Blonde on a Road Trip

We managed to get to Sydney with enough time for me to enjoy all the longest queues in the world, starting with passport control and bag security to enter Australia from New Zealand. I had some goods to declare but they had mercy on me since I wasn’t leaving the airport and promised not to give them to anyone in Australia. Don’t worry, it wasn’t drugs or illicit money! It turns out they like it when you’re upfront and honest rather than trying to sneak something past them.

I then had to pick up my bag (phew, it was there!) and then drop it off with a different airline (Thai Air Asia). Frankly, this queue was a joke. Even the guy who directed us to the Bangkok queue rather than the Kuala Lumpur one didn’t know which queue was for baggage drop or check-in, which seemed disappointing given that that was literally his job… directing passengers to the right queue… but anyway.

I did wonder whether we were actually going to hold up the plane at this rate, and my hopes of having time to chill out in departures were swiftly fading as we made little progress in half an hour.

I eventually got to the front of the queue and was worried that my bag was a bit over the weight limit (200g), but the lady at the desk said not to worry about it and that they weren’t like Scoot (RyanAir equivalent?!) who try and charge you for everything. Once she’d finished throwing shade at other airlines and sent my bag on its merry way, I tried to navigate my way to the departures lounge again, weaving through the luxury mall they seem to have put just beyond security where the wayfinding is minimal at best.

It was getting late and way past 6pm, so I paid the extra and treated myself to a Heineken from the Heineken bar.

I had a quick chat with Mum and Dad and caught up on things as they’d been up to Yorkshire for Heather’s funeral and we’re heading back to the eye of the storm in Devon where Sara and Ian and Benson were holding the fort.

Whether it was the extra cold beer or just the fact that it had been a long day, I actually managed to get some sleep on the plane, despite the baby who refused to stop howling for most of the flight. My feelings about this were a mix of anger – worst case scenario – babies shouldn’t be allowed on red-eye flights, or there should be a separate compartment for them, best case scenario – pity for the mother who had to deal with it head-on with no escape.

I had a chat with the girl next to me who turned out to be the same age and was travelling back to Thailand with her mother to spend a few weeks with the family. She very kindly gave me three Mentos for takeoff and landing, and even offered me cookies.

There was no free food or entertainment on the flight, which made me wonder how bad Scoot must be if the Thai Air Asia check-in lady was calling them crap!