My trip home.

I had a couple of hours to kill before my flight so I walked around the terminal, bought myself a watch and a necklace each for the girls and then took a couple of pictures. The flight left at 12.10 and I was so pleased to finally be on my way... in spite of my very mixed emotions about leaving.

I arrived at Auckland three hours later, it felt good to be able to stretch my legs. I spent two hours there and back on the plane heading home. It's nine hours since I left Brisbane, the flight has been good, I have an aisle seat at the beginning of the row so I have heaps of leg room and there's no-one next to me so I have plenty of elbow room too! I feel as though I will be able to sleep.

Well I was wrong, I really don't think I slept, though I did dream... you know the odd little snippets of dreams you have when you know you are awake. Faces, voices and tunes kept going through my mind. It's now 15 hours since I boarded the plane in Brisbane. We just had breakfast and there are only a couple of hours to LA.

Sign at Aukland airport. Taking off at Los Angeles.
In Los Angeles airport I took a couple of photos out of the window and some security guy came and told me that they don't allow photos to be taken because of security reasons. I apologized telling him that I didn't see any signs to which he replied that they have been slow getting them up... I wanted to ask how people were meant to know the rule, but bit my tongue instead, which may have been a good thing because he informed me that he is meant to confiscate cameras if people broke the rule. Since it was a digital camera he just allowed me to just delete the pictures.

Mountains east of Los Angeles. As close to Las Vegas as I want to be.
Back on the plane for undoubtedly the worse of any of my flights, there was a group of rather loud obnoxious people near me, not that there's really anything wrong with obnoxious people on their own territory, but when they are in public where others can't escape them there is. There was no water offered except with the meal so I felt as though I was dehydrating too and getting the stewardess' attention is too difficult when you are in a window seat. Maybe all these small negatives lead up to my panic attack, I couldn't believe how I felt, my mouth was dry, I could feel my heart pounding, and I felt extremely nauseous. Every fiber of my being wanted to be off that plane immediately if not sooner, there was 45 minutes to go on the flight and I felt like I couldn't do it, but there was no option I couldn't just leave... I considered asking if there was a seat somewhere else where I wouldn't feel trapped, or just getting up and walking around, but I just sat there, hid my face and cried instead... after several minutes I felt the calming effect of the hormones released when one cries and managed to retain my dignity.

What a relief when the plane landed with plenty of time to get my bags and check them in with the bus driver. Then I called home to let Dick know that I didn't miss the last bus for the day... now I'm sitting waiting patiently for 10.30 so the bus can leave. Looking back on the last two weeks, I know that I wouldn't have missed this trip to Australia for anything and in many ways I wish I had more time to be there. Now I'm anxious to get home and get back to "normal". I think I'll go for another walk to stretch my legs again, next time I get to write my journal I'll be home. Life is good..

Page 1.. My Trip to Australia Page 2.. There at last Page 3, The Wedding Day Page 4, Redcliffe
Page 5, The Gold Coast Page 6, Brisbane Page 7, My trip Home Page 8, Back in Winona