How bizarre, how bizarre

I flew up to Sydney mid this week for business. It was a quick stop interstate, lasting less than 24 hours. But gosh. It was an interesting trip in general, none more interesting than my flight to Sydney. The plane was absolutely packed out, and I happened to be sitting in the middle of the very last row. It's not too bad, actually, sitting at the very back. You get to hear the goss from the flight attendants. So, even before we took off, there was a lady complaining that she wanted to move seats because her child was sitting next to an elderly gentleman of about eighty. Now, Qantas actually has an unspoken 'rule' to never seat unknown men with children. So I got the news on where this gentleman would move - a seat in the middle of the plane.

I closed my eyes to try and get some shut eye as the plane took off, only to get a shock when I next opened my eyes to find a frail aged gentleman sitting next to me. He definitely wasn't there before. The flight attendants moved the gentleman to sit next to me, and most likely didn't ask me because I had my eyes shut. Oh well, I didn't mind it. He looked too frail to do any harm. As the flight attendants brought out the food, the gentleman just moved asked for his special meal, which he had ordered weeks ago when he booked his flight. He was a frequent flyer with Qantas. The flight attendant looked puzzled, went to look for it, only to come back to say there weren't any special meals left - they had handed them all out. So she gave him a chicken roll and said he would just have to eat the inside of the bun, and leave the loaf. So he mentioned that he had moved seats for them, and perhaps there was a misunderstanding? The flight attendant said she would go to check, only to then IGNORE him and continue serving food to other passengers. When she returned to him, she said, 'Is there anything I can get you?' and completely forgot to check up on what had happened. The gentleman said it was ok, and that he would live. What a nice gentleman. He was so nice to them, even though the flight attendants had not afforded him the same respect he had with them.

As the plane began its descent into Sydney airport, the gentleman said he would return to his original seat to get his things. Enter bizarre event number three. As he left, I went to wash my hands in the toilets, only to hear a lady yell out because she couldn't open the toilet door. So I helped her, only for her to scream at me. She looked overwhelmed and dazed, and a little senile as well. Honestly, she thought I had locked her in or something. I told her I had opened the frekking door for her, to which she ignored me. So I ignored her as well, went to the toilet, and came back, only to find her sitting in the elderly gentleman's seat beside mine! How odd, I thought. So I politely asked if she could move so I could get to my seat, to which she REFUSED. Good golly. I actually had to practically CRAWL over her to get to my seat! THEN, she started looking and touching things around, and then started looking at my seat, and where I had kept my belongings in the seat hole in front of me. I glared at her, and told her to please not touch my stuff. The flight was getting quite weird.

So as the plane was landing, she got up and walked back to her seat, which got the flight attendants rushing to help her. Jesus. Some old ladies. Just as I thought the bizarre events had stopped, enter the senior gentleman sitting to my right. We struck up a conversation about the old gentleman and the senile lady, and the flight attendants aboard. The conversation went well, until he told me he had villas and resorts in Bangkok, to which I mentioned I had never been there. This gentleman then gave me his business card, and told me to give him a call whenever I plan to go to Thailand, and he would give me free accomodation (or very cheap accomodation at the very least), and hook me up with people to start networking. Oh my. As we made our way into the terminal, he said, very loudly, 'Hey, I just want to make it very clear that I'm not making a move on you, ok? I have a wife, and a girlfriend, so I'm definitely not after a girlfriend, or flirting with you or anything like that.' It was that comment that made people turn their heads and look over at us. Yea, I guess it must have been an odd sight - a man in his sixties, and a girl in her twenties... Quite bizarre. So suffice to say I now have a contact if I decide to travel to Chiang Mai.

What an utterly bizarre flight. The most interesting I've experienced thus far, that's for sure. The only other interesting part of my trip was that I was stuck for 45 minutes Thursday morning. My client had told me to arrive at 4am, and, because another client commented he didn't think I would show Wednesday evening even though I got there 15 mins early, I thought I should get there a little early so that I didn't get thrust into the thick of things come 4am sharp. Big mistake.

I learned my lesson that morning, that's for sure. I haven't felt so insecure in a very long time as I did that morning. It's an eerie feeling, sitting in a taxi, heading into an industrial area 3:30am. I seriously wondered whether the taxi was going the right direction, because it was completely dark and remote outside. But my taxi driver came to the good, delivering me at my destination, only for me to find that it was still closed at 3:45am. Great. Quick call to my client confirmed it: she was running 20mins late. The taxi driver couldn't stay with me, and frankly, I didn't want him hanging around either. So what happened? I stood outside the factory for 45 mins waiting for my client to show up, in a remote industrial area, with absolutely nowhere to go. It was completely dark, and quite honestly, I got a little scared. My client had told me it should be quite safe, because there should be workers there too, but that did me no consolation, because all I saw was one car, and I couldn't see who in the car. I seriously haven't felt so vulnerable like that for years, just because I knew there was no where I could go, or run to if anyone dodgy did show up. To make it worse, it started raining while I waited. Fantastic.

That was my trip to Sydney. It just shows what can happen within 24 hours, eh?