Monday, March 15, 1999
Stopover In Sydney, Jet Lag In France
We arrived back in France safe and sound on 9th March after an exciting time in airports, planes and hotel. The short flight to Sydney was uneventful and the children really enjoyed it. Our hotel in Darling Harbour was lovely, very comfortable and we had room service soup and pizza for dinner, wow a big luxury ! My friend Janine who was supposed to come and meet us was unfortunately very ill with a virus and had to stay in bed. So next day I took the children outside and we strolled and monorailed our way around Darling Harbour all morning.
We visited a ship/floating restaurant with real seagulls wheeling noisily overhead, a hilarious gift and souvenir shop with inflatable Australian animals, an ice-cream parlour (compulsory) and the highlight of the day was the Aquarium. It was really amazing (as it should be at $18 Australian entry fee) and I only wish we’d had more time than two hours to spend there. The sheer variety of fish, sharks, turtles and crocs was astounding and there were lots of open tanks where the children were allowed to put their hands in to feel the water temperature and touch some of the more harmless varieties of crab and sea anenome. I loved the oceanarium which consists of a perspex underwater tunnel which we walked through to watch all the fish, sharks, giant turtles, eels and sting rays swim alongside us and over our heads. The sharks have such clean bottoms!!
After that we had to rush back to the hotel and get our bags onto the shuttle bus for the airport. We boarded our plane on time in the evening, but after waiting on the tarmac for an hour the pilot announced a problem in one of the engines, so they deplaned us. They said we would probably have to wait four or five hours for a new plane to arrive, or else they would send us to a hotel for the night. Luckily there were televisions in the Quantas transit lounge, and cute kid-sized furniture for Kevin and Pauline to play on. So I let them run around until they collapsed with fatigue and slept on the floor. At midnight they announced that they had fixed the engine and were ready to take off. I had to get Quantas personnel to help me carry my sleeping children and two huge bags on board. They cleared a row of 4 seats for the kids to sleep on and I got a fifth seat for myself! It was great, the children slept all the way to Singapore (7 hours), so I was able to doze too, and ate a meal in peace.
At Singapore we only waited 20 mins in the transit lounge and then got back on the plane. The flight to Paris lasted 13 hours and it was really hard because the kids were bouncing around, full of energy and I had to try and keep them quiet while all the other passengers were sleeping. I took them for walks up and down the plane countless times and we even locked ourselves in the toilets to read stories out loud! So it was fairly exhausting and we were really glad to see P. waiting for us at the airport.
The jet lag was pretty bad for the first week, we were waking up at 4 am and having a 3 hour nap in the afternoon to compensate. The cold weather was a shock to the system, but the first spring flowers are just coming out in my garden and that’s a welcome sight. We drove to the supermarket this morning and I was shocked to see our little river, the Loing, completely swollen by rains and the melting snow from the Alps. All the rich people who live in mansions down by the river have flooded gardens, and we won’t be able to go to our usual duck-feeding place for a while. This morning I put on my apron for the first time in weeks and cooked lunch, which was rather taxing. I didn’t have the energy to take Kevin to school until the second week, when we were sleeping normally again! Still, now we’re all back to normal and it’s good to be back in the swing of things again.
We visited a ship/floating restaurant with real seagulls wheeling noisily overhead, a hilarious gift and souvenir shop with inflatable Australian animals, an ice-cream parlour (compulsory) and the highlight of the day was the Aquarium. It was really amazing (as it should be at $18 Australian entry fee) and I only wish we’d had more time than two hours to spend there. The sheer variety of fish, sharks, turtles and crocs was astounding and there were lots of open tanks where the children were allowed to put their hands in to feel the water temperature and touch some of the more harmless varieties of crab and sea anenome. I loved the oceanarium which consists of a perspex underwater tunnel which we walked through to watch all the fish, sharks, giant turtles, eels and sting rays swim alongside us and over our heads. The sharks have such clean bottoms!!
After that we had to rush back to the hotel and get our bags onto the shuttle bus for the airport. We boarded our plane on time in the evening, but after waiting on the tarmac for an hour the pilot announced a problem in one of the engines, so they deplaned us. They said we would probably have to wait four or five hours for a new plane to arrive, or else they would send us to a hotel for the night. Luckily there were televisions in the Quantas transit lounge, and cute kid-sized furniture for Kevin and Pauline to play on. So I let them run around until they collapsed with fatigue and slept on the floor. At midnight they announced that they had fixed the engine and were ready to take off. I had to get Quantas personnel to help me carry my sleeping children and two huge bags on board. They cleared a row of 4 seats for the kids to sleep on and I got a fifth seat for myself! It was great, the children slept all the way to Singapore (7 hours), so I was able to doze too, and ate a meal in peace.
At Singapore we only waited 20 mins in the transit lounge and then got back on the plane. The flight to Paris lasted 13 hours and it was really hard because the kids were bouncing around, full of energy and I had to try and keep them quiet while all the other passengers were sleeping. I took them for walks up and down the plane countless times and we even locked ourselves in the toilets to read stories out loud! So it was fairly exhausting and we were really glad to see P. waiting for us at the airport.
The jet lag was pretty bad for the first week, we were waking up at 4 am and having a 3 hour nap in the afternoon to compensate. The cold weather was a shock to the system, but the first spring flowers are just coming out in my garden and that’s a welcome sight. We drove to the supermarket this morning and I was shocked to see our little river, the Loing, completely swollen by rains and the melting snow from the Alps. All the rich people who live in mansions down by the river have flooded gardens, and we won’t be able to go to our usual duck-feeding place for a while. This morning I put on my apron for the first time in weeks and cooked lunch, which was rather taxing. I didn’t have the energy to take Kevin to school until the second week, when we were sleeping normally again! Still, now we’re all back to normal and it’s good to be back in the swing of things again.
# posted by Antipodeesse @ 6:14 pm 
