ALL GOOD THINGS COME TO AN END
17 August
Jeff took himself off to Darling Harbour, Sydney, for a final mooch around. I stayed back at the cabin not doing very much at all.
18 August
Once again Jeff went orf and left me back at the Caravan Park. He visited Dave, from the naval base, who had a few hours duty on the Pyrmont Bidge. Dave showed him around the bridge and the mechanism that lifts and swings it to allow larger boats through.
19 & 20
We spent our last two days in the cabin trying to sort through our belongings and attempting to decide what to keep and what to chuck. As usual we couldn’t make up our minds and had to keep it all.
21 August
We took the train to Mount Colah to pick up Roy’s car and returned to the cabin to pack it all into the car and then returned to Mount Colah.
22 – 26 August
Spent a last few days with Jo and Roy. Their friends and neighbours, Pete and Wendy, came over for dinner one evening, and the rest of the time was mainly spent in sorting out and packing all the stuff that was to be shipped back. All sorts of goodies and souvenirs – our trusty TV and digibox, books, BBQs, a couple of coolboxes (can’t get this sort back home), some wooden things and a few bits of Huon Pine, some of which I’d already carved into spoons and a few spare bits (I hope Customs will pass them OK), a few bits of bedding and clothings – all useful as padding, oh, all sorts of things. Anyway, it all amounted to 9 big boxes weighing a total of 196 Kg. Not bad considering we arrived with just one case each weighing around 20Kg plus a cabin bag each!!!
We took everything to ‘Pack & Send’ in Hornsby on the 24th, and a very obliging guy called Raj helped us sort out all the paperwork. Our goodies were due to be on the ship the following day.
Raj told us that they should arrive in Felixstowe in the middle of October.
27 August
Left Mt Colah around 11am, Jo and Roy drove us to Hornsby Station. Although our flight wasn’t until 9:15pm we always like to get to an airport nice and early so that we can mooch about, have something to eat and drink and people-watch. This time it was just as well we left in pleanty of time. Just before the train pulled into Sydney Central, I said to Jeff “Where’s your bumbag?” A quick search of our baggage didn’t find it, so Jeff said that he must have left it in Roy’s car. Phone call to Roy – “Yes, it was on the back seat”!!!!!. So having left moi with all the luggage at the station Jeff returned to Hornsby. Roy duly arrived and handed over said bumbag, which, by the way, contained that most important document, Jeff’s passport!!!! Finally Jeff returned to the station, an hour and a half later, collected me and once again we headed for the Airport.
We headed straight for the check-in and booked our luggage on, both bags under the 20Kg allowance, and we headed off to kill the rest of the time before boarding. Visited the Duty Free shop and found that the allowance for the UK is still only 1 bottle of spirit each, so we bought 2 bottles of Singletons Malt, which you can’t get in the shops back home. We then had a pizza and settled down to watch Antiques Roadshow on one of the several TVs dotted about the place.
Our plane, an Emirates Airlines Airbus 380 took off on time and we settled in for our 13+ hour flight. All pretty uneventful – watched loads of movies, tried to sleep but couldn’t. As per usual Jeff slept for several hours. We landed in Dubai in the early hours for a two hour wait for the next leg of our journey. As we went through the departure lounge ticket check, the attendant asked us how we were and Jeff replied “Fine, thanks, but very tired – any chance of an upgrade” To which she replied “You sure you won’t change your mind?” and promptly bumped us up to Business Class!!!! I couldn’t believe it. Each time we’ve gone through a check-in we’ve asked about an upgrade – don’t ask, don’t get, right??? And each time – sorry can’t do it. So, there we wuz, on the upper deck of another Emirates Airbus 380, in these super seats with loads of legroom and places to put our stuff, a supply of water and soft drinks, a big TV screen each, supping our pre-takeoff champers. Wot a life!!! There was even a bar at the back where we partook of a Campari or two.
Once we landed I phoned my brother Clive and Yvonne, who were meeting us, to tell them that ‘the Emus had landed’ – our timing was great, they were just pulling into the airport carpark.
Another of the benefits of Business is that you go through the Fastrack passport control, straight to the Baggage Claim. I needed to go to the loo and by the time I got back, Jeff had collected our bags and we headed through ‘Nothing to Declare’ without being stopped. There waiting for us were Clive and Yvonne. Hugs all round and then we headed for the carpark. An uneventful drive up the M25 and M1 and we finally arrived HOME. Thus ended our wonderful year-long BIG TRIP Dahnunder..