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Published: September 14th 2013
Do you remember last time when I said that, something always happens just to point out to you that you shouldn’t ever become complacent in thinking how organised you are? (Would I ever dare?”) That’s just courting disaster …..
Yesterday, was one of those times.
For weeks, I have had things in process preparing for our departure – you know, the million-and-one things that you have to think about, mostly to keep things chugging along at home whilst you are away?
Everything was pretty much on track – there were still a few last-minute things that I had to do that you can’t do “until the last minute”. Things like some final online banking; send a couple of emails; doing the last-minute rounds making sure everything is right at home before you leave it and, had pretty much everything timed down to the last minute, leaving me only my packing to do but, at least everything was spread out on the spare bed.
The previous afternoon, whilst buzzing around, I had rushed to answer the phone and, in my haste, had run into the corner of the computer desk, which has not only given me a large bruise but, also badly jarred my already creaky
lower back that is the norm these days.
Oohing and ahhing at the time, I felt my back go and, thought to myself, “I’m going to pay for that tomorrow” whilst giving my lower back a massage, hoping that I was wrong but, knowing the signs only too well and still hoping that a good night’s sleep would fix the problem.
Next morning – D(eparture) Day – things hadn’t improved much and I couldn’t contemplate the next 7 weeks, with things as they were.
Husband Ted, seeing my discomfort, said, “Why don’t you give Michael (our chiropractor) a ring”. He, with a day full of appointments, I didn’t think I stood much of a chance of getting one but, Michael, ever compassionate, answered my distress call and fitted me in.
Great that I had the appointment but, it was going to take an hour and a half out of my preparation time for departure which I could ill-afford but, my back needed attention.
As usual, Michael worked his magic and, after sticky-taping me back together (in all reality, it was a tape that physio’s use), thereby supporting my lower back, had me in better shape to be able to spend 19 hours sitting on a
plane.
Prior to this, last week the power company had letter-box dropped our community, saying that they would be performing necessary electrical maintenance work in our neighbourhood the following week and that the electricity supply would be turned off whilst the work was being carried out. On checking the date on the notice – what day had they chosen? …… Thursday, 12
th September.
Now ….. the power company hasn’t done any major maintenance work in our area for yonks and haven’t turned off the power supply, for years! Why did it have to be today?
Momentarily forgetting this would be happening in the general scheme of things, I was talking on the phone; Ted was halfway through cooking his omelette for breakfast when, all of a sudden the phone went all crackly and my phone call disappeared and, Ted’s breakfast omelette sat half-cooked in the pan on the hotplate on the stove when the power went off at 9am.
What the …..???? Then reality dawned – the maintenance work.
Hoping that it may only be for a couple of hours at most ….. nope! ….. it turned out to be an all-day affair, with the power not coming back on until around 3-45pm.
This then created
a further number of issues and managed to increase my stress levels considerably (which really didn’t need increasing at this point in time) and left a number of things undone as well as wondering whether the power would be back on by the time we left for the airport. If not, I was going to have to leave even more instructions for the kids and get them to re-set the automatic timers on the pool and the security lights in the house, nevermind about all the clocks that would have to be re-set. They could wait and so could every other electronic, power-driven appliance we own with a clock on it.
So, here we were – we had no power; no computer; no phone; we couldn’t open the garage door automatically and had to swing on it manually and hold the door up to be able to get the car out each time we needed to and, there were several.
We had all the family and friends trying to get hold of us and beginning to think that we must have been abducted by aliens and wondering why they couldn’t get in touch with us on any of our phones as none
of them were working, including my mobile which, yesterday, I had had a Global SIM card put into it which meant its normal “at home” functions no longer worked as it was now set for overseas. I could have put the normal SIM card back into it but, hadn’t seen the need and, if I had, I ran the risk of forgetting to swap them back over again before we left for overseas.
My visit to Michael had then left me short of time for my packing which I had to rush at the last minute as Jenni was picking us up at 3-30pm to take us to the airport. Bear in mind that my appointment at the chiropractor was for 2pm! Considering that the round trip, plus my treatment, would take me approximately 1 and a half hours. I raced into the driveway at 3pm! Stress!! 😊
Consequently, we were later leaving home than planned – after I had had to go around and re-set the automatic timers on everything – which then, put us even further into peak-hour traffic. Anyone who has ever driven in afternoon peak-hour traffic in Sydney knows what a nightmare that can be.
By a quarter past
5, when baggage drop closed for our flight and we should have been dropping our bags off at Online Check-In at the airport, we were still stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic about 20-30 minutes away.
Once more, Jenni to the rescue (what would we do without you, Jen?) who got onto the phone to Emirates as our travel agent, telling them of our predicament and to see if our bags would make it onto the flight. We were okay as we had already checked in but, our bags may not be.
At this stage it was looking as though we would be on the 6-45pm flight and our bags on the 9pm – that is, if they would carry them unaccompanied. Alternatively, we could be bumped to the 9pm flight.
Jenni said, that if we could get to the airport by 5-45pm, we would probably still be okay as that was the time that they closed baggage drop for passengers who were already checked in and who had carry-on luggage.
We were all dreading the M5 tunnel which, at peak times, is more like a car park than a motorway but, luckily, the traffic cleared somewhat and, by the time we got there, we somehow managed an almost straight through run through the tunnel. From there, it was only a short distance to the international terminal.
Pulling up at the terminal, we all jumped out – Ted and myself with our bags, Jenni jumping into the driver’s seat to go and park the car whilst we went to check-in. She had coached us as to what the scenario could be and, what may happen so, we just had to see what the airline would say.
Straight up to the counter, the airline lady was all cool, calm and collected (we weren’t quite so much but, appeared so on the surface); she took our bags, tagged them, processed our paperwork, handed it back with our baggage claim and, that was that! She didn’t even comment about our bags. After the day we had just had, our stress levels dropped by about 100%.😊 I looked at my watch – 5-45pm! 😊
By the time poor Jen got back to us, puffing and panting because she had had to park miles away in the car park and had run all the way back, Ted was off picking up some stuff from the chemist and I was sitting down near check-in, re-organising my carry-on.
Once Jen caught her breath, it was time for a quick photo, hugs and kisses, before we disappeared through the doors to go through Immigration and be on our way.
Needless to say – the couple of emails didn’t get sent; the online banking will have to wait for landfall (thank goodness for internet banking these days); and, you’ll be glad to know that Ted’s omelette managed to finish cooking itself from the heat retained in the pan on the stove. Got to love stone cookware! 😊
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Marianne
non-member comment
Trip
Gald you got away,just hope our departure will be better. Hope your back comes right.All good here,I have been up at Mum\'s checking things out,all ok. xxxxx