An account of what happened before my 7 days vacation trip to Sydney in 2002. Unfortunately I didn’t complete the write-up, work got in the way. It has been 8 years since then. Memories are a little bit fuzzy by now. Maybe someday I will get to complete the story.
For now, this is what I found from my email archive, something which I wrote to a few friends to tell them about the trip and a promise to write more later, which I have yet to do ...
Day -1 (Tues July 2 2002)
Took out all required items for trip and placed on the floor beside suitcase. Completed task around 12 midnight. No energy left to do the actual packing. Decided to go to sleep.
Day 0 (Wed July 3 2002)
Received e-mail from Eric (designated driver to the airport. Volunteered to drive Mei Leng & I to the airport in exchange for chocolates with almond). E-mail states that
Mei Leng & I will pick you up at your house at 6.00 pm sharp. Do you think you would be home by then ? I am fully aware that you would not willingly leave the office early in view of your long departure from your workplace, hence here is the reminder.
Mei Leng & I will pick you up at your house at 6.00 pm sharp. Do you think you would be home by then ? I am fully aware that you would not willingly leave the office early in view of your long departure from your workplace, hence here is the reminder.
He does have a way with words. To this charming email, I replied to tell him not to panic but I have not finished with my packing. However, all items are on the floor just beside the suitcase. No reply from him. I hope he has not fainted.
Left the office at 4.10 p.m. Reached my place at 4.45 p.m. Shower and pack suitcase. Mission accomplished at 5.55 p.m., with 5 minutes to spare, once again demonstrating my ability (to the unsuspecting world) to pack at the very last minute.
Sound of approaching car. Eric is here, with Mei Leng. My handphone rings. It's Michael from office. Answered his question regarding some programme changes. Then transfer my stuff to Eric's car and we were on our way to the airport.
I can't believe that I'm actually on my way and... have not finished reading my travel guide on Sydney. This is a disaster ! As is obvious by now, not only must I excel at packing at the very last minute, I must also excel at speed-reading. I am only slightly comforted by the thought that I will have 1.5 hours at the airport to do some reading.
Eric drops us off at the arrival hall. He realised his mistake and was very apologetic. We assured him it was alright and it was no problem for us to take the lift to the departure hall.
Fortunately I know my way around the airport building quite well. There is no danger of being lost. I have to admit it's a large place and I haven't been to another airport of this immense size. But then again I've not been to Heathrow or JFK or the new HK airport so perhaps KLIA's size is not that spectacular in comparison.
What I do like about the airport is the cleanliness, the design and the glass structure. What all of us dislike about it: the long journey to get there.
Settled down at the departure lounge to start on my "speed-reading". Time flies when one is performing under pressure...
All too soon it's time to board the plane. Continued with my reading. Surely I should not be feeling this stressed just before the start of my vacation ??
Eight hours later, touch down at Sydney airport at 5 AM in the morning.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Sydney picture is from
http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/places/images/photos/photo_lg_sydney.jpg
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