Europe 2010 – Plane - Day 0

Hello from the plane. Let me preface this by saying I think it's a bit silly when a travel diary starts on the flight but this is a story that can't go un-diarised.

It starts with the part where I'm in transit without my husband. John and I are meant to be going to Paris, meeting Jo then the three of us go to Mykonos to meet Nancy but that's not what's happened so far. Two weeks ago, John sustained an elbow injury at a Karate competition. Two days ago, we find out Johns elbow is broken and into surgery he goes to have the elbow manipulated back into place via metal plates. So revised plan is I go meet Jo in Paris, John joins us in Mykonos.

Now, at this stage the next question would be 'why isn't Jo on the same flight if you're going to Paris together' which is a good question and best answered by my trip on frequent flyer points 'rewarding' me for my patronage by making me fly Sydney to Paris via New York for a refuel. This is how flight issue no.1 came about. I didn't realise that me standing in an American airport while the plane is refuelled, required a visa. That's right, I don't even go as far as customs but I need a visa. 'Don't worry' said the lady at check in 'this happens all the time, go to that Esta counter over there to fill in a quick online form and a visa usually clears straight away but if it doesn't, your flight doesn't leave for 2 hours so you'll be 100% fine.' The application wouldn't clear for whatever reason. The same check in woman called the mothership of Esta (which was in Hawaii I think she said). But, no, can't clear a visa for me.

QANTAS put me on another flight, flight no.2. When I went to check in for that one, I was told "the call centre shouldn't have done that, your booking was logged 40 minutes before takeoff and all flights close 45 minutes before takeoff - sorry can't let you on". So I waited and waited.

Finally, I got a flight - Sydney to the UK with a connecting flight to Paris, Flight no.3. Flight 3 started as a success - it left on time. Then problem no.1, TVs weren't working therefore 9 hours of staring at a wall. There wasn't even a person sitting beside me, I had the row to myself, otherwise I would have forced some innocent person to exchange life stories with me. Problem no. 2, as we landed there was an announcement that the TVs not working were part of a greater electrical problem so we would not be getting back onto the same plane to go to the UK as  that one had to go in for repairs. Problem no 3 – the plane we were reallocated to, which was coming across from Perth, didn't arrive as when it was flying across Darwin a lady had a seizure. Due to the minimal medical resources available in Darwin, rather than take the woman to Darwin hospital they plane went back to Perth. Problem no.4 - By the time the Perth plane arrived for the UK, we were 3 hours behind schedule (which isn't too bad actually). However, my problem was I was meant to arrive in the UK and get on a connecting flight to Paris all within an hour. Not possible now to make that plane due to the late arrival time! Problem no.5 (you guessed it) I did arrive late in Heathrow and missed the Paris connection. So here, I sit waiting to board my revised flight connecting from UK to Paris.  If my luggage makes it to Paris at the same time I arrive this will be a miracle!