A really bad day...

It's sometimes hard to put into words what you feel or have experienced - and I really feel this about my time in Brisbane.

It was so good to spend time with people I know.

There's something about being with friends and family that you don't get very often with causal acquaintances on the road. (Although one really great thing is there are people I'm now in regular contact with who I have met on the way, and I guess that's how friendships develop).

Thanks go to Doug and Maria, Tatts and Anne, and Jenny and Dave for a great week.

Particular thanks go to Jenny and Dave who basically arranged everything and drove me around the highlights.

And that's why my last day on the Gold Coast was a bad day. Although it was about to get a whole lot worse.

I'd checked my flight times the day before, and we'd worked out that we could have a leisurely start, lunch on the way, before getting to the airport.

When I woke up, I pulled out the ticket just to see how long the flight was going to be, only to discover that I'd been looking at the arrival time - not the departure time. And to make it worse, the departure time was only an hour away.

I knew I could change my ticket - but some other people I'd spoken to with the same ticket as me had had to wait three weeks for the next flight, and it had cost them to make the changes.

Dave suggested that I call the airline company, and after being on hold for ages, I was glad to be told that the flight had been moved back an hour. Which still left it tight - but doable. So we rushed around, jumped in the car, and drove to the airport.

After running across the car park to the check in desk I was told that I'd missed the last check in by a few minutes, and would have to get another flight.

So we ran over to the help desk and without any questions they booked me on the next flight - which was an hour later. We managed to get a coffee and then I said goodbye to Jenny and Dave and got on the plane to Melbourne.