final boarding call

after the superstorm that hit brissy last week, there was one hell of a clean up.  contents of three plus rooms were destroyed, over 50 pieces of glass were smashed, and from this a 3 day mother of all clean ups took place and many of our possessions had to be discarded to the street for kerbside collection due to damage from glass and water.

As the pile out the front of many of the houses in much of my suburb mounted, so did the amount of people who came trawling the streets looking for stuff that that they could pile into their car and drive off with. 

I took monday off work, as having 2 significant life events happen recently meant that i just needed to stop and have a bit of a regroup.  as i sat home on the couch on monday, a bloke started yelling from the street and when i got up, he was holding a lamp and yelling to ask whether it was working.  OMFG - really.  I was so upset by this and informed him that as my house has been trashed by the storm and i had no choice but to put part of my life out on the street, that there was no way that i as going to bring him inside to plug in a lamp to test if it was working.

I had to pop out later in the day and when i tried to wipe the black mascara stains from under my eyes and realised that there wasn't actually any mascara, i took action, i booked a ticket to fiji and packed my bag. and headed for the airport tuesday morning.

the airport was chaos. i stood in the check in queue for over half an hour and when my turn came, i excitedly rushed to the desk only to find my passport had expired by one day. shit, really one day.  yes, and it would be necessary to ring fiji immigration to see if they would let me in.

the service desk couldn't get through at all and as i watched the clock count down to boarding, i decided to take matters into my own hands. i called my sister and googled fiji immigration, found a different number, rang it and handed my phone to the check in lady and was so relieved when they agreed to let me come. time was ticking.

with that done, i was checked in, raced downstairs was tested for explosives (felt like i was going to explode) and was hit with a customs line that looked like it would never end.  as i see final boarding flashing on the screen for the nadi flight i asked someone if they could help - don't worry they said, you will get through.  waiting waiting waiting.  eventually i was freed from that nightmare and headed towards gate 76 - at the furtherest end of the building.  i grabbed a bottle of water, kept walking and then it was the moment you dread.  PAGING VIRGIN PASSENGER JAN-MAREE EVANS, YOUR FLIGHT IS READY TO DEPART, PLEASE PROCEED TO THE GATE IMMEDIATELY.    fuck i thought, i couldn't even see gate 76, let alone get there.  and when the next call came over PAGING VIRGIN PASSENGER JAN-MAREE EVANS, YOUR FLIGHT IS READY TO DEPART AND YOUR LUGGAGE WILL SHORTLY BE OFFLOADED.  PLEASE PROCEED TO THE GATE.  I knew i was in trouble.

i had no option but to take off my shoes and run (thank you couch to 5k for making this possible) and like a scene out of my own movie, i ran to the gate sans sports bra, caught my breath, put the shoes back on and walked to the plane expecting to hear slow claps and boos from the other passengers. i was greeted by the friendly flight attendants, who asked how i was and the only thing i could do was to burst into tears.  they gave me a box of tissues and those tears flowed, pretty much all the way to nadi.  but it was good to get them out, they needed to go.  you know when they say ultrasoft, they are lying right!

one more quick flight to suva and here i am ready for revivification.

 and some nonsense with my sister and nephews, starting with school drop off.  happy days.