Made it - Here I am!

But first, I have been in airport hell!

Hello friends, yes, I'm finally here in Australia, got in at 2pm Sunday, it's been a painfully long three days, forgive me if I ramble a bit, my brain & stomach are feeling a bit strange at the moment.

So far, the start of my trip has been a bit of a disaster. Let me explain. Original flight - cancelled due to major winter blizzard. Second flight, rebooked with Air Canada, delayed. Why you might ask? Well, it turns out that there was no co-pilot for this flight. The original one was over his flying time limit, so they had to find another one. Only problem was, according to the pilot, there were non available & sorry folks you'll have to sit on the plane unil the next available one comes along. Joy oh bliss.

Two & a half hours later, at 9:15pm we take off, after having sat on the plane since 7pm. It gets better from here, just wait. So we get into L.A. some time around midnight, as expected, the connecting flight to Sydney is gone, & we're told we have to go the customers service desk for our next plan of action. Being that it's after midnight, nothing of course is open. Long story short, I'm told by the ever so (NOT!!) helpful Air Canada person that, "sorry, the best we can do is advise you to get yourself to the Qantas desk & get yourself on to a standby flight, which will be available either late Saturday night or Sunday night at the earliest, bye bye". Say whaaaaaaaaaaaat?????

By this time, it's after 1am, & I have no clue what I'm going to do, I'm basicially following the herd of other people wandering aimlessly around too. After I've gone & gotten my suitcase, & wandered down towards the street level exit, I airport people with a radio that I see wandering around where the terminal for Qantas is. She explains to me that I could just go & walk down around the corner where it is. I say, "not at 2 o'clock in the morning I won't!" & basically give her a look like she's an idiot. Once I got on the shuttle bus w/ the other people, I see that it wasn't just a mere, "walk around the corner" it would've been a good hike to get there!

I decide that I'm going to get myself to the Qantas counter & park myself there, rather than go to a hotel, which I flatly refuse to pay for. There's nobody else around, except for the odd cleaning person, or some other weary traveller. So I sit down & stare at the empty Qantas counter, watching the scroll go by in bright neon red. And I have a quick, 10 second sob to myself wondering wtf I'm going to do. I go to the payphones I passed a few minutes earlier & decide to call home. It took me three attmepts because apparently when dialing through the (barely even helpful) operator, you have to choose a long distance carrier. By the third attempt, I lost it on the poor operator, screaming at her to just put it the hell through! So I get through to Dad, who listens patiently while I cry hysterically, trying to explain the situation. Since I have no cel phone, he can't get back to me, so we each decide we'll both see what we can do on our respective ends.

By about 3am, I notice this man wander by to where I was sitting, near the Qantas counter. He introduces himself as Noel, an Aussie, who as it turns out just so happened to be an airport official out of Brisbane who's flight also got screwed up. Long story short, we both seem to manage get booked onto another late arriving flight out of New York, which we're told was leaving at 4:30am. Now, We're told by the lady who booked us, drop your bags over at the American Airlines counter when it opens at 4am. Okay, so we go over, & we get redirected back to the Qantas counter! Grrrrrr, this is getting beyond ridiculous at this point. So this nice Noel person & I go running back to Qantas, hurriedly dropping off our luggage explaining that we have to catch this 4:30am flight. Might not have been the best idea at the time, considering what was to come later.

So we get up to the gate area, because we were told we'd have to go back through the security screening process. It's corrdoned off. We see a bunch of bored looking "officials' standing around, yet, not one single one of them willing to help or answer any of our very anxious questions. They curse us out under their breath at our exasperation at them! Needless to say, I'm so not impressed with the ever so lovely staff at LAX. When they finally bother to open the line up, the bored looking girl who takes my passport & boarding pass to check, very deliberately looks me up & down & then back at my passport. Yes, I think incredulously honey, it IS me!

So we finally get to the gate, Noel finds out that the flight will in fact leave at 5am, because it was delayed. So we get on the plane & off we go & hallelujah I'm on my way, finally! Now, I did manage to get some sleep on the flight from Toronto to LA, on the LA-Sydney portion, I slept kind of off & on, as best one can on such a long flight. I will say having my Jysk travel pillow was worth it's weight in gold, & a sleep mask is invaluable. During the flight, I am finding the turbulence a bit hard to bear, it's like being on a roller coaster & those of you who know me, know that I don't have an iron stomach for that. I do manage to get through the flight though without having to be sick or anything, thank God for small blessings.

So I finally arrive, I'm here, yaaay! But, my run of bad luck isn't done with me yet. Remember the suitcase thing at the Qantas desk in LA? Well, just to add insult to injury, yes, I am without my suitcase!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

I can only hope that the rest of my trip will go just a bit smoother than how it started. I am now brain fried & a bit dizzy from it all, my stomach still feels icky & best of all, I've got nothing but the clothes on my back to sleep in until God knows when, but hopefully in a day or two I'll get my bag. I hope.

Oh, & as far as I am concerned, Air Canada is still poo!

*As of Tuesday February 5...I've been checking up with the Baggage Services place...The bag arrived in Sydney & as of about 1pm Newcastle time was enroute out here to Newcastle to me, so I'm feeling much more relieved now & hopefully it'll arrive to me soon. And a feeling a bit silly for getting all up in arms about it, oh well, onwards & upwards!