We didn’t wait 6 years for this trip, it was probably closer to 6 months, but our departure day finally arrived on Monday 9th December. It felt like we had barely had time to get ready. The kids finished school in the week before, Megan was still working on the Monday morning and Anthony had worked out his last day of his Telstra contract on the Friday.
Come 1:30pm though, none of that mattered. “Knock, Knock – your Uber has arrived”, Alan had arrived to take us to the airport. Alan dropped us to the airport for our last big trip. On that day it was hot and stormy, but for this trip it was only hot – 40 degrees.
After a clandestine meeting (that felt a little like a drug deal) in a Mickleham carpark – thanks Wendy and Glenese – we arrived at the airport in plenty of time.
Alan pushed our luggage trolley again, unsuccessfully trying to take out a toddler for extra points along the way. We had already checked in online so waited for only a little while to check our bags.
Some drinks and food set us up for fun reminiscences with Alan about our time together in the US and plans for this trip. It was then time to walk through the departure doors. It was really hard to say goodbye to Alan – we are very lucky to have such an awesome friend.
Time flew by and after a short delay due to a late arrival, we boarded our Singapore Airlines A350-900. This was a new aircraft to add to Anthony’s tally. We spent the money again for Premium Economy so our seats were pretty good. We all settled in for the flight to Singapore … nice meals, plenty of snacks, movies, complete TV seasons and watching the flight progress on the screen while marvelling at how far across the world we were flying.
The late departure from Melbourne meant an inevitable late arrival at Changi Airport. Our already tight turnaround was now cut more. To compound this, our onward flight was at the opposite end of the terminal from our arrival gate. As we approached the departure gate, there were airport staff blocking the entrance and some people seeming to be waiting. Oh no, had we missed our connecting flight? No, it was all good. We rushed through security again (emptying our water bottles from the first flight) and boarded the aircraft (a Boeing 777 this time). To be honest, we were all buggered but boy, we Ingrams can move!
Having all managed at least some sleep, we arrived in London feeling surprisingly good. Passing through passport control was easy with the ePassport process meaning that we did not even have to wait in line. The girls took a quick detour to the loo while the boys collected our luggage. A nice consequence of the quick turnaround in Singapore was that our bags were nearly the first off the plane.
Two years ago I complained in our blog about the stupidity of not having a train line to Tullamarine airport. Two years later, our politicians at home are still arguing and trying to win points, but still no train line. In London though, we simply jumped on the train and in short order arrived at Earls Court station, immediately bringing familiar memories.
Our quick stop at the property management office was rewarded with news that we could get into our AirBnB apartment immediately, rather than at 4pm as planned. They offered to call us a taxi, but we replied “nah, it’s only a 1.5km walk”. As we stepped out of the office, the first drops of rain began to fall. We didn’t let this bother us though and we soon arrived at the apartment, where Megan reminded us that we still had 4 flights of stairs to climb.
Upstairs, unpacked and showered we headed out for lunch at the Blackbird Pub – a favourite from our last stay. Heading in to Kings Cross Station we sought out the Platform 9 3/4 Shop for Hamish to buy a Hufflepuff Scarf. If you don’t understand the relevance of Platform 9 3/4 and Hufflepuff then I’m not sure we can be friends – we are all keen Harry Potter fans.
Outside it was already getting dark even though it was only 4pm. Starting to feel the effects of the long flight we decided to head back to the apartment for some “chill out time”, determined not to go to sleep until a reasonable time so that we could reset our body clocks.
Arriving upstairs we got a note to say that our grocery delivery (ordered several weeks ago from Australia) would be late. We knew Hamish was tired when this news was not received by the expected retort of, “I’m hungry”.
What followed would have been comical to any outside observers. Anthony was the first to go “for a little lie down” and was soon joined in the big bed by Hamish. Shortly after Megan came searching for the boys, waking up Anthony but finding Hamish out for the count.
Megan got into bed to cuddle Hamish while Anthony got up to sit with Amelia, who was by now doing a very good noddy dog impression and fighting the overwhelming desire to close her eyes.
Anthony, fearing that he would be the only one awake to haul the groceries up 4 flights of stairs, dragged Megan out of bed, whereupon we both decided to wake up Hamish to avoid spoiling his sleep.
All four of us sat in the lounge room watching rubbish TV and chiding each other to stay awake. Finally the groceries arrived and after what felt like a herculean effort the groceries were not only hauled aloft but they were put away too.
At only 8:30pm we all gave in to sleep. We’re sure that Hamish was actually asleep before his head hit the pillow and Amelia went out like a light, leaving Anthony to wander downstairs to her room to turn off a phone alarm that did not rouse her.
Sleep never felt so good.
