Sunday, October 04, 2009

First Day of the Rest of Your Life

We have often heard the saying that "Today is the First Day of the Rest of Your Life." Well, today, 03 October 2009, is the first day of the start of a new life for me and my family. We set foot in the Land Down Under today where we intend to spend the rest of our days.

We said our good-byes yesterday at Cebu Avenue early. MacGyver's mom and his sister came over to join Father and Mother as the send-off crew. We were still packing until the last minute and in spite all that to-ing and fro-ing, we still forgot some of our stuff.

We arrived at the airport after 4pm, well ahead of our required 5:30 pm check-in time. Our flight was due to leave at 8:30pm. Fortunately, the check-in counter was already open. Our luggage was within the required 20kg /person limit. They didn't count handbags and laptop cases as part of the weigh-in, so our hand carry bags were likewise within the prescribed limit. The lady said the hand carry limit was 9 kg, excluding handbags, contrary to what I had been told when I inquired over the phone. Had I known that earlier I would have not left some of my books and clothes at home. (Over the phone I was told that I had an allocation of 7kg for the handcarry which included my handbag. Heavy sigh!) We paid the travel tax which was not included in our e-Ticket. As migrating permanent residents, we were not subject to the P1620 tax, instead we paid the reduced rate of P200/pax. Departure tax is now P750/pax, multiplied by four, covered most of the pesos we had on hand.

Father had sent us off with some bottled water and snacks. At the initial hand carry check, we were not made to throw away our water. We just had to take off our shoes, jewelry, belts, etc. Since we'd arrived early and our flight was still much later, we took the time to grab a bite to eat and drink up our bottled water.

At about 6:30 pm, they had everybody near the departure lounge at the gate vacate the premises to go through another hand carry check. Again, the bags and the shoes went through the x-ray machine but this time, we were supposed to empty our pockets into a basket. Just my luck, I had a ton of coins in my pocket at the time. I should have stuffed those in my handbag before that second round of checking. It was kind of embarrassing to have to chase coins around.

Anyway, after getting through that final check, all we had to do was wait for our time to board then we'd be on our way. I took the time to send Father one last text message to say good-bye. He replied with this brief message which was filled with love and hope. He said, "Love you. Wake up to a new life." (I love that! Yes, it made me cry.)

They let us board at about 7:45pm. We had a whole center row to ourselves.

The flight was uneventful though a little rough due to the rains. Peping was due to hit the country as we were leaving. Fortunately our flight was not delayed nor canceled, and Peping spared the country from another beating. (People have not gotten over Ondoy yet and are quite allergic to rain.) MacGyver and I took the aisle seats while MyGirl and RD were between us. Throughout the flight, RD's nose was running sending him off to the lavatory to get tissue. He stood up to go at least 5 times so we have decided that next time, RD gets the aisle seat.

Australia is GMT+10 while Manila is GMT+8. We were scheduled to land at Melbourne after 6am local time so at 3am Manila time (5am as far as they were concerned), they turned the cabin lights on and served us orange juice and ensaymada. Needless to say, we hardly got to sleep in the plane because of that.

I thought we would just drop off the Melbourne-bound passengers allowing the Sydney-bound folk to stay in the plane but apparently it doesn't work that way. When we landed at Melbourne at 6:10 am, everybody had to get off the plane and those bound for Sydney had to get a TRANSIT PASS and board another plane at 8:00 am. No wonder our ETA was 9:30 am in Sydney.

Before we landed, I though I had lost our original boarding passes. I had never had to transfer flights before so as far as I was concerned, boarding passes were one-time slips of cardboard. I was so happy that St. Anthony heard my prayers and gently reminded me that I had placed the boarding passes in the laptop case I had been carrying when we first boarded the plane.

The transfer from one plane to another led to another round of screening. This one at the Melbourne airport required us to take out the laptops and other metal items from our hand carry bags. (Paranoid me put all my coins inside my bag this time.)

Aside from MyGirl dropping her Transit Pass by accident (and the missing boarding pass panic), the stopover at Melbourne was short and sweet. Once we boarded the plane bound for Sydney, we were on the final leg of our trip.

We landed at Sydney before 9:30am. From the plane, we went through immigrations then claimed our luggage then through customs. Based on my observation, if you tick YES on any of the items on top, this is something for the customs officer to check; if you tick YES on any of the items on the bottom, that is for the quarantine officer to check.

The last time we entered Australia, MacGyver refused to bring any food in, so we had nothing to declare. This time around, MyGirl wanted to save the ensaymada they served us on the plane, so I said, "No problem as long as we declare it." Thus we ticked YES on the food question. Apparently, even if you declare these food items, they will still get confiscated. (Yes, the Australians are very wary of contaminants to their flora and fauna. DECLARE OR BEWARE!) They let the rice crackers and the brownie through, but the dried fruits and the ensaymada (because it has cheese) ended up in the trash bin.

The quarantine check was our last stop before getting in. After that, it was down the ramp and onto the meeting place (McDonald's) where MacGyver's brother was supposed to meet us.

Our Philippine pre-paid cards roaming function didn't seem to work but thankfully at about 10:30am, we saw familiar faces coming to pick us up. With that, we felt that we had really arrived.



When I sent out an email announcing that we'd landed, a good friend of mine replied with a brief email which started with "Welcome home." That made me realize that today indeed is the dawn of a new day for us because we now have a new place to call home.

1 comment:

prinfermin said...

I remember I cried the first few nights in America, calming myself with the thought that 'home is where the heart is, and my heart is with my family, wherever we might be'

I guess for you, Australia it is.

Take care, and we love you. Our hearts are with you.