick visit…but very emotionally rewarding. Rounded out on our last night with a beautiful meal cooked by Miyuki and a weird ride share to the airport that almost didn’t get us there (but that’s a whole other story).
Until next time…enjoy the pics, stay safe and avoid the Cam River if you can.
Cheers