What Price Paradise?

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Day 641

My journey started at 4.00am Monday morning and I was straight out of bed and kettle was on, I took Caroline a cup of tea as she did not need to be as quite as busy as I was going to need to be this early in the morning.

Final things were done, teeth brushed, check, dressed, check, Passport, check and we were ready.

Caroline asked me where her toothpaste was. “Have you seen it?” she asked “No” I replied. “Are you sure you didn’t pack it by mistake?” “No, positive!”

The patrol was warmed up and we were off, 5.00am dead on, excellent, I would sooner be an hour early than 5 minutes late, it still felt like the dead of the night and the only thing around us that seemed to be awake was a dog barking.

As we went past the Hanily’s House we said “good morning”, but not even Fatty (Milo) the dog would be stupid enough to be up at this time of the morning, we also drove past Keith and Jan’s and said “Hi” but strangely enough equally there was no response.

When we got to the airport we both jumped out, I dragged my defiantly overweight case out of the Patrol, there were a few tears in my eyes as Caroline had rolled the truck on to my foot, she thought they were for her so who was I to break the illusion?

We kissed for a few minutes until someone suggested that we get a room, but I didn’t have the time I had a plane to catch. And without further ado I disappeared into the door marked “departures” and Caroline drove off for her day in the office.

I was soon on board my flight for about 45 minutes it landed in Sydney where I met up with a couple of my new colleagues for a briefing on what was lying ahead of me and by mid afternoon I was back at the airport again and waiting for my onward flight to Perth.

Sometime later I arrived only to find a couple of happy and very familiar faces were waiting for me. Our friends Cliff and Sue arrived to take me to my hotel, it was great to see them again, the last time was when they were with us at Keith and Jan’s house back in Canberra.

I altered my watch to Perth time, unfortunately we only had a short space of time at the bar to neck a couple of beers and catch up with all things since we last saw each other. By the time I got to bed it was about 12.30 Canberra time (10.30 in Perth), boy it has been a long day, and my taxi was booked for 9.00am back to the airport, so I fall into bed somewhat exhausted, well past my bedtime!

The next bit is blank as I am sleeping Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!

The next day I woke up refreshed yet famished and I realised it was because I hadn’t had any dinner last night, my poor tum was empty and I was hankering for an English breakfast.

Down at the breakfast buffet, I tried to explain my requirements, it nearly got to the picture stage, but hey I was impressed with my chicken impression, do you know how hard it is to do an impression of a sausage?

The taxi came and I was soon on my way, cruising past the lovely Bell Tower, aahhh Perth such a lovely city, such good memories for me and Caroline and of course it was not long ago that Caroline was here on her own journey for work.

A different airport this morning my fourth in the last 24 hours, I checked my baggage in and it was gone, I only had an hour to wait before the plane, so I sat at a small coffee bar and had a chai Latte.

In departures there were about 70 people all waiting for the flight to the Cocos and Christmas Island and I looked at them wondering who else was a Christmas Island Virgin, as I surely was.

There was a large wedding party on the flight as the happy couple were getting married on Cocos Island, how cool is that?

We boarded and flew for just under 5 hours then touched down on this small dot in the Indian Ocean that was the Coco’s Islands.

We had to grab out hand luggage and disembark the aircraft; we all stood in the shade, as it was about 30 degree’s, a big sign said welcome to the Cocos Islands 10ft above sea level.

I again scanned the people, guessing which ones would be taking the flight to Christmas Island, (Home of Father Christmas). We again queued to board the aircraft again and the lady gave me my ticket, blow me it was the same seat number that I came over on!

I sat down and a young girl sat down in the seat to my left, “Hi i’m Meg,” she said, “What have you been doing on Cocos island?” I asked, “Kite boarding for 2 weeks, it was awesome, what a fantastic island.”

Meg lives in Perth and was going to have to fly to Christmas Island before the aircraft flew on to Perth for its next stop.

Meg told me about the Cocos Islands, “See the flags along the edges of the runway?” “Yes” I said, “Well that is the official golf course, and you can only play on days when aircraft are not due to land.”

She also told me that it is one of the, if not the only international airport that does not have any fence the divides the airport from the residential housing and the islanders want to keep it that way, so everyone obeys the rules and doesn’t just wander on the runway or goes and has and party in the middle whilst a plane is trying to land.

The next thing I knew the pilot was saying if we looked out of the left hand window, we would see the tiny spec where we were going to land was Christmas Island and it was only 5 miles away, damn I was sitting on the right hand side and could not see it!

Two minutes later, the pilot was standing on the brakes and we were nearly at the end of the tiny runway.

Here I was, 4600 miles from Caroline and on a tropical Island on the edge of Australia and Asia, what an amazing adventure this is going to be.

I got out of my seat, grabbed my bag and headed down the steps, thinking, “God I hope there is someone here to meet me!”

My travel bag was just left on the trolley so I grabbed it and walked through, “Do you have anything to declare?” “Yep my undying love for my wife, how’s that I said?” “Ok” this fella said and I walked on.

Well, somebody was there to meet me, we jumped in to the car and off we went a few k’s to Poon Saan where my room was, a 2 bedroom apartment and I find that I am sharing with an IT fella who is also working here.

The evening was hot and I was dog tired, 2 days travelling, broken sleep and I was too beaten to eat, so I got my stuff unpacked, shirts hung, shower kit undone and made every effort to get my self ready for work in the morning.

I took 2 of everything, shampoo, deodorant, toothbrushes, etc and when packing Caroline said “Have you packed my toothpaste?” “No!! I have not even seen it!

I had carefully wrapped everything in plastic bags so if anything open accidentally my stuff would be kept partially intact, but when I open my wash bag, “Ah yes the missing toothpaste,” the thingy of Caroline’s toothpaste that had somehow made it in to my bag was everywhere and I mean everywhere, so that’s where it went I must remember to tell Caroline that I found it.

Well that’s it at the moment, I can promise you some awesome photo’s just be patient and it will be worth it.

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Comments

[Keith & Jan]

Gee Andy, had we realised you were going past so early in the morning we'd have organised a farewell party and an honour guard (Arthur with medal and swords). Still looking forward to the photos. Rainy yesterday 9 degrees, sunny today and 10 degrees - spring is on the way! Cheers Keith & Jan