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Happy New Year everyone!
Had an early morning run to Heathrow this AM to take elder daughter and her boyfriend and see them off to Sydney where they will be working for 2 years.
Trouble was that, after much to do over the last few weeks and days, she finally got around to synching her iTunes account between her old notebook (slow) and her iPhone in preparation of transferring stuff to a new notebook in Oz, the old one being knackered (thus left here). She also wanted to update her iPhone software. All of this took ages last night after we got in from a farewell dinner. Got to bed just before 2am, up at 4:40am when management's alarm went off.
Last minute panics included discovering that Cathay Pacific charge $60 per kg for excess baggage according to the web site. But this being rip-off Britain that translated to £60 per kilo at Heathrow. Being as they are going for 2 years they had quite a lot of stuff to take and had sent a container ahead but had been advised it would be overweight if they put too much in it. It wasn't nearly up to weight in fact - badly advised. So they figured the rest could go as excess anyway expecting about £50 a bag rather the £60 a kg.
So, what to do with 32Kg of excess weight?
Found a shipping co. that will do it for £220 but they re-packed to leave some stuff behind anyway. Then when we got there, having checked in and sent their hold cases off to the plane, they were told that the freight shipping did not allow any liquids. Re-pack again. Got it all paperworked and paid for in the Departure hall to then be told that they had to take the cases to the other desk in the Arrivals Hall to drop it off. So we trotted off there. At that point the bags went through a scanner and the operator spotted a couple of batteries. Empty bag again and search through finally realising that the batteries were in a clock in a plastic bag ...
The joys of modern travel.
Quite why the information one needs to know to make a successful transaction seems to trickle out instead of being presented up front I'm not sure.
The worst of it is that their original travel plans would have meant the baggage allowance would more or less have covered the weight of the bags - but daughter's company (major PLC) insisted she book a slightly cheaper flight with a different carrier that halved the allowances, introduced then to extortionate excess baggage fees and generally screwed the travel plans.
Smart people. All in all false 'economies' all round. Oh well ... you live and learn. I think some 'quality' reports will be submitted about the process.
They are heading for the Cricket on Tuesday. Wise move before contemplating work on Wednesday.
So one way and another the Xmas/New Year family time finished rather abruptly Sort of Cold Turkey really (though thankfully I have already ensured that the turkey leftowvers have been consumed.)
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