The least of my worries

You know how I was nervous about doing hook turns in Melbourne? Well, that turned out to be the least of my worries.

The youngest dropped the eldest and I at the airport on Friday afternoon ahead of our flat-hunting adventure down south.

The winds in Sydney were verging on cyclonic when we left the apartment and I was feeling a bit worried about how bumpy our flight would be.

As we made our way through security I got a message from Jetstar to say our flight had been delayed by an hour.

Bugger, so I didn’t needed to leave work early.

We settled into a couple of seats in the departure lounge at the crowded terminal.

Around 7pm, when we were scheduled to start boarding the plane, Jetstar sent another message saying the flight had been cancelled.

The message had a link to click to check for alternative flights.

There were no alternative flights.

Not on Friday night. Not on Saturday morning.

We frantically checked the Qantas website, which was only offering $2000 one-way flights to Melbourne via Perth. Virgin had one flight for $900. Neither of them were feasible.

The Jetstar chatbot was useless and overloaded and just kept repeating itself over and over.

My stress levels were rising. Our first open for inspection was at 9am the next morning.

The eldest checked for train and bus seats to Melbourne. There were none.

I called the youngest and asked her to pretty please come and pick us up.

She dropped us home at 7.30pm and I made a heat-of-the-moment decision to drive to Melbourne.

We jumped in the car and the eldest got to work organising our alterative arrangements as we sped off into the night.

My ex’s parents live in Albury, so the eldest called and asked if we could stay the night. Well, more like stay a few hours, as our ETA was 1am.

They very kindly agreed.

DD was charged with cancelled our car hire and the eldest tackled the Jetstar problem. Eventually he got through to an operator who wasn’t a chatbot and secured a credit for the return flights …

Why a credit? Because apparently we weren’t eligible for refund.

Seriously? An airline cancels your flight, doesn’t have any alternative flights to offer you and you’re only eligible for a credit? I might be talking to the Ombudsman about that.

We also decided to cancel the first open for inspection in Melbourne because there was no practical way to get there in time, given our 1am arrival time in Albury and it being another three and a half hours to Melbourne from there.

Night fell and I drove on and on and on and on through the darkness, stopping briefly for petrol and fast food.

The freeway between Sydney and Albury is very efficient but also very dull, so the eldest was tasked with talking to me for six hours to keep me alert.

We finally pulled into the driveway of my ex parents-in-law at about 1.15am, with the eldest’s grandfather greeting us in his dressing to check we were OK and didn’t need anything.

We set our alarms for 6am and headed to bed. It was such as flashback experience to be back in those familiar surroundings after so many years.

The eldest’s grandfather was pottering around the kitchen when we rose and loaded us up with Vegemite toast and supplies for the car, then we hit the road again.

I was desperately hoping for a strong flat white, but none of the cafes were open as we drove past and there was no time to search for one.

Eventually the Melbourne skyline appeared in the distance and we pulled up at the first open for inspection with just five minutes to spare.

The eldest absolutely loved the place and I bonded with the agent, giving her the lowdown on our frantic interstate drive to get there.

The moment we left the apartment the eldest started filling out an application, which took forever because you pretty much have to give the application app your life story along with three pay slips and your soul.

We criss-crossed the city looking at another four places and avoiding hook turns, with a weary Greek lunch at Yarraville in the middle of it all.

As we were eating our lunch the eldest finally pressed send on the completed application and five minutes later my boss texted to ask about the reference check she’d received.

Blimey that was fast … good thing I’d told her I was going flat hunting in Melbourne with the eldest, otherwise she might have been a bit freaked out about why I was applying for rental properties in another state!

We loved the location of another apartment we found beside a park, but the other three places were pretty dismal. The final one was filled with mould and had a ceiling so low that you’d have risked a lethal ceiling fan injury if you stretched your arms in the air.

We stayed Saturday night with the eldest’s aunt and uncle, who treated us to Aperol Spritzes on arrival, followed by a fabulous bibimbap dinner.

Then I made my weary way to bed ahead of the loooong return journey the next day.

So much cool stuff happened on the return journey that I’m going to save the details for tomorrow’s blog post.

But I will say that at the end of it all I’d travelled more than 2000 kilometres and spent more than 24 on-on-one hours with the eldest, just the two of us. That’s a record that I doubt will ever be broken and I am weirdly cherishing it.

We hugged each other as we went to bed last night and I feel a little emotional about it being over.

That said … I will never drive to Melbourne and back in a weekend again!

Song of the day: The Beatles “Long and winding road”