Sunday 4th January , 2009

It's taken me since arriving home on December 23rd to get my head around completing my blog. I will blame jet-lag...

Christmas was good. I sang at St Paul's Burwood,on Christmas Eve and then on Christmas Day we had lunch at my sister-in-laws at West Pennant Hills. Went back up to Newcastle with my sister and her family for a few days and since then have been home trying to sort out everything and seeing friends etc.

Back to work at Glebe Library tomorrow. Have been in to see 'the girls' and I must congratulate Susan and the staff for doing a fantastic job while I was away. Well done, Ladies.



Now, back to my travels-



TUESDAY 9th December.

Did more packing and then went up to Edmonton Green to meet Ernie at work and go out to "The Lamb' pub with his library colleagues . It was a fun night . Liz Hart (UK President of IAML and the one who had given me so many contacts in the UK) came along as well as several others who I hope will come and see me 'down under' one day. They are feeling apprehensive as London Borough of Enfield is going ahead with yet another re-structure and sadly the library is bound to suffer, yet again.



WEDNESDAY , 10th December

More packing and then headed off to Greenwich (on the bus about 15 mins) to meet up with Kevin, a former colleague at Brent Libraries, now retired. We had a lovely lunch overlooking the Thames at the Trafalgar Tavern, whose speciality was whitebait, so we indulged.

In the evening I took Ernie to his local Wetherspoons pub in Woolwich for dinner . Then home for an early night - my last in the UK.



THURSDAY , 11th December

Up early and Ernie came with me to Heathrow to help me with my luggage .I never would have made it otherwise as we had to get the bus to North Greenwich station then the tube (Jubilee line) to Green Park and change to the Piccadilly line for Heathrow. As it was rush hour this was not an easy task and also there are steps and escalators everywhere to be negotiated.

My plane was leaving from terminal 1 so had to get a tube that went to 1,2,3 & 5 rather than 4&1,2,3 as the train waits 10 minutes at Terminal 4, for some reason. This proved hazzardous as the trains were packed and also they kept changing the destinations, however, we finally got there about 10-ish for my 12noon flight to NY. Ernie dropped me at the check-in and headed off to catch the 12noon train from Euston to Burnley.

No worries checking in and I successfully boarded the plane . (Now prepare yourselves for a saga, dear reader.)

However, it was delayed getting away from Heathrow and we arrived in Washington, where I had to change, three quarters of an hour late. I noticed on my boarding pass that the time of my flight from Washington to NY had changed and was now much earlier . EEEK ! This meant hardly any time to go through Immigration and Customs which you have to do on your first landing in the USA.

The girl next to me was also starting to panic as she had a connecting flight to New Orleans. (she lives in Croatia) To our complete dismay when we got to Immigration the queue was miles long and we had to stand in it for at least an hour. By then the scheduled time for both our planes had been and gone. Finally got through grabbed our bags from the carousel and went through Customs . Someone just grabbed my bag on the other side and said TRANSIT ! I said YES and consequently saw my suitcase disappear down a conveyor belt . Would I ever see it again ???

No-one seemed to know if flights had gone or not and there was a great deal of chaos. So I made my way to a United Airlines Info. booth and here again the queue was a mile long. Apparently the weather was bad with heavy rain and so flights were being delayed and cancelled all over the place. Finally someone came and told us to use a screen and a phone to find out what had happened to our flights and so I did. Found out my flight had not left and she gave me a gate to go to , so off I headed . Finally arrived at the gate 2 hours after de-planing. AAAGH !



The saga continued. I was catching a small plane run by United Express and the flight was apparently overbooked. They did not also know when it was going to leave as New York JFK was experiencing severe delays . I felt so sorry for the lady and the man who were very patiently staffing the gate and telling everyone the bad news as they did suffer some abuse. However, they gave exemplary customer service and did not loose their 'cool'
Finally a pilot arrived and went out to the plane to see if he could get a landing time for NY. Another hour later he came back and reported we could go, but more passengers would have to offloaded as they had to put on extra fuel , in case we had to circle in NY. The plane was a 50 seter, but only 45 could go... Imagine my sense of relief when my name was not called and I could go ahead. It was absolutely pelting with rain and freezing cold and we had to go out on the tarmac and up these rickety stairs into the airplane. One advantage of being old, is that people help and this time it was the pilot himself who took my handluggage and put it on the plane.
The flight was very bumpy and so the one hostess could not serve drinks but kept us amused throughout the journey with her comments , as did the pilot. It was all quite jolly really.
Arrived at about 9p.m (which was actually 2a.m. for me) and again the pilot helped me with my handluggage.
However, after standing at the baggage carousel and watching the same suitcases go round about three times till there were finally non-left, about 10 of us realised out bags had not come with us. So, we trooped off to an office and filled out the required forms for them to deliver our luggage when/if it arrived.
Fortunately David had booked us a hotel near the airport as he was arriving at 6p.m. from San Francisco. He had indicated that he might b there to meet me at the airport, but a sit was after 10p.m. by now I thought he would be long gone. Had tried to ring him, but no answer.
Went to get my money from an ATM, and then make my way somehow, via the hotel shuttle, to the hotel itself ,when I looked beside it and there he was ! I felt so relieved- apparently the arrivals board said we were getting in at 10.28 so he had not even started to look for me.

So we caught the air train to Federal and then the shuttle bus to our hotel and treated ourselves to a glass of wine in the bar before going to bed.