At the end of my last blog entry, I promised to update later in the week when “we were more organised” – whilst it is the end of the week, we are not what I would classify as organised. I think it’s different when you’re only travelling for a few weeks as opposed to a few months. I pride myself on packing light for lengthy trips and scoff at those who overpack; but this time my care factor is low. Hamish asked how many shorts and t-shirts he could take, I said “pack whatever you want!”

Monday evening, we fly from Tullamarine on the first of two flights to get us to Phuket. We are booked with Singapore Airlines, but our first (and longest) flight is with their budget offsider Scoot. I am super fussy about booking details, such as the airlines we fly with, so my expectation of travelling on a full-service carrier was NOT met when I checked the flight details. I may have expressed my disappointment to Rod with language such as, “If I wanted to fly with (*insert swear) Scoot I would have booked with (*insert the same swear) Scoot!”

There’s nothing wrong with Scoot. At all. But your ticket includes a seat, a meal and luggage. Everything else costs: seat allocation (can’t guarantee we’ll be seated together otherwise), wifi (there’s no inflight entertainment), pillows/blankies…you know, the little luxuries that make a short 8 hour flight more bearable. As a result, we have now purchased those annoying little neck pillows (the same ones we took to Europe 8 years ago and didn’t use) and need to take more games and tech than we thought we’d need. First world problems? Maybe…

Monday will be a busy day with last minute packing of luggage and organising of pets before we leave in the early afternoon to drive to the airport. Rod is having his monthly immunotherapy Monday afternoon (it’s a subcut injection) just before we leave (insert Dad joke *(sub) cutting it fine – from Rod) and we have (purchased) seats close to the bathroom in case his stomach plays up – which it does at times after his treatment. Nurse Bel has all bases covered with: anti-spew, anti-poo, hydration, motion travel and pain relief tablets packed for our carry on.

Thanks for your heartfelt messages of love and support after the last post; I know that was hard to read, but it’s one of the benefits of social media in that Rod doesn’t have to keep telling his story. Please keep him in your thoughts. I’ll update you before we fly out.