The weekend before last was supposed to look like this: Arrive in Brisbane at 7pm Friday, have dinner with the parents, sleep, wake up, attend Mum’s 60th birthday party Saturday lunch time, have a leisurely brekky with Hubs Sunday, drop him off at the airport, and relax.

What actually happened, was this: We left Wang at 12:30pm Friday for our 6pm flight from Melbourne. We wanted to leave plenty of time as the Melbourne Ring Road can come to a standstill and can delay you for a hour if there is an accident (that happened to me one time with Chanbe in the car) and we had to drop our car off at long-term parking and catch a shuttle. And we were travelling with a 2 year old. Chanbe didn’t sleep the whole car trip which was weird and a little concerning, but nonetheless, we arrived at the parking at 3:30 and were at the airport at 4. After almost being able to get on the 5pm flight instead, and our hopes being dashed, our boarding time was 5:30.

By the time we grabbed sushi for Chanbe and Hubs and got through security, we had an hour to kill, so Hubs mostly looked after Chanbe and took him for long walks up and down the terminal. He was so well behaved! And so was Chance!! 🙂 We got word that the flight was delayed 20 minutes, so we kept pacing. Then it was delayed another 20 minutes, and we didn’t end up boarding until 6:30, and the flight left close to 7pm. Not fun. But still, Chanbe was a dream. Not long after takeoff, he was asleep in my arms while Hubs and I did the inflight magazing quiz.

We arrived close to Brisbane when the captain informed us that we were to be put in a holding pattern, delaying us by another half an hour. Grumble grumble. We FINALLY landed at 8:40pm local time, 9:40pm Victoria time, and we had the pleasure pain of experiencing Brisbane’s new Pick Up Zone. It sucked. Big time. After his little nap, Chance was again happy as can be. I, however, was whingy and whiney and wanted to sulk. After doing a sneaky avoiding-the-pick-up-zone pickup, we got to Mum and Dad’s at 9:30pm local time; 10:30pm Victoria time. And Chanbe didn’t go to sleep for another hour because it was time to play with Gran and Grumpy.

And the worst was yet to come….