Bye bye again Littletree

I’m home alone! Child-free for 30 hours already!

Yesterday I dropped Littletree and Purple to the airport and said goodbye to them… again!

They were supposed to fly to Israel on Monday. We were all packed Sunday night, and drove in the morning to the airport. They checked in and I kissed them goodbye at the gate

 

Quite a poignant moment for me, since Littletree will be away for almost 4 weeks, and we’ve never been apart more than a couple of days before. I gave her one last big hug and smooch, and drove back home to relax.

Only about half an hour after I got home, the phone rang. It was Purple, calling in a panic, because there was some problem with the aeroplane’s engine and their flight was delayed. It looked like they might miss their connection in Sydney to fly to Bangkok, and it was a big stress.

Purple didn’t have a cell phone, so he called me from a payphone… only the airport is under renovations, and there is only one payphone in the whole airport – outside on the street. So poor Purple had to go back out through security, with all their bags and Littletree to make the call.

I found the number of the travel agent and called them, thinking it’s hopeless since it was a public holiday on Monday. Thankfully, the travel agent has a 24 hour emergency line, and after a mere 20 minutes on hold, I got through to a helpful guy.

I explained the situation, and he promised to do his best to sort it out. Meanwhile, I waited. Eventually he called me back to say he’d not managed to get Purple onto another flight, but that his original flight was ready to leave very soon, and if Purple and Littletree were able to run really fast when they got to Sydney, they’d probably make their connection. He’d even arranged to have their baggage labelled “priority” and to get them sitting near the front of the plane, and alerted QANTAS that they’d be coming a tidge late for the Bangkok flight.

Only when Purple next went out again to call me, he had only 10 minutes to get back through security and on to his plane!

It didn’t matter, since the plane wasn’t ready after all. Back to square 1, called the travel agent again, who realised there was no way possible for them to make their flight, and started trying to get their tickets transferred onto a flight the next day. After loads of calling back and forth, and stressing out, it was all sorted – they could get on a flight the next day and it was up to Purple to get the domestic airline to either take them on the next flight to Sydney and put them in a hotel for the night, or give them a flight the next day. They took the second option, so I had to drive back to the airport (35 mins on the freeway) to collect them, and home again!

We spent the evening vegging out watching videos, and in the morning we did the whole thing again. This time, I parked the car and went in to the gate to wait with them.

Finally, their flight was called to board, on time, and I kissed them goodbye. Just at that minute, it was announced over the PA that their flight was delayed due to technical difficulties.

I swear my jaw hit the floor.

Luckily, they got the plane going again after just 20 minutes, so that was it. Littletree and Purple are gone!