The Flying Cigar

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Well it was the same old story, I came in from Brisbane on Thursday evening and Caroline picked me up, gosh we save the company a fortune in taxi fairs, still what could be better, having my favourite wife pick me up, compared with some taxi driver that usually doesn’t speak much English and who doesn’t know where he is going, which constantly winds me up.

I had a normal day in the office on Friday, well what is normal, we don’t quite know at the moment, as we are flat out.

My day consisted of being with my boss, all day ,as he had come up from Sydney for a particular meeting we had to attend and it was one of the reasons for my delay in going back to C.I.

It was great to be doing normal things, on a Friday, and when I got back in to the office, late afternoon had a couple of hours doing some desk work, this work, usually gets done on a hotel bed, or in a coffee shop or places such as that, so this was luxury, being at my own desk.

My boss had said something funny to me, quote Mmmmmmmmmm- Melbourne !, sorry, I didn’t hear what you said, Mmmmmmmmmm Melbourne !, sorry mate, I still didn’t here what you said,

When are you going to Melbourne !!

I don’t know is there a need for me to go.

So on Monday, I needed to plan for going to Melbourne on Tuesday.

I wandered around to where Caroline sits and said, I will be away tow days next week I am off to Melbourne and will be back on Wednesday evening.

We got home but had to be changed and ready in the blink of an eye as we were going out for a curry with friends in town.

I have to say, an OK curry, but I was glad to get in to my bed as it was the end of the week and it was time to just fall in a pile and recuperate ready for the forth coming on slaught.

Saturday was just a blur, again, of washing, Ironing, shopping, whilst just trying to have a bit of time with Caroline, who is exceptionally busy as well, just because she is not flying around Australia, like, me don’t be fooled.

Sunday we were going to have a bike ride, and from the early morning weather it looked beautiful, so we loaded the bike in to the truck and set off towards Lake Burley Griffin, but as we got closer to town the weather went from Beautiful on awful, so we abandoned the Idea, turned around and went shopping.

We managed to go to the pictures on Sunday evening at the Dendy and we got to see the new film conviction, its an excellent film which we thoroughly enjoyed.

As time accelerates when you are having a weekend, no sooner than we could settle, but we were diving back in to work on Monday morning.
My boss called and we discussed loads of work stuff, he said do you have everything sorted for you trip to Melbourne, yep no worries mate.

Can you go to Adelaide then to port Augusta as well, its closer to Port Augusta when you are in Adelaide than when you are in Darwin.

I phoned our travel company asked them to re arrange my flights, not flying back Melbourne to Canberra, but Melbourne to Adelaide, then Adelaide to Port Augusta., and no sooner than I asked, the paper work was e-mailed to me.

I walked back around to where Caroline sits and said, I will be away for t e rest of the week and will see you Friday night.

She said in her lovely way, I will miss you.

As usual it was an early start, the taxi was 10 minutes late, and I was not impressed, the driver said morning, but I wasn’t as polite back, I wouldn’t have minded if he was sincere, but he couldn’t give a toss still no tip today for him.

I think if I was a taxi driver, I would make good tips, I am punctual, I would be chatty, but not overly and I would be interested in providing my fair, with interesting information, then as I got my clients cases out of the car, I would shake there hand and wish them a good day.

Its simple really, putting people in the right frame of mind and usually business customers have a corporate credit card, so five bucks here and there would soon mount up.

Tuesday and Wednesday were spent in Melbourne and I travelled to Adelaide on Wednesday evening, and I had a late meeting with a really dynamic company at around 7.00pm.

My Hotel room in Adelaide was awesome, I had been upgraded to a suit, it really was cool, two bedrooms, a living room, bathroom and Laundry.

Being an idiot, I had managed to leave all my travel documentation on the floor of Melbourne airport, so when in my hotel room, I connected to the internet, down loaded my new travel documents , then spoke to the hotel concierge and asked them if I could e-mail some documents, and if they could print it out and slip it under my door, as I had to be up at 04.30 to get a very early flight to Port Augusta the next day.

At Adelaide airport, bright and early the next day, I was looking for Sharp airlines, Qantas had about 20 places, Jet star the same, and Sharp Airways had one kiosk.

With this “little” airline you had to be there an hour before the flight, where as Qantas domestic is only 30 minutes.

My travel documentation said the maximum weight permissible was only 20 Kilo’s and my computer bag and all that stuff weighs in about 8 K’s so with my luggage I would be weigh over, did you like that, “Weigh Over”

5.45 the representative for Sharp airlines arrives, I chuck all my bags on the conveyor and she doesn’t say a word about the weight, result.

I have put you in seat 8 near the back, its quieter, she tells me, here is your boarding pass, which was a laminated card.

Thanks a lot, what gate does the plane go from, gate 50 she said, strangely enough, there are only 51 gates at Adelaide airport.

I sit having a coffee, people watching, lots of people are off to mines sites, and there is an endless supply of embroidered works shirts, on men and women, depicting BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and other mining players.

The flight is called, the young girl who gave me my boarding pass, is at the gate to collect it, we head down the steps in to the early morning air, and there she is, the flying cigar, I have heard so much about.

I am the first to get on board, you have to stoop really low to get in side, one row of 9 seats on the left and right.

My seat 8A is one seat from the back on the left hand side looking forwards and I watch everyone get on, (all 11 people)

The young sharp representative,, is now on the plane, checking everyone has there seat belt done up, then she gets off the plane, does the door up from the outside, takes the chocks from the wheels and we are ready to go, she must be the busiest person in Sharp airlines.

The pilot welcomes us, over the address system and advises us that we are off to Port Augusta and our flying time will be 45 minutes, that’s great I think, at least I am on the correct plane
The twin turbo props are happily whizzing away, as we gently climb in to a dark sky towards our destination.

I was laughing inside, as what the airline don’t tell you, is there is not toilet on board, if you were “bustin” for a wee and thought, oh well I will go when I get on board, you were going to be really disappointed.

The flight was excellent, I think the bloke at the “pointy end” said our cruising altitude was 17,000 feet which is about half of what a jet liner cruises at, but all the same is was as smooth as silk.

I was still having these mad thoughts about this weenie airline, I imagined the pilot who was sitting on the left hand side of the pointy end, had a bag or a box of snacks down beside him, and still belted up, reaches in to the bag or box, grabs a great handful of snacks and without looking backwards just throws them over his shoulder, straight down the cabin, then over the mic tells everyone that the refreshments have just been served.

The sun has come up, outback Australia, I looking magnificent this morning, I am glaring out of the window, to see if there are any places I recognise.
I see the road from Port Augusta to Cooper Peedy, Caroline and I were last here on 6th April 2009, when we went to Woomera.
I know the date well as it is Caroline’s birthday and the day we met, Don and Doreen and Jane and Colin Aulney.

The plane touches down, nicely done, I say under my breath, I recon this guy has landed a plane before.

We all get off any the pilot is standing at th bottom of the “Step” did you notice I didn’t say steps, only step, to thank us for flying with Sharp airways and welcome to Port Augusta.

There was only two taxi’s for 11 people, I asked one of the drivers if he could call up another taxi for me, which he did, the morning was cold, I only had a short sleeved shirt on, and I was dithering.

Fifteen minutes later a taxi arrives, and I hop in, the ride to town was hair raising, this very unkempt women, is a lunatic, still if we were to get killed, I bet it would be spectacular.

We arrive at our destination, I give the lady my card and she tells me, they don’t have the technology to process them, I smile politely and give here some cash.

I do my worky stuff and at the end of the day, get a cab back to my digs, I am staying at a place where Caroline, had a spat with the management, and didn’t hold this place in hign esteem.

I found the room fantastic, and on such a beautiful evening went for a walk to find my dinner.

There were about 12 FJ landcruiser, at a Toyota dealership earlier, so I got a sandwich and walked over to the Toyota dealer where I had seen these cruisers.

This model of landcruiser is band new and will not be released for another 30 days I walked over and was looking over a V8 4.5 litre Diesel landcruiser and the guy came out and asked me if he could be of any assistance.

I told him that I was just drooling at this V8 truck, and I apologised for dribbling on the floor and promised him, I would wipe it up with my hanky before I left the car lot.

We would so love a V8 diesel Landcruiser, to go on our adventures in.

I asked this fella why there were so many of the FJ Cruisers around and he told me it was for the Toyota press release, I managed to sneak some photo’s and have a good look around this new model , which was pretty cool, but could it cut it, travelling in this harsh Australian landscape, I’m just not that sure.

The next day, my flight was not quite as early, it was a respectful time of 7.50, I got there nice an early, and waited for the Sharp “Shed” to open.

My journey back was totally uneventful, and by 4.30 was back in our flat in Canberra.
Caroline arrived home, from here busy day and it was great to see here, again the same is all going to happen, next week.

Andy

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Photos

Stooping
I think I did mention it was cramped

Sharp Airways
Port Augusta

R.F.D.S Port Augusta
We are big fans of the Royal Flying Doctor service

FJ Cruiser
The new Toyota FJ Cruiser, well new to Australia