Thursday 22nd Aug D-Day - The Start & Flight to (Cairns/ Perth, Australia)
1:45am - home from the pub! Jonny Marshall you are a bad influence. Jeezo my head is pounding this morning! Up at 6:30, missed saying goodbye to Sez as she went to work before I staggered up - see you in 4 months Sez! Started finishing off the packing, cleaning of my room, doing the washing and numerous other little things you have to do when you go away for 4 months. Stressing over my bank card in which the chip died about 3 weeks ago and the replacemnt still hadn't arrived. A mix up and the bank didn't order me a replacement. A replacement was supposed to arrive today by courier - but turns out it will only arrive tomorrow. DOH! 4 months travelling without a properly working bank card! Great! Have been feeling sick all day - not sure if it is a hangover, nervousness, excitement or something else. Likely to be a combination of all of them. Was feeling really tense about everything but went for a fantastic lunch with Jas at Dundee's. Great food & great chat and not feeling sick anymore. Last minute rush to get some padlocks for my bags - combination word padlocks. Thanks Jas for setting them to "Tuna" & "Toad". Hopefully I don't forget that. Then a lift from Jas to the airport. As usual when a passenger with Jas you do alot of involuntary braking at round-abouts. Nothing like a little adrenaline rush before your holiday! Only joking - thanks Jas and see you in 4 months.
Flight boarded on time - amazing for Jetstar and for the Perth flight there were actually some free seats at the back. This is when it got a little interesting. The cabin crew started moving people from the front of the plane to the rear. A bit strange? Then the captain came on the tannoy and said, "I apologise for the delay but there is a very strong head wind all the way from Cairns to Perth and we are carrying our maximum fuel load." A good thing I thought. Then he continued, "This means that we are at the maximum takeoff weight for the length of Cairns runway so we need to move passengers and luggage to the back of the plane to get the balance right so the nose will come up at take off." Never had that before and there were a few people looking decidedly ill after his announcement. But an uneventful flight to Perth, where it was a chilly 11 degrees on arrrival.
Great to see Andrew, Paula and the boys when I arrived but now the last few days had taken there toll and I was exhausted. Slept like a log.
