Um, we’re flying out tomorrow; where are the passports?
I’ve been planning a trip to New Zealand with the boys and it has crept up very quickly. So quickly in fact that we were due to fly out on the Wednesday, and on Tuesday I was still down four passports. This was the culmination of a pretty intense week. I’ll get to that in a moment; first a recap on the last few weeks as it’s been a fair while since my last post.
Following the ski trip to Mt Buller with Renae and her family in late June/early July, Renae and I figured we needed a holiday without kids to recover from the holiday with kids. So we headed away for four nights to Tambourine Mountain in the Gold Coast Hinterland. What a glorious few days; plenty of good food, good wine, beer and spirits, (except for one; if you are ever offered an eucalyptus eau de vie, my recommendation is to pass. It tastes somewhat like a eau de toilette and upon reflection, being eucalyptus there was a high chance it was going to taste like toilet cleaning product!), and a lot of relaxing. Thanks so much to all who had the seven kids between us over that time.
Footy season has also kept me very busy. Jacob’s team made it through to the Grand Final which was great (apart from prolonging all the organizing, etc.). Unfortunately they lost in the final game, but it was a great experience regardless and a solid effort to get there after finishing third.
Noah’s team also finished third, winning their first-round finals match but then going down narrowly in the second round. This is similar to last season, and the season prior, and the season prior. He believes it is a curse. Perhaps, but most likely just coincidence. His season was also stretched out a little longer thanks to playing up with the Under 18’s Colts team. They finished second, but then also bowed out in the match before the grand final. Coincidence? Probably.
I was also extremely blessed for work to have organized me two tickets and flights to the Swans Preliminary final vs Collingwood. The dilemma; who to take along? I struck Thomas off the list early (sorry Thomas!); he still gets a little bored during AFL matches, and is a Brisbane Lions fan so it was a relatively easy decision. But choosing between Noah and Jacob was much harder. My first instinct would be Noah; he is a much bigger fan, watching all the Swans games while Jacob generally finds the PlayStation a little more alluring than the footy. However, the game fell right on Jacob’s Birthday. Would it be fair to take Noah to a Swans’ game on Jacob’s Birthday? But would it be fair to take Jacob to a Swans’ game and have Noah miss out even though he has watched all their matches through the whole season?
The start of the game; my camera not amazing, but the seats were!
I needed to pick as flights needed to be booked quickly. I couldn’t decide, and so chose Renae instead. I’m hoping the ski trip we have just embarked on will help to make things up with the boys; I might need to actually take a Swans membership out next year so I can have a better chance to take all the boys along.
Needless to say, Renae was quite happy with the choice, and it was lovely heading along with her. The match was amazing….ly stressful. For anyone interested you will already know why. For those that missed it, the Swans had a strong first half and went into the half time break with a healthy lead. Collingwood closed the margin a touch in the third quarter, but then came home strong in the final quarter. The Swans managing to hold on by just one point, and with multiple scoring opportunities for the Magpies in the final minutes of the game it doesn’t get much closer. I was shaking from about half-time onwards, and didn’t stop until we were back near our hotel in the pub, ordering dinner and a beer.
The next day our 9am flight home got cancelled (what a shame…) so we got to hang around in Sydney for the day. After a sleep in and a late breakfast, Renae took me up to Centrepoint Tower, slightly incredulous that I hadn’t actually been up there despite it featuring fairly heavily in Salvage! It was a clear, sunny day and a great experience to see the city from that height! Following the weekend I was feeling relaxed (apart from lingering stress from the Swan’s narrow win), and immensely grateful for the lovely weekend. And I was on holidays, with a ski trip to come; amazing!
An amazing view from Sydney Tower; thankfully not obscured by a large Dome…
Despite having started my holiday, it hadn’t been smooth sailing getting there, and there was more headwind to come before being able to get on the plane. Anyone working full time will know that a two week break generally means cramming an additional week of work into the week prior to leaving, followed by catching up on a week of work on the week after arriving back. Thankfully I work with a pretty great team at SCA (RSA shout out!) so the week prior had been intense, but I was able to leave with confidence that the team would manage in my absence.
But then there was packing for the New Zealand trip. Amongst other things, Renae had helped organize a lot of the ski-gear so that was a big load off and much appreciated. I set reminders, wrote lists (some of them also borrowed from Renae) and did my best to tick them off, gathered games and snacks for the flights, explored mobile roaming options for overseas comms, reviewed all the comms and vouchers from the Travel Agents etc. There were large loads of washing to be done, last minute purchases for additional warm clothes, etc. Everything was in order and good to go.
Except for the passports. I lodged these around eight weeks ago. I started the process around fourteen weeks ago but, apart from all the documentation required, numerous witnesses and references needed, I ran into a major problem when I couldn’t find my own birth certificate. So, I had to order a new one, paying extra to get it prioritized, but still having to wait a touch over two weeks for it to arrive. Eventually I got the applications in. Six weeks rolled by and I chased up with the APO, gave them my travel dates and they assured me the passports would be ready in time.
Friday rolled around and I got a call about mine; looks like it was being done, and with four days to spare; easy! But before heading in to pick it up, I called to see if the boys were ready and still nothing. In the afternoon Cara let me know she had missed a call from the Passport office, likely verifying her signature and permission on the forms submitted. She tried calling back multiple times but no luck. I called them also on Friday, again on Monday, but still nothing.
Tuesday morning rolled around. We were due to fly out 8am Wednesday morning and the boys’ passports had still not been completed. I called first thing in the morning but still no confirmation they had been completed. So, we jumped in the car and headed down the Bruce Highway and into the APO Brisbane office. They suggested we come back and ask again at 3:30pm, and if not, be in the office before 4pm before they shut the doors. At that stage I got the feeling that they would be sorted, but maybe they just wanted to stretch things out a little, just because! We relaxed (!) for a bit, got something to eat and headed back to the office for 3:30pm. Still not done, so we bunkered down to wait with a number of others. The doors were shut at 4pm stopping any new applicants from coming in, and still we waited. I had found street parking and paid until 4:30pm but there would be no opportunity to leave and then allow re-entry. 4:15pm ticked past and still we waited. Eventually they came at about 4:20pm about sixteen hours before we were due to fly out. Never in doubt…
So I’m writing most of this on the plane heading to Queenstown, on holiday and finally able to relax! Except for it being a skiing holiday with just me and the three boys, who have never skied before, in a country we have never been to. It will be amazing, no doubt, but maybe relaxing is not quite the right way to describe it. Anyway, see you on the other side, hopefully with a bunch of great photos and even better memories.
On our way!