18 Sep 2008.
My day begins at 0600. I awake in my caravan park accommodation in southern WA. There's nothing else available to stay in and it’s cold. The oil column heater is barely making a dent in the low temperature. This is my 3rd morning waking up to this misery…
I boil the kettle and make a coffee from UHT milk and a coffee past its use by date – a big difference from the cappuccino I can steam out at home; at least it’s hot though.
Telstra has excelled here and I have a strong 3G connection which allows me to keep up with my email. Coffee finished I hit the shower for a good 15 minutes and emerge back into the cold looking like the world’s largest pink prune.
I am not looking forward to heading outside, as mentioned its cold but worse, it’s wet. On the way to the job site, stopped at a roadhouse for a good healthy breakfast of B & E sanga's and machine made brown stuff ( they called it coffee ) and we headed into the bush. The weather was not improving, so after 3 hours of inclement weather (horizontal rain), I pulled the pin on the job and we vacated site back to the Taj Mahal at the caravan park.
Checking BOM.gov.au and not seeing any improvement, I decided that the East Coast was beckoning and the 4x4 was loaded up and pointed in the direction of Perth with Mr! behind the wheel... I called my PA and got her booking flights.
After about 300km I swapped driving duty with one of my supervisors and I cracked a cold crownie which just happened to be waiting for me on the back seat... We arrived at Perth international where we dropped our customers TA off for his evening flight back to Asia. It was now 1730. I decided against a beer at the nearest pub and got dropped at the domestic terminal for my redeye across to Sydney.
Knowing I was very early, I meandered my way around the airport for a while then headed up to the QC where I grabbed a shower followed by a crown and a quick snack. My intention at that point was to head downstairs for a more substantial meal a little later on – after the peak traffic was over.
I was immersed in a spreadsheet when my phone went with a prefix of 03. QF premium called me to inform that the PER/SYD 1215am was delayed for 2 or more hours due to a delay in SIN. With some frustrated grunts I managed to ask them if there was another option as I had arrangements in Sydney that could not be changed. After some time, the QF rep cam back offering a re-route through MEL. Great! At least I will make my meetings on time. The next catch was I had 2 bags already checked in, no prob’s Mr!, we’ll find them, retag them and they will arrive with you.
I was about to ask him who he thought he was kidding then he added “and I’ll get the lounge dragon to page you with the new luggage receipts…” wow I thought… Flying J and being WP really does help at times, I wonder if I would have got the same level of service on Y fares – you know, I think I would have….
I wandered down the stairs to the food court area below the QC and took the escalator straight back up, the airport was bulging at the seams – food would have to wait. I grabbed a drink and went back down to the window bench near the server and read all the latest posts on AFF.
“Mr! would you please check with the dragon at the front counter”… Cool, new boarding passes and luggage tag numbers – service plus, thanks Qantas!
After a couple more drinks, I found a lounge chair and read a mag then tried to get some sleep – I had left my headphones in my main luggage so no iPoddy to drown out the lounge noise
Sleep – a novel idea….