Fog in Brisbane and Keep Your Camera Ready

The trip to and from Australia is a long one from most places, but it's especially so when you live in Cape Town. There's a domestic flight to Johannesburg, a long haul flight to Sydney and finally a local flight to Brisbane.

Incidentally, I find it interesting that it takes 11h45m to fly eastwards from Johannesburg to Sydney but a whopping 14h10m flying the other way. I did feel for the crew who, working a daylight flight, seemed to be on their feet for most of those 14 hours. I spoke to one of the stewards who looked exhausted and he said he had just had his allotted half hour rest!

After our lovely visit to our family, which you can read about it my blog post here, our long journey home began with a false start that made it seem longer still. We arrived at Brisbane airport at 5.30am on Saturday 8 July only to find the airport 'closed', filled to overflowing with long queues, lost looking travelers and our flight cancelled!

Over 100 flights had been turned away from Brisbane airport the previous night due to very heavy fog.

Brisbane fog.
From the Brisbane Times. Photo: Nine News Queensland - Twitter

As a result there were no planes there to fly us to Sydney in time to catch our connection. Luckily Simon our son-in-law insisted on coming into the airport to help with our luggage and make sure that everything was okay. Things in the terminal seemed a bit disorganized. After queuing in 3 different long queues and waiting anxiously to find out when we could fly, we found we had to stay another day in Brisbane. We were lucky. Some people had to stay another 2 days.

Over on her stitching blog, Carolyn Foley commented with some photos on that unusual foggy day. You can read about it here.

Standing in the milling crowds at the airport we couldn't help thinking about all the people who had paid taxi fares to the airport or booked out of their accommodation and who were stranded. Many were sitting around on the floor with their luggage piled up next to them, most on their phones or iPads. We stood next to a troubled group of elderly musicians who were trying to keep track of their large musical instruments as well as their luggage. It's the first time something like that had happened to us and it was all surprisingly disconcerting.

Next morning we and Simon had to get up at 3.30am! We had to catch the only flight available to get us to Sydney in time for the connecting flight home - and it was very early.  I am not an early morning person and two early mornings in a row before that long trip, as well as a long day that has 32 hours instead of the usual 24, meant we were really feeling the jet lag after we arrived home. I often wish my day had more hours in it. I found it's not always a good thing after all.

But, I found one positive in all of this. In 1971 I had a short stay in Sydney on the way to visit my cousin Pixie in Condingup, Western Australia. On the day my mom and I took a bus and visited Sydney Harbour Bridge, there was a brilliant blue sky and the sparkling blue water was filled with the white sails and billowing spinnakers of hundreds of yachts. It was breathtakingly beautiful. It's been my only visit to Sydney and the spectacular sight from the bridge on that dazzling day made an impression that has stayed with me ever since.

On the approach to Sydney airport a few weeks ago, I caught unexpected glimpses of the extensive harbour, the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House through the plane window.

1. Arriving Sydney (Commons.Wikimedia)

The man in the window seat was taking videos and photos and his broad shoulders blocked out most of the view, but what I saw briefly as we circled around in the early morning light was the kind of thing you usually see only in travel brochures.

I have since found two Wiki Commons photos of the scenes I saw from the air. Neither quite matches the unforgettable glimpses I had in the fresh, clear morning sunlight. It struck me then that I would not have seen the exact same glorious view if we had caught our original flight the day before, and it was spectacular!

2. Sydney Harbour Bridge from the air ( Commons.Wikimedia)

I do wish though, that I'd asked the man at the window to take some photos for me too. I'm sure he would have understood despite him not speaking any English. Next time I'll keep my camera ready even if I'm not sitting in the window seat. I find aerial views fascinating and you never know just what you might see.

In case you were wondering, despite the delay, our the trip home was very good indeed. I'd choose to fly Qantas again anytime.

- - - - - - - -

Licence notices for photos:

1. BriYYZ from Toronto, Canada, Arriving Sydney (5423642338) (2), CC BY-SA 2.0

2. Soerfm, Sydney Harbour Bridge from the air crop, CC BY-SA 3.0

Needle Painting

Renette Kumm of Knysna, South Africa does exquisite needle painting of birds. Her beautiful Lilac Breasted Roller appears on the cover of the latest Inspirations Magazine.

Congratulations Renette!

Rockets and haircuts

I recently spent a lovely few weeks with my daughter and her family in Brisbane.  It had been three years since we'd last been together and I couldn't wait to see them all again and spend time with my grandchildren. Skype is wonderful but it's just not the same as actually being there. I have some very sweet new memories of our visit. Being there for the soccer match when Jake (6) scored his very first goal for his team was priceless.

What is it about a new colouring in book and fresh box of crayons that is so exciting?

Knowing that Jake had loved a visit to the planetarium, I told him about a Kindle book I'd enjoyed that chronicled the Apollo 11 space mission. And, we were off reading together. Although it is an adult book, he was fascinated, often reading along with me. The two of us had long conversations about rockets, space, the race to the moon and the meaning of words he didn't understand. It was amusing to have him picking me out too when I skipped bits that I thought he'd find boring! - bits about the background and politics of the time. We eventually got as far as the successful launch of the spaceship. The rest of the story is waiting for next time.

While Jake and I read, Lila (4) would listen, playing contentedly alongside of us with her mermaid doll but clearly not as deeply interested in the men going to the moon. Our chats were more about her craft work that she had carefully collected in a file, or the knots I combed out of the back of her hair. Knots she told me that the pillow made while she slept.

Like many young children, Lila is not at all keen on having her hair cut, but when I asked her for about the third time if I could cut her fringe, she agreed. I whipped out a comb and my tiny sharp embroidery scissors and before she could change her mind it was done. Anyone who knows me will be very surprised that I used my scissors for anything other than embroidery! I think the long fringe in her eyes was bothering me far more than it was Lila and I felt very privileged to be allowed to cut it.

Did I do any stitching while I was away? No, but if it counts at all, the intention was there.

The holiday flew by too quickly and it was soon time to leave for Cape Town. The day we were due to depart, things didn't go quite as smoothly as we expected and I'll post more about that next time.

Till then, happy stitching!

Lavender bookmark progress

All the cross stitch on my lavender bookmark is complete. The flowers are not exactly the same shape as those on the original pattern but I think they are close enough. I still have to add dark straight stitches to give the lavender blooms more depth and decide what to put in the empty oval at the bottom.

The last stage will be adding a ribbon backing and finally a tassel. I like that the ribbon and tassel came with the kit. It saves hunting around for the materials to give a nice finish to the bookmark.