Quite some time ago Freyja told me that the flight times had changed and their flight was now due in at 06:20. This obviously didn't register with me, perhaps because it seemed so unlikely. I said I would still pick them up - and promptly forgot about it.
Until Freyja and Simon were about to leave Manilla for the final leg of their trip, when I noticed that my diary and Freyja's schedule didn't agree!
Right. If their flight arrives at 06:20, by the time they get off the plane, go through immigration, collect their bags and get through customs, it's likely to be 07:15, perhaps 07:30.
I decided that if I left at around 6, we would probably all get to the landside coffee shop at about the same time. This was made even more likely when their flight was delayed by about 20 minutes.
Off I set. It was a lovely morning for a drive. Sunny, crisp, frosty. The ice lights were flashing on the freeway near Gordon. The car made a strange alarm noise as I passed the ice lights. Turned out it too was warning of ice. Have never noticed an ice alarm on the car before!
I had a good run down and was approaching the airport when they sent a message to say that they were landside. I then spent around 15 minutes driving round and round and round in the carpark looking for somewhere to leave the car!! The overhead indicators of possible parking spaces all lied 😢
Eventually I found a parking space and set off to the arrivals hall, leaving a breadcrumb track so I could find the car again. Freyja and Simon were peacefully in a coffee shop waiting for me to appear. We waited while I had coffee before setting off back to Mount Helen.
It was a good run back. We called in to the Maccas in Rockbank for breakfast and then made our way to Lindsey and Ian's place where Jim was waiting for us.
Rupert and Hugo came to see who was coming in. Oh good. Frannie is here. Oh, said Hugo. This is exciting. There are new people to bounce on and play with. Oh my God! said Rupert. There are strangers on board!!!!!!!! He backed away, barking. He was brought round with a liberal application of scooby snacks 😆
We had lunch down at our place and then took Freyja and Simon to Anne and Ross' place where they were staying for the next couple of nights.
I went to work on Thursday.
Yesterday was a public holiday in honour of the AFL grand final which is this afternoon. I'm not sure why it was thought it was a plan to have a holiday the day before the footy final, apart from the fact that it meant that people could go and watch a footy parade through the city centre. Why ever, Jim, Freyja, Simon and I took the opportunity to go to visit Stella and Tony. There was a surprising amount of traffic on the roads - and not everyone was heading into the CBD to watch the parade. There was a LOT of traffic heading towards Ballarat. There was also a LOT of rain, although I think that it didn't rain on the parade in Melbourne.
Stella and Tony seemed to be in good form, and were pleased to see Freyja and Simon. We had lots of yummy food for lunch. Meaty food for the omnivores, veggie and vegan food for the vegetarian and the vegan. Lots of delicious salads on the side. Then we headed back to our place, where Freyja and Simon became our first overnight visitors. Our spare bedroom has finally fulfilled its Proper Purpose! (Although this did mean that I didn't have anywhere to put the ironing, which usually sits in a pile on the spare bed.)
A quiet day in prospect today. I think it is unlikely that I will watch the footy, even if we could get channel 7 on our TV. Freyja and Simon might - but it would have to be at someone else's house (our TV signal is too weak to pick up channel 7 with any reliability, and it doesn't stream live footage to the Apple box)
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| Freyja, Stella, Simon, photo by me |
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| Freyja and Stella, photo by Freyja |
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| Tony, Simon and Freyja, photo by Freyja |
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| Simon, having randomly run up Mount Buninyong, photo by Simon |
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| Simon and Hugo, photo by Freyja |
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