Days 1 & 2 - February 28 - What a HUGE day!

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The day was one of those days where time moves very slowly. Our flight out of Sydney wasn’t until 7:10pm but we thought we’d just make our way slowly down to the plains. I rang the local taxi service to book a taxi for 12noon to catch the 12:30pm train, only to find there is only one taxi and he was booked out from 11-12:30! You’ve got to be kidding! I wasn’t sure if there was another taxi based in Lawson, so I put a post on the Hazelbrook Happenings Facebook page, and the next I knew I had a text from an unknown number - it was lovely Kath from across the road offering us a lift to the station! Thank heavens! The alternative would’ve been Tom driving the luggage and me up to the station, driving back home, going back inside the house and locking the keys back in safe, locking up the house again and then walking back up to the station on a 28 degrees day! Kath made it smoother and more relaxed! Big Thank you Kath!

As it was, we got to the station and found the lift was out of order with some little men in flouro standing on top of it washing the windows. The injections into my spine over the last month to try to ease my osteoarthritis in my spine and hips means that we try to stop me from lifting too many weights at the moment, so Tom carried both our suitcases down the stairs and I carried my little carry on and backpack. Hopefully this troublesome beginning was not an omen for our trip!

When we arrived at the international terminal, relatively early, things were going more smoothly. This is the trip we were supposed to do 3 years ago, and were to leave two weeks after all the borders were closed, but of course it was cancelled, and all of our money was refunded. Also, at the beginning of covid, my invested super funds lost tens of thousands of dollars overnight because of the share market, and never really regained it all, so I resolved that I would rather lose my money by spending it, and after checking in our luggage, clearing migration, reclaiming the GST on my iPad, we proceeded to the Singapore airlines business class lounge where lunch with Mumm champagne was laid on. Our flight was late arriving into Sydney, so we may have had several glasses each with cheese and bikkies after the lunch of barbecued chicken and penne boscaiola. Upon boarding our flight, of course we were immediately given a glass of Piper Heidsieck to settle with while the rest of the plane was boarding.





our menu selections had been requested last week, and we had both chosen our meals from the “Book the Cook” selection. For this first leg, after the pursuit to appetiser, Tom had selected steak with peppercorn sauce, while I had seafood thermidor. Because it was an evening flight we slept most of the way. We arrived in Singapore a little after midnight and proceeded up to the business class lounge where we located the almost hidden room with cubicles and chaise lounges, and we were both able to continue napping, not wanting to disturb Shannon’s night too much. After 5am Shannon came to the pick up area and found us, booking a ride share “Grab” car to take us back to their place where we were able to sit and chat while the children had brekky, and we were able to give Ollie his birthday gift from all of us in Oz (after having found an ATM at the airport this morning so we could withdraw money in Singapore dollars). It was so lovely to be able to see Shannon’s home in real life (although we have seen it on zoom and FaceTime) - then we walked the children to the bus stop for their school bus before continuing with Shannon and Aaron to their favourite brekky cafe for a yummy breakfast. It was a great opportunity to experience a snapshot of their adventurous life in Singapore.





Shannon then returned us to the airport by 10am so that we could get through security in time for our next leg. We proceeded up to the lounge for various dumplings and Taittinger for lunch before our flight. Walking around Singapore airport is quite a trek, with so much to see along the way. we then boarded our flight for the next leg - Singapore to London. This was a longer flight, involving another lunch (spicy chicken for Tom, confit of duck for me) and dinner (beef cheeks for Tom, lobster thermidor for me, with generic appetisers of scallop salad and mayonnaise seafood salad). I skipped the desserts. We were able to watch movies (i enjoyed The Lost King, as did Tom, and then he watched a Canadian movie about a bank robber), and enjoy a couple of cocktails - Tom chose a Singapore Sling, while I had a Silver Kris Sling.





We eventually touched down at Terminal 2 Heathrow in London at about 7pm. We were told that Aussies could go through the same line as UK people for passports and immigration, what a lovely change, this used to be such a drag waiting in long lines. It was quite a trek to get to the baggage area but we were eventually reunited with our suitcases. Once we got our luggage we were able to just walk out into the arrivals hall where we just followed the signs to the subway for a free transfer to terminal 4 where we were able to check in to our hotel!! I had selected an “accessible” room for our booking, so I wouldn’t have o climb in and out of a slippery bath. And then bed after a verrrrry long day!! But here we are.

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