The dramas continue but have arrived in Johannesburg safely at 4pm South African time - midnight Melbourne time.
The holiday is off to an interesting start. We arrived at Melbourne airport nice and early and on time. Our car then broke down so mum and dad were stranded for the next few hours. Check in to Syndey went smoothly but just before take off the captain announced there were issues with the plane and there would be a slight delay. Over an hour later and a lot of stress on Karyn's behalf we took off. Jon doesn't think Berends' and Airports mix. Unforunately the delay meant everyone with connecting flights to Japan missed their next flight and were stranded in Sydney for the day. We were lucky and had 40 minutes to spare.
There was a mad rush through Syndey airport (which is a borthel by the way) to the duty free area to get our tax back on Jon's oversized camera. There we joined a massive queue behind a lot of non english speaking tourists with bags of $2 receipts as well as a lady trying to claim gst on a giant toblerone bar! Then we ran to Gate 31 thinking we would be running straight on to the plane but we found out our flight was delayed by about an hour.
The next 14 hours where akin to what I think hell would be like. Qantas really is crap. The food was disgusting and I am not even fussy in that department - I am one of the few people who actually likes airplane food. There was not much of it and they ran out. I had a migraine and felt like I was going to throw up - I couldn't even watch the 100 movies or so that were on offer. None of this was not helped by the guy behind me who kept kicking my seat. You can imagine I was not overjoyed to be told half way through the flight that one of our bags was on the way to Hong Kong. In fact I felt like crying and was desperatly hoping it was Jon's bag doing the detour.
After waiting an hour or so to go through customs (people don't know the meaning of a queue in this country) I discovered it was Jon's bag on the carousel and not mine!
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2 comments:
Oh you poor guys!
We feel for you and wish we could do something or say a prayer that might make all the difference.
We're so glad you have arrived safely, though. Hopefully all your bags also? I guess it's a great introduction to travel in the developing world, except that Qantas is supposed to be well run and a truly great airline. Fancy them running outta food on an international flight - the only thing near it we've had is when PanAm couldn't serve us coffee and tea because their water tanks were frozen. They went broke soon after. So sell and Qantas shares you may own?
We hope you can have a few quiet days with Dave & Michelle and family to give you time to psych up for the next stage which may be even more unexpected and exciting.
Poor Karyn's in a pickle
What is the girl to do?
Her knickers are in Honkers
and she is in the ....
...hope you and your knickers have been reunited by this time and will not part company again for the rest of your journey (except for washing occasionally, hopefully)! Glad to hear that at least the two of you got there safely. You were both prayed for by Brent in church this morning. We missed your playing, Jon (and Karyn) but had an unexpected pianist (Dave's girlfriend) and everyone was very excited. She even got applauded and we hope she will continue (She's not a patch on you, though, Jon, in my opinion at any rate.)I would complain to Qantas if I were you. Maybe you should take a tip from Stephanie Brantz who always chooses vegetarian - she reckons that that way not only are you guaranteed get your food, but you get it before anyone else does!
Anyway, we hope you have recovered by now and will be enjoying the rest of the trip a bit more!
Bye and love,
Dad & Mum B.
xx XX
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