Leaving Scotland for a month…
Wednesday, April 29th, 2009 at 3:23 am
HG got a job contract in Brisbane for 4 months. We started dealing with this offer since the beginning of March but the process of negotiating and visa took so long. We finally got visa last week and he left Scotland on Saturday morning. I could not join the same trip because I had to send my passport to the embassy for visa evidencing after the visa was granted. The passport came back one hour before HG left. So he booked the flight, chose the seats and booked the chauffeur-drive for me. That was great because I would have done those myself which I was not looking forward to.
The oldies came on Friday afternoon and decided to stay until I left which at the time we didn’t know when yet. Mum had her concert on Sunday night, so they had lunch on Sunday and left for the concert and came back around 11pm. After they left for the concert, I had a lot to do in the house, watered the garden, cleaned the house, washed the dishes, took the rubbish out, etc. I finished everything by the time the oldies came back.
In the morning, dad wanted to take Pepper out to play before I left so he wouldn’t see me gone. But the driver arrived just when he was going out, so Pepper saw me leaving but dad said he was ok in the football field and didn’t really care much about me leaving. It was such a relief.
It was raining all the way to the airport. It took about one and a half hour to get there. I managed to find the sky lounge alright. The flight was on time and the business class cabin was disserted. I watched some movies before they served the dinner. The food was good, I had roasted beef salad for starter, red curry prawn with rice for main course and cranberries tart for desert. After the meal the guy who sat next to me started talking. We talked most of the flight since. So I didn’t get any sleep on this flight.
We arrived in Dubai to the new terminal (Terminal 3), which is dedicated to Emirates flights only. It was chaotic. There are so many people. I needed to ask someone in order to find the business class lounge. I don’t like the lounge as much. I went to have a shower and had a glass of coca-cola and left to the gate. At the gate, the ground staff asked me a lot of questions when he was checking my passport. He asked where I live which I said Scotland and he asked why I go to Brisbane and I said for vacation. The he asked why I didn’t go to Thailand because it was closer to Brisbane, I said I’ll go back to Thailand later in the year. I started to have a feeling that he was a bit nosy. Then he let me go but came back again and asked to see my passport again. He looked at my face and the picture in my passport and asked how far from Scotland to Belfast. I said I don’t know because I have never been to Belfast. Then he asked where Belfast is, and I said Northern Ireland and he said correct and thanks me and let me go.
The plane from Dubai to Brisbane has lie flat beds and digital ICE. The screen was huge. I watched some movies and slept for 2-3 hours before the flight attendant came to wake me for the meal. I had stir-fried noodles with beef. It was too salty for me. I couldn’t finish it. Then I watched more movies and didn’t sleep until we landed at Singapore. We had to leave the plane for an hour. I went to the lounge and had another shower and a glass of water and raspberries crème brûlée. The guy who sat next to me from Dubai to Singapore, his brother is a pilot at Emirates, so he got an upgrade to First Class from Singapore to Brisbane. I watched movie and listened to music and played games on this flight. The food was good too. I had smoked prawn with salad for starter, salmon fillet with potatoes and pak choi for main course and assorted fruits for my desert.
I arrived in Brisbane very early morning on Wednesday. The immigration was quick and I didn’t wait that long for the luggage. My chauffer driver was waiting for me at the arrival area. It took me about 20 minutes from the airport to the apartment. The apartment looks alright, it’s clean, quiet and has every we need. We went to bed not long after I arrived because HG had to work the next day.
