galadriel1010 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
galadriel1010) wrote2011-01-01 02:39 am
galadriel1010) wrote2011-01-01 02:39 am
Entry tags:
LiveJournal! Let me tell you about my Day!
Oh boy. What A Day.
But first...
It has been called to my attention that I was a jerk is the recent wank, and ignored something I should have not ignored. If you know what I'm apologising for, you know what I'm apologising for. If you don't, it doesn't need to be aired any further than it alredy has been. I was a jerk, I wasn't the only one, and I'm going to try to learn from it.
I've been having Thoughts about this since it started really, and I'm going to post them ocne I've found my happy place and can say it without, I hope, coming across as a vindictive, sarcastic, butthurt arse. That would be nice, wouldn't it? Hopefully the whole thing will be over, but I do feel I need to say what's in my head.
That may change when happy place is found, though.
Anyway, today. I:
So, what's the best thing to find in your inbox the day you're due to take a simple, hour and a half flight between two cities towards the end of your trip?
Clearly that's a note saying that they've had to upgrade you to first, free of charge, because of an administrative error.
What I got was an email from my flight agent telling me that my flight had been rearranged and I was now on the 15.00 instead of the 13.30. Yes, that's right, we would be leaving when we were due in to Sydney originally.
Checking out of a YHA involves handing over the key card for your room. Having kept a close eye on mine for our two week stay, I managed to lose it by packing too many times.
Fortunately, we had an undrunk bottle of champagne in the room, which we'd already agreed that we were going to give to the reception staff for being lovely, so they were nearly shocked when I was very apologetic and clearly prepared to pay for losing my card.
Score
Having got over the flight thing, got rid of most of our stuff and packed as small as we could, travel friend and I came out of the hostel, checked our directions and walked... the wrong way.
Got to the end of the road, checked our map and turned around to go back the other way. We were already late by this point, so it came as no surprise to me to see the bus we were supposed to be catching sailing past us.
Travel friend got very cross with this - I stayed zen - and called them to rearrange collection. Unfortunately, they couldn't collect us until noon, when the original collection was booked for ten, because it was New Year and they were all booked up. I remained zen. Travel friend got crosser.
We went back to the hostel to consult the internet, and explained our situation to the lovely people behind the desk and were told that we'd better get a taxi, which would only be about $10 anyway. I told travel mate that I'd stand to this, because she's broke, and she booked a taxi.
Taxi came quickly and took us to the station for under $10, and we decided to catch the second bus to come along rather than the first. I used this pause to tell the booking desk that we wouldn't require our pick-up. Girl behind the desk seemed grateful and surprised. See, patience and politeness makes people like you, even if it doesn't actually get you anywhere.
Got to the airport, went for a burger fromBurger King Hungry Jack's and finally found out what gate we were supposed to be at. Got help checking in on their computers, then got sent to the service desk to check our bags. We were really lucky we got sent there, because my bag came in at 7k over the limit. Yes, I had 30k in one bag. I ended up paying the $100 (for hers and mine), because travel mate was all ready to start unpacking and moving things and I was staring at her somewhat incredulously and wondering 'are you about to tell me that your other bag is a TARDIS?'
The advantage of this was that the lovely lady at the desk suggested that we put our larger carry-on bags through as checked luggage, and did it for free. Travel mate had another panic when she realised that her food was about to be put into the hold, and she needed it on the flight (she's healthy, and small so needs to keep her food intake fairly consistent. They fed us on the plane anyway). Then she started panicking about her shampoo going into the hold, so I pointed out that all my shampoos and stuff travelled in the hold from the UK without any problems, but did warn her about the peril of taking apples up to those altitudes without pressure stabilisation. Apparently they mutate and develop a tendency to attempt world domination.
I wish I were joking.
Caught the flight to Sydney, sat next to a lovely Asian lady with whom I had a slight language barrier problem, and got met at the airport by another lovely Asian lady (she was an hour late picking us up because of the NYE traffic, but she greeted us with waves and hugs, and agreed to take an extra for much less than a taxi would have cost, so we didn't hold it against her).
This was just dumb. We took our stuff to Claire's hotel, because she booked one rather than making silly plans of seeing the New Year in in style by staying up all night on Manly Beach. I packed myself a small rucksack - glad that I'd managed to cram it into my luggage - with a change of clothes I could sleep in, a pair of flip-flops and my laptop, so that I could finish my schmoop_bingo posting before the deadline.
And then I headed off to find the fireworks and internet.
Note: No phone.
So I watched the first fireworks display with a really nice army guy, who did an exchange in Thirsk, and his two boys, who were very lovely. The display was very impressive, but those guys really made it (especially the really cute, really polite little one).
And then I walked up to the station, saw the massive queue to get on the train, checked the time, and went back to Claire's hotel to find her and collect my phone and camera
No broken bones, slight loss of dignity.
Yes, I fell downstairs. I was wearing a pair of inch-or-so heeled sandals with my George dress (it's seen some momentous occasions has this dress. My first Barrowman event, NYE in Sydney, probably at least a couple of snogs (for me, they're momentous)), and as I came downstairs I just... fell.
Four steps, stone, laptop in a rucksack on my back, two witnesses... Yeah, I'm just that cool. Landed on the ground at the bottom, swore, checked my heels for damage, found none and picked myself up. Not really sore even. Just embarassed and worried. I hadn't drunk since the night before.
(Note 2: I hate being bullied into drinking. I'll cave to peer pressure if you buy me a drink, but I'll resent you for it. And tequila is the most vile thing in the world. I spilled more of it when I realised how bad it was. Honestly, do you really pressure someone who's told you that they don't drink, much less shot, into shotting tequila?)
Got to the station, ready to buy a ticket... no wallet. Just the cash supply I brought out with me.
Got into town and to the YHA, where the lovely lady on the desk (I've had a lot of them) was checking local hostels for vacancies for me... told her not to bother because I remembered that I had no wallet.
Looked at hotel vacancies for that night... same problem.
Thought about getting a drink... ID in my wallet.
Looked at booking hotels for the next night... no wallet, but lots of cheap-ish nice hotels. Still trying to choose between them, but I'm leaning towards the king room with gym access for $190.
The fireworks were spectacular, utterly unbelievable. There are no words to describe them, really.
But fireworks in the warm... this is wrong. Fireworks in the warm and not at Towersey. Spending New Year alone because my credit card failed to work when I was trying to buy a ticket for the Barmy Army NYE party and they didn't inform me or try to sort it, and there's so many people, and I felt so utterly alone.
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
misswinterhill, you have no idea how close I came to jumping on a bus to you and demanding cuddles. The only thing that stopped me was... no wallet.
And that's about the saga up to now. I used GlobalGossip for a while on my ailing internet battery, then found somewhere that would charge Skylar whilst I used their internet, so here I am, typing on a strange Australian keyboard. Who knows what tomorrow will bring?
Current plans include seeing in the first dawn of the New Year at 5.47, finding my wallet and booking a really nice hotel room and sleeping a lot.
But first...
It has been called to my attention that I was a jerk is the recent wank, and ignored something I should have not ignored. If you know what I'm apologising for, you know what I'm apologising for. If you don't, it doesn't need to be aired any further than it alredy has been. I was a jerk, I wasn't the only one, and I'm going to try to learn from it.
I've been having Thoughts about this since it started really, and I'm going to post them ocne I've found my happy place and can say it without, I hope, coming across as a vindictive, sarcastic, butthurt arse. That would be nice, wouldn't it? Hopefully the whole thing will be over, but I do feel I need to say what's in my head.
That may change when happy place is found, though.
Anyway, today. I:
So, what's the best thing to find in your inbox the day you're due to take a simple, hour and a half flight between two cities towards the end of your trip?
Clearly that's a note saying that they've had to upgrade you to first, free of charge, because of an administrative error.
What I got was an email from my flight agent telling me that my flight had been rearranged and I was now on the 15.00 instead of the 13.30. Yes, that's right, we would be leaving when we were due in to Sydney originally.
Checking out of a YHA involves handing over the key card for your room. Having kept a close eye on mine for our two week stay, I managed to lose it by packing too many times.
Fortunately, we had an undrunk bottle of champagne in the room, which we'd already agreed that we were going to give to the reception staff for being lovely, so they were nearly shocked when I was very apologetic and clearly prepared to pay for losing my card.
Score
Having got over the flight thing, got rid of most of our stuff and packed as small as we could, travel friend and I came out of the hostel, checked our directions and walked... the wrong way.
Got to the end of the road, checked our map and turned around to go back the other way. We were already late by this point, so it came as no surprise to me to see the bus we were supposed to be catching sailing past us.
Travel friend got very cross with this - I stayed zen - and called them to rearrange collection. Unfortunately, they couldn't collect us until noon, when the original collection was booked for ten, because it was New Year and they were all booked up. I remained zen. Travel friend got crosser.
We went back to the hostel to consult the internet, and explained our situation to the lovely people behind the desk and were told that we'd better get a taxi, which would only be about $10 anyway. I told travel mate that I'd stand to this, because she's broke, and she booked a taxi.
Taxi came quickly and took us to the station for under $10, and we decided to catch the second bus to come along rather than the first. I used this pause to tell the booking desk that we wouldn't require our pick-up. Girl behind the desk seemed grateful and surprised. See, patience and politeness makes people like you, even if it doesn't actually get you anywhere.
Got to the airport, went for a burger from
The advantage of this was that the lovely lady at the desk suggested that we put our larger carry-on bags through as checked luggage, and did it for free. Travel mate had another panic when she realised that her food was about to be put into the hold, and she needed it on the flight (she's healthy, and small so needs to keep her food intake fairly consistent. They fed us on the plane anyway). Then she started panicking about her shampoo going into the hold, so I pointed out that all my shampoos and stuff travelled in the hold from the UK without any problems, but did warn her about the peril of taking apples up to those altitudes without pressure stabilisation. Apparently they mutate and develop a tendency to attempt world domination.
I wish I were joking.
Caught the flight to Sydney, sat next to a lovely Asian lady with whom I had a slight language barrier problem, and got met at the airport by another lovely Asian lady (she was an hour late picking us up because of the NYE traffic, but she greeted us with waves and hugs, and agreed to take an extra for much less than a taxi would have cost, so we didn't hold it against her).
This was just dumb. We took our stuff to Claire's hotel, because she booked one rather than making silly plans of seeing the New Year in in style by staying up all night on Manly Beach. I packed myself a small rucksack - glad that I'd managed to cram it into my luggage - with a change of clothes I could sleep in, a pair of flip-flops and my laptop, so that I could finish my schmoop_bingo posting before the deadline.
And then I headed off to find the fireworks and internet.
Note: No phone.
So I watched the first fireworks display with a really nice army guy, who did an exchange in Thirsk, and his two boys, who were very lovely. The display was very impressive, but those guys really made it (especially the really cute, really polite little one).
And then I walked up to the station, saw the massive queue to get on the train, checked the time, and went back to Claire's hotel to find her and collect my phone and camera
No broken bones, slight loss of dignity.
Yes, I fell downstairs. I was wearing a pair of inch-or-so heeled sandals with my George dress (it's seen some momentous occasions has this dress. My first Barrowman event, NYE in Sydney, probably at least a couple of snogs (for me, they're momentous)), and as I came downstairs I just... fell.
Four steps, stone, laptop in a rucksack on my back, two witnesses... Yeah, I'm just that cool. Landed on the ground at the bottom, swore, checked my heels for damage, found none and picked myself up. Not really sore even. Just embarassed and worried. I hadn't drunk since the night before.
(Note 2: I hate being bullied into drinking. I'll cave to peer pressure if you buy me a drink, but I'll resent you for it. And tequila is the most vile thing in the world. I spilled more of it when I realised how bad it was. Honestly, do you really pressure someone who's told you that they don't drink, much less shot, into shotting tequila?)
Got to the station, ready to buy a ticket... no wallet. Just the cash supply I brought out with me.
Got into town and to the YHA, where the lovely lady on the desk (I've had a lot of them) was checking local hostels for vacancies for me... told her not to bother because I remembered that I had no wallet.
Looked at hotel vacancies for that night... same problem.
Thought about getting a drink... ID in my wallet.
Looked at booking hotels for the next night... no wallet, but lots of cheap-ish nice hotels. Still trying to choose between them, but I'm leaning towards the king room with gym access for $190.
The fireworks were spectacular, utterly unbelievable. There are no words to describe them, really.
But fireworks in the warm... this is wrong. Fireworks in the warm and not at Towersey. Spending New Year alone because my credit card failed to work when I was trying to buy a ticket for the Barmy Army NYE party and they didn't inform me or try to sort it, and there's so many people, and I felt so utterly alone.
misswinterhill, you have no idea how close I came to jumping on a bus to you and demanding cuddles. The only thing that stopped me was... no wallet.And that's about the saga up to now. I used GlobalGossip for a while on my ailing internet battery, then found somewhere that would charge Skylar whilst I used their internet, so here I am, typing on a strange Australian keyboard. Who knows what tomorrow will bring?
Current plans include seeing in the first dawn of the New Year at 5.47, finding my wallet and booking a really nice hotel room and sleeping a lot.