G'Day!

Everything is left to the last minute. Packing, paying bills, house cleaning. Broken up only by a lunch of Mexican food at Carmen’s in the company of Robin, the pet whisperer we bring out from Long Island to care for the Poodles and the cats. He also acts as the chauffer to the Commuter Terminal of the San Diego airport for our 8:30PM flight to Los Angeles. Is Miranda trying my patience or is she really serious about taking our entire luggage and heading straight through the security checkpoint and onto the plane? Let’s go to the ticket counter first, dear. Its always a brief flight to LAX and we actually get something to drink! This has not been the case for few years. We have to make our way out of the Terminal 4 and into the Bradley International to link with QANTAS, and it hits us. Well perhaps not an actual body blow, but we are weighed down. By carry-on luggage! Wine, laptop, Christmas presents, and one backpack of essentials; at least that are Miranda’s excuse. How far do we have to carry all this, time to get some food – and rest! We had already been given our boarding passes for the QANTAS flight by American Airlines in San Diego, so after sharing a bowl of Chinese wonton soup we head to the south Departure gate, only to be told we need new boarding passes from QANTAS. Which just happens to have its ticket counters at the other end of the building. It then takes a seemingly endless time to get the new passes. Why is all this necessary? Have I noted before just how poor the communication is between American Airlines and QANTAS? They may be part of the One World Alliance, but I doubt that they exist on the same world. OK, new passes in hand we go smoothly through security only to find that our gate is at the opposite end of the terminal. And there is all this hand luggage. The only saving grace is that Miranda has her ticket marked as RUBY OneWorld – so she gets early boarding, and I tag along. As this flight is to Melbourne we know to expect something in the realm of 15 hours, quite a bit longer than our usual direct trip to Sydney; actually turns out to be about fourteen and a half. But once I see the guy opposite me with his oxygen mask on I begin to wonder if he knows something we don’t! I never asked the guy sitting by the window in our row what he thought of it. Forty years old, and his first flight out of the USA. And other passengers are wearing oxygen masks! Easiest thing to do is ignore it all and watch movies. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, The World’s Fastest Indian, and Four Brothers.