Sometimes it seems that everything goes wrong, despite our best efforts to make things right. We can do everything in our power to make something work but … different plans happen! And that is exactly what happened for Marc and me.

Our Easter break holiday day looms, packing is complete, luggage loaded, dogs and cats fed and left for their house sitter, goodbyes texted to family …and we are on our way. Plane departure for Sydney from Brisbane to connect to your international flight 6:05pm. Plenty of time!!
Well that’s what we thought too!

Great trip on the road. Even though it was Good Friday the road north was easy driving (traffic south was another story) and our allowance of time for that, assisted with an easy arrival at the domestic departure lounge. We settled into the business lounge with a book and a coffee for the required two hours prior to travel allowance. Yes … books out, glasses on, coffee in hand…smiling lovingly at each other…. with  thoughts communicating between us … of Easter Break holiday here we come.

1^st Delusion: Flight to Sydney delayed.
Oh – though only by 10 minutes, with a two-hour window connection to the international flight…so that’s ok. Oh, now its 15 minutes. Book still in hand for Marc – but the nervousness starts to creep in for myself as I am now starting to observe the time …just a little bit. The blue and purple departure screen depicts a delay of 25 minutes, now that was getting tighter as our international connection time is beginning to creep away between domestic and international. Conversely, my feet begin to pace around the waiting lounge while my eyes are watching the digital clock on the screen intensely, praying for it not to stretch its digital interval hands out any further while awaiting simultaneously for the turn-around plane from Sydney to arrive (delayed of course). There it is… “Landed”….and yes, we are off and down the stairs to the departure gate. Hello Sydney…don’t fret, don’t panic, be of no concern as we are on our way…. here we come!

2^nd Delusion: Transit Bus time
Flight lands, door opens, walking as fast but as sedately as possible we rush to the international transfer bus lounge to reach our final gate for departure. Empty foyer except for one airline female attendant at the desk who  informs us of a 25-minute wait for the next bus. Watches checked. Looks of concerns but still ‘do-able’; other people enter the room as we once more sit in the chairs provided and wait.

Do you know, the bus was actually outside all the time! But the access doors were shut. It was not until two irate belated passengers arrive and head to the transit doors. Who were these persons, we did not know but this slow nonchalant airline person suddenly became animated, sprints up and opens the access doors for these passengers? Following their lead, we are out the same door and as we jump on the bus, (not that jumping first on the bus is going to make the trip any quicker but the thought was there….) the driver says- “Ticket please?”
‘What ticket? ‘
‘The one to get on the bus.’
Looks of dismay and frustration shared between us as we bound off the bus, espying other passengers lined up with this glowing red ticket in their hot little hands, who were now moving into the required means of transport, as we hasten back to the transit lounge to the singular transit lady in red, who actually had ample time 25 minutes ago to give us our tickets but had not deigned to share this wonderful most important piece of information with us but obviously had with the others! We are now the last passengers onto the bus, everyone is waiting for us, but now we had those red-hot tickets in hand, and we handed these prize possessions to the driver. What did he do? Passed the now counted group of red tickets, just collected, back to the transit lounge lady. Oh please …he just could have stood up and completed a head count!

Bus rolls forward. Once more on our way. We can see the international terminal building in the short distance, but do we head that way- NO! The bus instead circumnavigates the entire airport before eventually slowing to a 10 km crawl for the last part of the  journey. Connection time is really ticking away- definitely much faster than the 10 km speed limit we were going. You know, I could have walked there faster!

3^rd Delusion: Security
Bus parks. We race up the stairs to pass through immigration as expected. Are the open desks close to us…no they are at the far end of the immigration hall? Tell me, why did we ever think it would be any other way? Breathing fast, we conceded that was okay as we knew what to do…been there – done it all before…easy!
Easy?  Wrong word definitely.

I breeze through but instead of the usual screening, Marc is asked by an officer to actually step into the security screening booth, you know the kind where you have to spread your legs and place your hands in the air. X-ray sweep done are we on our way? No, as the X-ray scanning machine does not work…the computer had to be rebooted….and he had to stay because he had to go in again! Time ticking. Heading to the USA they do not trust you one bit! There are so many different security points to negotiate. But we are not yet clear of security.

The boarding time for our plane had already commenced. But with absolutely no regard for our plea of ‘our plane is already boarding’, once again, Marc gets taken to one side for an explosives check. The American security attendant smiles and states “Oh you’ll be fine, they’ll board the ones who need help first and then the business people and will simply take ages to get to you” …Really!

Inwardly I exclaim, “Hey lady, we are Business class-that’s what we paid our money for, to not have to wait…”, while outwardly smiling all the time politely at this USA security person with her explosives swab wand in hand. Not the person you really wish to offend.
Our two Two-hour , plenty of time connection window…. what happened to that!!!!!!!!!!!

Plane departure gate looms at us as we race around the corner. People everywhere…waiting patiently for their turn to board. And with no time to spare at all we hear those magic long awaited most endearing words of the day…” Zone 1 passengers you may now board.”
Hey ‘Zone, 1’- that’s us.
WE made it!!!
Smiling at each other as the heavy breathing, raised pulses, annoyance of rising panic gradually begin to subside as we now exhale calmly to move forward to the boarding pass scanner.
 
Delusion No 4: Passes incorrect
The line moves. Boarding pass and passport in hand, onto the scanner. Red light and a long beep flash! Really! WE just got here; we are not on the plane…now what! An attendant pulls us to one side – “ we need a document check please”.

Frantic panicky words of ‘Didn’t we just go through all that security? Didn’t we just submit to immigration and Marc with a full body screening, didn’t we just have our photos checked at security. …we are who we are… we had no time in this mad rush to hand them to anyone else…oh come on …what could possibly now be wrong” flash through my mind as I smile meekly and ever so sweetly at this male attendant.
Breathing escalating again, he then scans his computer screen, our  passports, our names, walks away to another computer, scans again, walks back to us in our lonely section away from the people who were actually boarding, and then with no word of explanation hands us back two stub of passes and waves us on! Confused, we walk down the air bridge onto the plane. At least we are almost there! I can see the lovely Hawaiian ladies in the cabin entrance ahead, I can feel the blue sky of Waikiki beckoning, I can feel the holiday about to begin…

A flight steward looks at our tickets and directs us to the right. I look at Marc. I look at our passes…no we are supposed to be entering from the sky bridge towards the front of the plane…but that’s not happening. Aware of the stunned disbelieving looks on our faces, the steward looks again at our passes and redirects us to where we are supposed to sit. I wonder whether it was the added tinge of rising annoyance in my face that gave it away??
We enter the plane.
We are both directed to the left of the cabin…
The host smiles at us with an Aloha….
We look for our seat….
And then for the first time we notice that our boarding passes are for different seating rows.
I was nowhere near my husband for this trip!!!
The prospect of a nine-hour plane flight seated next to an absolute stranger was the final straw for me.
I couldn’t do this! Tears welled. Yes, it all simply got the better of me. I lost it.
We appeal to the flight attendant and as I explained in a tearful voice our pre-flight emotional trials and now this mix-up ….

For the first time that day someone actually turned to me and started to help. With her beautiful Hawaiian accent and her smiling face turned to me and pronounced, “It will be alright”.
It was.
And as the plane took off, we were in our new seats ‘together’. The male stranger who the airline had ticketed to sit next to me for the flight kindly agreed to swaps seats prior to the flight. Finally, with drinks in hand, to make our day, the flight manager informed us that our seats home on their airline would definitely be together.

So sometimes, everything can seem to go wrong but, but with a bit, correct that, a lot of optimism and a bit of faith, sometimes everything can still turn out okay in the end.
As said in the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, “It will be alright in the end, and, if it is not alright, it is not yet the end.”
No- its not the end…Hawaii….at long last…here we come.