Down Under

November 4, 2012

Hello from Hobart.

Well I finally have 30 minutes of wifi so will try to get some news to you.

We had a busy and harrowing time at multiple airports.  Flight from SFO to LAX left late. The four of us got shuttled to the Quantas terminal and were given a cart to take us to the gate. The walk would have been long, uphill, and we might have missed our flight. We arrived in style.

One of our group somehow fell of the passenger list and got on last minute but her luggage was left in LAX. Thankfully is was not me.

Then we are off to MEL. Premium economy was really nice. I didn't realize we would get blanket and pillow, foot rest, menu, free everything. I sat with a younger woman from Melbourne and we became fast friends.  We talked and I even got a lot of sleep - ambien works wonders. Didn't watch any movies, had good food etc.

We sat on the tarmac for an hour in LAX as traffic in Oz was busy but we still arrived on time. Then a lot of time driving around to find a gate. Immigrate and customs was fast for me (after a bit of wait for my luggage) but that was OK. I just wanted to get to the Quantas Club as I bought a monthly pass so I could have a shower.

Then things got ugly. I thought that after customs your luggage goes back on the plane as we had a other flight to Tasmania. Well Jet Star, owned by Quantas, is a cheap airline and I had to go out of security and up to checking. No problem there were not many people there. They would not take my luggage for two hours which is two hours enforce flight time. So what to do!,

I didn't see anyone else from my group, could not go back to customs to see if I missed the Domestic Checkin, and I suddenly lost it feeling alone. I figured the rest of the group of 24 were through security and sitting I. The Club or gate and no one was looking for me. Old childhood issues creeping back in I guess.

I sat and emailed out tou leader, Daniel Thorpe, but he didn't respond. After some time of sheer panic and anger - I really wanted a shower!!! - I walked back to the gate and ran into Julie and Daniel and my roommate Frances. What a relief. They all had the same problem that I experienced and I felt much better( that didn't come out right did it).

So we parked at an eatery for over an hour and Frances was hungry and came within e thru security to the Quantas Club where I had my shower and she had some lunch. Life was good again.

We return to the group and head off to check in our bags and get seats. They are very strict on weight limit. My carry on was 1kg over and the I had to add my purse (which was another smaller carry on with my meds). They made me take stuff out and put in the big checked bag. Then they made me check another of the carry ons.

Now mind you, they didn't even weigh the bags of some of the other people. I think I had been
flagged from earlier when I tried ti check my bag and had no control over their negative response.

We are all now at gate 11 which being a cheap airline is at the very end of the building. When boarding time has come and gone a brunch of people start running. No announcement or anything. Gate had been changed to cattle car area downstairs in what seemed like another city and it was "hurry up and wait."