Airport Chaos

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This morning I woke after a great sleep knowing that we were just about to embark on our huge adventure. I’m not sure how I felt because it was a feeling I haven’t felt before, the was happiness, sadness, excitement and a scene of complete drain as no one emotion really stood out more than the other.
I think Anthony and Carol were more excited than the both of us. I think Jacinta would of been quiet happy to stay home as she has had a rough couple of day saying goodbye to her brothers and sisters, mum and Gordon and also a quick goodbye to her father which she has only just recently found out that he has a growth on his bladder.
We woke up with a last minute dash to pack our bags and check that we haven’t left anything behind. The whole trip to the airport i was still wondering if had forgotten something. I suppose that will take awhile to get out of my system because even as I’m writing this at Adelaide airport i am looking for my keys and mobile strapped to my hip. We travelled over the story bridge and i had my last glimpse of Brisbane for 2 years and proceeded down the new freeway to the domestic airport.
EMOTIONS
It was a quick drop off and Jacinta and Carol embraced in each other’s arm with tears flowing. Jacinta is still very upset and she still goes quiet every now and then, it doesn’t take much for her to cry.
My feelings about saying goodbye to the last people to see us were neither sad nor happy. I would almost say it was more a confused feeling and exhaustion really playing the main role in controlling one emotion more than the other. I was quiet disappointed in not feeling more emotion than i did, even if that meant i had to have a little cry at least that would of been something.

We were excited about the business class lounge and I quickly got onto SKYPE to talk to mum before our flight was ready for boarding.
We flew into Adelaide and from the air it looks very pretty. We got through customs and Jacinta got searched for bombs for the second time today. She does look like a terrorist some times. Haha. We went to find the Qantus lounge but its back in the domestic part and now we cant go back. I’m pissed off because we will never do this again and we have to sit around for 2hours without internet. I wanted to call mum gain and Jacinta wanted to call Nadette.
PLANE TROUBLES
We boarded the plane after waiting for half an hour. We sat in our business class seats and could not believe the room and how comfortable the chairs were. I was showing how to adjust the chairs to Jacinta but she didn’t want me too.
We taxied out to the runway and awaited departure. The captain came over the intercom and said that there was a problem with one of the doors and the latch to deploy the life rafts was faulty. Jacinta had previously seen them working on the door before we boarded. The captain said we had to turn around and rectify the problem. That was the start off the worst waiting I have experienced in an airport. With announcements only coming every hour or so they told us that they had to get parts from interstate and they would be here within an hour and half. They also said that it would take an hour to fix. We had to wait 2 hours in the boarding lounge until they got word on the parts. We were all hungry so they feed us dry biscuits with cheese. They then realised that they couldn’t do that for very long so they processed our passports again let us back out with a $25.00/person dinner voucher. This was great for us because we went to a Asian restaurant and I had a Pad Thai and Jacinta had a basil chicken curry. We both went straight to the business lounge straight after and hit the internet for 45minutes. I then discovered the free alcohol and had a couple of drinks.
They called us back to the airport lounge again were once again we had to process our passports. We then sat around for another hour before the flight was delayed again and set back another hour again. The decision was made by 9:00 that the plane was not going to be ready and they would put us up in a hotel for the night. We couldn’t believe our bad luck but we were still pretty calm about the whole thing. We had to go down once again and get our passports signed off and go to the baggage claim. The bags came out and mine was the third one on the belt, Great! Then we waited for Jacinta’s bag. Jacinta stood beside the belt waiting while I had to go and get our free accommodation organised. There was a massive line up and everyone was pushing and starting to get cranky. I finally got our voucher and went back to see Jacinta who was still bag less. I started to get really worried when I poked my head through the hanging belt flaps and there was no one there off loading bags. Our bag was lost, and i started to lose it. Jacinta was getting upset and we have had enough. We were directed to the lost baggage claim and when i look for someone to talk to I peeked out the back and immediately saw Jacinta’s bag. I remember shouting to Jacinta “their it is”! And I felt a sigh of relief.
We got to the hotel by taxi vouchers and checked into The Intercontinental Hotel, it was a great 5 star hotel. It would of cost Qantus a fortune to put 320 people into 5 star hotels. We got into the foyer and yet another line up to get our room.
By this time we were shattered and just wanted to go to sleep. We got into the room and it was beautiful. A quick shower and straight into bed the bed felt like our bed only bigger, so we were very comfortable. We both just got to sleep when the phone rang and said we had $30 for dinner $20 for breakfast $5 for phone calls / person free from Qantus.

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