Exploring the Emerald Isle

And so the story begins before we have even left home…

Bounding out of bed to the sound of the 06:30 alarm, my mind already running through the checklist of things to be achieved before our arranged pick up time of 11:00 am, the first task was to strip the bed of our sheets, get them washed and (hopefully) dried, and the bed made up with fresh linen ready for the arrival of the second of our two teams of housesitters in ten days time. Next, was to do the same with the towels, but as I was pressing ‘start’ on the washing machine full of sheets, Stephen wandered out, phone in hand, saying ‘don’t hurry, we have plenty of time!’

Singapore Airlines had helpfully ‘retimed’ our flight ex Melbourne to 20:05, from the original time of 15:20, according to an email sent at 01:38. Going back to bed was obviously not an option, although of our fellow travellers M & J, J wisely reported taking the decision to grab a couple more hours sleep in lieu of the delay!  We instead, went ahead with our day, beginning with a leisurely breakfast and a walk for Oscar. 

A timely text to the Castlemaine Flyer saw our pick up time rescheduled and a call to our miracle-working travel agent, Genine McHugh at MTA travel, set the wheels in motion for a whole rebooking of flights, as she discovered that while our first leg, Melbourne to Singapore, had been rescheduled, they had no ongoing flights for us!  

Thank goodness for travel agents!  In no tome at all, Genine had new flights for us: Melb-Singapore/ Singapore-Frankfurt/Frankfurt-Dublin. Owing to a 7 hour layover in Singapore and no available outgoing flight to London, as per our initial booking, we will now arrive in Dublin approximately 12 hours later than planned i.e. 22:15 instead of 10:15am, still with a hire car to collect and a 2+ hour drive to Belfast before our heads can hit the pillow!  

As the song says, ‘It’s a long way to Tipperary!’