We are also beginning to plan another overseas trip - this time to the west coast of the USA with three children!

We boarded our Qantas plane from Sydney to Bangkok the plane was completely full and so we found ourselves seated in the middle row next to an older German woman who was part of a large tour group. So we all sat waiting for takeoff. And sat, and sat. Finally an announcement was made informing us that part of the electrical system (”not the part that flies the plane”) that powers the galleys was broken and they were trying to fix it. So we sat and waited. Another announcement tol us that they were now going to truck in some dry ice from Mascot (other side of the airport). So we sat and waited, with Loll becoming more and more restless and my migraine getting worse. Finally we were informed that the problem had been fixed and we were cleared to takeoff. By this time over an hour had elapsed since our listed departure time and Loll was bored and hungry and annoying. The cabin crew had neglected to handout any kids’ packs and as we couldn’t put the tray table down, there was nothing for him to be occupied with.The plane was a new 747-400 and had individual seat-back TV screen with movies, TV shows and games. Loll was in heaven with his very own TV and controller! Once the entertainment started he sat quietly and happily watching Disney channel. The only problem was that he wanted to play the games but wasn’t able to grasp the rules or work the controls and he became frustrated. We quietly suggested that he not play them!

Here is a pic of Loll waiting at the depature gate:

Now, I had arranged for a limousine transfer to our hotel over the Internet and had prepaid a 50 Euro fee. We had done this before in London and it beats trying to catch public transport or getting a cab when you are exhausted and have kids in tow. The only problem was that we had been delayed inside with our baggage problem and when we walked out into the arrivals hall I couldn’t locate our driver. There were plenty of other drivers waiting , just not ours. Eventually my husband found a bank teller, got some local currency and purchased a phone card so we could ring the hire company. The receptionist said that the driver was on his way and asked where to meet us - I looked up at sign above the baggage hall door and said “two”. And so we waited, and waited - becoming increasingly frustrated and terse with each other. After about half an hour we decided to cut our losses and walked outside the terminal towards the taxi queue. It was then that I noticed that there were numbers above each door and those number didn’t correspond to the numbers inside the terminal. So we walked to door two and there was our driver - waiting patiently beside a brand new Mercedes with a sign. I was so relieved to see him and finally be on our way to our hotel.

By now it was lunch time and the traffic in Paris was building up for the afternoon peak hour - so we slowly crawled our way into the city. Loll was extremely tired and cranky and hungry (not having eaten much on the plane) and started demanding McDonalds. Here we were in one of the gastronomical capitals of the world and all he wanted was some chicken nuggets!

After negotiating the Parisian streets our driver eventually pulled up outside our hotel. I had chosen it from an Internet site but was blown away by the location - right on the Seine opposite L’Isle de la Cité and Pont Neuf. It is an apart’hotel which means they are serviced apartments. We were offered an apartment in the marsard roof (old attic) which, although smaller, had a view over the Seine. Things were looking up!

Once in our apartment, my husband went off in search of McDonalds for our very tired and hungry four year old. I went through our cabin bags only to realise that although I had put in an extra shirt for myself I had forgotten to do so for Loll. But now that we were in the hotel he was happy as he could watch cartoons (albeit in French or German) and play on the floor:

QF1, Qantas’ flagship, flies through the night from Bangkok to Heathrow. The problem with night flights is that you need to sleep - and so do your children - especially as you have an entire day to get through on arrival if you want to lessen the effects of jetlag. When you have kids in tow there is the added pressure to keep them quiet so that other people can sleep. Everyone is quick to blame the baby in row 28 or the preschooler in row 39 for keeping them awake. However, in my experience it is often other adults who are the culprits.

On this particular flight there was a rugby league supporters’ tour on board. They seemed determined to drink their way to London while blocking the aisles and chatting loudly. As a result Loll didn’t get a lot of sleep (and so neither did I!). For the most part he was quite content to sit and watch cartoons on his personal TV until tragedy struck and the transmission for Disney channel suddenly stopped. Of course the M rated movies were still working and so the cabin crew refused to reboot the system. With no TV, cramped seating and little sleep Loll started to fidget and cry. The man in front (who was reading with his overhead light on) gave us a dirty look (and yet he ignored the middle age men drinking in the aisles) but finally the tape loop restarted and with the return of Lilo and Stitch Loll was content again.

Having left Sydney over an hour late we had managed to make up time during the flight only to find ourselves stuck in a holding pattern above London. Lack of sleep combined with the air pressure meant that my migraine was returning with a vengeance. It felt as though my brain was going to be squeezed out of my ears and I was on the verge of crying when we finally got the clearance to land.

By this time we were getting dangerously close to the time of our next flight to Paris. In fact, we only had 40 minutes to spare - not a lot of time in the worlds’ busiest airport. Even though our next flight was in the same terminal we still had to clear security and check in. We made it to the BA flight with minutes to spare.

Once on board we made our way to our seats. As I was about to sit down I noticed a piece of metal on my seat. It was shaped like the blade from a box-cutter or a razor blade. Now this was post 9/11 so I was somewhat disturbed by this but in my foggy migraine-induced state of mind I didn’t know what to do and so I picked it up and gave it to a cabin crew member. I have no idea what he did with it and I’m not sure what I expected would happen but nobody questioned me and we took off without delay. It was only mid-flight that I began to worry about why a blade was allowed to be on a plane in this day and age.

The flights between London and continental Europe are surprisingly short when you have just stepped off a 21 hr flight from Australia. It feels like you have only just made your ascent when you have to descend again. There is barely time for a quick cup of coffee before the seatbelt sign comes on again. I love flying over the Channel and seeing the UK disappear and France appear. I also love to fly into Paris - you see the Eiffel Tower, the Seine and the Sacre Coeur come into view and know that you are in Europe and a long way from home.

I’ll be writing up this trip over the next few weeks. It was one of the few trips where I didn’t keep a real journal/diary so I’m working from notes and memory (some things you just never forget!).

Our decision to travel to Europe as a family in 2003 was made at the last minute. My hubby had planned to go several months earlier but I was going to stay home with Loll, who had just turned four. But persuaded by cheap airfares and the chance to meet with friends living in Europe we booked our tickets with Qantas/BA for a lightening 10 day mini tour.

The year had been fairly stressful for us and so the chance for some time away from the daily grind was a welcome one. On top of work stresses we were struggling with our third year of secondary infertility and the anniversary of a miscarriage. The trip itself would coincide with the end of our first IVF cycle (having had a failed IUI cycle earlier in the year) - we figured that we would either be celebrating a pregnancy or getting over yet another failed cycle. As it turned out, the cycle did fail and it was a good distraction to have a trip to plan.

It was going to be a short but jam-packed trip. Work commitments only allowed me minimal time off and the whole trip was only 10 days in total - including flights. Our original plan was to fly direct into Paris but our plans were thwarted by airline timetables and so we had to fly via Heathrow, not something I looked forward to given my previous history of delayed flights. We would then spend a few days in central Paris before heading to EuroDisney for 2 days. From there we would drive to Amsterdam with a short detour via the Somme. In Holland we would stay with my old flatmate and her family for 2 more days and then fly to London to stay with my husband’s best friend and his wife who had recently moved there. From London we would fly directly home to Sydney.

I didn’t have a lot of time to prepare for the trip as it was a busy time of the year, coming straight after a work trip and coinciding with my cousin’s wedding, daily trips to the IVF clinic, organising the preschool fete and a visit from my parents who live interstate. Being on artificial hormones didn’t help much either. So I was still packing on the morning our our departure. In fact, we had to go on a quick shopping expedition that morning to buy a new suitcase, travel hairdryer and a small booster seat for Loll. I was also tired, stressed and desperately trying to ward off of migraine - so not in the best condition for travelling.

My parents, who had been staying in our house, were going to drive us to the airport. The men busied themselves with packing the car and then we piled in and drove toward the airport, over 50 km away. As we were driving along the freeway the fuel tank light came on causing a moment of panic and stress. The tank was almost empty and there were no service stations in sight. In fact, there are no service stations on that side of the road once you join the freeway until you reach the airport so we had to do a few U-turns (causing my dad to utter many swear words) and fill up the tank. But even with this delay we made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare.

To be continued…

The only glitch to our plan was that we arrived in LA in the off season and to my dismay they had shut every ride in Fantasyland except for It’s a Small World. So I didn’t get to go on the Tea Cups after all - which was somewhat disappointing.

Fast forward to 1998 and my hubby and I were on the last leg of a round-the-world trip, stopping in LA before heading back to Sydney. We spent our last day at Disneyland and I finally got to go on the Tea Cups!

Then in 2003 I got to take my son Loll, who was four at the time, to Disneyland Paris (which I will write about in more depth soon) and show him my favourite ride. Here’s a pic of him (he wasn’t too sure about it at first but went back for another turn later!):

Everything was packed and ready to go the night before. We had an early flight (840am) and left home at just before 630 - plenty of time (or so we thought). But we got stuck in peak hour traffic and arrived at the long term carpark at just on 8am. Luckily a shuttle bus was slowly making its way around the carpark and we were able to run ahead and catch it. Our flight had been called but we were booked on. Then it was off through security:

Tip 1 - don’t wear our big metal buckled belt on a plane trip - even if it is groovy looking as you will need to take it off

Tip 2 - teach your 6 year old to walk through the security gate and wait on the other side away from the other people pushing through

As we were late we had been separated on the plane and I found myself squashed between 2 strangers in the back row with a toddler on my lap. Our plane was a 737-800 and let me tell you, there is virtually no legroom to speak about. You soon become well aquainted with the people next to you

Tip 3 - the sick bag makes a great distractive toy. Use it as a puppet or play “hide mummy’s mobile phone (switched off, of course)”

Tip 4 - be nice to the cabin crew and they may feel sorry for you and let you move to an empty row (on a supposedly “full” plane) after takeoff

In February 2004 we took Loll on a short trip to Adelaide. It was extremely hot, in fact the city experienced its hottest day on record - 45C - while we were there. Here’s a photo of him sitting with some of our bags in the baggage claim area of Sydney airport:

On this occasion we didn’t end up having to wait too long for the last bags to come out on the conveyor belt. Unlike our trip to France.

After our disastrous flight over to Perth I was hoping for a much less eventful return flight. My mum took the kids to the local park for a run around while I re-packed the bags (always a much harder task than the initial packing!). Unfortunately Zavvy did not take a nap and so the only sleep he had was about 10 mins in the car on the freeway.

Both my parents came to see us off and so at the airport Mum and I took the kids to check-in while Dad parked the car (the carpark at Perth airport is woefully inadequate and so he had to park some distance away). Once inside the Qantas terminal I realised that the new self-checkin machines are not just for Sydneyites. But luckily there was someone there to assist people with their checkin. I say luckily because even though the assistant insisted that it is really easy, my booking was obviously complicated and instead of a boarding pass I was given a direction to see the counter staff. And so I ended up checking in the traditional way.

We joined the long snaking queue for security checks and I ended up having to take off my bangle, boots and watch while all of my cabin luggage piled up at the end of the x-ray machine conveyor belt.

At the gate it was obvious that the flight was going to be full. People were standing, bags in hand, waiting to rush the doors as soon as the boarding call was made. Over the years I’ve discovered that unless you are in the first ten or so people then you may as well wait until as late as possible to board because otherwise you end up in a bottleneck on the airbridge or in the aisles onboard the plane. And so we waited until the crowds has almost dispersed before giving my parents a tearful farewell and joining the queue. Unfortunately the passengers had been terribly slow at boarding and we were still caught up in a traffic jam - plus we found people sitting in our seats (they had misread their boarding passes).

We found ourselves seated in the bulkhead row. I suppose the checkin clerk had thought that would be useful for us (or maybe the computer allocates those seats to holders of infant tickets) but as Zavvy is way too big for the bassinette the bulkhead seats are actually more inconvenient, particularly as you have to put all of your carry-on luggage in the overhead locker (which were mostly full meaning that I had to put my bags in other lockers.)

And so the flight began. Zavvy was restless and overtired. Loll was happy to read his books. And we were seated with other women and their babies so all was well with the world. There was a spare seat between us and the next passenger, a woman travelling with a lap toddler and so we negotiated to share the seat for meal times.

Our meals were served. Zavvy sat on my lap and ate his brother’s meal of pasta as he didn’t want his own meal of steamed pureed veges and chicken. Loll ate bread rolls, cheese and a little bar of chocolate. Once the other toddler had eaten I put Zavvy in the spare seat and had my dinner.

After dinner the crew gave out chocolate icecreams. The kids tucked in. A little while after that Loll complained of a sore tummy. So we all traipsed off down the aisle to the toilet, a very squashy affair. He said he didn’t feel like being sick so we went back to our seats and I gave him a plastic bag in case he felt sick and told him to sleep (it was now around 9pm). All the other babies were asleep but Zavvy was wired and I was trying to keep him quiet by looking at the inflight magazine because I was getting dirty looks from the other mothers.

Then I felt a tug on my arm and turned to see Loll vomitting all over himself. Unfortunately he was half asleep and missed the plastic bag. I jumped up and put Zavvy on my seat but somehow he managed to tip a water bottle all over our saet and he was upset. Luckily the woman next to us called the flight attendants - I asked them for a plastic bag for Loll’s clothes and blankie and for them to take Zavvy away so I could clean up.

To their credit the crew responded quickly and got out the “biohazard” kit with rubber gloves and plastic bags and lots of Chux wipes. Poor Loll was upset and his clothes were soiled. I hadn’t packed spare clothes for him (being only a domestic flight - my bad!) and so I had to take off his shirt and get his sweater from the locker and he had to stay in his jeans. The crew swapped over the seats and put a blanket on mine (because it was wet).

Once we were cleaned up the crew brought Zavvy back to me. He was covered in stickers from the dining carts and had a “Biohazard - Do Not Enter” attached to his wrist - he had had a lovely time.

Soon it was time to land. We were seated right behind the crew seats and an overtired Zavvy was flirting with two female flight attendants. As we touched down Zavvy yelled out “weeeee” which made them laugh. Then he was calling out “oh, wow - lights”. He also pointed at the attendants and said “mummies” (he’s just discovered the difference between males and females, except that all men are daddies and all women are mummies) which the crew thought was quite hilarious.

For once I got up straight away once we pulled into the gate. I wanted to be off the plane as soon as possible. Hubby was there waiting and both boys were delighted to see him - they ran across the hall and gave him big cuddles.

Once we retrieved our bags I was able to get out some clean clothes for Loll and we were on our way home.

Loll and I explored the main shopping square and tried to find somewhere quiet for lunch. However, every cafe I passed seemed either too full or baby unfriendly and so we ended up in Burger King for some really disgusting food. After lunch we headed back out in to the streets and wandered about. I was asked to help with some market research by about 3 different people but they didn’t want to know me once I told them I was Australian!!

Hubby was about 15 minutes late meeting us and we went straight to a cafe to warm up when he arrived. He had been wined and dined at his luncheon which made me feel jealous! He had been given 150 pounds to spend on books by CUP and we decided to pick them up from their bookshop. We had a lovely time wandering about the store choosing books and even Loll got some kids books and I got a new organiser. The only drag was that we needed to carry them around with us!!

After we left the CUP shop we walked through the different colleges. Crocuses and daffodils were in full bloom and so the college grounds were alive with colour - it was quite beautiful. Once it started to get dark we thought it best to get some dinner before setting off back to London. We went into the first restaurant that we came across and had some pizza. After an early dinner we headed off on foot back to the railway station, of course we passed numerous restaurants on the way - most reasonable priced too, typical!!

At the station it was a bit confusing and so we just missed a train and had to wait for the next one. Once on the train we found ourselves seated across from some Cambridge uni students and judging from their conversation it seems that even students in such a prestiguous institution skip classes! They were obviously headed for a big night out in London whereas we were headed home to Kensington to bed.

Near Kings’ College, Cambridge - dressed for the cold!