Saturday, July 26, 2003  

Where: HOME, SWEET HOME, Hong Kong
When: 3:08am local time

And so the journey ends. There's lots to say about Australia but also plenty of time in the days ahead in which to say it, so I'll space things out a bit and just wrap up the events of the last couple of days.

I left a day earlier than expected in the end, making the predictably hectic trip home even moreso (there's simply no other way with this many kids and that many bags). For a start, I had to cancel dinner plans with Cameron (you know, Gazunta) and his fiancée Sabrina and fit them in to a lunch instead. And so we met up for lunch and cookies (McDonalds' Cookies are heavenly and only 50 Aussie cents a box!). After which Sabrina met me again for coffee. And after which the Dynamic Duo met me yet again in the evening for dinner/drinks/coffee-esque hanging out. I was almost disappointed that they didn't turn up later still for a nightcap, but for once goodbye MEANT goodbye. It's a pity that I didn't get to spend more time with Cameron, a perpetual colleague who I've been working with since 1996, but that only gives me all the more excuse to return next year for the wedding!



The day of the flight itself was predictably mad, with my mom and two youngest siblings heading off for Sydney while the three older ones (myself included) flew straight back to Hong Kong with my aunt (such is the chaos that ensues when you try to cut corners with cheap tickets). Cue lots of mad running about and plenty of stress from my sisters, the family's anointed bag-packers (because the other kids are too young and though I'm willing, I'm also rubbish at packing and thus am forced to stay three feet away from an open suitcase at all times), culminating in an almost disastrous situation at the airport. While my mom was checking into the Domestic terminal, I discovered that I apparently didn't have my own or my sister's ticket. Cue panic on her side and panic on our side until it becomes apparent that the real criminal of the piece is the Qantas ground staff for not figuring out the whole "E-Ticket" thing. Seems that not only was my E-Ticket booking not on the computer (despite my seating arrangements being on the computer, GO FIGURE), she didn't even bother to look for it. On the bright side, their incompetence also made them stick highest-priority tags on our bags for no apparent reason (all 11 suitcases for three adults, three teens, one child and one infant).

The flight itself was just as bumpy (if not worse) than the flight on the way in, the difference being that this one took place during the day (no chance to sleep, as much as they encourage you to) and that the pilot decided to leave the Fasten Seatbelt sign off for the vast majority of the flight. I whiled away the hours watching The Core, arguably the stupidest movie of all time. It makes Armageddon look like the work of Einstein and wasn't much distraction from the bumping and rolling and dipping constantly swaying the airframe, so it was good to finally put down in Hong Kong and race through the hyper-efficient airport. I'm not kidding when I say the first bag was out no more than seven minutes after we stepped off the plane, and that Immigration usually takes thirty seconds or so.

From there it was straight home to dig into the 13 boxes from London that await my attention, and I'm typing this now from my (former) UK desktop computer. Ah, it's nice to be home.

Posted at 4:04 AM

---