Day 64: 5/3/13
I was up early this morning to finish my packing. I had to sew the front of the rucksack onto the main part as the zip that attaches them kept opening under the strain! It often opened on me before when it wasn't that packed. There are clips attaching it anyway but I'd prefer if the zip couldn't open!! That took a whole because te bag was so full it was hard to get the needle through it!
Shane called over (after his car wouldn't start and he had to bother one of the other lads cars!!) around 9 and we made our way to the cathedral for 10am Mass. It was raining on and off so we drove, but I didn't know how to get there driving! We figured it out anyway and found a car park nearby. We walked around in circles a little bit as the roads looked different coming from the other side! We found it anyway with 15 minutes to spare. We went into the main part of the cathedral and the Mass was actually on there. It was busy there today- 10am on a Tuesday must be the Mass to be at. There was a priest organising bits and pieces before Mass. We were sitting near where he left the bread and wine and he asked us if we'd like to bring up the gifts. We both looked at each other and he asked if we knew when to bring them up. I hesitated, thinking about it and Shane said no so he said that was fine and moved on to two older women in front of us. We probably should have brought them up but at least we were there at Mass! The priest brought out the communion in a monstrance at the end of the Mass and I thought there was going to be some kind of benediction or something, but after waving some inscence at it, he brought it off with him again! We lit a candle each then and headed off.
We went for breakfast nearby and rang Mam and Dad for an update. They were just after going to bed but not asleep yet. Mam seems to be still sick so hopefully she'll get better soon. Dad said the removal went well- there was a constant stream of people for the two hours in the crying room and they had the prayers and things after. The gaa did a guard of honour (they also have a message on Facebook) and people from all different associations she was involved in all turned up. It's good that she got a great send off. I presume they went to Rafterys after but I forgot to ask. Shane was chatting to Dad then for a while. Dad was very concerned about how many beaus Alva had at the funeral!! It was 1am their time when we were talking to them so time for them to be getting some sleep with the funeral in the morning! Shane was talking about the year their house went on fire. They were still working on the house in the summer and the turf needed to be don't aswell. Himself, Padraig and Sean went down to foot it and when they got there it was all done. Nana had cycled down and finished it! She's something else!!
Shane was going to bring me to the airport aswell so we reckoned we'd get a move on as we had to go back to my house to get my bags. We were parked in a multistorey and we couldn't find a place to pay. Eventually we got in the car and drove down until we found one. Shane was paying with his card but it wouldn't accept it. We drove to another machine and it still wouldn't work! I tried with my card and it wouldn't accept it either. We didn't have enough cash between us to pay for it- it was $58, scandalous... And we only there a few hours!! I had to go out and find an ATM and take money out of Shane's card, pay for the token and find him again!! We were very glad when the barrier lifted and they let us out of the place!! It had taken at least a half an hour to do that!!
We drove back to the house first for tr bags. We were a bit confused as i had never driven there and I walk over a pedestrian bridge- dont think we could bring the car on it!! It was actually easier than we thought and once Shane figured out where we were he knew exactly where to go! We had plenty of time to make the flight but I wanted to be early as I had a feeling my bag was going to be way too heavy and would take a bit of sorting. Shane thought the rucksack alone had to be near 35kg, which was all I had paid for. It seemed awfully heavy to me too! We drove there no bother anyway and he dropped me outside the check in place.
The bags are very heavy carrying them all at once- ill earn my bed tonight! When I got to the counter I put up the rucksack and it said 26kg. The smaller bag said 9.6kg. The check in girl said nothing about weight and I kept going!! I didn't think I would have gotten away with it!! I don't know if the rucksack is only 26kg or if it hadnt been on the scale properly or what, but I won't complain!!! There's a lot of stuff that I have for teaching that I won't need to bring with me when I'm going to Asia or home so ill never need that much luggage again! Thankfully!
I had over an hour and a half then before boarding- loads of time!! They announced that they were changing the gate for the flight and then an hour later announced that they were changing it back, so I don't know what they were at!
The plane was delayed by about 20 minutes but we made good enough time to Melbourne. The company Tiger airways is like the Ryan air of Australia. When we landed we drove past all the other companies and landed in the back arse of the airport. They had their own terminal which meant that they had a shed with a carousel in it! There were no staff or anything! There was a little wooden hut with toilets. There was only one wall on the shed and the other three sides were blocked off with wire so the outside people couldn't come in. There were people outside it that had come to collect people looking in through the wire. It was like a concentration camp or something- very strange! I had to walk to Terminal 3 with the big bags. It wasn't too far but was still a struggle- more the fact that it was hard to manage them all together than anything! I got the Skybus to one of the stations in the city. I could have gotten two different trains to Laura's house but I didn't think I'd manage with the bags so I got a taxi instead. It worked out at only $17 so wasn't too bad! The taxi driver had trouble lifting the rucksack into the boot so I definitely think it is well over 26kg!! I'm not complaining!!!
Laura had cooked dinner and we'd a nice evening sitting around the table chatting. I told her and Jamie all about Nana and the funeral- I'd say I was talking for ages! They were probably dying to go to her with work in the morning- oops! Laura has had teaching the last few days so that sounds more promising than last week!
Tomorrow I have to really attack this job scenario and see what I might do! It feels weird to be flying around the country and thinking about jobs and stuff when Nanas funeral is on at home. Hopefully everyone is okay today and things go as Nana would have wanted.