It's now 2:00 am, Sydney time on my first day back in Oz. After a valiant attempt to stay out and awake to get on the local clock, I almost fell asleep in my pumpkin risotto at dinner and decided to call it an early night. Of course, now my tired body tells me unwittingly that it's 10:00 in the morning. Always takes a day or two to adjust.
My first trip here on an airline other than Qantas (big fan...they have a great business class...but had miles to burn on another carrier) ended with a groan when I found that either USAirways (domestic) or United (SFO to Sydney) had lost my luggage. I was not alone. United had two flights arriving from the States at about the same time, and after catatonically staring at the carousel for about 45 minutes with no luck, I headed for the lost luggage office. The scene was enough for this non-Catholic to conjure purgatory - a line 40 or 50 people deep wondering where their bags were, too. United outsources their baggage recovery here to a company called Menzies - and they were clearly feeling just as overwhelmed as we were. My quality time with their representative included the discovery that, though United and USAirways code share, they don't use the same univeral baggage tracking system - so no record of my bag in the United system, and no code to check on the status online with USAirways - along with the confidence boosting parting comment "probably you'll have it tomorrow or the next day, hopefully."
After doing the mental inventory of what I'll need to buy to make it through the next 2 days to 5 weeks (worst case scenario), and wishing for a miraculous recovery for our poor dollar (it could be a lean Christmas this year if that bag doesn't show up, folks), I realized that I now have a legit excuse to go shopping - always a tonic for me.
In some ways, it wasn't such a bad thing to happen on my first day here in about a year. Perhaps the one thing that I love most about Australia is the good nature of the Australian people - they're the best. Collectively, they have a warmth and friendliness that we seem to be losing in the States. Granted, I played up the "Oh woe is me...I just arrived and the airline lost my luggage" angle (I'm not stoic in the face of strife - I do the same thing when I have a cold...I want the world to give me a kiss on the forehead, two aspirin, and a glass of orange juice), but the Aussies didn't let me down. From the chemist (drug store), where the manager stopped taking inventory and helped me pick the right kinds of shaving cream and dental floss, to the sales clerk who offered to give me samples of hair product so I wouldn't have to buy it, on to the sales clerk at Rodd & Gunn clothing shop at the QVB (great shopping in Sydney in a beautiful old Victorian building - worth a look) who, though closing for the evening, upon hearing my sob story said "well come in and lets get you some clothes, then", I got a big helping on day one of why I keep coming back - you'd be hard pressed to find better people anywhere. Everyone went out of their way to help me recoup some clean clothes and tools for basic hygiene. And they still like Americans (even ones who whine about their lost bags...). The people here always leave you wanting more Australia.
Well, if I'd had a couple of pints after dinner, I'd probably be catching my "Z's" now. Hopefully, visions of a big blue bag flying over the Pacific at the moment (or tomorrow, or the next day, hopefully...) will lull me back to sleep...
My first trip here on an airline other than Qantas (big fan...they have a great business class...but had miles to burn on another carrier) ended with a groan when I found that either USAirways (domestic) or United (SFO to Sydney) had lost my luggage. I was not alone. United had two flights arriving from the States at about the same time, and after catatonically staring at the carousel for about 45 minutes with no luck, I headed for the lost luggage office. The scene was enough for this non-Catholic to conjure purgatory - a line 40 or 50 people deep wondering where their bags were, too. United outsources their baggage recovery here to a company called Menzies - and they were clearly feeling just as overwhelmed as we were. My quality time with their representative included the discovery that, though United and USAirways code share, they don't use the same univeral baggage tracking system - so no record of my bag in the United system, and no code to check on the status online with USAirways - along with the confidence boosting parting comment "probably you'll have it tomorrow or the next day, hopefully."
After doing the mental inventory of what I'll need to buy to make it through the next 2 days to 5 weeks (worst case scenario), and wishing for a miraculous recovery for our poor dollar (it could be a lean Christmas this year if that bag doesn't show up, folks), I realized that I now have a legit excuse to go shopping - always a tonic for me.
In some ways, it wasn't such a bad thing to happen on my first day here in about a year. Perhaps the one thing that I love most about Australia is the good nature of the Australian people - they're the best. Collectively, they have a warmth and friendliness that we seem to be losing in the States. Granted, I played up the "Oh woe is me...I just arrived and the airline lost my luggage" angle (I'm not stoic in the face of strife - I do the same thing when I have a cold...I want the world to give me a kiss on the forehead, two aspirin, and a glass of orange juice), but the Aussies didn't let me down. From the chemist (drug store), where the manager stopped taking inventory and helped me pick the right kinds of shaving cream and dental floss, to the sales clerk who offered to give me samples of hair product so I wouldn't have to buy it, on to the sales clerk at Rodd & Gunn clothing shop at the QVB (great shopping in Sydney in a beautiful old Victorian building - worth a look) who, though closing for the evening, upon hearing my sob story said "well come in and lets get you some clothes, then", I got a big helping on day one of why I keep coming back - you'd be hard pressed to find better people anywhere. Everyone went out of their way to help me recoup some clean clothes and tools for basic hygiene. And they still like Americans (even ones who whine about their lost bags...). The people here always leave you wanting more Australia.
Well, if I'd had a couple of pints after dinner, I'd probably be catching my "Z's" now. Hopefully, visions of a big blue bag flying over the Pacific at the moment (or tomorrow, or the next day, hopefully...) will lull me back to sleep...
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