Kelly's World

In July of this year, C will be turning 30. For some reason everyone celebrates that particular age, like it’s some gateway to becoming old or something.

So we are set to prove he isn’t old yet. Not yet anyway.

To celebrate in style we decided we would go overseas. Of course, there will be the family affair, but after that it’s on a plane and bye bye Australia, hello Thailand!

At this stage the plan is to be there for two weeks. The list of things we are thinking of doing are:

The scariest part of all is the size of the group that’s going. We have opened up the invitation to friends and family, and at this stage we expect the group to be somewhere in the vicinity of 10-20 people. That’s a lot of people, and a lot of cooks in the kitchen if you know what I mean. There are people that have been to Thailand before, and are quite opinionated on what we should or shouldn’t do. I am definitely interested in hearing their feedback, but I would still like the opportunity to discover and plan things for myself as well. The planning of this trip is going to be a nightmare if it comes down to people refusing to compromise.

When I expressed to a friend my fear of trying to find something to suit everyone he referred to Apple and the Steve Jobs methodology:

A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.

This is one of the times where I’m going to have to get some thick skin. At the end of the day I have to make sure the holiday is everything C had hoped for. He is the important one here. As long as everyone knows that everything is entirely optional, there won’t be an issue. I will simply say “here is our itinerary and what we are planning to book. Let me know if you want to be included or not.” That way people can design the holiday they want while we have the holiday we want. Of course, there will be the designated party days and subsequent hangover/rest days.

So while the planning part of it may be a potential nightmare, I’m still so incredibly excited.

Let it begin.

If you have any tips on Thailand, or organising a group of people on holidays, I would love to hear from you!

Last year two friends of mine, Jens and Julie, moved to Melbourne in order to properly start their lives together as a couple. While I was thrilled for them, it meant that I wouldn’t be able to see them as often as I liked. Well, moreso Julie. Jens lived in Sydney so I didn’t get to see him all that often, though I would have gladly caught up with him more if I could. So when they rang me to tell me that for my birthday they’d purchased tickets for me to fly to Melbourne for a weekend away I was completely stoked.

When the day of departure came, I was pissed to find out my flight had been cancelled. Pissed is probably an understatement. After lots of stuffing around I managed to organise a flight with Jetstar instead, but due to the flight leaving later in the day it meant that I missed out on our first planned item – an ice hockey game. Jens and Julie decided to still go to the match, and after I landed I would catch a bus into the city near where the stadium was, where we would all meet up. The plans were set.

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Right now I should be sitting on a plane, gearing myself up for a weekend away in Melbourne. Instead, I’m sitting at home cursing the name of Tiger Airways.

Today they cancelled my flight to Melbourne for my long weekend away.

Bastards.

I don’t know the reasons why it got cancelled, but it appeared that the issue goes beyond people flying out of the Sunshine Coast. Reports from twitter say that people flying back into the Sunshine Coast having problems as well, getting diverted to Brisbane instead. It certainly can’t be the weather since it’s an absolutely stunning day on the Sunshine Coast. So for reasons unknown, I received a call this morning to inform me that my flight had been cancelled. Maybe everyone else knew that Tiger was terrible, thus I would have been the only one on the plane. It wouldn’t surprise me. Ahem. Anyway, I hadn’t heard my phone ring so it went to voicemail instead. It was only when I was talking to my friend later that he looked at the website and noticed there was a big “Cancelled” sign attached to it. Uh oh.

Half an hour of hold music later, a customer service rep finally answered the phone. At the same time I tried to turn the phone off speaker, and instead accidentally hung up on them. FUCK!

Another twenty minutes of hold music later I finally got through again, except this time I got someone that barely spoke a bar of english and was incredibly difficult to understand. When you’re already in a grumpy mood that’s not something that you want to deal with. I took a deep breath though, and explained that I had been advised my flight had been cancelled, and what options did I have. Another 20mins later and a refund was on its way.

After hunting around online to see what other flights there were to Melbourne, it appeared I could either drive to Brisbane and get on a plane that would get me into Melbourne at midnight, or just take another flight from the Sunshine Coast with rival carrier Jetstar. The second option is meant to leave at 7pm, which will get me into Melbourne at a much more reasonable 9.30pm. Thankfully the only problem I’ve ever had with Jetstar before is a delayed flight, so at least I can remain confident that I will be getting to Melbourne today at some point in time. Currently Virgin Blue remain my favourite domestic carrier; I’m yet to have a single issue.

On the plus side it means I get to revise my rushed packing from this morning, and I’ll be able to wash my car and straighten my hair. But still…DAMMIT. I’m missing out on an ice hockey game in Melbourne tonight, all thanks to Tiger Airways. This was going to be my first time flying with them, and in my eyes it’s certainly left quite the stain on their brand. I’m flying home with them still on Monday morning, so it had better be one helluva flight to get them back into my good graces.

I can’t say I’m expecting too much though.

See how those two cylinder bits are sort of sideways in the centre of the image? Yeah, they’re not meant to do that.