Safe n Sound

**yawn**

Do you know that 'light' sleep that you have when you know that you have to get up early for something?

It's like you are keeping one eye on the clock while you sleep and you are aware of everything that goes on in your neighbourhood during the night.

I had that kind of sleep last night.

It was bitterly cold, so I stayed snuggled down under the blankets, but it was a light, restless sleep.

We arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare and I was the third person to check-in for the flight.

Ran into an old friend/acquaintance, who I haven't seen for a good 15 yrs.  I almost forgot her name!  We had a quick catch-up.  She and a friend were flying to Sydney to see Lady Gaga in concert.

BGWLBH and I had an emotional, but quick farewell.  We don't like to linger with our farewells otherwise they just get out of hand!  This one was particularly difficult.  Probably because we have been together for almost 11 weeks and it's been a lot of fun and very therapeutic for both of us.

It will probably be another two years before we have a long break together.

Thankfully, I had an uneventful flight to Sydney.

When I arrived, I had to collect my luggage and check it in for the next flight, which took quite a bit of time because the check-in line was HUGE.  I wasn't able to check it all the way through from Griffith because I didn't take any verification with me, for my second flight.

Once that was done, it was time to go through the security check .. not a problem there .. which is unusual because I reckon I get stopped at least 50% of the time - today was obviously part of the OTHER 50%!

I got a coffee from a very jovial barista and found a seat where I could get some shots of planes taking off and landing at 1/6 shutter speed for my flickr photography challenge (sadly, planes don't look good taking off and landing in the day time at 1/6 shutter speed).  It was worth a try.

All was going well up until this point.

I found my way to Gate 32 at 9.30am because we were supposed to board at 9.40am.

We were asked at 9.40am to move to a different gate (Gate 33).

We then heard 3 different announcements apologising for the delay for the flight, but eventually we all loaded onto our plane.

Just as the last of us found our seat, they announced that the 'checkers' had found some technical problems with our plane and that they were locating another plane for us to fly to Hervey Bay, so could we leave this plane, return to Gate 32 and wait for our next plane to be ready for boarding.

**sigh**

Most of the passengers were fine with this turn of events ... I mean why would you complain about being taken to a 'safer' plane??  Some were a bit cranky and sarcastic, but I guess you have to expect a few sour pusses among a hundred or more people.

So we waited a bit longer and I got some shots of moving crowds in an airport terminal at 1/6 shutter speed (moving crowds don't look that good at 1/6 shutter speed either - although with a bit more planning, it could well have worked).

Finally, an hour late, we boarded our new airplane and left Sydney more than an hour later than scheduled.  We made up a little time during the flight because we landed in Hervey Bay exactly an hour late.

It was grey and wet and windy.  A miserable welcome home!

On a brighter note, I got to see my lovely Vegan Chickie and Chicklet for lunch.  Little Chicklet isn't feeling 100% and poor Vegan Chickie was very tired from a poor night of sleep, but it was nice to see them and I got Chicklet cuddles :o)

No photos to share tonight because I am just too tired ... let's try again tomorrow.

I am home safe n sound and now I am going to my safe n sound bed to catch up on some sleep.  I hope the weather clears a bit tomorrow.

Nite all