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| Wednesday, April 26, 2006 |
| Fresh off the plane |
Ata is safely back in Adelaide.
Cyclone Monica was a great disappointment in Darwin, producing one day of rain (patchy for most of the day but getting heavier & more constant in the late afternoon/evening) and some wind. At the last minute on Monday, school closures for Wednesday had been announced - putting AM in a good mood as she contemplated two days off (one for Anzac Day and one for the cyclone). Everything planned for Anzac Day was called off - dawn service, marches, mass, horse races, the lot - but several determined diggers stood guard at the memorial at dawn anyway. Ata herself (mildly disappointed not to be attending the dawn service with her father, even though it has been many years since Ata attended a dawn service) rose on Tuesday morning and sat on the bare patio listening to birdsong and contemplating the still, overcast skies. Everything loose had been packed away the night before Just In Case, but the abundance of bird activity suggested to Ata that no cyclone was impending. With all flights grounded and most people off the streets, the only noise was birdsong. The Owl-Faced Finches resident in the garden flew down to hop about on the concrete where they would usually expect to filch seed out of the cockatiel's cage or from their own bird feeder, and Ata obligingly went inside to fetch it. The wind started to rise a little and rain speckled down shortly after. We spent most of the day watching DVD's - a short film collection Ata brought with her, and Ever After. In the afternoon, AM and AF and Ata and a family friend went to the beach for afternoon tea. The weather was more evident here, and we spent some time checking different spots to find a location that had shelter. Each time we stopped, the air was warm and rainless until we began to unpack the thermos - whereupon rain swept in. Eventually we located a shelter to sit under with a table to sit at.
AM's anticipation of a Nice Wednesday Morning spent hauling Ata around to AM's favourite plant nurseries was, however, cut short by the un-cancelling of school. Oh well. One can't have it all.
Ata's flight back was largely ordinary. It left 45 minutes late, we waited several minutes longer than usual for the doors to be opened and the hordes released on arrival at our destination. After spending twenty minutes at the baggage carousel, Ata decided her bag was not arriving, and spent ten minutes discussing the situation with the baggage enquiry counter woman, who was pleasant but a little wary at first. I guess one would tend to be a little wary after some time spent working at a baggage enquiry desk. She suspects the case may have been inadvertantly put on the Darwin-Alice Springs-Adelaide flight instead of the Darwin-Adelaide flight that Ata was on. Oh well. Ata has been flying regularly since she was three days old, but this is the first time luggage has had a mishap. Typically, it is also the first time Ata can remember packing her camera in the checked baggage instead of taking it carry-on. Which is the reason this post has not been accompanied by the photos Ata had planned to post. One can't win them all, can one. |
posted by Ata @ 6:51 pm  |
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| 3 Comments: |
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I'm glad the cyclone was abit of a no-show. Shame that the luggage had to follow suit. Any updates on that yet? I only lost luggage one, and it was found the next day. Sadly for the airline I was at the other end of the country by then and they had to courier it over. Luckily for the airline that country was Holland and not Australia.
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It turned up the same night! Somehow, it got on a flight to Canberra, and arrived in Adelaide a couple of hours after I did. Qantas sent someone around with it about an hour after I got a call saying they found it. So it's all good. Although Mr Ata was mildly disappointed that he couldn't buy a new camera.
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"Cyclone Monica was a great disappointment"
i've read that twice now as "Cyclone Myopia was a great disappointment"
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I'm glad the cyclone was abit of a no-show. Shame that the luggage had to follow suit. Any updates on that yet? I only lost luggage one, and it was found the next day. Sadly for the airline I was at the other end of the country by then and they had to courier it over. Luckily for the airline that country was Holland and not Australia.