On our way at last

Our plan had been to travel with grandchildren as they turned 13 but COVID interfered and our last two trips have been with 15 year olds, Harry and Callum. Now we seem to be catching up a little with Lucas who turned 14 earlier this year. There was some delay with his passport but that came through 10 days ago and, after a flurry of booking, we are on our way.

Majella and I were moving by 6 am and on the road an hour later. Traffic into Brisbane was heavy but around 9 we were pulling into Andrew’s Airport Parking.

Checking in was quick and we were soon in the van heading for the airport. Our driver was chatty and when we said we were going via Sydney to Japan he said he had lived in Osaka. On the short drive to the airport we got more information. Stephen speaks 5 languages and had raced cars and motorcycles around the world. He is retired but drives the van for fun, donating his earnings to charity. His most recent claim to fame is as the Flybuys Squillionaire.

We had checked in online so once at the airport we dropped our bags and passed through security. We relaxed in the Qantas Club until it was time to board our first flight to Sydney.

The Sixt counter in Terminal 3 was closed so, after collecting our bags, we followed the directions on the sign and walked to the counter in Terminal 2. The BYD electric that we had selected was not available but we got a VW Tiguan which we collected from the parking garage a short shuttle ride away.

I managed to get navigation going on my iPhone and was able to guide Majella as she drove away from the airport. I had neglected to bring a USB-C to Lightning cable so I could not plug in my iPhone and could not see how to get wireless CarPlay. I did eventually get the car navigation to work with voice instructions but when she could Majella pulled into a service station where I bought a multi-way cable that did the job. Despite setting navigation to avoid tolls, we had taken one wrong turn into a tunnel but once I got my iPhone connected by cable with Maps on screen we had better luck.

Shortly after 3 pm we arrived at Simone’s place to find Lucas at home. Simone had gone out to take Ben somewhere but was soon back. Lucas was packed and ready so we said our farewells and headed for Nick’s place to say goodbyes there.

That done Majella had about an hour of driving to the airport. Maps took us close to the city and then out toward the airport. About 15 minutes short of the airport we filled up with petrol. We dropped the car at Sixt and walked into the terminal.

Checking in started well. The machine recognised our passports, worked through its questions, printed tags for our baggage, and spat out boarding passes for Majella for both flights – no boarding passes for Lucas or me. Advice from a staff member was to try again. We did with the same result. Eventually we got a staff member to scan our passports and print the missing boarding passes.

Immigration and security went smoothly. We spent a few minutes on the other side while Majella bought some duty free cosmetic product and looked, unsuccessfully, for Armagnac. We changed some dollars for yen and visited the McDonalds that Harry had wanted to see. Lucas wanted to see it too and bought some fries to see how the machine delivered.

Then we walked upstairs to the Qantas Club to wait for boarding. We had a relaxed couple of hours to find some dinner and catch up with email and other happenings of the day.

Boarding time on our passes was shown as 8:10 pm so we headed down around that time. We didn’t rush and there was no need since boarding was delayed by cleaning and did not begin until after 9:15 pm. That inevitably delayed takeoff and put further pressure on our short transit in Tokyo. It was a little after 10 pm when we lifted off.

On the way to the airport Lucas had said that he saw the Oppenheimer movie with friends. Neither Majella nor I had seen it and it was available so we selected it. Lucas made his own selection and we settled. Dinner was served soon after takeoff and then we thought about trying to sleep.

Majella had been snoozing enough that she gave up on Oppenheimer, listened to an audiobook for a while, and went to sleep. I watched the first two hours of Oppenheimer and then tried to sleep. Lucas seemed to drift off OK.