8.1.23
Minnippi
Mr D picked me up just after 6 and we collected Mr P on our way through. Typical summer morning, not much going on bird-wise. Most notable - a pair of Buff-banded Rails showing well with 2 chicks underfoot and 4 Tawny Frogmouths perched up in a well leaved tree near the bridge over the creek – pointed out to us by two non-birding walkers.
A few butterflies including Chequered Swallowtail (2), Blue Triangle (1), White-banded Plane (3), Scarlet Jezebel (1) and a selection of blues.
Several Water Dragons basked along the creek and 20 or so Macquarie Turtles peered hopefully through the water surface near the boardwalk.
The highlight of the morning was, undoubtedly, the (approx) one meter Red-bellied Black Snake crossing the cement path as we walked back towards the car. It was most likely a young snake, but very clearly marked – a beautiful animal and very active.
IRELAND
29.1.23 - 10.3.23
Day 1 Sunday 29.1.23
Here we go again! Ireland yet again. Another 24 hour, 2 stage flight. This time with Qatar airways. The last time I flew Qatar was on a one-way ticket from Dublin back to Brisbane in June 2020, during the pandemic. That ticket had cost me the same as this return trip - $2,100, give or take. This time the plane was full – that time everyone had free seats around them and the aircrew were all dressed in full PPE.
I had ordered the Uber for 19.15, with the flight scheduled to depart at 22.55. Dong picked me up on time and took me to the International terminal, at my request, toll-free - as I said to him, I’d rather give him a tip than pay the government.
I joined the bag drop queue at 19.50 and was quickly processed. The Qatar woman on the counter claimed to be half-Irish and was very pleasant. Although she couldn’t give me a free upgrade, she DID get me a window seat to replace the aisle seat I had booked via check-in. (She also managed to contrive a vacant seat beside me, which made the resulting flight even more comfortable. I don’t know if she did that some way deliberately, but that’s how it worked out anyway)
So I was through to the duty free area by 20.15 – all very quiet. Purchased my usual tobacco – 250 gms or 5 x 50 gm packs for $130 – about $5 more than I would pay for ONE pack in the shops.
No further comment.
Got a coffee and settled down to await boarding.
This trip is not a particularly exciting trip. No European adventures planned. No particularly exciting bird prospects. It’s a Call of Duty really.
The live-in carer who stays at Dale Rd was going home to Chile for a month’s holiday and I offered to ‘house/Mother-sit’ while she was away. Mum will still have carers coming three times a day for the usual feeding and dressing/undressing frenzies, but she’s got used to having someone in the house, at night particularly, so I’m it. I guess in some ways I’m trying to make up, in a small way, for the amount of work my sister has done over the years. I can never make it all up, but maybe this goes some way towards that. It does free Lorraine up to go away for a couple of weeks – she’s off to Spain – without having to call Vivian every day.
Am I looking forward to it? Not particularly. It’s become a bit humdrum. But realistically there’s little going on ‘at home’ and it does get me out of the freaking heat and humidity in Brisbane in February. I hate it and am looking forward to temperatures not exceeding 12c degrees, leaving behind a week of 30c+ every day.
I haven’t been very motivated since I came back from Antarctica. I’m not sure if that’s because that trip was so intense or for other reasons, but I haven’t done anything much over the last two months. Maybe it’s the weather? Maybe it’s just a lack of interest? I don’t know. However I am looking forward to re-visiting favourite birding locations – Kilcoole, Newcastle, the West Pier, Tachumshin, Carnsore Pt etc – and catching up with Mr H. I won’t be travelling more than a day’s return travel from Dublin as I will need to be there each night – that’s the whole point of course – but there should be enough to keep me occupied – I hope.
I had asked Lorraine if I could use Karin (the live-in carer)’s car while she was away – offering to pay E50/week and the extra insurance costs. This had been arranged and so I would have the use of that car from 30th January to 27th February. I had then organised to pick up another hire car at the airport from 27th February until 10th March to cover the last few days after Karin gets back. The arrangement saved me some money and I’m used to the car as it was originally Mum’s, then Aisling’s, now Karin’s……
I gave Dong 5 stars and a $5 tip and went for a smoke.
Day 1 (continued) Monday 30.1.23
The flight passed uneventfully, what with the window seat and empty seat beside me I managed to sleep quite a bit.
We landed in Doha at 6.40 – when the flight to Dublin was supposedly starting to board. I hustled off the plane as quickly as the crowds allowed (6.50) and followed the horde through interminable corridors and then a security check – with the usual delays and hassles – 7.05.
I identified the gate I needed to be at and headed that way, marching through duty free and food areas, along moving walkways and generally moving pretty quickly. It was a fair walk, but I did need the toilet and stopped off for that necessity.
Unfortunately that probably made the difference.
The Dublin flight was due to leave at 7.40. I got to the gate at 7.30 to find the flight had closed. I reckon I missed it by no more than 5 minutes, possibly less. The gate area was crowded with several gates all jammed into one small space. I may have even been in the wrong queue for a couple of minutes – there were no announcements or pages, nothing to suggest they were waiting for anyone or that the flight was closing.
FUCK.
I marched back through the concourse to the ‘customer service’ desk and vented my spleen - they told me they would ‘waive the non-appearance fee’ I told them they bloody should – and then booked me onto the next flight – at midnight.
So I was stuck with an 18 hour wait.
In Doha airport.
Not happy Jack.
My, potentially, shortest trip ever Brisbane to Dublin (23.5 hours), had turned into the longest trip ever (41+ hours).
So much for their claim of being ‘the best airline in the world’ – the whole thing reeked of disorganized chaos. They KNEW I was transitioning from one flight to another - the whole trip was booked as one ticket, yet they made no allowances for a short turnaround? Or contemplate holding the flight to ensure everyone made it? During the day they repeatedly advised that the gates all closed 20 minutes before the departure time. That suggested that the gate for my missed flight closed at 7.20, allowing a bare 40 minutes from actually wheels on the ground on my previous flight, to get to the gate. It had taken me 10 minutes just to get off that bloody plane, then another 15 to get through the security check.
My bag had, apparently, already been off loaded – you’d think they would have announced something if they had to offload my bag?? – and was already booked on the next flight? WTF?
FUCK AGAIN.
I had a smoke (thankfully they do have smoking rooms) got a Costa coffee and cheese croissant and contacted Lorraine to bring her up to date. The wifi kept going on and off – I had to re-log on all the time – very frustrating, bloody hopeless. I found a charging station to re-charge my phone and ponder the errors of my ways, Qatar airways, and the frustrations and annoyances of the whole situation. I wasn’t worried about the delay – it didn’t affect me in any way except for having to spend a day sitting in an airport.
I had said I would take Karin to the airport on the 31st – the next day. Now I wasn’t sure if I’d get there in time to do that.
I wasn’t worried about being picked up from the airport – if Lorraine couldn’t do it, I’d just get a bus.
It was all so annoying.
So passed the longest day of my life.
I’ll probably laugh about it in years to come, but it was the longest 18 hours I hope I ever spend anywhere. I never want to see Doha airport again.
I had a coffee every few hours, read my E-reader, watched videos I had downloaded from Stan – Better Call Saul and a thing called Justified – walked around the duty free areas pushing my little baggage trolley feeling like one of the homeless, trying to stay awake, completely paranoid I would miss the next flight and never see daylight again.
Finally at 23.15 the gate was up on the board and I made my way to C39. The scheduled departure was 01.15, boarding at 00.15 supposedly, I was there, ready to go at 23.30.
I just hoped my check-in bag travelled with me.
Boarding began, suddenly, at 00.00 - 'quickly Zone 1, boarding' some greasy little man shouted. No announcements, no professionalism.
It didn't matter what zone you were in because we all just got shoved onto a bus anyway.
Despite the hundreds of boarding gates that appeared to not be in use, we were shuttled onto buses and driven around on an airport tour for 20 minutes before we found our plane. Pretty poor performance at one o’clock in the morning at an airport that claims to be the best in the world. There were the usual number of little kids and babies and elderly and everyone was tired and testy at one am.
The flight left 15 minutes late and, more frustrating from my perspective, passengers were still boarding up to the original departure time of 01.15. Go figure.
I will never fly Qatar airways again if I can avoid it.
I had always held them in relatively high esteem in the middle-eastern airways set - ie Etihad, Emirates & Qatar. Now, however, I would rate them the bottom of the pack. Not entirely because I missed the connection - I do accept some responsibility for going to the toilet - but more for their lack of empathy and customer service skills, the lousy food - very under average - and the general lack of customer service even on board the aircraft. Overall I was left with the impression they just couldn't give a shit. Well, I just paid over $2,000 to fly with them and won't be doing that again - apart, of course, for the return trip in 6 weeks time, when there is a 2 hour+ transition time in Doha.
On a side note their baggage limit was 25kg. It's always been 30kg on the same route. I don't know if Etihad and Emirates have down-graded their baggage limits too - it may have something to do with the current price of fuel? It wasn't a problem for me as I had left clothes in Ireland so didn't need to bring 'everything' but it could be an issue especially when packing winter clothes.
Day 2 Tuesday 31.1.23
I had had another window seat - having had one on the missed connection, I had specifically requested a replacement - and, again, had an empty seat between me and the dude in the aisle. I did, surprisingly, manage to sleep for several hours during the flight.
We arrived in Dublin, finally, at 06.20, a very quick transition through customs and my bag did arrive OK, so I was out of the airport well before 7. It was dark, damp, windy and only 8c degrees and I could see my breath! Beautiful!
I bought a return ticket on the Aircoach (20 euro), got on board the next one at 7.25 and arrived at 50 Dale Rd at 8.30.
Spent the morning with Mum, unpacking, and chatting to Karin. At 13.00 I drove Karin to the airport for her 18.00 flight to Santiago, Chile via Madrid then dropped into Aldi to pick up a few groceries. It was still cold and windy, but the sun was shining and the sky more or less cloud-free.
Trip List: 10
