Sitting here wondering if I'm Pollyanna or Eeyore - Day 67 - FINALLY made it to Melbourne at 2pm

We got to the airport at 10am for our 11 am flight only to find it delayed till 12. Yes another delay! For a completely different reason but after last night's fiasco, I was NOT happy.

Worse part of it all was that it was Steve's mum's 80th birthday weekend and he was missing out on special time with her.

Anyway we used some of the vouchers from last night to buy muffins, coffee and Boost juice and made the best of things in the food court till our flight FINALLY left at 12.20pm or so.

Carolyn picked us up and whooshed us home and fed us YUMMY ham/cheese rolls before we headed to Steve's mum and dad's for afternoon tea and a chat about their recent holiday to Walhalla in eastern Victoria.

Then it was briefly home and then out to dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant with Carolyn (Ric wasn't well) and Steve's mum and dad which was wonderful and some special time with his family.

That lovely night went a long way to salvaging the day.

Sitting here wondering if I'm Pollyanna or Eeyore - Day 66 - The night we tried to fly to Melbourne ... and didn't

Another trip to Melbourne and another insanely long delay and then cancellation by the maddeningly inefficient fools at Virgin Australia.

We got there in time to grab Sahara kebabs (I had chicken, Steve beef) and eat them nice and slowly and then thinking all was well headed off to grab our 9pm flight ... which then became a 10pm, then a 10.20pm and then cancelled.

This time the issue was staffing - no one to fly or serve on the plane! - and we watched helplessly as flights to Melbourne before and after ours headed south without incident.

The infuriating part was that the staff at the gate were rank amateurs, announcing as little as possible and then when the flight was cancelled, letting the allocating of hotel rooms and alternate flights descend into messy bedlam. It was a farce, made even worse by the fact that the Virgin site was showing cancelled status WAY before the gate idiots announced it.

What a joke - thank goodness Waz was out and about and could pick us up just after 11pm when we FINALLY got our flights and some food vouchers, and take us home.

Holding the Reins of the Runaway Extrovert 2013: Day 355 - Flying away but first some walking ...

Steve was driven back to his car by Fahmi at 8.30 and I busied myself doing last minute blogging, finishing off Photoshop, walking with Waz (found some great Christmas stuff scrawled on paths by a PT), vacuuming ready for NY and job applying ... and packing!

Off home for blogging, packing, and tidying up at home before Steve came over and we left for the airport with Waz at 2.30 ...

Every year I buy The Economist Christmas edition 

We shared a spinach cheese roll and sparkly water in the food court

Arrived in Melbourne and saw Gary Ablett "Son of God" waiting for his bags at the airport ... also a bit of a scare. My suitcase failed to appear but there was one other Samsonite suitcase on the carousel. Having had my suitcase almost taken once before by a lady who thought it was hers, I immediately thought someone had taken the wrong bag and so Carolyn and I split up and went to all the taxi and hire care places looking for it. Meanwhile Steve pulled the suitcase off the carousel while he waited for the guy to appear and called the mobile on the luggage tag. Turns out the illiterate idiot (idiot because my suitcase had my name lettered on it in bold letters) was in Europcar which I was passing. Found the guy and my suitcase and got really angry, grabbing my suitcase back while Steve came over with the guy's actual piece. I was so angry I semi told him off, which Steve naturally hated, and then I had a meltdown with all the stress of being unemployed really getting to me. Steve did a wonderful job comforting me but what a nasty start to the Christmas break.

Finally left the airport and got home by 7 for a dinner of schnitzels and mashed potato cooked by Rick and the over commercialised Carols in the Domain which were awful ...