We left Ichijōji on Sunday at about 11:00. We took a taxi to the Kyoto Railway Station. Austin, Kaori and Tatsuki went home in their car.
The Builder and I took the train out to the airport, arriving very much too early to check in for our flight. So we had Mos burgers for lunch and then found an International Wine Bar where we bought a bottle of extortionately expensive French wine and amused ourselves by seeing how long we could stretch the wine out.
Pretty much until check in time :-D Way to go, us!
Our next period of waiting was spent much more cheaply in the business lounge, sipping their wine and eating their snacks.
Then we flew to Cairns, arriving at 4:30 or so in the morning.
The airport was surprisingly busy for that time of day!
Even so, there isn't a whole lot to do when you have several hours to wait before you can check in for the next, and final flight for the trip. There was more to do once we were checked in and could go airside, have something to eat and a potter around the shops, unencumbered by hauling round a small mountain of luggage.
And so we arrived in Melbourne. Lindsey was waiting for us at the airport. It did, however, take an enormous amount of time for our luggage to reappear. The carousel was absolutely full of luggage from a flight from Hobart. Mysteriously, that flight number wasn't on the carousel's signboard. Nor were there any obvious passengers from the flight. That would be because they are all over there, waiting at the next carousel along, which does have their flight number on it. Lindsey went over to tell them, but only a few paid any attention. So she went over to the information desk and told them. They made an announcement - and all the Hobart people came rushing over, grabbed their bags and disappeared. This made room for our bags to be put on the carousel. I have to say that Tullamarine is one of the worst airports I have ever been in for baggage handling. We always have delays there, and usually because of inefficiency or incompetence. You would have thought they would have cracked it by now. After all, it's not as though baggage handling is something they only do every now and then.
Anyway. We had the bags, so we headed back to the flat, had a shower, put some clean clothes on and went out to visit Tony. He was looking OK. Not bad for an elderly gentleman who has had major surgery. He is hoping to move to one of the rehab units closer to his home in the next day or two. Not only will that make it easier for Stella to visit him, but it also makes the possibility of him going home much closer.
Lindsey and Ian have a house guest at the moment. She is a fellow student of Emily's and is doing a placement in Footscray. It's not absolutely practical to commute to Footscray from Townsville, so she is staying in the spare room at the flat. No room for us :-S So they booked one of the holiday flats for us overnight. This was quite comfortable. And quite quiet. We were a bit worried that we couldn't find a kettle (although Ian finally found it in a hidden cupboard over the fridge). I was a lot more worried that there wasn't wifi :-S No worries. Lindsey lent me a phone which has a hot spot built in. My devices wouldn't talk to it. This was very very frustrating for me - I wanted to update the blog and check the bank accounts and do a number of useful things. Eventually, I turned absolutely everything off and the devices all started talking to each other again. Phew. I do not like being cut off from the e-world!!!
We have come down to Mount Martha for a few days today. We can take Stella to see Tony this afternoon, and have a gentle potter about. And there is definitely wifi here :-D
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