Thursday, 13 February 2014: Townsville > Sydney

Just before six o'clock probably doesn't qualify as sleeping in under a strict interpretation of the act, but it's about as much as you're going to get given the Dalby Doylamo's propensity for early morning phone calls.

I was onto the second paragraph of the Travelogue, not exactly bright eyed, but reasonably bushy tailed when the phone rang, and after the conversation concluded there wasn't much chance of getting back to the tapping.

Fair enough, there wasn't a whole lot to tap. 

Having the iPad handy did, however, provide the chance to give The Golfer a chance to have a look at the preliminary version of Over the Horizon: On the Road in Japan before a leisurely breakfast, and the perusal and other travel-related matters formed the basis of a lengthy conversation over the breakfast table and in the living room.

It was just after ten-thirty when we headed off to the airport, with a stop at the shopping centre at the Garbutt lights to pick up a pair of reading glasses. The new version has a convenient ridge towards the end of each arm that might make it a little more difficult for the stringy thing you use to hang them around your neck to detach itself.

That's the currently favoured explanation for reading glasses that have gone missing.

The whole check in, waiting and embarkation process ran smoothly, with the regulation couple of minor incidents.

In this case,  those included a female passenger making her first flight and seemingly determined to make everyone in the area aware of her apprehensions and what appeared to be a bona fide attempt to hoodwink us into thinking the aircraft would be reasonably up crowded and would be making an early departure.

A helpful member of the crew asked whether the folks in Departure Lounge Four were all headed to Sydney, decided to start boarding, and had the lounge cleared within five minutes.

After that, however, a continuing stream of incoming passengers, the seemingly regulation delays while paperwork is completed and strong headwinds meant we were more or less on time leaving, and late onto the ground on the runway at Mascot.

Still, The Black Monster made its way onto the carousel reasonably quickly, and we got through the Travel Concierge booth with a ticket for the Airport Shuttle in time to fill the last two seats on a bus that was almost ready for departure.

I ended up in the seat beside the driver, switched the mobile back on and discovered a text message from The Warbler that tied in with a morning forecast of fine and sunny with a chance of afternoon Warby.

Responding was another matter since the confusion over reading glasses had removed checking the credit on the mobile and recharging over the internet out of the equation.


© Ian Hughes 2012