The Thomas': Superbikes 2010 Trip

Saturday morning, we're up at 6am as seems to be the standard these days... (Yay for sleeping past 5am Blake!!!).... we've got 5hrs before we have to be on the flight to Brisbane (and then on to Melbourne obviously, just figured if I said flight to Melbourne someone would nit pick about the fact that that isn't where the 11am flight went.... and yes, 11:05am flight for the nit pickers!)

Anyway, got up, had breakfast.... Blake was clingy (as has also been the standard for the past few weeks... (Yay Teething!!)) - - got Rob to come upstairs to try to detach a puggle so that I could go and shower....

Got Jade ready for gymnastics and got Blake to sleep - that left me a couple of hours to do a last check on making sure we'd packed everything we needed for the trip - baby monitor - etc..... and before Rob and Jade got back from gymnastics - I got all but one of the suitcases downstairs... the reason I didn't get it downstairs was that I still had to pack Blake's cot-mobile-projector into the suitcase... can't go anywhere without that - it's guaranteed to get him to sleep at night and worth the hassle of carting it......

So, when it was time to get going - I took his projector off his cot and packed it in an attempt to wake him... my attempt worked - so, got blake up - got him changed packed up the rubbish from the bin to put in the wheelie bin and headed downstairs to get in the car....

You're supposed to arrive 60mins early for your flight, but in Gladstone, apparently no one follows this rule, we arrived 35mins early and we definitely weren't the last to check in.....

Flight to Brissy was "ok" - Blake was a bit cranky but settled for most of the flight, I wasn't looking forward to the 2hr flight from Brissy to Melbourne...

We arrived at Brissy airport with 45min til the next flight - so we headed to the Qantas Lounge (Rob's now a member, lar-di-dah....) - but they had a baby room and we didn't have to wait for someone else to use it... we didn't have time to really sit and enjoy it in there - I went in - got Blake changed, made him a bottle for the second flight and it was pretty much time to get going again....

For the first 10mins or so of the Bris-Mlb flight - Blake was really fidgety.... I really was dreading the trip at this point.... and then - he just settled down and went to sleep.... it was only for an hour... but it was worth it - when he woke - he was happy.... and then Rob took him for a walk up and down the aisle.... he was a hit with all the Stewardesses (no male ones - so we don't have to worry about being politically correct - do we???) However you want to say it, they liked him... he's a little charmer....

We arrived in Melbourne and the Hire Car Company came to collect us to take us back to our car (it's actually significantly cheaper than getting a car directly from one of the places at the airport...) - - we got a Kia Carnival this trip - it's SOOOOOOOOOoo nice - to the point that Rob's been checking out their specs to see whether it's worth trading the Prado and changing to this type of vehicle....

Anyway, when we were about to leave the hire car place - rob asked what bag the tom tom was in... "in the black suitcase - not the bag - the suitcase one" he came back in "I've been through it - it's not in there" - now I know I'd packed it.... so I go out and Rob's emptied the black bag... so then I'm starting to think that he simply doesn't listen to me.. I go to prove to him that I did pack it.... and hrm.... there's no black suitcase.... ahhhh crap.... I guess we didn't pick it up at the airport....

So we finish everything with the hire car people.... and Rob dropped me back at the airport to go and get our suitcase... it wasn't there... then I looked at my ticket where they've put a sticker for each item of luggage - and there are only 4 stickers, 2 big suitcases, 1 black bag, 1 pram..... AHHH CRAP!!!

so, I phoned damian "can you please check the prado and see if there's a suitcase still in there???" "nope...." AHHHH CRAP!!!! the suitcase is still sitting on the floor in our lounge room waiting to be taken downstairs to be put INTO the prado to be taken TO the airport to be put ONTO the plane... AHHHHHHHHHH CRAP!!!!!

So, once you've had a tom tom - you never want to go back to street directories..... so we went and bought another tom tom.... and then the day started to look better.... the other things in the bag we've managed to borrow off Narelle and have had to buy Jade undies (cause hers were in there too..... )

So, our "we'll get to Narelle's place by 5:30 or so" ended up being 7pm.... we got there, ate the meal she'd prepared for us.... and headed back to the Caravan Park at 8pm or so... the kids were absolutely worn out after such a big day - they were asleep within about 10mins....