Brisbane

Michele kicks off her mammoth trip on 9th January 2012. Read her roving reports from the High Seas to her journey Down Under. Keeping you up-to-date with all the news as it happens.
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Michele Monro
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Joined: Sun Nov 06, 2005 6:31 pm
Location: United Kingdom

Brisbane

Post by Michele Monro » Mon Mar 19, 2012 10:29 am

First thing this morning I received an email saying that no one was picking up my luggage in Sydney. Unfortunately that put me in a right flap for the rest of the day. We’d had Force 8 winds during the night with 4 metre swells so I was feeling out of sorts anyway. The result was that I didn’t get off in Brisbane, I was just grateful that the ship was standing still for a few hours. The weather was beautiful at 30 degrees and we were so lucky as apparently it has been raining the last two weeks. The storms last night had come from the tail end of a twister in Queensland so I am praying the crossing tonight is better. Andre and Mark got off at 9.00am, Lucia and Nick got off and went to the Koala Sanctuary, Tess and Bill went walkabout but I didn’t feel up to going. Because the ship is too big to get under the Gateway Bridge and dock at Hamilton we were once again in a cargo port opposite the airport so everything was over an hour away. Probably if we hadn’t had such a bad crossing I might have gone but I was happy for my body to stay still for a few hours.

It wasn’t long before I found Andy Rudge, the Welsh wizard of comedy and my agent. He’s come on today but leaves in Sydney, all that way for one show – madness. I was originally introduced to Andy by Mark Porter and we have done everything over the phone before so I’m really pleased I have met him now, especially after all our phone calls and he definitely says I will get cruises with Saga and Marco Polo, so that is extremely good news. He’s a great personality and it is a shame that I didn’t catch his show.

I spent most of the day trying to sort my luggage out. Now it would appear Natalie (Andy’s PR) is organizing a courier company to come and meet me at a cost of $158.00. I have to say I’m a little disappointed to be let down like this at the last minute, after all she had had two months to make arrangements and I had a confirmation email back in January saying she would be there to meet me and take the luggage off me. I thought my stuff was going to my cousin Andy but God knows where it is actually going or where it will end up, all I know is I’m going to have problems everywhere I go.

I’ve been constantly having to get an internet connection to check for emails from Natalie over the last couple of days and the whole thing has left me feeling spent. Unfortunately I got myself into quite a state over the whole affair and of course my illness didn’t take well to that. I decided at the last minute to send two cases back to England on the ship, that way when Arcadia gets back to England in April, they will dispatch a courier company to take it to the house. I don’t know how I’ve acquired another two cases since leaving but I have. Having two sent back and leaving two cases and 3 boxes in Sydney will leave me three cases and one box going with me to Melbourne. That is still too much and I now have to work out a way of getting two cases to Sydney because they won’t let me on the plane with all of that. The trouble is I do have quite a few presents for the family and I’ve had to bring books for promotion so that will be off loaded but one case is purely medical, pills, ointments, creams, dressings – well you name in, I have it. I would have to say I have a better selection that Boots at the moment. That might sound like an exageration but alas no. But having seen so many of my new found friends fall victim to the ship’s doctor and the outlandish prices, I was grateful that I did bring what I did. I can only take two types of antibiotics, as well as being allergic to penicillin, that makes it highly likely that should I have needed it, the ship would not have had the right medication on board. The last thing I needed was to have to go in search of a chemist in Beijing looking for an antibiotic without a prescription – get the picture. As it happened I have already indulged in one course of pills when I got the chest infection so one should be prepared in these circumstances.

Ended up going to bed at 7.00pm absolutely exhausted. The clocks go forward again tonight so that’s now GMT +11

****

Don’t feel much better but I went out on deck to grab a few rays and get some fresh air. Met up with Andy to be told the most bizarre story… apparently Andre and Mark left the ship as planned and got to the airport as planned. There followed an altercation with Mark and the airline staff regarding his guitar going into the hold. It seems he got abusive with the staff calling them a few unsavory names. Result: Mark was arrested and missed his flight. Andre had no choice but to leave him there. At the moment, no one knows more than that but when Mark is released he will have to find his own way home at his own cost. He’ll almost certainly get a black mark across the airlines, he might not even be allowed back into Australia again and it might even affect him working with P&O in the future, not the smartest of moves.

My luggage is ready for disembarking in Sydney in the morning, I just hope everything goes to plan or I won’t see anything of Sydney at all. I can’t believe this part of my journey is nearly at an end, it seems to have gone so quickly. I’ll certainly miss seeing the gang every morning. I rang Graham from the ship last night and he seems genuinely pleased that I am coming and will be at the port to meet the ship. I’m so looking forward to meeting him as I know mum and dad loved him dearly.

Cruise J201 Grand Odyssey Leg 3

Hong Kong to Shanghai 789 km
Shanghai to Xingang 633 km
Xingang to Nagasaki 750 km
Nagasaki to Osaka 472 km
Osaka to Rabaul 2578 km
Rabaul to Cairns 930 km
Cairns to Brisbane 788 km
Brisbane to Sydney 478 km

Total + 7418 km

1 nautical mile = 1.15 statute mile = 1.85 kilometre

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