Day 1 Womble leaves the country 24 October 2006

Qantas flight QF2 left Heathrow at about 22.50 rather than the scheduled 22.15 to take the small excited one to Sydney to start her adventure downunder. Well actually, Bangkok first after 10 odd hours :(

Tuesday had seen a veritable barrage of texts from all my lovely chums: thanks so much to everyone. Didn't know so many people wanted me out of the country! I dragged the14.4kg rucsac down to the bus stop and met up with miniwombles who were there to wave me off. Was lovely. Even Megawomble was being quite sweet as if he might, just might, miss me. Miniwomble was on the verge of tears but managed to hold them back; just. She gave me her lucky token, a very pretty stone. So now I have a stone in my pocket (better than my shoe I suppose). Isn't that great?

55 minutes of queuing and about 5 minutes of checking in at Heathrow followed, of course, by the next line to get through security. You even have to take your shoes off these days. That's the fault of a damn Brit, isn't it?

Hey ho. Was stuck in the middle of row 49 with people who didn't seem to have the British reserve about not invading my space..... I got my own back by fidgeting for hours :D

Bangkok is a nice new airport which is not busy at present. All very clean and shiny. I've never been to Thailand before so it was all new to me. The people were all very friendly I must say. And their fridge magnets are very reasonably priced.

The second leg to Sydney, I was supposed to be in an aisle seat but there was a senior kiwi couple in the seats and they didn't seem to want the window, so that's where I went :D Was slightly more rested on this flight. They still seemed to be following the Qantas procedure of serving special meals ie. veggie hours before everyone else, so then you get stuck with your tray in front of you and wanting to go to the loo while your neighbours have only just started noshing. If nosh is what you do to airline food..... We circled round Sydney a few times before landing, I was starting to learn the landscape by then! Passport control wasn't too bad and after an enormous queue, I managed to answer the questions such that I didn't have to send my baggage through the immigration quarantine x-ray machine.

Did my cynical traveller are-you-the-only-bus-company-really questioning technique and found my way into a minibus shuttle thing that brought me here. To free internet access, coffee, bread and jam!

And it's Thursday already! Where did Wednesday go?

Thoughts so far?

I've cried a lot the last few days. So many thoughts about what might have been - on this trip and in general. I cried when we landed at Sydney: don't know if that was happiness to finally be at the beginning of the Great Trip, or sadness. Or both.

Onwards and upwards. Must find a cheaper way of texting!