e were picked up a few minutes early by our trusty Anchor minibus, so, leaving Geoff and Carrot to each other's devices we headed for Sydney. Geoff came home last night feeling nauseous but a good night's sleep and easy food (toast and vegemite) saw him feeling better today. I hope he will be OK.
We had a very good run into the Holiday Inn, just on an hour from home. The nice young Oriental man on Reception gave us free membership to their Priority Club and booked a shuttle for tomorrow.
The room is quite spacious, queensize bed, full bath, armchair and workdesk with computer connections - and a massive TV with Foxtel. All we want is the ABC, full night's viewing on Saturdays.
We will have a rest, then some afternoon tea, then dinner in Amelia's Brasserie. I have had a couple of the best meals of my life in Amelia's so am looking forward to it.
Later:
Major disappointment when we found Amelia's was not open tonight! We had to go to the "Biggles Bar" for a pub meal of spring rolls, pizza and potato wedges. In a get-it-yourself environment full of TVs, sport, music videos and a gaming lounge. Not happy John! However, it was tasty, and much cheaper than Amelia's would have been. Oh well!
ell, what a shemozzle! We arrived at 08:15 for our 10:20 flight to find it had been delayed by two hours. Still, they let us check in and we got through OK. We had hot chocolate and a muffin for breakfast then breezed through security.
After sitting in the departure lounge until 11:30 another announcement told us that the plane had been unable to leave NI, it had a problem they could not fix. So they were chartering another plane from Brisbane which is now due to arrive here at 13:30 and leave for NI at 14:30. Mascot is not fascinating enough for this sort of stay. I am glad we did not have to pay full price for last night's stay because we would have had ample time to get here from home.
So far, what with the meal disappointment last night and now all this, it is a bad start. We won't get to NI until after six, too late for supermarkets on Sunday. I hope there will be somewhere to eat.
Later still:
e didn't end up on a plane until 16:00 and landed on Norfolk at about 20:15 local time.
We were met by the landlord of our cottage, a friendly guy named Bookie (many Islanders are known only by their nicknames. The phone directory lists them by nickname because there are so many with the same surnames.)
He had a nice little Mazda Familia car for us. He took us to a servo with a shop still open and we got some breakfast cereal and milk. Bookie offered us some bread, butter & jam just to tide us over for breakfast which was very nice of him.
he cottage, No.3 Jacaranda Park Holiday Cottages, is absolutely wonderful. It has everything - fully equipped kitchen including a microwave and dishwasher, king size bed, 2-person spa in the bathroom and a lovely verandah which both the lounge and bedroom open on to. TV, DVD and CD players, even a pre-paid mobile phone as ours won't work here.
It really made up for the hassle getting here!
Tomorrow we will go to the supermarket and get some stuff, then book a few tours and so forth. But for now, collapse - I am bushed!