A Lot can Happen in 48 hours

Sometimes it seems like a lifetime can be crammed into a few short hours. The last couple of days has been a perfect example of how that can happen.

After a rather restless sleep I awoke early on Monday morning to the sound of heavy rain outside. Considering how dry Melbourne has been over the past few months, this was something of a novel experience. I decided that further sleep was impossible, climbed out of bed and began the very long day that I knew awaited me. I was well aware that the next time my head hit the pillow would be on Tuesday evening when we finally reached our hotel in Warsaw.

While having breakfast I checked the weather forecast. It was full of warnings about the huge band of violent rain, hail and gale force winds which were apparently going to impact Melbourne all day. That was not exactly the forecast you want when you will soon be heading off to the airport.

It was a few hours later that things took something of an unexpected turn. One of the unfortunate aspects of the timing of this trip was that I would most likely be absent overseas when our newest grandchild came into the world. Since there was still around two weeks to go before the expected delivery date, you could imagine our surprise when we got a message from our youngest son that they had just gone to the hospital. Apparently the new baby was keen to meet Pops before he left.

Although this sent the heart rates souring, it also threw something of a curve ball into my plans of getting to the airport. Since first babies can be notoriously slow in arriving, there was still no real indication of how long the labour would take.

With no further news in the next couple of hours, we had to revert to my original plan of getting a lift to the airport with Sue Brown who lives not far away at Narre Warren. As we headed along the Monash Freeway the rain was still sheeting down making visibility poor. I wondered if the flight would be delayed.

Somewhere in the middle of this deluge,my phone rang. It was a video call from my son at the hospital. He excitedly told me that their son had just arrived a few moments ago and they wanted to tell me before it was too late. It certainly was a moment I will never forget. Although I would not get to hold the new little one, I could take some pleasure in knowing that I was the very first to hear the news and see his little face,, albeit only briefly.

In spite of the rain, we arrived safely at the airport and sat down to wait for the others. It was only then that I noticed that the entire stitching on one end of my luggage had come undone. How could I have not noticed that when I was packing ? This was not the type of discovery you want to make at the beginning of an extended trip. I had visions of my gear being spread over the cargo hold of the plane, but there was not a single thing I could about it now, apart from hope that the inner lining would somehow stay intact.

There were seven of our team due to depart today and, when we had all arrived we proceeded to the check in. When it was my turn to check in, I rolled my case to the counter, smiled and handed over my passport. The girl looked at it, typed away for a while, then looked a little worried. She typed some more, frowned a lot and seemed confused. After some minutes of this delay she asked me to stay there while she went to talk to her supervisor. My stomach churned.

For the next 15 minutes I watched her and her supervisor talk and fiddle with another computer. All the others had gone through to the departure lounge while I waited. Maybe I would not be leaving after all. Perhaps I had some sort of security warning on my passport. I know that the horrible photo they had attached to my Russian visa made me look some sort of serial killer, but surely that was not really my fault, - some people just look like that.

All the while this was going on, the long queue behind me were probably secretly cursing me for making them wait longer. When she finally returned, I asked what the problem was. She explained that there was no record of my booking, even though I had the eticket in my hand. "Do you have the payment receipt ?", she asked. "Or do you have a bank statement that would show the payment ?" Since I booked the flight months ago, I could assure her that, no, I did not bring the bank statement with me.

The supervisor came over to join in the fun and spent some time chatting to someone else on the phone (maybe his supervisor ?). After another ten minutes or so of this excitement, his face suddenly relaxed. "They have found the booking", he announced. I could have told them that I "found " the booking every time I checked the Emirates web site over the preceding couple of months.

After being held up for so long I decided to go for broke. "Surely you should now give me an upgrade to First Class", I suggested. It didn't work. They handed me my economy boarding pass and finally sent me on my way.

By this time the rest of the team had been wondering what on earth had happened to me. It had been a bit of a scare, but fortunately the plane took off on time and the wild weather had largely abated by then. At least I was glad that I had made the wise decision to pay a little extra for exit row seats. The extra leg room really does make a difference on a 14 hour flight and I was even able to grab some sleep from time to time.

We arrived at Dubai right on sunrise, but the temperature was already a blistering 35C or so. The blast hit us as soon as we left the plane and reminded me afresh while I would never choose to willingly spend any more time in this city than was absolutely necessary.

The second flight from Dubai to Warsaw is a much shorter 6 hours, and it was a great relief to discover that the plane was less than half full. It was even more comfortable as I luxuriated into my business class seat (I may tell you more about that sometime later) and actually looked forward to spending some time in the fully flat reclining seat.

Those six hours actually passed all too quickly for me. I was actually a little reluctant to say goodbye to attentive staff who had looked after me so well (I could have told you that the business class section was almost empty so I was REALLY spoiled).

We arrived in Warsaw right on time at 12 noon, collected our luggage and went looking for our waiting shuttle driver. The weather outside was a delightful 27C and bright sunshine. We were ushered to a comfortable Mercedes mini bus and were pleased that the young driver spoke excellent English. The midday traffic flowed smoothly and we were soon at the Hotel Chmielna.

It is always nice when the reception desk expect you and we were soon issued our room keys and everyone went upstairs in search of a shower and a change of clothes. Well everyone but me that is. (Sound familiar ?). The girl explained that my room "was not ready yet" and I would have to wait in the reception for some time. This seems to be the story of my life.

I decided to spend the time getting my phone to work. Although it connected to the Polish network, I could not make or receive any calls. I later discovered that the entire group were having the same sort of problems. Perhaps this is a feature of the region.

When I did finally get access to the room I was pleased to find that it was enormous -a real business class room. Situated on the top floor and with no less than four separate rooms inside, it really was very comfortable. Well it would have been comfortable if not for the heat. It is obvious that rooms here are not built for heatwaves, and the sun streaming in the windows soon made it into a sauna bath. Oh well, you can't have everything. At least it would mean that my washing would dry quickly.

The group later met together for our first foray into the unfamiliar city, first walking down to the river and then to the centre of the old city. By five o,clock the long day started to take effect with most of our team now struggling to stay upright. We decided it was time to stagger back to the hotel and have an early night.

Near the hotel there is a lovely popular restaurant called "SUBWAY" and their 15 cm turkey roll was a perfect way to end a very,very long day. Back at the hotel, I removed the doona and collapsed unto the top of the mattress. After all, I had a new grandson to dream about.Read more