"I've Still Got Time.......!!!!!"

I'm sitting at the airport waiting to catch my plane back to Melbourne.  I only got back to Canberra late yesterday morning.  As Gerard Whateley once wrote to me, "these are punishing times".   I've arrived at the airport a good 20 minutes before boarding, and am actually sitting with a glass of red wine.  I had toyed with the idea of catching a cab, but in the end, drove the faithful Dan, it just seemed simpler.  And simple is pretty good right now.

My trip to the airport tonight, despite the fact that I've had a busy day today, is in stark contrast to my drive yesterday morning!  I felt like Mr Incredible (from the Pixar movie "The Incredibles"), back in his Super Hero days, when rushing from one rescue to another, looking at his watch, before exclaiming with delight "I've still got time"...

Yesterday morning I dragged myself out of bed in the dark again, because I was supposed to be going to the beach at 6.45am with It's a Dundeel.  In theory this allowed me plenty of time to spend at the beach, before driving to the airport, aiming for 8.20am to make my 9.20am flight in plenty of time.

Only problem?  The horse I was going to the beach with was going with other horses.  And they were running late.  I bit my lip, and twisted my hands while watching the time tick away.  7am...  7.15am...  7.30am..  I start checking Apple Maps, to work out how long it took to get from the beach to the airport.  Bugger me...  35mins...  Really????  By the time we set off, with me ducking in to refuel the hire car on the way, I arrived at the beach before the float at 8am...  And I knew at this point I absolutely didn't have time!!!!  But having gotten up early, and waited around for an hour, I was going to kill someone if I didn't take a single frame of a horse splashing in the water.  

So I waited patiently (hah!  I hear you laugh, you don't do ANYTHING patiently, let alone when you know that this could mean you'll miss your plane!) for the horses to appear from the carpark, which they finally did, photographed them doing 2 laps of the beach, and then hightailed it out of there.

The way there thankfully I didn't get too many red lights, and probably I made pretty good time, and went from "I'm going to miss my plane" to "I'm going to miss the bag drop off" in my mind, before skidding into the carpark almost 35 minutes before the bag drop closed.  I got held up by some man driving at an excruciatingly slow speed, before flinging the car into the park and literally running into the terminal.  

It is at this point that I again pledge my eternal love and loyalty to Qantas, who checked my bag in despite it being closed.  See, this is why I fly with them, because when I bugger it up utterly, they still look after me.... 




















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