Off we go....

Isn't it strange that you plan for months, pack for days and then have stress getting away (where did I put my...., have we got ....).

Then there's the consistent joy of airports. We arrived at the ticket counter and got the "could I please have your tickets" question. Problem is that we thought that we have electronic tickets and Qantas was pretty insistent that they sent us paper tickets way back in October. Simple resolution ... wait in another queue and get some paper tickets. OK, done. At least we had this problem in an English-speaking country.

Now the outstanding problem is the "your flight has been delayed by the late arrival of your aircraft" (not a great example of getting to the root cause of the problem, but that's all we are likely to get). Looks like a delay of an hour or more. Thank heaven for the Qantas Club....