One of the problems with the working life, particularly if your employment comes with predetermined vacation periods, is the probability that when you’re going on holidays so is everyone else.
So, as we reach the ends of our working lives, we look forward to the chance to get away for a break when everyone else (or nearly everyone else) is at work. And, of course, while you’re actually in the work force whatever special deals are on offer never coincide with the times when you (and everyone else) would be able to take advantage of them..
Having got our few definite commitments out of the way in early November, Madam and I had decided that some time before school breaks up for 2007 we’d be heading off somewhere for a little holiday. The only question was where to go...
Perth? Adelaide? Somewhere else?
A reluctance to allow travel arrangements coincide with certain electoral events meant that we were going to be waiting till early December before we headed off, and while there was an awareness of the impending launch of Tiger Airways we hadn’t made any definite plans when ‘Er Indoors went for a little web surf in mid-November.
And there it was. Mackay to Melbourne. Direct. No stopovers or transfers. $9.95. Sounded good...
The next issue was where to go from Melbourne, assuming the availability of further flights in the same price bracket.
Perth? One cheap fare left, and regular pricing for the return leg? Try another destination....
So how about Launceston?
There and back for another $9.95 each? Looks like that’s where we’re headed....
Which explains why, on the last day of November we were heading south through torrential rain (which, unsurprisingly to many observers of Bowen’s rainfall patterns started precisely at Longford Creek) towards a rendezvous with the Better Five-Eighths of the Cox Combo, who had generously offered a spot to park the car and a lift from there to the airport.