Day: July 30, 2008

I’m not sure what happened there but this half didn’t get published.

We were going to leave it a few years till the next trip but there were weddings, anniversaries and reunions we wanted to attend so after a couple of years at home saving furuiously we fly off again in 2006.

The idea was to spend a lovely July in England catching up with more of Dh’s air force friends, visiting lots of friends and family and in particular some of Dh’s older relatives and doing the family history tour. We spent some time going round cemeteries looking for ancestors and spent more time in queues at Births, Deaths and Marriages waiting for various certificates to be supplied.

Apart from the terrible traffic we encountered each time we went on to the main motorways provong that the standard of driving was almost a rock bottom in England nothing out of the ordinary happened until August 10th.

That was the day we were due to fly once more cross the Atlantic to Halifax, and guess what happened on that day?

Heathrow had a terrorist alert and its bedlam – that was the day when the liquid bomb plot was foiled.

After waiting in several of the longest queues I’ve ever seen with no idea of what was happening ‘cept there had been some sort of bomb threat we finally get airside with only our passport and travel documents as everything else had to go in the hold.

Family waiting to pick us up from the aiport had no idea what was happening, they knew there was a problem in London but not how big it was so were happy to see our plane land. We were some of the lucky ones as our Air Canada flight was only delayed by 3 hours but after that most of Europe came to a standstill for days on end.

I began to wonder about the merits of air travel but as it’s the easiest way to get from one end of the world to other cursed the lot of them as I walked very quietly onto the aircraft. Then when we landed there was no hanging around waiting for people to get their things from the overhead lockers. We were off the plane in no time – there was nothing in there as we had to put it all in the hold lol

The day after we arrived we went to a wedding in a field on a cliff top and froze. Another double wedding – it was so casual I swear a lot of the ‘ younger guests’ had just left their back yards and come as they were lol

After that it seemed like 4 weddings and a funeral but in reverse. There were 3 deaths within a couple of weeks of each other.

One of the reasons for this trip was see a lovely lady who was in her 100th year. She was quite ok living in a nursing home but we’d been up to visit her one day and when we got home a phone call tells us her son in his early 70’ that we’d just left had just had a heart attack and died.

Then we heard that two other relatives that we’d just seen in England died. The lady didn’t make her 100 in the November but passed away soon after we left. Seemed like we were a jinx lol

We did lots of new things that trip, one of them was going to Anne of Green Gables house on Prince Edward Island and we also drove the Cabot Trail all the way round this time with my ‘email’ friend.

The 3 lovely weeks we spent in the Annapolis Valley were over in a flash and then we flew over to Vancouver for an Alaskan Cruise. Had been saving for this treat for a few years and it was fabulous, had lots of very late nights and ate far too much of the freely available food. Back home to Melbourne and it was non-stop into the rush of Christmas preparations.

So this year we are staying in Oz and deciding on things on the spur of the moment. Well there are a few times we have to be in certain places like first of all babysitting in Sydney before we actually start travelling (everyone loves their Mum and what she can do for them)

We are meeting up with friends Bowen and also in Cairns and apart from that its only me and Dh, 4 wheels and the open road. I have been warned that its to be a restful holiday so theres no laptop either :((

It funny but I just can’t get away from the Dh’s airforce life all those years ago as both of these friends are from his time in the RAF. The one in Cairns stood behind him in the line the day they joined up – his old service number is the one after Dh’s lol

Friends Reunited as well as Forces Reunited has done that to so many people – reunited them after many many years.

I think this will be my last post before we go away. I’ll be off the air for at least 7 weeks and will pick up the pieces again when we get back at the end of September.

Every couple of years we have a long trip away; over the past 10 years for various reasons – family celebrations and Dh’s RAF reunions being the main ones – it has been to England and North America (USA and Canada) however for this year I said no to overseas and yes to seeing more of Australia.

So if you’ll hang on (might be an idea to make a cup of tea as well) I’ll tell you why.

The past two trips have been doozies. To get the best from our airflights we buy a Round the World ticket. Can travel a set distance and stop off in lots of places only stipulation is you must travel in one direction only. East to Europe via Asia and then across to North America and home via the Pacific is the direction we seem to take although we have done it westwards. It’s an open- ended ticket valid 12months so you can take your time and get to see lots of people.

For some reason I found these two trips very tiring, so many things just seemed to happen and each time I was glad to get home to Melbourne.

2004 was a lovely summer in the northern hemisphere, my sister’s girls had a double wedding, it was a leap year and they surprised their partners by asking them to marry, there was the sadness of visiting my Mother’s grave – when I last saw her in 2000 she had been hale and hearty – more sadness on leaving England as I knew I would never see my darling brother in law again, (his prostate cancer was very advanced by then).

It was hot in Nova Scotia and we had a great time with rellies and friends. I met an Internet friend for the first time (a cousin’s square dancing friend who I’d been emailing for a while) and was pleasantly surprised that we clicked, laughing and chattering in real time same as on the computer.

We caught up with long time air force friends in Toronto and Calgary and then spent another very wet week in Vancouver. It always seems to rain when we go there lol

As well as visiting indoor attractions we watched a lot of baseball that week – I think it was something called World Series and from recollection a New York team and another one with Red Socks were playing.

After rubbing the U.S. Immigration Officer up the wrong way at 9am the day we flew out of Vancouver to Los Angeles to pick up the flight across the Pacific to home – well he asked me where I was going and I answered ‘Home’ – he wasn’t amused and made it very apparent by calling me by my full name and telling me to stand in front of his desk and not move – I wondered what else was going to happen

The flight from there to LA was bumpy – we met up with a storm along the way and ‘cose we went miles out of our way to try and avoid the storm we had to land at Las Vegas to refuel, oh yes, that was after we got hit by lightning.

The plane sat on the tarmac for over 2 hours whilst they got someone out to check it over and give it more avgas. We could see all the casinos in the distance and these huge great limousines parked outside the terminal but it was classed as an international flight so we weren’t allowed off and had to stay put.

Apart from it being very uncomfortable inside the cabin we didn’t bother too much as it was cutting into the 6hrs waiting time we were supposed to have at LA and when we finally arrived there it was funny to see people getting off planes from all over and standing around the terminal watching the game in progress instead of hurrying off home as is usual. I think some of the bars made a profit that day. 🙂

Arrived back in Melbourne after the long Pacific flight to be bailed up by customs who wanted to search our luggage. ALL of it lol

Everything out of cases and lots of fossicking and digging around and when I asked a question all the officer said was that the dogs had picked them out and ‘Madam somewhere your luggage has been in contact with narcotics’.

Tell you what you could have heard a pin drop – I was never so scared in all my life and so pleased to see family when we came out the doors after being told our bags were cleared.

Could you see me as a drug runner? – the very nice man said they come in all shapes and sizes and not to laugh at the idea of a middle-aged woman being one.